have had remarkable power of pleasing all with whom he came in contact.

"And by what name is our young adventurer to be distinguished?" asks the duchess, when the recognition is established, and he is acknowledged by all to be her royal nephew: "for," adds she, "the name he has hitherto born must be discarded for ever: Perkin Warbeck, indeed!"

A sympathetic shudder passes through the group of fair ladies at the very thought of the nephew of their high-born duchess, being called by such a plebeian name as Perkin Warbeck.

"We will give him a name suitable to his present position, and expressive of his origin and destiny," says the duchess, with a gratified smile: "We will call him 'THE WHITE ROSE OF ENGLAND.""

So, from that time, this was Perkin Warbeck's proud designation. Alas! it seems almost a pity that the romance on which the name was founded, proved at last to be only a tissue of falsehoods, skilfully woven together indeed, but falsehood notwithstanding. Historians tell us that even the Duchess of Burgundy knew very well that Perkin was an impostor and pretender, being nothing more nor less than the son of the Jew merchant Warbeck; and that she herself contrived for him the story which he told with so much apparent simplicity and emotion. They say that she had seen him a year or two before, and being struck with some fancied resemblance between him and her dead brother, King Edward the Fourth, she had him well instructed, told him what to say, and where to

go, supplying him with the money needed for carrying on his deception, till it suited her purpose to receive him openly at her court, in the way we have described.

However this might be, it is certain that the story Perkin told was a fabrication; and that the poor little Richard, Duke of York, whom Perkin pretended to be, never did escape from the Tower; but was murdered there with his brother.

SEVENTH.

HETHER or not the Duchess of Burgundy was the contriver of Perkin Warbeck's imposture, or was in the secret of it, she behaved as though she believed him. She treated him as affectionately as though he had in truth been her beloved nephew: she provided him with a suitable residence and numerous servants, appointed him a guard of thirty halberdiers, engaged every one to pay court to him,

and, on all occasions, honoured him with the romantic title of "The White Rose of England."

The historian who tells us this, goes on to say that "the Flemings, moved by the authority which Margaret, both from her rank and her personal character, enjoyed among them, readily adopted the fiction of Perkin's royal descent. No surmise of his true birth was as yet heard of; little contradiction was made to the prevailing opinion; and the English, from their great communication with the Low Countries, were every day more and more prepossessed in favour of the impostor."

The same writer, continuing the narrative, says that "it was not the populace alone (in England) that gave great credit to Perkin's pretensions. Men of the highest birth and quality, disgusted at Henry's government, by which they found the nobility depressed, began to turn their eyes towards the new claimant ; and some of them even entered into a correspondence with him. Sir William Stanley, lord chamberlain, who had been so active in raising Henry to the throne," and who was the brother of the Lord Stanley who, indeed, placed the crown on his head on the battlefield of Bosworth, as related in our first story, this very Stanley "entertained the project of a revolt in favour of the new claimant. Sir Robert Clifford and William Burley (two persons of great influence with the Yorkists) were still more open in their measures. They went over to Flanders, and were introduced by the Duchess of Burgundy, to the acquaintance of

1 Hume: "History of England."

Perkin, and made him an offer of their services. Clifford wrote back to England that he knew perfectly the person of Richard, Duke of York; that this young man was undoubtedly the prince himself, and that no circumstance of his story was exposed to the least difficulty.

Such positive intelligence, conveyed by a person of rank and character, was sufficient, with many, to put the matter beyond question, and excited the attention and wonder even of the most indifferent. The whole nation was held in suspense: a regular conspiracy was formed against the king's authority; and a correspondence was settled between the malcontents in Flanders and those in England.

"The king was informed of all these particulars; but agreeably to his character, which was both cautious and resolute, he proceeded deliberately, though steadily, in counter-working the projects of his enemies. His first object was to ascertain the death of the real Duke of York, and to confirm the opinion that had always prevailed concerning that event. Five persons had been employed by Richard in the murder of his nephews, or could give evidence with regard to it: Sir James Tyrrel, to whom he had committed the government of the Tower for that purpose, and who had seen the dead princes; Forest, Dighton, and Slater, who perpetrated the crime; and the priest who buried the bodies. Of these wretches, only Tyrrel and Dighton were living; and they agreed in the same story. But as the priest was dead, and as the bodies were supposed to have been removed by Richard's orders, from the place where they were at

first interred, and could not now be found,1 it was not in Henry's power to put the fact, so much as he wished, beyond all doubt and controversy.

"He met at first with more difficulty, but was in the end more successful, in detecting who this wonderful person was, who thus boldly advanced pretensions to his crown. He dispersed his spies all over Flanders and England; he engaged many to pretend that they had embraced Perkin's party; and he directed them to insinuate themselves into the confidence of the young man's friends. He engaged Clifford himself, by the promise of pardon and of rewards, to betray the secrets committed to him. the end, the whole plan of the conspiracy was clearly laid before the king, together with the pedigree, adventures, life, and conversation of the pretended Duke of York. This latter part of the story was immediately published for the satisfaction of the nation."

In

Soon after Christmas in 1494, King Henry the Seventh held his court in the Tower of London, where he was surrounded by his nobles and councillors. It seems strange to us how he could have liked to be even for a day in that gloomy fortress, which had witnessed so many scenes of cruelty and revenge; but, as before stated, the Tower was a palace as well as a prison, and, indeed, in those days, almost every palace had its prison; even bishop's palaces

1 Nearly two hundred years afterwards, while some alterations or repairs were being made in the Tower, two skeletons, or several bones of two children, were found; and it was considered to be satisfactorily proved that these were the remains of the two unfortunate young princes.