Page:The Queens of England.djvu/255

ELIZABETH WOODVILLE. 21; an intermittent fever, which baffled the skill of all the physi- cians called in to attend the monarch, put a period to his exist- ence in the month of April, 1483. His body lies interred in St. George's Chapel at Windsor. And now began for the unfortunate Elizabeth a series of misfortunes such as might well excite the commiseration of evei those whom her ambition and want of heart had turned against her. The first terrible blow that struck her was doubly agonizing, from being aimed at the most vulnerable point, her material affection ; for Elizabeth, though cold as a friend and as a wife, which is evidenced by the philosophical composure with which she endured her husband's constant infidelities, was certainly fondly devoted to her children and her family. This cruel stroke was the arrest of her son, the young king, on his way from Ludlow Castle to London, by his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. The queen's maternal instinct, vaguely forebod- ing some danger for her son, though certainly not from Such a quarter, as the wily Gloucester had, on his brother's death, written to her in the kindest and most sympathizing tone, had induced her strongly to urge the propriety of having him es- corted on his journey by a powerful armed force; but this desire was insolently overruled by Hastings, who saw in the plan only a wish of further advancing and securing the influ- ence of the Woodvilles ; and the queen, with tears and gloomy predictions, gave up the point. Bitter as was the agony she experienced at learning the fatal confirmation of her forebod- ings, she yet had the presence of mind to recollect that so long as she could retain in her custody her younger son, the Duke of York, the life of Edward was safe, and, without losing a moment, she once more fled for refuge to the Sanctuary, and took up her abode at the abbot's palace with the boy and his sisters. There she was immediately visited by Archbishop Rother- ham, lord chancellor, who delivered to her the great seal, declaring that if any other than her elder son were named king, they, Hastings, himself, and the rest of the loyal party, would, on the morrow, crown the young Duke of York. ' It is said that he afterwards took alarm at what he had done, and, fearing the increasing power of Gloucester, induced the queen to restore the great seal. On the 4th of May, the young king was brought to London