The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1920-10-01

puppets. The story is one of intrigue
and of battle, centering nominally in
the Wars of the Roses and the strug-
giles of the two great houses of York
and Lancaster; yet the interest is far
larger than mere dynastic one; the
rise of the middle class to power at
the expense of the haronial, the
growth of national spirit in place
of mere individual loyalty to a feudal
chieftatn, is the important thing in this
manifestation Of class-cOnsciOusness,
the plain people uniting with the trad
ing townsmen against the mobiles.
The great earl, who had made Ed
ward the Fourth king, found himself
for very personal reasons trying to
unSeat that prince and to put in his
place another Edward, of the house Of
Lancaster, heir to Henry the Sixth.
whom Edward of York was holding a
prisoner in the Tower. Yet Warwick's
path was not an easy one; while his
younger daughter was married to Ed
ward of Lancaster, his other daughter
Isabel, was the wife of the kings
younger brother Clarence, who was as
yet the male heir to the throne. How
ever things might go, Warwick might
some day sit upon the throne of Eng
Iand-Jf one did not take thought of
the possibilities that lay hidden behind
the inscrutable smile of the kings
youngest brother, Richard, duke of
| Gloucester. But Warwick was at
heart fighting the battle of aristocracy,
while the king was with the current
which was converting an agricultural
into a trading population. With War
wick was his powerful fighting broth
er, Montagu; with him-or against
him, who could tell?-was his other
brother, the facile archbishop whe
aspired to be pope, whose mansion
was at once a school for youth, a court
for middle life, an asylum for age,
whittier as to a Medici fed the let
tiers and the arts.
In the end Warwick found himself
in open battle against the king he had
placed upon the throne. The impetu-
GUS and fiery temperament of Edward
the Fourth was rendered yet more
fearful by the indulgence of every in
temperance. His very virtues strength
ened his vices; his courage stified ev-
cry whisper. 1t almost seemed as if
he loved to provoke a danger for the
pleasure it gave his brain to battle or
his hand to crush it. And yet he had
a shrewd policy which perhaps drew
him knowingly into the quarrel with
Warwick, which merely his evil pas
sions seemed to provoke. 81 wish to
raise a fresh nobility" he said, "to
counterfeit the pride of the old; only
upon new mobiles can a new dynasty
rely" This was the Yorkist principle
of humbling the baronial and raising
the middle class. 1t was easy of exc
cution at a period when a martial aris-
tocracy was beginning to merge into
a voluptuous court.
Warwick was defending freedom for
the barons. Robin Hilyard was strug-
Cling to win freedom for the people as
against king and mobiles. Yet the earl
and Robin found themselves fighting
in the same army. Neither white
rose nor red shall be on my banner"
cried Hilyard, "but our standard shall
be the CORY head of the first oppressor
we can place upon a pole. We are
taxed, ground, pillaged, plundered-
sheep, maintained to be sheared for
your peace or butchered for your wal"
Through the cause of the gentle Henry
in the Tower Robin saw greater free
dom for the people.
War is not the only theme of the
book, however. The intrigues of the
queens family, the patient diplomacy
of the bitter and revengeful Margaret
of Anjou, queen of the king in the
Tower, the love of the gentle Anne
Neville for Margaret's son Edward, the
influence of royal marriages on the
fate of nations, the struggles of the
LOllards, predecessors of the Puritans
who caused Charles the First so much
trouble; the fine Italian hand of Rich
ard, duke of Gloucester; the long and
patient toll of Adam Warner, scholar
who dreamed of Harvesting steam to
his machine Eureka to do the work OF
, the world long before the world was
, ready to have it's work done by any
, such magical means; the chicanery OF
Frfar Bungey adept in all the secret
arts of the time, who thought to stea
poor Adams secret from him; but
above all else the troubled tale of love
> of the beautiful daughter of the schoI
ar, Sibyh, and the great and powerful
; Lord Hastings, with fate ever play,
ing cruel turns against the girl as well
: as against the father-alI these are
part of this fascinating historical 70,
nance which author and public united
in calling one of the best that came
from the prolific pen of Bulwer Lyt,
ton.
Warwick lost and Edward won. And
with the earl persisted Hilyard, but
as he bravely net his death Robin
| cried .aEhn PennIa are newer haatan ~