Page:The Queens of England.djvu/233

 MARGARET OF ANJOU. 197 was betrayed by the pomp employed in its demonstration. There is something" almost farcical in the parade with which the belligerents made their triumphal entry into London ; the queen for once so far forced to "digest the venom of her spleen" as to walk hand in hand with the Duke of York, though the amount of real cordiality between them was speed- ily evinced by a trivial quarrel amongst the subordinates, sufficing to induce a renewal of hostilities, and to urge the procuring by Margaret of an order to arrest Warwick, the special object of her unconquerable hate. Of this, however, the earl again received timely warning, and escaped to his government of Calais, which, "as it gave him the command of the only regular military force maintained by England, was of the utmost importance in the present juncture;"* but the queen did not relax her efforts in raising troops ; on the con- trary, at the battle of Bloreheath, in the summer of 1459, Henry being too ill to assume the command, she, if not actually on the field, was sufficiently near to act as the presiding spirit of the fray. In fact, disaster seemed only to elicit fresh resources of energy and resolution ; and upon the flight of the royalists we find her, after her return to Coventry, rallying her adherents with such success as to be able, in seven months, again to take the field against the rebels, to whom she offered terms. Fortune here appears to have favored the queen's assumption of the entire management of the war ; and with the troops she had by her own perseverance collected, she pressed the insurgents so vigorously as to force the Duke of York, with his second son, Edmund, earl of Rutland, to fly to Ireland, whilst the eldest, the Earl of March, followed Warwick to Calais there to remain till the ensuing year, when they both returned to London, re-animated by some recent naval successes, and found themselves possessed of sufficient strength to hazard the battle of Northampton. Neither was Margaret less desirous for the engagement, which occurred July 10th, 1460; though, notwithstanding her personal pres- ence and direction, treachery assisted the banner of the White Rose, several of her most gallant adherents were slain, and her royal husband a second time taken prisoner, having re- mained with characteristic placidity in his tent. Immediately upon his return to London, the Duke of York,
 * Hume.