the King to delegate the power of regulating Ins household and redressing grievances to a committee of seven prelates, eight earls, and six, barons, styled ordainers, whose power was to determine on the Michaelmas in the following year. The ordainers sat in London, decreed many wise regulations, and on finding the King continue to heap favours on the favourite without their previous knowledge or consent, enacted that Gaveston, having given the King had counsel, embezzled the public money, estranged the affections of the King from his subjects, sealed blank charters with the royal seal, and maintained robbers and murderers, should be for ever banished the realm, and if found within the King's dominions after the first of the ensuing November, be treated as a common enemy. When this decree was passed, Edward and his favourite were together in the north. A copy of it was secretly conveyed to them by one of their partizans. On reading this copy, Edward became exceedingly wrathful against the ordainers. "Curses on their heads!" he exclaimed; "not enough is it that they strip me of all but the outward semblance of royalty, but they must even tako away my dearest, my truest of friends." Then turning to the minion, who with intense earnestness was poring over the decree of his own banishment, he continued, " Gaveston, without you my life will be but a dreary blank, a desert without a single oasis for the weary eye to rest upon, a black, loathsome, desolate hell. By the blessed saints ! you must not, you shall not leave me ! I will givo Gascony to the Erench King, Scotland to Bruce, Ireland and Wales to my friends, and England to all who will aid me, rather than bow to the will of my despotic liegemen, for what right have they to dictate terms to their sovereign, the insolent traitors?" "Sire," answered the favourite, "you really are too indiscreet ; I beseech you cool your anger, and hearken to common sense. The ordainers are now all-powerful, but they will not be so for long. I therefore must quit the kingdom, and when the royal reins are replaced into your hands, you will doubtless be able to hurl defiance at your foes, and order my instant return." " You utter wisdom," rejoined the King, after a brief pause ; " my remarks were rash ; for even kings must bow to stern necessity. However, heaven be praised! our separation needs be but brief. Besides, my good brother, by commissioning you to levy troops in Guienne, to aid the Earl of Eoix against the court of France, I can deprive your sentence of its bitterest sting ; you will not be an outlaw, but my agent. True, the dispute between the Earl and France is at an end, but that is of little matter, as your honour will be equally saved ; besides, I can furnish you with recommendatory letters to the Duke of Brabant and other friendly powers, so that your exile will thus be converted into a delightful pleasure tour." Shortly after the King and his favourite had thus arranged their separation, Edward proceeded to London, met the parliament, and with a reluctant hand signed the articles, decreeing, amongst other measures dictated by the wisdom or prejudice of the ordainers, the banishment of Gaveston. Till the day fixed for his departure, Gaveston lingered in the company of the King, who, being unable to refuse him anything, bestowed upon him all the jewels and trinkets he possessed, even to those he had received as tokens of affection from his fair young Queen, an act of folly that greatly exasperated Isabella. Edward separated from his favourite in tears, but the Queen, delighted at the downfall of the man who both shared her husband's confidence and derided her influence, commemorated the event by inviting the nobles and their ladies to a merry feast, which lasted till midnight. Isabella and the King now became reconciled, but scarcely had they tasted the blessings of conjugal felicity, when Edward retired to York, gathered forces around him, and recalling Gaveston, made him his principal secretary, and restored him to all his former estates and honours. " An angel from heaven,"