He was, therefore, tried for high treason, and was soon afterwards hanged at Tyburn, which was then the common place of execution for London. On the scaffold he again confessed that he was an impostor, and not the veritable Duke of York; and then he submitted patiently to his ignominious death.

The gentle, trusting, and affectionate young wife, who left her home and friends and country for the sake of her misguided husband, continued to be treated with kindness by Henry the Seventh and his queen. At first she deeply mourned her sad loss (for it was a sad loss to her); but, after a time, when her grief had worn itself away, she found another husband, a worthy Welsh gentleman, named Sir Matthew Cradoc, with whom, during their lives, she lived in comfort on his estate in Wales, and by whose side she was afterwards buried in the church at Swansea, where their tomb and epitaph, we are told, are still to be seen.

Here ends our story of "The White Rose of England," which, among other valuable instructions, is calculated to teach one lesson, especially, to every reader.

See how anxiously determined Perkin Warbeck was to obtain a perishable crown and an earthly throne to which he had no rightful claim. He made some sacrifices, and, though not naturally fearless and brave, he encountered danger, and, again and again, risked his life for this object. Frequent disappointments did not deter him from his pursuit; and at

the very last, when hope might naturally have been supposed to have forsaken him, his determination survived and prompted him to those expiring struggles which completed his ruin.

That he had some excellent qualities, combined with good abilities, cannot be doubted. But for these he could never have made the progress he did in the good opinion and apparent regard of almost all whom he tried to please and to interest in his favour. These qualities and abilities, applied to any lawful and reasonable undertaking, would, in all probability, have ensured success, although it must be admitted, that, even in the lower and common affairs of life, the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But, neglecting those proper pursuits and legitimate enterprises, with their probabilities of success, the infatuated young man persisted in attempts too mighty for his genius. His motto, or his watchword, might have been, "A kingdom or a grave!" He lost the kingdom: he came to an early and dishonourable death.

And now for our application:

There is set before every reader of these pages, a race to be run, a kingdom to be won by fighting against spiritual foes, a crown to be worn by every conqueror, in glory everlasting. The prize, the kingdom, and the crown, are no dreams or delusions, but true and substantial; and they are attainable by all who diligently seek them in God's own appointed way. Being obtained, the happy victors will not be looked upon as usurpers; for they are rightfully theirs who, by faith and patience, lay hold of them.

And yet how few appear to take the trouble to seek and strive for those things which are at God's right hand, which have been bought for us by a Saviour's death, and are offered to us by His blessed Spirit, in the Gospel!

Is not this a strange infatuation, and a terrible, fatal neglect? Is a corruptible crown of so much more value than an incorruptible, that while we follow with interest the story of one who spent his whole time of short manhood, in efforts to reach the former, we attach so little importance to the heavenly and eternal crown offered for universal acceptance? This cannot be; and yet it is true that many, to whom this crown is offered, turn a deaf ear to the gracious call: and that while even

The little ants, for one poor grain,

Labour, and tug, and strive;

Yet we, who have a heaven t' obtain,
How negligent we live!

"We, for whose sake all nature stands,
And stars their courses move;
We, for whose guard the angel bands
Come flying from above:

We, for whom God the Son came down,

And laboured for our good,

How careless to obtain that crown

He purchased with His blood."

It is only fair to add as a postscript to this story of "The White Rose of England," that though almost all historians set down Perkin Warbeck as an impostor, there have been a few who have taken a different view of his case, and of the motives of those who

supported him. One or two have argued that he might have been the young prince, whom he pretended to be, and that his whole story may have been true. Others think that though he was not the young prince, mysteriously saved when his brother was put to death, yet neither was he the son of the Jew merchant; but one whose birth, secretly known only to a few, really gave him a fair claim to the crown and throne of this country. This is one of those curious problems in history which can never be quite conclusively solved; nor is it of any consequence that it should be; for no one would be either benefited or injured now, if the point were entirely beyond dispute. The story has been here told as it is generally found in the old chronicles which treat of this portion of English history.

Some Stages in the Life of a Great Man.

CHAPTER I.

STAGE THE FIRST.

EARLY four hundred years

ago a merry, active, brighteyed, strong-limbed boy, was well known and often seen in the streets of Ipswich, in Suffolk,

Ipswich, even in those times, was a large and populous and flourishing town. The streets were busy with commerce; it had great numbers of fine houses, where gentlemen and ladies lived at home in ease, and enjoyed themselves after their fashion; and there were numerous churches and chapels where Roman Catholic worship was carried on, and the doctrines of Popery were taught; besides monasteries where monks and friars shut themselves in from the world, though this did not help them to shut the world out of their hearts. Our story, however, is not about monks and friars, but about the Ipswich boy, who was ordinarily