dignity; "and since you thus constitute me your commander, I proceed
at once to my stern duties. How happens it, knights and gentlemen,
that in my absence ye have dared to make my name the pretext of
rebellion? Speak thou, my sister's son!"

"Cousin and lord," said the heir of Fitzhugh, reddening but not
abashed, "we could not believe but what you would smile on those who
have risen to assert your wrongs and defend your life." And he then
briefly related the tale of the Duchess of Bedford's waxen effigies,
and pointed to Hilyard as the eye-witness.

"And," began Sir Henry Nevile, "you, meanwhile, were banished,
seemingly, from the king's court; the dissensions between you and
Edward sufficiently the land's talk, the king's vices the land's
shame!

"Nor did we act without at least revealing our intentions to my uncle
and your brother, the Lord Montagu," added the heir of Fitzhugh.

"Meanwhile," said Robin of Redesdale, "the commons were oppressed, the
people discontented, the Woodvilles plundering its, and the king
wasting our substance on concubines and minions. We have had cause
eno' for our rising!" The earl listened to each speaker in stern
silence.

"For all this," he said at last, "you have, without my leave or
sanction, levied armed men in my name, and would have made Richard
Nevile seem to Europe a traitor, without the courage to be a rebel!
Your lives are in my power, and those lives are forfeit to the laws."