ripe to share your hazard. The world soon ripens when it hath to hail
success!"

"O young boy's smooth face! O old man's deep brain!" said Edward,
admiringly, "what a king hadst thou made!" A sudden flush passed over
the prince's pale cheek, and, ere it died away, a flaming torch was
hurled aloft in the air; it fell whirling into the ship--a moment, and
a loud crash; a moment, and a mighty blaze! Up sprung from the deck,
along the sails, the sheeted fire,--

"A giant beard of flame." [Aeschylus: Agamemnon, 314]

It reddened the coast, the skies, from far and near; it glowed on the
faces and the steel of the scanty army; it was seen, miles away, by
the warders of many a castle manned with the troops of Lancaster; it
brought the steed from the stall, the courier to the selle; it sped,
as of old the beacon fire that announced to Clytemnestra the return of
the Argive king. From post to post rode the fiery news, till it
reached Lord Warwick in his hall, King Henry in his palace, Elizabeth
in her sanctuary. The iron step of the dauntless Edward was once more
pressed upon the soil of England.




CHAPTER V.

THE PROGRESS OF THE PLANTAGENET.

A few words suffice to explain the formidable arrival we have just