Part 13 (1/2)

Margaret read the paper through, pausing only from time to time to hear what Gloucester had to say whenever he manifested a desire to speak, but without making any observations of her own. She a.s.sumed, in fact, the air and manner of an unconcerned and indifferent witness.

After she had finished reading the paper she folded it up and laid it aside, saying at the same time to the king that those were very grave and weighty charges, and it would be very unjust to the duke to receive them against his positive declarations of his innocence, without the most clear and conclusive proof.

[Sidenote: Proposes an investigation.]

”At the same time,” she added, ”they ought not to be lightly laid aside without investigation. We can not suppose that the Duke of Somerset can have made such charges without any evidence whatever to sustain them.”

The Duke of Somerset said immediately that he was prepared with full proof of all the charges, and he was ready to offer the evidence in respect to any one or all of them whenever his majesty should require it.

[Sidenote: Selects a charge.]

Margaret then opened the paper, and, looking over the list of charges again with a careless air, at last, as if accidentally, fixed upon the one relating to the murder of Lady Neville.

”What proofs have you in respect to this atrocious murder that you have charged against the duke?”

[Sidenote: Gloucester is pleased.]

[Sidenote: The murder.]

Gloucester felt for the moment much relieved at finding that this was the charge selected first for proof; for so effectual had been the precautions which he had taken to conceal his crime in this case, that he was confident that, instead of any substantial evidence against him, there could be, at worst, only vague grounds of suspicion, and these he was confident he could easily show were insufficient to establish so serious a charge.

[Sidenote: Astonishment of the duke.]

Somerset asked permission to retire for a few moments. Very soon he returned, bringing in with him Lady Neville herself. An actual resurrection from the dead could not have astounded Gloucester more than this apparition. He was overwhelmed with amazement and almost with terror. Lady Neville advanced to the king, and, falling upon her knees before him, she related the circ.u.mstances of the a.s.sault made by Gloucester upon the boat in the Thames, of the cruel murder of the pa.s.sengers and boatmen, of the wound inflicted upon herself by the dagger of the duke, and the almost miraculous manner in which she made her escape.

[Sidenote: 1447.]

[Sidenote: Parliament.]

The duke, overwhelmed by the emotions which such a scene might have been expected to produce upon his mind, seemed to admit that what Lady Neville said was true. At least he could not deny it, and his confusion and distress amounted apparently to a virtual confession of guilt. Margaret, however, soon interrupted the proceedings by saying to the king that the case was plainly too serious to be disposed of in so private and informal a manner. It was for the Parliament to consider it, she said, and decide what was to be done; and measures ought at once to be taken for bringing it before them.

So Gloucester and Somerset were both dismissed from the royal presence, leaving the king in a state of great distress and perplexity.

[Sidenote: Margaret's ingenuity.]

[Sidenote: The king brought over.]

Such is the story of the private manoeuvres resorted to by Margaret with a view to destroying the hold which the Duke of Gloucester had upon the mind of the king, preparatory to more widely-extended plans for ruining him with the Parliament and the nation, which is told by one of her most celebrated biographers. Whether there was or was not any foundation for this particular story, there is no doubt but that she exercised all her ingenuity and talent as a manoeuvrer to accomplish her object, and that she succeeded. The king was brought over to her views, and so strong a party was formed against Gloucester among the n.o.bles and other influential personages in the land, that at length, in 1447, a Parliament was summoned with a view of bringing the affair to a crisis.[8]

[Footnote 8: The story of Lady Neville, and of her connection with the great political transactions in which Margaret of Anjou was engaged at this time, though it is in all probability to be considered as a romance, is not an invention of the compiler of this narrative. It is interwoven with the history of Margaret of Anjou precisely as it is given here, by one of her most ancient and most oft-quoted biographers. It is chiefly useful to modern readers as ill.u.s.trating the ideas and the manners of the times.

We often, in this series, thus repeat narratives which have come down from ancient times, and have thus become part and parcel of the literature of the period, and, as such, ought to be made known to the general reader, but which, at the present day, are not supposed to be historically true. In such cases, however, we intend always to give notice of the fact. In the absence of such notice, the reader may feel sure that all the statements in these narratives, even to the minutest details, are in strict accordance with the testimony of the best authorities now extant.]

[Sidenote: Treason.]

[Sidenote: Romance often mingles in history.]

[Sidenote: An explanation.]

Nothing, however, was said, in calling the Parliament, of the great and exciting business which was to be brought before them. So great was the power of such a man as Gloucester, that any open attempt to arrest him would have been likely to have been met with armed resistance, and might have led at once to civil war.