r of singular practice in reducing men into the machinery of war, and where his skill might have failed, the prodigious influence and energy of Robin of Redesdale ruled the passions and united the d

nconsistency, linked the cause of a dethroned king. For as the Covenanters linked with the Stuarts against the succeeding and more tolerant dynasty, never relinquishing their own anti-monarchic theories; as in our time, the extreme party on the popular side has leagued with the extreme of the aristocratic, in order to crush the medium policy, as a common foe,- so the bold leveller united with his zeal for Margaret the very cause which the House of Lancaster might be supposed the least to favour. He expected to obtain from a sovereign dependent upon a popular reaction for restoration, great popular privileges. And as the Church had deserted the Red Rose for the White, he sought to persuade many of the Lollards, ever ready to

encampment the leaders of the

of immense weight, but the lower limbs left free and unincumbered in thick leathern hose, stood Robin of Redesdale. Other captains there were, whom different motives had led to the common confederacy. There might be seen the secret Lollard, hating either Rose, stern and sour, and acknowledging no leader but Hilyard, whom he knew as a Lollard's son; there might be seen the ruined spendthrift, discontented with fortune, and regarding civil war as the cast of a die,-death for the forfeiture, lordships for the gain; there, the sturdy Saxon sq

ere in high an

alls of Olney before him-"if this be true, if our scouts are not deceived, if the Earl of Warwick is in the village, and

and cousin?" said the hei

permitted the levying yon troops in his name; that he knew well the time was come to declare against the Woodvilles, and that no sooner was

s lusty revellers? You were thrown aside, like a broken scythe, Sir John Coniers! You were forsaken in your rust! Warwick himself, your wife's great kinsman, could d

his brave fellow (pointing to Robin) came to inform me that, with his own eyes, he had seen the waxen effigies of my great kinsman, the hellish misdeed of the queen's wi

rs, "when Hilyard was well-nigh at the gates of York,

join us, so he beat us civilly, and with discretion. But what hath he done since? He stands aloof while our army swells, while the bull of the Neviles and the ragged staff of the earl are the ensigns of our war, an

hough he hath treated me ill, is a stour carle, and to be feared if not lov

us we are headless and undone? What if Warwick so betray us and himself,-he brings no forces. And

looking wise,-"not till we have burned to

f the churchman; not till abbot and bishop have felt on their backs the w

e poor man, and the filling of the flesh-pot, and the

he leader of the mercenaries, a skilful soldier, but a predator

, there was a general hush

England for his provant, was at the head or the tail of this matter, we were contented to wait a while; but devil a groat hath yet

and royals, in the stronghold of the Baron of Bullstock,"

shoulders, "that men cannot gird a kingdom with ropes of sand. Supp

, male heir to the th

ck's son-in-law, and th

hn

" observed Con

nd my advice is to proclaim Clarence king and Warwick

e hard either for Warwick or Clarence to go against us,-harder still for the

and has never, though his brother be a bishop, abette

hear me calmly. Nothing has prospered in England since we abandoned our lawful king. If we rid ourselves of Edward, let it not be to sink from a harlot-monger to a drunkard. In the Tower pines our true lord, already honoured as a saint. Hear me, I say,-hear me out! On the frontiers an army that keeps Gloucester at bay hath declared for Henry and Margaret. Let us, after seizing Olney, march thither at once, and unite forces. Margaret is already prepared to embark for England. I have friends in London who will attack the Tower, and deliver Henry. To you, Sir John Coniers, in the queen's name, I promise an

those assembled, however aided by the voice, spirit, and energy of the spe

enaries called to mind the woful state of Henry's exchequer in the former time. The Saxon squire muttered to himself, "And what the devil is to become of the castle of Bullstock?" But Sir Henry Nevile (Lord Latimer's son), who belonged to that branch of his House which had espoused the Lancaster cause, and who was in the secret councils of Hilyard, caught up the cry, and

especially when marching against a king; but this i

wide semicircle,-for the mass of the hardy rebel army slept in the open air, and the tents were but for leaders,-they saw, we say, in that broad space, a multitude kneeling, and in the midst, upon his good steed Saladin, bending graciously down, the martial countenance, the lofty stature, of the Earl of Warwick. Those among the captains who knew him not personally recognized him by the popular description,-by the black war-horse, whose legendary fame had been hymned by every minstrel; by the sensation his appearance had created; by the armourial insignia of his heralds, grouped behind him, and whose gorgeous tabards blazed with h

, with a truth, the earl amongst us; but unless he come to lead us

he rides this way!" sa

go forth t

ll the leaders of this army; let him fin

d if there come dispute, l

ense long. Warwick, leaving the multitude in the rear, and taking only one of the subaltern officer

excepted, bowed with great r

ed on the line to be adopted; "you are come at last to take the command of t

stitute me your commander, I proceed at once to my stern duties. How happens it, knights and gentlemen,

you would smile on those who have risen to assert your wrongs and defend your life." And he then briefly

mingly, from the king's court; the dissensions between you and Edw

ur intentions to my uncle and your brother,

the Woodvilles plundering its, and the king wasting our substance on concubines and minions.

id at last, "you have

men in my name, and w

a traitor, without the

wer, and those lives ar

on of Lord Fitzhugh, touchingly, "take our lives, for they are of little wo

eral and first officer of these realms, here declare, that whatever motives of ambition or interest may have misled men of mark and birth, I believe that the commons at least never rise in arms

swayed; for you then made yourself dear to the people by your justice. Still men talk, hereabouts, of the golden rule of Earl Warwick; but since you have been, though great in office, powerless in deed, absent in Calais, or idle at Middleham, England hath been but the plaything of the Woodvilles, and the king's ears have been stuffed with flattery as with wool. And," continued Hilyard, warming with his subject, and, to the surprise of the Lollards, entering boldly on their master- grievance-"and this is not all. When Edward ascended the throne, there was, if not justice, at least repose, for the persecuted believers who hold that God's word was given to man to read, study, and digest into godly deeds. I speak plainly. I speak of that faith which your great father Salisbury and many of the House of York were believed to favour,-that faith which is called the Lollard, and the oppression of which, more than aught else, lost to Lancaster the hearts of England. But of late, the Church, assuming the power it ever grasps the most under the most licentious kings (for the sinner prince hath ever the tyrant priest!), hath put in vigour old laws for the wronging man's thought and conscience; [The Lollards had greatly contributed to

ffect which the thrilling voice of the popular pleader produced on him; but at that moment he had need of all his frank and honourable loy

ed, and to increase rather than to lessen them. In his name, I pledge myself to full and strict inquiry into all the grievances Robin of Redesdale hath set forth, with a view to speedy and complete redress. Nor is this all. His highness, laying aside his purpose of war with France, will have less need of impost on his subjects, and the burdens and taxes will be reduced. Lastly, his grace, ever anxious to content his people, hath most benignly empowered me to promise that, whether or not ye rightly judge the queen's kindred, they will no longer have part or weight

as not shared by Hilyard. He sprang upon the table, and, seizing the broken fragments of the truncheon, which the earl had snapped as a willow twig, exclaimed, "And thus, in the name of the peop

he tent, and rushed towards

th, were but the tools of a manlier and wis

generous, and simple-cuts its way at once through the feelings to the policy, Warwick briefly but forcibly recapitulated to the commons the promises he had made to the captains; and as soon as they heard of taxes removed, the coinage reformed, the corn thrave abolished, the Woodvilles dismissed, and the earl recalled to power, the rebellion was at an end. They answered with a joyous shout his order t

. As before the sun recede the stars, all lesser lights had died in the blaze of Warwick's beloved name. Hilyard griped his dagger, and

r me, who have placed swords in your hands

n," said a single voice, and

ife, since liberty is gone.

he shall go unscathed in goods and in limbs. God wot, when Warwick and the peop

ke, and within the walls of Olney

few sentences, graphic from their brief simplicity, in the "Pictorial History of England," Book V, p. 104. "They (Warwick, etc.) repaired in a very friendly manner to Olney, where they found Edward in a most unhapp

in the individual than the mass- suc