countess to permit the Lady Anne to accompany the Duchess of Clarence
in a visit to the palace of the Tower. The queen had submitted so
graciously to the humiliation of her family, that even the haughty
Warwick was touched and softened; and the visit of his daughter at
such a time became a homage to Elizabeth which it suited his chivalry
to render.

The public saw in this visit, which was made with great state and
ceremony, the probability of a new and popular alliance. The
archbishop had suffered the rumour of Gloucester's attachment to the
Lady Anne to get abroad, and the young prince's return from the North
was anxiously expected by the gossips of the day.

It was on this occasion that Warwick showed his gratitude for
Marmaduke Nevile's devotion. "My dear and gallant kinsman," he said,
"I forget not that when thou didst leave the king and the court for
the discredited minister and his gloomy hall,--I forget not that thou
didst tell me of love to some fair maiden, which had not prospered
according to thy merits. At least it shall not be from lack of lands,
or of the gold spur, which allows the wearer to ride by the side of
king or kaisar, that thou canst not choose thy bride as the heart bids
thee. I pray thee, sweet cousin, to attend my child Anne to the
court, where the king will show thee no ungracious countenance; but it
is just to recompense thee for the loss of thy post in his highness's
chamber. I hold the king's commission to make knights of such as can
pay the fee, and thy lands shall suffice for the dignity. Kneel down
and rise up, Sir Marmaduke Nevile, lord of the Manor of Borrodaile,
with its woodlands and its farms, and may God and our Lady render thee
puissant in battle and prosperous in love!"