a certain day, therefore, in October the revolt
took place; but, unsuccessfully. Richard
was prepared, Henry was driven back at sea
by a storm, his followers in England were
dispersed, and the Duke of Buckingham was
taken and at once beheaded in the market-
place at Salisbury.

The time of his success was a good time,
Richard thought, for summoning a Parliament
and getting some money. So, a Parliament
was called, and it flattered and fawned upon
him as much as he could possibly desire, and
declared him to be the rightful King of
England, and his only son Edward, then
eleven years of age, the next heir to the
throne.

Richard knew full well that, let the Parliament
say what it would, the Princess Elizabeth
was remembered by people as the
heiress of the House of York; and having
accurate information besides, of its being
designed by the conspirators to marry her to
Henry of Richmond, he felt that it would
prodigiously strengthen him and weaken
them, to be beforehand with them, and many
her to his son. With this view he went to
the Sanctuary at Westminster, where the late
King's widow and her daughter still were,
and besought them to come to Court: where
(he swore by anything and everything) they
should be safely and honorably entertained.
They came, accordingly, but had scarcely
been at Court a month when his son died
suddenly—or was poisoned—and his plan was
crushed to pieces.

In this extremity King Richard, always
active, thought "I must make another plan."
And he made the plan of marrying the
Princess Elizabeth himself, although she was
his niece. There was one difficulty in the
way: his wife, the Queen Anne, was alive.
But, he knew (remembering his nephews)
how to remove that obstacle, and he made
love to the Princess Elizabeth, telling her he
felt perfectly confident that the Queen would
die in February. The Princess was not a
very scrupulous young lady, for, instead of
rejecting the murderer of her brothers with
scorn and hatred, she openly declared that
she loved him dearly; and, when February
came and the Queen did not die, she expressed
her impatient opinion that she was too long
about it. However, King Richard was not
so far out in his prediction, but that she died
in March—he took good care of that—and
then this precious pair hoped to be married.
But they were disappointed, for the idea
of such a marriage was so unpopular in the
country, that the King's chief counsellors,
RATCLIFFE and CATESBY, would by no means
undertake to propose it, and the King was
even obliged to declare in public that he had
never so much as thought of such a thing.

He was, by this time, dreaded and hated by
all classes of his subjects. His nobles deserted
every day to Henry's side; he dared not call
another Parliament, lest his crimes should be
denounced there; and, for want of money, he
was obliged to get Benevolences from the
citizens, which exasperated them all against
him. It was said too, that, being stricken by
his conscience, he dreamed frightful dreams,
and started up in the night-time, wild with
terror and remorse. Active to the last,
through all this, he issued vigorous proclamations
against Henry of Richmond and all his
followers, when he heard that they were
coming against him with a Fleet from
France; and took the field as fierce and
savage as a wild boar—the animal
represented on his shield.

Henry of Richmond landed with six
thousand men at Milford Haven, and came on
against King Richard, then encamped at
Leicester with an army twice as great,
through North Wales. On Bosworth Field,
the two armies met; and Richard, looking
along Henry's ranks, and seeing them crowded
with the English nobles who had abandoned
him, turned pale when he beheld the powerful
Lord Stanley and his son (whom he had tried
hard to retain) among them. But, he was as
brave as he was wicked, and plunged into the
thickest of the fight. He was riding hither
and thither, laying about him in all directions,
when he observed the Earl of Northumberland
—one of his few great allies—to stand inactive,
and the main body of his troops to hesitate.
At the same moment, his desperate glance
caught Henry of Richmond among a little
group of his knights. Riding hard at him,
and crying "Treason!" he killed his
standard-bearer, fiercely unhorsed another
gentleman, and aimed a powerful stroke at
Henry himself, to cut him down. But, Sir
William Stanley parried it as it fell, and
before Richard could raise his arm again,
he was borne down in a press of numbers,
unhorsed, and killed. Lord Stanley picked up
his crown, all bruised and trampled, and
stained with blood, and put it upon Richmond's
head, amid loud and rejoicing cries of "Long
live King Henry!"

That night, a horse was led up to the
church of the Grey Friars at Leicester: across
whose back was tied, like some worthless
sack, a naked body, brought there for burial.
It was the body of the last of the Plantagenet
line, King Richard the Third, usurper and
murderer, slain at the battle of Bosworth
Field in the thirty-second year of his age,
after a reign of two years.

Shortly will be Published, Price 3s. 6d.,
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A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.
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Collected and revised from "Household Words,"
With a Table of Dates.
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