will be hard either for Warwick or Clarence to go against us,--harder
still for the country not to believe them with us. Bold measures are
our wisest councillors."

"Um!" said the Lollard, "Lord Warwick is a good man, and has never,
though his brother be a bishop, abetted the Church tyrannies. But as
for George of Clarence--"

"As for Clarence," said Hilyard, who saw with dismay and alarm that
the rebellion he designed to turn at the fitting hour to the service
of Lancaster, might now only help to shift from one shoulder to the
other the hated dynasty of York--"as for Clarence, he hath Edward's
vices without his manhood." He paused, and seeing that the crisis had
ripened the hour for declaring himself, his bold temper pushed at once
to its object. "No!" he continued, folding his arms, raising his
head, and comprehending the whole council in his keen and steady
gaze,--"no! lords and gentlemen, since speak I must in this emergency,
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 earldom
and the garter; to you, the heirs of Latimer and Fitzhugh, the high
posts that beseem your birth; to all of you, knights and captains,
just share and allotment in the confiscated lands of the Woodvilles
and the Yorkists; to you, brethren," and addressing the Lollards, his