The Scene in the Temple Garden-The Red and White Roses.

King Henry VI-First Part.

land-with the French crown upon his head. As a mode of inspiring loyalty to the son of the conqueror of France the pageant was a failure. It was as truly English as if it had taken place in London. Gloster gave the order, Winchester set the crown on Henry's head, and English soldiers raised the shout of acclaim.

The new-made Duke of York and the Duke of Somerset were there with their friends aud their quarrels.

Two gentlemen, Vernon and Basset, entered the council chamber, and cried their errand without ceremony:

Ver. Grant me the combat, gracious sovereign!
Bas. And me, my lord, grant me the combat too!
York. This is my servant: hear him noble Prince!
Som. And this is mine: sweet Henry, favor him!
King. What is the wrong of which you both com-
plain?

Bas. Crossing the sea from England into France, This fellow here, with envious carping tongue, Upbraided me about the rose I wear;

Saying the sanguine color of the leaves
Did represent my master's blushing cheeks,
When stubbornly he did repugn the truth
About a certain question in the law
Argued betwixt the Duke of York and him.

Ver. Yet know, my lord, I was provoked by him; And he first took exceptions at this badge, Pronouncing that the paleness of this flower Bewrayed the faintness of my master's heart.

Their "masters" join in the wordy war; Gloster gives them his backward blessing:

Confounded be your strife!

And perish ye, with your audacious prate,

while King Henry tries to shame the angry lords to peace:

Remember where we are;

In France, amongst a fickle wavering nation.
What infamy will there arise,

When foreign princes shall be certified

That, for a toy, a thing of no regard,
King Henry's peers and chief nobility

Destroyed themselves, and lost the realm of France!
Let me be umpire in this doubtful strife.

I see no reason, if I wear this rose,

That any one should therefore be suspicious
I more incline to Somerset than York;
Both are my kinsmen, and I love them both.

After more good counsel the king with his train took his leave, while York and Warwick exchanged a word:

War. My Lord of York, I promise you the king Prettily, methought, did play the orator.

York. And so he did; but yet I like it not,

In that he wears the badge of Somerset.

War. Tush, that was but his fancy, blame him not; I dare presume, sweet prince, he thought no harm.

We see in what way events are shaping themselves for that terrible gardening when the Lancastrians, having put on the red flower, shall have shown

its full significance, and Warwick, one day to be known as the "kingmaker," shall alternately pull up the one bush and plant the other.

We learn little of interest in the early manhood of Henry. When twenty-two years of age, history tells us, he was tall and handsome, but unwarlike in character, solely occupied with his books and his devotions. For reasons of state the peers thought that their king should marry, and a wife was sought for him who might be strong in those traits wherein he was weak, and such a one was found in the person of Margaret of Anjou, daughter of King René, a king without a kingdom. The English paid him for Margaret by setting him up again in his two provinces of Anjou and Maine, nearly all that was left of the French conquests of the great Henry. The courtship was managed by proxy. The Duke of Suffolk was the royal messenger; he fell in love with the beautiful French woman; and though he did not in words tell his love, neither did "concealment, like the worm in the bud," gnaw him. Their mutual admiration did. somewhat to tangle the skein of the king's life, which was sufficiently troubled without it.

Suffolk dramatically took the lady prisoner upon a battlefield, not knowing her :

O fairest beauty, do not fear nor fly!

For I will touch thee but with reverent hands.

Who art thou? say, that I may honor thee.

Mar. Margaret my name, and daughter to a king.
Suf. An earl I am, and Suffolk am I called.

Be not offended, nature's miracle.