The princess seated herself by the helm, and the little boat cut
rapidly through the noble stream. Galleys, gay and gilded, with
armorial streamers, and filled with nobles and gallants, passed them,
noisy with mirth or music, on their way. These the fallen sovereign
heeded not; but, with all her faults, the woman's heart beating in her
bosom--she who in prosperity had so often wrought ruin, and shame, and
woe to her gentle lord; she who had been reckless of her trust as
queen; and incurred grave--but, let us charitably hope, unjust--
suspicion of her faith as wife, still fixed her eyes on the gloomy
tower that contained her captive husband, and felt that she could have
forgotten a while even the loss of power if but permitted to fall on
that plighted heart, and weep over the past with the woe-worn
bridegroom of her youth.




CHAPTER II.

IN WHICH ARE LAID OPEN TO THE READER THE CHARACTER OF EDWARD THE
FOURTH AND THAT OF HIS COURT, WITH THE MACHINATIONS OF THE WOODVILLES
AGAINST THE EARL OF WARWICK.

Scarcely need it be said to those who have looked with some philosophy
upon human life, that the young existence of Master Marmaduke Nevile,
once fairly merged in the great common sea, will rarely reappear
before us individualized and distinct. The type of the provincial
cadet of the day hastening courtwards to seek his fortune, he becomes
lost amidst the gigantic characters and fervid passions that alone
stand forth in history. And as, in reading biography, we first take