Warwick did not, however, apprehend any serious results from the
passive distaste of the trading towns. His martial spirit led him to
despise the least martial part of the population. He knew that the
towns would not rise in arms so long as their charters were respected;
and that slow, undermining hostility which exists only in opinion, his
intellect, so vigorous in immediate dangers, was not far-sighted
enough to comprehend. More direct cause for apprehension would there
have been to a suspicious mind in the demeanour of the earl's
colleague in the Protectorate,--the Duke of Clarence. It was
obviously Warwick's policy to satisfy this weak but ambitious person.
The duke was, as before agreed, declared heir to the vast possessions
of the House of York. He was invested with the Lieutenancy of
Ireland, but delayed his departure to his government till the arrival
of the Prince of Wales. The personal honours accorded him in the mean
while were those due to a sovereign; but still the duke's brow was
moody, though, if the earl noticed it, Clarence rallied into seeming
cheerfulness, and reiterated pledges of faith and friendship.

The manner of Isabel to her father was varying and uncertain: at one
time hard and cold; at another, as if in the reaction of secret
remorse, she would throw herself into his arms, and pray him,
weepingly, to forgive her wayward humours. But the curse of the
earl's position was that which he had foreseen before quitting
Amboise, and which, more or less, attends upon those who from whatever
cause suddenly desert the party with which all their associations,
whether of fame or friendship, have been interwoven. His vengeance
against one had comprehended many still dear to him. He was not only
separated from his old companions in arms, but he had driven their
most eminent into exile. He stood alone amongst men whom the habits
of an active life had indissolubly connected, in his mind, with