Middletown transcript., 1874-01-31
The Princes in the Tower.

state from Ludl0W Castle TO LONDON. An
escort of two thousand hsrsenen rode with
them and although the boys had just lost
their father. King Edward Nv, and we're
dressed in sober blask, I have no doubt
that hundreds of hsppy children who saw
them pass. looked with delight At the
grand cavalcads, and thought it 6ns
thing to bs prince. Their mother called
the boys Edword ana Richard but Ed
ward being the eldest.-shough only thir-,
teen years Of age,-wss His Royal High
ness, the Prince Of Wales. rightful heir to-
the English throne; and Richard. his
brother. . boy Of eleven, was known as
the Duke of York HHaS
Yes, many boy and girl looked almost
with envy that day upon the two royal
children, and wondered how it felt to BE-.
the son Of king and lord Of q nation. s3''
But the men and women who looked on
thought of something very different. They
shook their hesds and whispered their MIS-
ktNiu&o " CdCu OtuSFs
1t was dreadful, they said; sueh brave.
beautiful, noble lads. too and their father
hardly cold in his grave-poor. dear thiugs!%
But then they would be in the power ~
their uncle Richard, Duke Of Gloucester
the wicksdest, cruelsst and most powerful
nobleman in all England. But for these.
boys, in all their pride Of youth. my lord
Of Gloucester might be king Of England.
All. who could say what night happepI
English history tells rs what happened:
how the wicked Duke of Gloucester pre-
tended at first to be all loyalty and kind
ness how he wrote letter of conaoe<ues
to the queen mother, and set of from Scot
land, where he was commanding an army,
to be present, he said, at his desr nephew's
coronation; and how. with fair words and
treachery, he 6rst placed the Prince in the.
Tower of London, where :. he would be-
safer than anywhere else, until the grand
ceremony should take place !" how he af-
terwards took the little Duke Of York from
his sobbing mother and put him. too. in
the areary Tower; and how -. aelss
But you see them in the picture. They
are together; that is some comfort Their
chamber is grandly furnished, but it is in
q prison. Not the Prince of Wales, nors
the Duke of York, now, but two heart
sick, terrified boys, who every moment
drsad-they hardly know what. If they
only could feel their mothers arm about
them once again! They have prayed and
prayed, and they have cried till they can
cry no more, and, with breaking hearts,
they have Strengthened themselves proudly
with the thought that they are the soss or
king, when suddenly they hsas fset-
step outside. aa.sl
To this day, visitors at tie Tower are
shown the very spet at the foot Of the
gloomy stone stairs where the bodies Of
the murdered Princes were buried. De-
larochs. = Frenchman, painted the large
picture from which cur engraving is made.
He lad the story Of the princes in his
heart; and though he may not have loved
England. be certainly loved these two En-
glish boys; else how could he have 30
painted them, that stout men feel like sob
bing when they look at the wonderful pic
turs 2 1t hangs to-day in the gallery Of
the Luxembourg, in Paris. and every day
children stand before il, feeling not at all
as the children did who saw the princes
ride by in state, nearly fsur hundred years
ago.
I have not told you all about Edward
and Richard. after all. Those Of ysu who
know what hsppcned will hardly wish TO
hear the sad story again, and those Who do
net. may read it whenever they will !. fov
it stands recorded on earth and in heaven.
And the history Of Richard. Duke Of
Gloucester also stands recorded.
Here 10 the end of it: tesf
There had been terrible buttle, At the
close Of which q crown was picked up. oil
bruised and trampled and stained with
blood. and put upon Henry Of Rishmond's
head. amid loud and rejoicing cries sf
"Leng live King Henryw .u
That night, horse was led up {, the
church Of the Grey FTiars. at leicester,
across whose back was tied, like some
worthless sack. naked bsdy. brought
thsrs for burial. 1t was the body Of the
last ofths Plantagenet line. King Rioh-
ard the Third. usurper and msrdersf, ,,slsin
at the battle Of Bosworth Field, in the
thirty-second year Of his age. after
miserable reign Of two years."-N.