Page:The Queens of England.djvu/254

 216. THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. About this period, the Duke of Clarence, to whom Edward had certainly behaved with extreme magnanimity, after his ungrateful and rebellious conduct to himself, and violent ani- mosity to his beloved Elizabeth, began again to show symp- toms of discontent and disaffection, and soon proceeded so far as to make an accusation of sorcery against the queen. This was the second charge of a similar nature that had .been got up, in order to shake her hold on the heart of her husband, and ruin her in the eyes of the people. It was a charge grounded on the absurd vanity of her mother's family, the Princess of Luxemburg, having their descent from the "Fair Melusina," a water-nymph, well known in the popular literature of Ger- many. Clarence had already too deeply injured her to be for- given ; and when at last, forgetting prudence, gratitude, and decency, he one day rushed from the council-chamber, and with the most violent expressions abused both his brother and the queen, it is little to be wondered at that Elizabeth, when informed of the circumstance, should fan the flame already excited in Edward's heart against the weak and wicked Clar- ence. Accordingly, without delay the duke was arrested, tried, and condemned to death ; but while the king hesitated before putting the sentence into execution, he was confined in the Tower, where, with what intention it is difficult to decide, a butt of malmsey, his favorite beverage, was introduced. After the death of his wife, Isabel, Warwick's elder daugh- ter, to whom he was warmly attached, Clarence had taken to a constant habit of intemperance, to cause forgetfulness of the grief he had not sufficient manliness to bear with fortitude ; and it is probable that he fell a victim to this degrading vice ; for shortly after his imprisonment he was found dead, with his head hanging over into the butt, as he had doubtless fallen when overcome by intoxication, the fumes of the wine and the unnatural position completing the catastrophe which the inor- dinate drinking had already begun. But little interest is recorded relating to the queen from this period until the fatal event that left her a second time a widow, exposed to the malignity of her numerous enemies. Edward, who in his prosperity had abandoned himself to a life of pleasure and excess, and though still considerably under Elizabeth's influence, had for the time devoted himself to the beautiful and ill-fated Jane Shore, began to suffer from the baneful effects of a course of dissipation and indulgence ; and