power of the realm to the men against whom thou thyself hast often led
me to strive with lance and battle-axe, is to open a path which leads
but to dishonour, and thither Raoul de Fulke follows not even the
steps of the Lord of Warwick. Interrupt me not! speak not! As thou
to Edward, so I now to thee, forswear allegiance, and I bid thee
farewell forever!"

"I pardon thee," answered Warwick; "and if ever thou art wronged as I
have been, thy heart will avenge me. Go!" But when this haughty
visitor was gone, the earl covered his face with his hands, and
groaned aloud. A defection perhaps even more severely felt came next.
Katherine de Bonville had been the earl's favourite sister; he wrote
to her at the convent to which she had retired, praying her
affectionately to come to London, "and cheer his vexed spirit, and
learn the true cause, not to be told by letter, which had moved him to
things once farthest from his thought." The messenger came back, the
letter unopened; for Katherine had left the convent, and fled into
Burgundy, distrustful, as it seemed to Warwick, of her own brother.
The nature of this lion-hearted man was, as we have seen, singularly
kindly, frank, and affectionate; and now in the most critical, the
most anxious, the most tortured period of his life, confidence and
affection were forbidden to him. What had he not given for one hour
of the soothing company of his wife, the only being in the world to
whom his pride could have communicated the grief of his heart, or the
doubts of his conscience! Alas! never on earth should he hear that
soft voice again! Anne, too, the gentle, childlike Anne, was afar;
but she was happy,--a basker in the brief sunshine, and blind to the
darkening clouds. His elder child, with her changeful moods, added
but to his disquiet and unhappiness. Next to Edward, Warwick of all
the House of York had loved Clarence, though a closer and more