Page:The Queens of England.djvu/252

 2i 4 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. against her mother, who with some difficulty escaped the fearful doom intended for her. No sooner did the intelligence of these outrages reach the ears of Edward than he resolved to set off in person to quell the insurgents and restore order ; but on his reaching the north he was seized by his powerful and implacable enemy, War- wick, and confined in Warwick Castle, where he was induced to enter into negotiations with the earl for the marriage of his infant daughter with George Neville. From this place he was conveyed, strictly guarded, to the seat of the Archbishop of York, brother to Warwick, and, after a short stay, succeeded in escaping to Windsor, whence he went at once to London to rejoin the queen, who had remained there, surrounded by faithful and devoted subjects, as all the inhabitants of the metropolis had continued to be. And now the tide of fortune turned for a while ; Warwick and Clarence in alarm fled to France, but Anthony Woodville, who commanded the royal fleet, succeeded in taking possession of all their ships, with the exception of that which contained them and their families. Edward now proceeded to give battle to the rebels, but soon discovered that little confidence was to be placed in his own troops, for on Warwick returning to England they offered to surrender the king to him. Edward, however, obtaining secret intelligence of their intended treachery, fled in the night-time, and, attended by a few faithful adherents, embarked at Lynn, in Norfolk. At this period, Elizabeth, who had been lodged by Edward in the Tower for security, taking alarm at the increasing dangers which surrounded her, abandoned her intention of weathering the storm there, and, accompanied by her mother, her three daughters, and her devoted attendant, Lady Scrope, she fled to the Sanctuary at Westminster, a gloomy and dismal abode, without one of the comforts which her situation, for she was again about to become a mother, rendered doubly necessary. Such was the condition to which the unfortunate queen and her party were reduced, that, had not a butcher charitably supplied them with meat, they must have been starved into .surrendering themselves to their enemies. And here in this wretched spot did the heir to England's throne come into the world, on the ist of November, 1470, and but for the chance assistance of a midwife, who, happily, was