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Mount! our way for some miles out of London is the same. You go into Lincolnshire, I into the shire of Hertford." "And for the same purpose?" asked Hilyard, as he sprang upon his horse, and the two men rode briskly on. "Yes!" "Lord Warwick is changed at last?" "At last!" "For long?" "Till death!" "Good, I ask no more!"
"Ah, man, man, man," exclaimed Hilyard, bitterly, "thou art like all the rest, scholar or serf, the same slave; a king's smile bribes thee from a people's service!" Before Adam could reply, a panel in the wainscot slid back and the bald head of a friar peered into the room.
This woman-king, though bloody man, with his wine-cups and his harlots, this usurping York his very existence flaunts the life of the sons of toil. In civil war and in broil, in strife that needs the arms of the people, the people shall get their own." "I will go," said Adam, and he advanced to the door. Hilyard caught his arm.
"Ah," exclaimed Adam, with a gleam of something like joy on his face, "art thou indeed that riotous, brawling, fighting, frank-hearted, bold fellow, Robert Hilyard? Ha! ha! those were merry days! I have known none like them " The old schoolfellows shook hands heartily.
Hastings made no reply, waved his hand to his fellow-defenders of the bridge, and, followed by them, went slowly and deliberately on, till clear of the murmuring and sullen foe; then putting spurs to their steeds, these faithful warriors rode fast to rejoin their king; overtook Hilyard on the way, and after a fierce skirmish, a blow from Hastings unhorsed and unhelmed the stalwart Robin, and left him so stunned as to check further pursuit.
Hilyard was yet asleep in the chamber assigned to him as his prison, when a rough grasp shook off his slumbers, and he saw the earl before him, with a countenance so changed from its usual open majesty, so dark and sombre, that he said involuntarily, "You send me to the doomsman, I am ready!" "Hist, man! Thou hatest Edward of York?" "An it were my last word, yes!"
In times more ripe for him, he would have been a mighty demagogue and a successful regenerator. His birth was known but to few; his education and imperious temper made him vulgarly supposed of noble origin; but had he descended from a king's loins, Robert Hilyard had still been the son of the Saxon people.
This well-timed exploit served to extricate the earl from the main danger of his position; and, hastening to improve his advantage, he sent forthwith to command the reserved forces under Lord St. John, the Knight of Lytton, Sir John Coniers, Dymoke, and Robert Hilyard, to bear down to his aid.
Master, scarcely less than Hilyard, of the popular kind of eloquence, which short, plain, generous, and simple cuts its way at once through the feelings to the policy, Warwick briefly but forcibly recapitulated to the commons the promises he had made to the captains; and as soon as they heard of taxes removed, the coinage reformed, the corn thrave abolished, the Woodvilles dismissed, and the earl recalled to power, the rebellion was at an end.
"You have spoken, bold men," said he, "as, in an hour when the rights of princes are weighed in one scale, the subject's sword in the other, I, were I king, would wish free men to speak. And now you, Robert Hilyard, and you, gentlemen, hear me, as envoy to King Edward IV. To all of you I promise complete amnesty and entire pardon.
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