第95章 ENGLAND UNDER RICHARD THE THIRD(1)

KING RICHARD THE THIRD was up betimes in the morning,and went to Westminster Hall.In the Hall was a marble seat,upon which he sat himself down between two great noblemen,and told the people that he began the new reign in that place,because the first duty of a sovereign was to administer the laws equally to all,and to maintain justice.He then mounted his horse and rode back to the City,where he was received by the clergy and the crowd as if he really had a right to the throne,and really were a just man.The clergy and the crowd must have been rather ashamed of themselves in secret,I think,for being such poor-spirited knaves.

The new King and his Queen were soon crowned with a great deal of show and noise,which the people liked very much;and then the King set forth on a royal progress through his dominions.He was crowned a second time at York,in order that the people might have show and noise enough;and wherever he went was received with shouts of rejoicing-from a good many people of strong lungs,who were paid to strain their throats in crying,'God save King Richard!'The plan was so successful that I am told it has been imitated since,by other usurpers,in other progresses through other dominions.

While he was on this journey,King Richard stayed a week at Warwick.And from Warwick he sent instructions home for one of the wickedest murders that ever was done-the murder of the two young princes,his nephews,who were shut up in the Tower of London.

Sir Robert Brackenbury was at that time Governor of the Tower.To him,by the hands of a messenger named JOHN GREEN,did King Richard send a letter,ordering him by some means to put the two young princes to death.But Sir Robert-I hope because he had children of his own,and loved them-sent John Green back again,riding and spurring along the dusty roads,with the answer that he could not do so horrible a piece of work.The King,having frowningly considered a little,called to him SIR JAMES TYRREL,his master of the horse,and to him gave authority to take command of the Tower,whenever he would,for twenty-four hours,and to keep all the keys of the Tower during that space of time.Tyrrel,well knowing what was wanted,looked about him for two hardened ruffians,and chose JOHN DIGHTON,one of his own grooms,and MILES FOREST,who was a murderer by trade.Having secured these two assistants,he went,upon a day in August,to the Tower,showed his authority from the King,took the command for four-and-twenty hours,and obtained possession of the keys.And when the black night came he went creeping,creeping,like a guilty villain as he was,up the dark,stone winding stairs,and along the dark stone passages,until he came to the door of the room where the two young princes,having said their prayers,lay fast asleep,clasped in each other's arms.

And while he watched and listened at the door,he sent in those evil demons,John Dighton and Miles Forest,who smothered the two princes with the bed and pillows,and carried their bodies down the stairs,and buried them under a great heap of stones at the staircase foot.And when the day came,he gave up the command of the Tower,and restored the keys,and hurried away without once looking behind him;and Sir Robert Brackenbury went with fear and sadness to the princes'room,and found the princes gone for ever.

You know,through all this history,how true it is that traitors are never true,and you will not be surprised to learn that the Duke of Buckingham soon turned against King Richard,and joined a great conspiracy that was formed to dethrone him,and to place the crown upon its rightful owner's head.Richard had meant to keep the murder secret;but when he heard through his spies that this conspiracy existed,and that many lords and gentlemen drank in secret to the healths of the two young princes in the Tower,he made it known that they were dead.The conspirators,though thwarted for a moment,soon resolved to set up for the crown against the murderous Richard,HENRY Earl of Richmond,grandson of Catherine:that widow of Henry the Fifth who married Owen Tudor.