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.

CHAPTER XXV.

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, King
Richard sent 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 frowningiy 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 of the Tower,
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:
the widow of Henry the Fifth, who married
Owen Tudor. And as Henry was of the
house of Lancaster, they proposed that he
should marry the Princess Elizabeth, the
eldest daughter of the late King, now the
heiress of the house of York, and thus by
uniting the rival families put an end to the
fatal wars of the red and white Roses.
All being settled, a time was appointed for
Henry to come over from Brittany, and for a
great rising against Richard to take place in
several parts of England at the same hour. On