ship, carrying a hundred and fifty men and
called the Nicholas of the Tower, came
alongside his little vessel, and ordered him on
board. "Welcome, traitor, as men say," was
the captain's grim and not very respectful
salutation. He was kept on board, a prisoner,
for eight-and-forty hours, and then a small
boat appeared rowing towards the ship. As
this boat came nearer, it was seen to have in
it a block, a rusty sword, and an executioner
in a black mask. The duke was handed
down into it, and there his head was cut off
with six strokes of the rusty sword. Then, the
little boat rowed away to Dover beach, where
the body was cast out, and left until the
duchess claimed it. By whom, high in
authority, this murder was committed, has
never appeared. No one was ever punished
for it.

There now arose in Kent an Irishman, who
gave himself the name of Mortimer, but
whose real name was Jack Cade. Jack, in
imitation of Wat Tyler, though he was a very
different and inferior sort of man, addressed
the Kentish men upon their wrongs,
occasioned by the bad government of England,
among so many battledores and such a poor
shuttlecock; and they rose up to the number
of twenty thousand. Their place of assembly
was Blackheath, where, headed by Jack, they
put forth two papers, which they called "The
Complaint of the Commons of Kent," and
"The Requests of the Captain of the Great
Assembly in Kent." They then retired to
Sevenoaks. The royal army coming up with
them here, they beat it and killed their
general. Then, Jack dressed himself in the
dead general's armour, and led his men to
London.

Jack passed into the City from Southwark,
over the bridge, and entered it in triumph,
giving the strictest orders to his men not to
plunder. Having made a show of his forces
there, while the citizens looked on quietly,
he went back into Southwark in good order,
and passed the night. Next day, he came
back again, having got hold in the meantime
of Lord Say, an unpopular nobleman. Says
Jack to the Lord Mayor and judges: "Will
you be so good as to make a tribunal in
Guildhall, and try me this nobleman?" The
court being hastily made, he was found guilty,
and, Jack and his men cut his head off on
Cornhill. They also cut off the head of his
son-in-law, and then went back in good order
to Southwark again.

But, although the citizens could bear the
beheading of an unpopular lord, they could
not bear to have their houses pillaged. And
it did so happen that Jack, after dinner—
perhaps he had drunk a little too much—
began to plunder the house where he lodged;
upon which, of course, his men began to
imitate him. Wherefore, the Londoners took
counsel with Lord Scales, who had a thousand
soldiers in the Tower; and defended London
Bridge, and kept Jack and his people out.
This advantage gained, it was resolved by
divers great men to divide Jack's army in the
old way, by making a great many promises on
behalf of the state, that were never intended
to be performed. This did divide them
some of Jack's men saying that they ought
to take the conditions which were offered, and
others saying that they ought not, for they
were only a snare; some going home at once;
others staying where they were; and all
doubting and quarrelling among themselves.
Jack, who was in two minds about fighting or
accepting a pardon, and who indeed did both,
saw at last that there was nothing to expect
from his men, and that it was very likely
some of them would deliver him up and get
a reward of a thousand marks, which was
offered for his apprehension. So, after they
had travelled and quarrelled all the way from
Southwark to Blackheath, and from Blackheath
to Rochester, he mounted a good horse
and galloped away into Sussex. But, there
galloped after him, on a better horse, one
Alexander Iden, who had a hard fight with
him, and killed him. Jack's head was set
aloft on London Bridge, with the face looking
towards Blackheath, where he had raised his
flag; and Alexander Iden got the thousand
marks.

It is supposed by some, that the Duke of
York, who had been removed from a high
post abroad through the Queen's influence,
and sent out of the way, to govern Ireland,
was at the bottom of this rising of Jack and
his men, because he wanted to trouble the
Government. He claimed (though not yet
publicly) to have a better right to the throne
than Henry of Lancaster, as one of the family
of the Earl of March, whom Henry the
Fourth had set aside. Touching this claim,
which, being through female relationship, was
not according to the usual descent, it is
enough to say that Henry the Fourth was
the free choice of the people and the
Parliament, and that his family had now reigned
undisputed for sixty years. The memory of
Henry the Fifth was so famous, and the
English people loved it so much, that the
Duke of York's claim would, perhaps, never
have been thought of (it would have been so
hopeless) but for the unfortunate circumstance
of the present King's being by this time quite
an idiot, and the country very badly governed.
These two circumstances gave the Duke of
York a power he could not otherwise have
had.

Whether the Duke knew anything of Jack
Cade, or not, he came over from Ireland while
Jack's head was on London Bridge; being
secretly advised that the Queen was setting
up his enemy, the Duke of Somerset, against
him. He went to Westminster at the head
of four thousand men, and on his knees before
the King, represented to him the bad state of
the country, and petitioned him to summon a
Parliament to consider it. This the King promised.
When the Parliament was summoned