Page:The Queens of England.djvu/234

 198 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. employing the king's name, convened a parliament, at the open- ing of which he "sate himself down in the king's chair, under the cloth of state, where, after having sate a while, he told them a long rabble of reasons why he sate down in that place, that by the law it was due unto him ; and being desired to go visit the king, he said, God excepted, he knew no superior." This account seems to imply that the duke's deference to his sovereign, hitherto so uniformly demonstrated, was somewhat lessened by exasperation ; but at all events, Margaret, aware that she could expect but little forbearance, rather than confide in the magnanimity of her enemy, fled to Durham, whence, with only eight persons, she passed into Wales, and subse- quently into Scotland. Here, tidings shortly after reached her, Henry had formally conceded his own son's right to the succession of the throne in favor of the Duke of York and his descendants ; yet even this, the bitterest intelligence to -A princess, whose declining head, Like to a drooping lily after storms, Had bowed to her foes' feet, and played the slave To keep her husband's greatness unabated," — tidings full of anguish, sent by him who might at least have learned from her heroism to defend the claim of the hapless scion of royalty, now an exiled wanderer from his sire and heritage, in the helplessness of childhood, — failed to quench the fire of Margaret's indomitable spirit ; and supplying, by the zeal of a mother's fondness, her husband's infirmity of purpose, she set about the levy of new subsidies in Scotland, where she experienced less difficulty than might have been anticipated. An obstacle was attempted to her designs in the shape of an order from the king to join him without delay, but recognizing York as the originator of this maneuver, she obeyed the mandate by marching into England at the head of between eighteen and twenty thousand men. A surprise so sudden took the duke utterly at a disadvan- tage ; yet, under the impulse of an obvious necessity, he hastened to check her warlike majesty's advance, with about five thousand men, the only force available at this critical emergency. Upon the discovery of his inability to cope with his threatening foe, he retired to Sandal Castle, a fortress strong enough to defy siege, wherein he determined to await fresh succors ; but, alas ! he was doomed to experience the truth