The last mention of Cade in history
appears in Stow, under date of January,
1451, seven months after the collapse of
the great rebellion of the Commons. The
discontent, even then, appears to have
smouldered—for the merciful King Henry,
who loved not to take life, was induced by
the advice of the queen and her evil
councillors, whom it was the object of Cade
and the Duke of York to remove from his
presence, to take a journey into Kent, for
the purpose of striking terror.

"The 18th of January, the king with
certain lordes, and his justices rode towards
Kent, and there indicted and arraigned
many, whereof to the number of twenty-
six were put to death, eight at Canterbury,
and the residue in other townes of Kent
and Surrey. And the king returning out
of Kent on the 23rd of Februarie, the men
of that countrey, naked to their shirtes, in
great numbers, met him on the Blackheath;
and there on their knees asked mercy, and
had their pardon. Then the king rode
royally through the citie of London, and
was of the citizens joyfully received; and
the same day against the king's coming to
the citie, nine heads of the Kentishmen
that had been put to death were set on
London Bridge; and the captaine's head,
that stood there before was set in the
middest of them."

But as long as the Duke of York lived,
all the efforts of the king's councillors—
whether they were conciliatory or the
reverse—were of little avail for the
tranquillisation of the Commons; and seven
years after the death of Cade a proclamation
was issued for the apprehension of
one Robert Poynings, uncle of the Countess
of Northumberland, who had acted as
Cade's carver and sword-bearer, and who
during the whole of this time had been
actively engaged in stirring up the
Commons of Kent to new rebellion, though
with but slight success.

It has hitherto been considered, on the
authority of Shakespeare and the early
historians, not only that Cade was a
vulgar "rowdy," and a man of no education
or acquirements; but that his followers
were a mere mob and rabble of the very
lowest order. It appears, however, from
the Patent Roll of the twenty-eighth year of
Henry the Sixth, which has recently been
examined, and formed the subject of an
interesting paper, which was read by Mr.
William Durrant Cooper, at a meeting of
the Archæological Society of Kent, at
Ashford in that county, the scene of Cade's
earliest exploits, that this is a mistake.
Among those who were pardoned for their
participation in Cade's rebellion after the
interview with the Lord Chancellor at St.
Margaret's Church, are the names of several
of the richest and most influential people of
the county. There were knights, abbots,
esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen: besides
handicraftsmen of all sorts: "Cade's army
was not a disorganised mob," says Mr.
Cooper, "nor a chance gathering. In
several Hundreds the constables duly, and
as if legally, summoned the men; and many
parishes, particularly Marden, Penshurst,
Hawkhurst, Northfleet, Boughton, Smarden
and Pluckley, furnished as many men as
could be found in our own day, fit for arms."
Among the mayors, bailiffs, and constables
pardoned for having summoned the people
to join Cade's standard, first at Ashford,
and then at Blackheath, after his victory
at Sevenoaks, were the mayors of
Canterbury, Chatham, Maidstone, Rochester,
Sandwich, and Queensborough; the bailiff
of Folkestone, and the constables of eight-
and-twenty hundreds and villages which
are duly set forth in the roll. Among the
gentlemen pardoned were several who had
been, and several who afterwards became,
sheriffs of Kent. Many families who to
this day hold their heads high in Kent,
Surrey, and Sussex, will find the names
of their ancestors in this document, if
they choose to look for them; while in
the list will be found many names once
common that have now wholly disappeared,
to crop up perhaps in unexpected places
in America.

Shakespeare puts into the mouth of the
dying Cade, after his fatal combat with
Iden in the garden, the words:

Tell Kent, from me, she hath lost her best man;

and it does not appear from an impartial
review of his whole story, and the light
thrown upon it by documentary evidence,
that the boast was at all unfounded.

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS.
A YACHTING STORY.

CHAPTER VII. HISTORY OF MR. CONWAY.

LORD FORMANTON, the father of the owner
of the schooner yacht Almandine, was a
nobleman of great wealth, a busy lord, with
a fine park and estate—a noble seat,
Formanton, on which there was an elderly
archdeacon. The rental was large, and
that curious, incomprehensible heir, whom
mammas could not make out, had been
asked to this house and that, importuned
to this castle and that; if he had made