“I love not the trader spirit, man,—the spirit that cheats, and cringes, and haggles, and splits straws for pence, and roasts eggs by other men’s blazing rafters. Edward of York, forsooth, was a great trader! It was a sorry hour for England when such as ye, Nick Alwyn, left your green villages for loom and booth. But thus far have I spoken to you as a brave fellow, and of the north countree. I have no time to waste on words. Wilt thou accept mine offer, or name another boon in my power? The man who hath served me wrongs me,—till I have served him again!”
“My lord, yes; I will name such a boon,—safety, and, if you will, some grace and honour, to a learned scholar now in the Tower, one Adam Warner, whom—”
“Now in the Tower! Adam Warner! And wanting a friend, I no more an exile! That is my affair, not thine. Grace, honour,—ay, to his heart’s content. And his noble daughter? Mort Dieu! she shall choose her bridegroom among the best of England. Is she, too, in the fortress?”
“Yes,” said Alwyn, briefly, not liking the last part of the earl’s speech.
The earl rang the bell on his table. “Send hither Sir Marmaduke Nevile.”
Alwyn saw his former rival enter, and heard the earl commission him to accompany, with a fitting train, his own litter to the Tower. “And you, Alwyn, go with your foster-brother, and pray Master Warner and his daughter to be my guests for their own pleasure. Come hither, my rude Northman,—come. I see I shall have many secret foes in this city: wilt not thou at least be Warwick’s open friend?”
Alwyn found it hard to resist the charm of the earl’s manner and voice; but, convinced in his own mind that the age was against Warwick, and that commerce and London would be little advantaged by the earl’s rule, the trading spirit prevailed in his breast.
“Gracious my lord,” he said, bending his knee in no servile homage, “he who befriends my order, commands me.”
The proud noble bit his lip, and with a silent wave of his hand dismissed the foster-brothers.
“Thou art but a churl at best, Nick,” said Marmaduke, as the door closed on the young men. “Many a baron would have sold his father’s hall for such words from the earl’s lip.”