A KNIGHT OF THE WHITE CROSS

CHAPTER I The King Maker


A stately lady was looking out of the window of an apartment in the
Royal Chateau of Amboise, in the month of June, 1470. She was still
handsome, though many years of anxiety, misfortune, and trouble, had
left their traces on her face. In the room behind her, a knight was
talking to a lady sitting at a tambour frame; a lad of seventeen was
standing at another window stroking a hawk that sat on his wrist,
while a boy of nine was seated at a table examining the pages of an
illuminated missal.

"What will come of it, Eleanor?" the lady at the window said, turning
suddenly and impatiently from it. "It seems past belief that I am to
meet as a friend this haughty earl, who has for fifteen years been the
bitterest enemy of my House. It appears almost impossible."

"'Tis strange indeed, my Queen; but so many strange things have befallen
your Majesty that you should be the last to wonder at this. At any rate,
as you said but yesterday, naught but good can come of it. He has done
his worst against you, and one can scarce doubt that if he chooses he
has power to do as much good for you, as in past times he has done you
evil. 'Tis certain that his coming here shows he is in earnest, for
his presence,--which is sure sooner or later to come to the ears of the
Usurper,--will cause him to fall into the deepest disgrace."

"And yet it seemed," the queen said, "that by marrying his daughter
to Clarence he had bound himself more firmly than ever to the side of
York."