第94章 ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FIFTH(2)

He then pulled up his sleeve and showed them his arm,which was shrunken,it is true,but which had been so,as they all very well knew,from the hour of his birth.

Jane Shore,being then the lover of Lord Hastings,as she had formerly been of the late King,that lord knew that he himself was attacked.So,he said,in some confusion,'Certainly,my Lord,if they have done this,they be worthy of punishment.'

'If?'said the Duke of Gloucester;'do you talk to me of ifs?Itell you that they HAVE so done,and I will make it good upon thy body,thou traitor!'

With that,he struck the table a great blow with his fist.This was a signal to some of his people outside to cry 'Treason!'They immediately did so,and there was a rush into the chamber of so many armed men that it was filled in a moment.

'First,'said the Duke of Gloucester to Lord Hastings,'I arrest thee,traitor!And let him,'he added to the armed men who took him,'have a priest at once,for by St.Paul I will not dine until I have seen his head of!'

Lord Hastings was hurried to the green by the Tower chapel,and there beheaded on a log of wood that happened to be lying on the ground.Then,the Duke dined with a good appetite,and after dinner summoning the principal citizens to attend him,told them that Lord Hastings and the rest had designed to murder both himself and the Duke if Buckingham,who stood by his side,if he had not providentially discovered their design.He requested them to be so obliging as to inform their fellow-citizens of the truth of what he said,and issued a proclamation (prepared and neatly copied out beforehand)to the same effect.

On the same day that the Duke did these things in the Tower,Sir Richard Ratcliffe,the boldest and most undaunted of his men,went down to Pontefract;arrested Lord Rivers,Lord Gray,and two other gentlemen;and publicly executed them on the scaffold,without any trial,for having intended the Duke's death.Three days afterwards the Duke,not to lose time,went down the river to Westminster in his barge,attended by divers bishops,lords,and soldiers,and demanded that the Queen should deliver her second son,the Duke of York,into his safe keeping.The Queen,being obliged to comply,resigned the child after she had wept over him;and Richard of Gloucester placed him with his brother in the Tower.Then,he seized Jane Shore,and,because she had been the lover of the late King,confiscated her property,and got her sentenced to do public penance in the streets by walking in a scanty dress,with bare feet,and carrying a lighted candle,to St.Paul's Cathedral,through the most crowded part of the City.

Having now all things ready for his own advancement,he caused a friar to preach a sermon at the cross which stood in front of St.

Paul's Cathedral,in which he dwelt upon the profligate manners of the late King,and upon the late shame of Jane Shore,and hinted that the princes were not his children.'Whereas,good people,'said the friar,whose name was SHAW,'my Lord the Protector,the noble Duke of Gloucester,that sweet prince,the pattern of all the noblest virtues,is the perfect image and express likeness of his father.'There had been a little plot between the Duke and the friar,that the Duke should appear in the crowd at this moment,when it was expected that the people would cry 'Long live King Richard!'But,either through the friar saying the words too soon,or through the Duke's coming too late,the Duke and the words did not come together,and the people only laughed,and the friar sneaked off ashamed.

The Duke of Buckingham was a better hand at such business than the friar,so he went to the Guildhall the next day,and addressed the citizens in the Lord Protector's behalf.A few dirty men,who had been hired and stationed there for the purpose,crying when he had done,'God save King Richard!'he made them a great bow,and thanked them with all his heart.Next day,to make an end of it,he went with the mayor and some lords and citizens to Bayard Castle,by the river,where Richard then was,and read an address,humbly entreating him to accept the Crown of England.Richard,who looked down upon them out of a window and pretended to be in great uneasiness and alarm,assured them there was nothing he desired less,and that his deep affection for his nephews forbade him to think of it.To this the Duke of Buckingham replied,with pretended warmth,that the free people of England would never submit to his nephew's rule,and that if Richard,who was the lawful heir,refused the Crown,why then they must find some one else to wear it.The Duke of Gloucester returned,that since he used that strong language,it became his painful duty to think no more of himself,and to accept the Crown.

Upon that,the people cheered and dispersed;and the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Buckingham passed a pleasant evening,talking over the play they had just acted with so much success,and every word of which they had prepared together.