Читать книгу Red and White: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses - Emily Sarah Holt - Страница 9

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"My barque is wafted to the strand

By breath Divine:

And on the helm there rests a hand

Other than mine."

—DEAN ALFORD.

The Lady Idonia sat writing at a small table in the hall of Lovell Tower. She was the best writer in the family—which does not by any means imply extraordinary fluency of diction or rapidity of penmanship. The letters grew slowly under her hand, and she frequently paused to look out of the window and think. What lay on the desk before her was the following unfinished letter.

"Jh'u.[#]

"MY NOWEN[#] DERE CHYLDE,

Thys shal be to give you to wyt, wt[#] all louyng comendac'ons from all us, that wee well fare, and do hope in God that you be the same. And we have not yett herde so much as one word from yr sistar. Matters here bee reasonable quyett at this present, onlie that Doratie has broke y' powdre box of siluer, in good sooth a misaduenture and noe malice, wch shall be wel amended ere yow com home. The dun cowe hath a calfe of hir veraye coloure. And Lyard Carlile[#] and all the dogges fare wel. Maistres Henley hir littel lad lyethe sicke of a fevare, but the leech reckoneth he shal doe well. Dorathie ys merrie, and gode withal. Yr father thynkes to buy som pigges ayenst Xmas.[#] We shal bee fayn to here of yr newes, the rather if you can give us any tydynges of such as you wot of,[#] how they be now in men's reckonings, and if thei be lyke to fare wel or noe. The gode Lorde of his mercie kepe us all, and make vs to bee hys trew seruantes. Annis, I wold haue you, when conueniencie serue, to sende mee from London towne viij ells gode clothe of skarlette for a goune for yr moder, and so moche of greene kersay as shall be a goun for Doratie: and dowlas to lyne the same, and silke frenge to guard the skarlett goun, and fur of rabetts to guard ye grene: alsoe siluer botons iij dozen, and black botons vj dosen and halfe. And sende ye same well packed vp to the Goldene Lyon by Powles,[#] to ye name of Maister Anthanie Milborne, yt is a frend of mye broder Will, and cometh into Yorksh: thys nexte monethe. And let him that berethe ye same aske of ye sayd Maister Anthanie for a token[#] yt he hath of mee for yow. Annis, wee trust in God yt yow shal be a discrete mayd and gode, and obedyent to yowr maistres, and kyndlie wt yr fellowes.[#] And above al, my dere harte, kepe yow ye fayth yt ve have ben learned, nor let not anie man beguile you therof."

[#] A contraction of Jesus, commonly used at the head of a letter by pious persons.

[#] Mine own.

[#] With.

[#] The name of a horse.

[#] Against Christmas.

[#] The Lollards.

[#] St Paul's Cathedral.

[#] Present.

[#] Fellow-chamberers.

The pen had been laid down at this point, and left so long that the ink was dry. The Lady Idonia was speaking now to Another than Agnes,

"O Lord, keep the child!" went up from her inmost heart. "Suffer the unfaithful handmaid to plead with Thee, that the faithful one may be preserved in the faith. I may give her wrong cautions—I may fancy dangers that will not assault her, and be blind to those that will. Thou, who seest the end from the beginning, hold the child up, and suffer her not, for any pains nor fears, to fall from Thee!"

She roused herself at last, and finished her letter.

"And so, with all louyng comendac'ons from al vs, I commend yow to God.

"Yr louyng grandame to my litel powar,

"IDONIA MARNELL.

"Writyn at Louell Towre, this Wensday."

The letter was delivered by Mr. William Carew to a retainer of the Earl of Warwick, who was also one of his friends, and from whom he had understood that the Earl meant to go southwards before the week was over.

The plot was ripe at last. Warwick left Middleham with the first dawn of 1470, and arrived in London without any suspicion of his proceedings being excited at Court. He left his brothers behind him in the north, with strict injunctions to George to keep John out of mischief. They were very necessary. Unfortunately (from Warwick's point of view) just at that juncture King Edward took it into his head to create Lord Montague's little son George a Duke—a title then shared by very few who were not Princes of the Blood—with the object of marrying him to the Princess Elizabeth, and thus making him, in case Edward himself left no son, virtually the future King. This high advancement for his boy sorely tried Montague's new-born Lancastrian proclivities. He swung like a pendulum between the royal rivals: and all the efforts of his brother George were needed to prevent him from going off to Edward, and of course, revealing the plot in which Warwick was now engaged. One thing which had annoyed Warwick was the discovery, real or fancied, that his influence with Edward was less powerful than of old. But he went to work darkly, as was his wont. He was greatly assisted in his proceedings by the fact that he held Edward's commission to raise troops for his service in the north, and no suspicion would therefore be excited by his gathering an army around him.[#] When he arrived in London, he reported himself at the Palace, and a long interview followed in Westminster Hall between Edward, Clarence, and Warwick. They parted "worse friends than they met,"[#] but Edward still does not appear to have suspected that Warwick was actually plotting against him, or he would hardly have let him go so calmly. Edward had left for Canterbury, and Warwick and Clarence prepared to return northwards and continue their amusement. Before leaving London, Clarence dispatched Sir John Clare to Lord Welles and his son Sir Robert, desiring them to "be ready with all the fellowship they could, whenever he should send word; but to tarry and not stir till my Lord of Warwick were come again from London, for fear of his destruction."[#] In the mean time they assiduously spread a report that "the King was coming down with great power to Lincolnshire, and his judges should sit, and hang and draw great numbers of the commons."[#] Of course this disposed the commons to rally round Warwick, who represented himself in the light of a protector from the impending terrors. He sent messenger after messenger to bid Sir Robert Welles be of good comfort, and go forward, promising to meet him at Leicester on the twelfth of February with nineteen thousand men.[#]