He had not, however, as yet come forward,
and the disputes at Court were running high between the friends of
the Duke of Somerset and those of the Duke of York.
The King and Queen both were known to prefer the house of Somerset,
who were the more nearly related to Henry, and the more inclined to
uphold royalty, while York was considered as the champion of the
people. The gentle King and the Beauforts wished for peace with
France; the nation, and with them York, thought this was giving up
honour, land, and plunder, and suspected the Queen, as a Frenchwoman,
of truckling to the enemy. Jack Cade's rising and the murder of the
Duke of Suffolk had been the outcome of this feeling. Indeed, Lord
Salisbury's messenger reported the Country about London to be in so
disturbed a state that it was no wonder that the Lady of Whitburn did
not make the journey. She was not, as the Countess suspected, a very
tender mother. Grisell's moans were far more frequently for her
nurse than for her, but after some space they ceased. The child
became capable of opening first one eye, then the other, and both
barber and lady perceived that she was really unscathed in any vital
part, and was on the way to recovery, though apparently with
hopelessly injured features.
Leonard Copeland had already been released from restraint, and
allowed to resume his usual place among the Earl's pages; when the
warder announced that he saw two parties approaching from opposite
sides of the down, one as if from Salisbury, the other from the
north; and presently he reported that the former wore the family
badge, a white rosette, the latter none at all, whence it was
perceived that the latter were adherents of the Beauforts of
Somerset, for though the "Rose of Snow" had been already adopted by
York, Somerset had in point of fact not plucked the Red Rose in the
Temple gardens, nor was it as yet the badge of Lancaster.
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