This page needs to be proofread.

ANNE OF WARWICK. 225 it is, that the disastrous events which succeeded must have rendered the solemnization of this marriage impossible at a subsequent period, and very brief, indeed, must have been the happiness of the Lady Anne, who passed only a few months with the young prince, the object of her choice. It was but that short period intervening between the day of their mar- riage and the battle of Tewksbury, which took place on the 4th of May in the following year. Anne of Warwick, in the picture before us, appears as in her happiest hours, when the bride of the young Prince Edward, the heir of the English throne.' In that fair and intelligent countenance, hope and joy are blended, with a sweet and calm content, exhibiting that sunshine of the heart, which fate de- nied to her in the latter period of her life, when she shared the regal honors of the blood-stained Richard of Gloucester, her present husband's murderer. Her expression is that of innocence and peace, forming a contrast with the tumultuous and perilous scenes she was destined to pass through ; and it grieves the heart to reflect that a cloud must pass over that joyous countenance, and convert its sunshine into the dark- ness of despair ; but extremes of prosperity and adversity were the lot of all who lived during this period of civil strife. The young Princess of Wales appears in her royal costume, bearing in her right hand the Order of the Garter. Prince Edward and his consort passed together into Eng- land with Queen Margaret, and after landing at Weymouth, learned the dire intelligence of the fatal issue of the battle of Barnet; of the desertion of Clarence, who had been previously gained over by King Edward, and of the apparent failure of all their hopes. It would be vain to attempt to depict the despair of the hapless queen, who had been detained by adverse winds from reaching England in time to unite her forces with those of Warwick. She took refuge with her son, the Princess Anne, and their small circle of adherents, first, in the Abbey of Cearn, and then in the Sanctuary of Beaulieu, where they were joined by the Duke of Somerset and many of their Lancastrian friends, who attempted to console the queen and revive her hopes. Although they succeeded in awakening her ardor for the last fatal struggle in the cause of the Red Rose, they found it much more difficult to prevail upon her to allow her son to join in this fearful contest. With the tender feelings of an affectionate