castle of Warwick, at which Isabel and Clarence then were. Alas!
where the old smile of home?




CHAPTER IV.

THE RETURN OF EDWARD OF YORK.

And the winds still blew, and the storm was on the tide, and Margaret
came not when, in the gusty month of March, the fishermen of the
Humber beheld a single ship, without flag or pennon, and sorely
stripped and rivelled by adverse blasts, gallantly struggling towards
the shore. The vessel was not of English build, and resembled in its
bulk and fashion those employed by the Easterlings in their trade,
half merchantman, half war-ship.

The villagers of Ravenspur,--the creek of which the vessel now rapidly
made to,--imagining that it was some trading craft in distress,
grouped round the banks, and some put out their boats: But the vessel
held on its way, and, as the water was swelled by the tide, and
unusually deep, silently cast anchor close ashore, a quarter of a mile
from the crowd.

The first who leaped on land was a knight of lofty stature, and in
complete armour richly inlaid with gold arabesques. To him succeeded
another, also in mail, and, though well guilt and fair proportioned,
of less imposing presence. And then, one by one, the womb of the dark
ship gave forth a number of armed soldiers, infinitely larger than it