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that her husband bestowed on Gaveston, at parting, every jewel he possessed, with the rings and brooches, and many articles of exquisite workmanship and beauty, which she had given him as memorials of her affection.

Look at that lovely woman, weeping bitterly, and with clasped hands imploring her husband not to desert her. Vain are her entreaties. He has recalled Gaveston, who does not even refrain from uttering contemptuous language towards her, when remonstrating with him on the ruin he entails upon her husband. The royal family fly to Newcastle, when the queen is little able, from her situation, to undertake such a long and weary journey. For the Earl of Lancaster, at the head of the malecontent barons, has taken up arms in order to limit the royal authority, and compel young Edward to dismiss once more his favourite. The king has consequently left Eltham for York, taking Gaveston with him; but not thinking either himself or his myrmidon safe from the valorous barons, who are pressing after him, he flies to Newcastle. The old castle is both strong and well armed, but Edward dreads to remain; and, reckless of the agony of his young wife, he totally abandons her, and takes shipping with Gaveston for Scarborough.

"Yon castle rises on the steep

Of the green vale of Tyne.

While far below, as low they creep,
From pool to eddy, dark and deep,
Where alders bend, and willows weep,
Are heard her stream's repine."

Yon castle receives Isabella, who hastened thither with a few attendants, through bye-ways and forest-paths, in order to avoid falling in with the army of the barons; and there, all desolate and afflicted, her time is employed in works of charity and mercy.

Men are mustering throughout the length and breadth of England. The national indignation is bursting forth like a war-cry, and in vain does the king endeavour to levy

forces in the midland counties. Every generous feeling is excited against the man who could desert his beautiful young wife when about to become a mother, preferring rather to provide for the safety of a despicable favourite, who had treated the queen with arrogance and contempt. Hence men rise en masse to storm her adversary in his stronghold of Scarborough. Helmed mails crowd and jostle one the other, and terrible is the tug of war around the fortress, till Gaveston, finding escape impossible, surrenders to the confederate barons, on condition of safe conduct; but the barons, regardless of their promises, cause him to be beheaded. Sitting on the green hill's side, they witness the death of their prisoner; and having ordered the contents of his luggage to be spread on the grass, they find many of the crown jewels, with gold and silver plate belonging to the king: ornaments also, and trinkets of various kind, given by the queen to her husband, and not to him only, but to his married sisters and persons of high rank.

A noble apartment in Windsor Castle comes before the view, and over the cradle of a fair young child is seen bending, as if in an ecstasy of joy, the father of that child, Edward II., and near him is the Count of Evreux, with English and French noblemen of the highest rank. Voices are heard in the inner room speaking low, but their whispers are those of gladness. Not a few of England's noblest ladies are waiting beside their queen, then in the eighteenth year of her age, and fifth of her unhappy marriage.

There is a deep well of love in woman's heart, which neither time nor wrongs may lessen. The past seems forgotten in the love of the first-born, and the royal parents pass much of their time together, in admiring his vigour and manly beauty. The young queen's influence seems daily to increase, and is manifested in winning her husband to much that is excellent and of good report. Through her mediation peace is effected between the king and barons, and tranquillity restored throughout the realm; hence the queen is

universally beloved: men speak concerning her as of one who had brought tranquillity to her adopted country, and they wish for her long life and prosperous days. Her conduct is both feminine and wise; and during a visit with her husband to Aquitaine, thence to Paris, where they remained amidst great festivities at the court for nearly two months, the demeanour of Isabella is uniformly such as becomes her state-courteous with dignity and cheerful without levity, receiving the attentions of the gallants who crowd round to do her honour without the slightest deviation from her queenly bearing.

Heralds are going forth with words of mercy from the king. The windows of old London are thronged with the faces of those who look abroad and give thanks, and many a tearful eye is lifted in thankfulness to Heaven for the grace thus unexpectedly vouchsafed. The heralds proclaim full pardon to all who had taken arms against their sovereign, and thus commences the wording of the royal mandate :"Pardon and remission granted by our sovereign lord, through the prayer of his dearest companion Isabella, queen of England."

Events such as pertain to domestic life chequer with their light and shade the passing on of years. At one time a messenger is rewarded by the king with a hundred pounds for bringing the glad tidings of the birth of a young prince, called John of Eltham; and the queen, when able to exert herself, sends costly presents, as thank-offerings, to Rome, and invites the Bishop of Norwich and Earl of Lancaster to stand sponsors for her son in the chapel of the palace, on which occasion the baptismal font is covered with a cloth of gold. Similar rejoicings occur again when Isabella, Edward, and Joanna, are added to the royal family. Festivals and tournaments sweep by; twelfth-nights, and the keeping of memorial days, with the setting forth of the king and queen to courtly weddings at Windsor, Woodstock, and Havering Bower, where money is thrown over the brides

and bridegrooms, with kindly presents to the youthful couples, such as befit the royal pair to give.

The fair young girl, who has appeared at intervals in different conditions, and variously circumstanced, in the vision of bygone days, at one time suffering and depressed, at another looking proudly on her son, and happy in the affections of her hitherto neglectful husband, has gradually advanced into middle life, still beautiful and with queenly bearing, while around her has arisen a blooming family of sons and daughters.

But a change is passing over that noble lady who delighted in peace, and whose honoured name had mainly tended to keep her country from the horrors of civil wars. Suddenly it seems, and as if by some strange perversion, this change is wrought. To the casual observer it appeared sudden; yet, doubtless, evil has been working secretlysome unresisted temptation found an entrance, or, it may be, some offence permitted to rankle in the mind. Vain, however, is all conjecture, for who may tell aright concerning what has passed in the heart of that once estimable woman, or in what unguarded moment she had given credence to those whispers of the Tempter, which eventually turned aside the current of maternal love and withered all household duties?

A strange vision is sweeping by. The queen goes on pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury, and with her a goodly train of knights and ladies, threading many a wide forest, and crossing over streams, in their onward course, till, as night draws on, two marshals and the steward are sent forward to announce her intention of halting at her own castle of Leeds, over which Bartholomew Badlesmere, one of the associated barons, had been appointed by King Edward to preside.

Badlesmere is absent; involved in the treasonable designs of the Earl of Lancaster, and, fearful of an unexpected surprisal, he charged his lady to maintain the castle against

all comers; and the Lady Badlesmere, mistrustful of the queen's visit, although that castle was a dower-palace, replied with insolence to the royal mandate, and bade the knight to tell his mistress that she might seek some other lodging, for that she should not enter within the gates.

Words run high, for the messenger loudly demands admittance, and with equal wrath answers the proud lady from within her barred gate. By this time the queen arrives, with her ladies and attendants, when forth from the nearest tower flies a volley of arrows, which kill six of the royal escort, and force the queen to retire with great precipitation. Well may the queen complain of the gross insult thus offered to herself and train, and entreat the king to revenge the insolence of Lady Badlesmere in thus excluding her from her own castle, part of the splendid dower settled by Edward I. on Queen Margaret, Isabella's aunt, and to which she has succeeded. Nor is it a slight aggravation that the baron, instead of acknowledging the fault of his wife, writes a most insulting letter to the queen, in approval of her insolence and cruelty; and hard, indeed, it seems to be thus set at naught by one who held a chief office in the palace and royal household before the king appointed him as castellan of Leeds.

Forces are mustered at Leeds castle, and provisions laid in, should need require, for a rumour is abroad that the king is about to chastise the insolence of Badlesmere. His heralds are sent forth through London, calling upon all men between sixteen and sixty to take arms, in order that the said baron and his wife may be punished as they deserve for their insolence and contumely; the one for excluding his beloved consort, Isabella, from her own dower-castle when faint and weary with hard travel, the other for upholding the unwarrantable insolence manifested on that occasion.

Leeds castle is well encompassed, and a train are seen before the gates, not headed by a weary queen pleading for admittance, and consisting of ladies mounted on way-worn

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