Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-28

who stood in his way.
He charged Lord Hastings with sorcery,
pulling the sleeve from his own arm to show
how it had wthered under the influence OF
the supposed wizard Without trial, the un-
fortunate peer was hurried away to death.
His head was hewed off on beam, the block
being out of order. Lord Rivers and sev-
eral Others were soon after executed, while
the young king and his brother, the Duke
of York, were thrown into the Tower, OF
which at that time Sir John Brackenbury was
But even Richard hesitated before the mur-
der of the two boys was finally resolved on.
He tried to pave the way by attempting to
prove that Edward was not the rightful heir
to the throne.
BY liberal bribes and more liberal prom
ses and threats, he so prevailed over the
minds of the authorities and citizens, that on
the very day fixed for the young kings
coronation, the crown was offered to him
self
Once on the throne, he determined that he
would not risk the danger of rivals.
Leaving orders for Sir John Brackenbury
to put the two prisoners out of the way,
he rode into the country, in order to be
at distance when the crime was commit
ted. But the lieutenant was brave, and
God-fearing man, and he refused the task.
Richard was not to be disappointed; he
dispatched Sir James Tyrre to London with
orders to Sir John to deliver up the custody
Miles Forrest and John Dighton accom-
panied the messenger of death, and these two
ruffians were sent up to the princes room
in the Bloody Tower. In few minutes they
called their master to~see the dead bodies.
He summoned the priest, who assisted the
two mmderers to bury the corpses, and then
he rode back to Richard.
The secrecy with which the affair was con-
Quoted led to the widest rumors. Richards
order to the priest to place the bodies in
more decent place than the hole into which
they had been thrown, was the means of
their burial place becoming unknown.
In the next reign it was widely believed
that the princes had not been killed at all,
the younger of the brothers. But it is only
too true that Richard was guilty of the
foulest of crimes. The tradition which made
him the murderer of his nephews received
when their bones were discovered by some
workmen who were making new stair
case. They now repoee in Westminster Alb
bey.
Another evil deed perpetrated by Richard
or. at all events, partly through his influence
Clarence, in the Bowyer Tower
Accused of threatening the king Edward
IV) Clarence was imprisoned, and ten days
later was found dead February IA. 1873:
+ Tradition says that he was offered choice
of deaths, and that to be drowned in
butt of malmsey was the one preferred.
This was not the first time that royal
blood had been insufficient to save its pos
SCISSOR.
Richard ii and Henry VI had both been
discovered dead in the Tower under cir
cumstances more than suspicious Those were
dark times in English history.
One of the most celebrated prisoners of
the middle ages was Sir John Oldcastle,
knight. That this was the name by which he
was commonly known proves how much the
title of knight was esteemed, for he was also
a peer, and, as Lord Gotham, sat in the
House Of Peers.
He was supposed to have been the original
of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff: b,It the
poet in the epilogue to the second part of
''Henry the FOURTH proclaims that ''Old-
castle died martyr, and this is not the
man."
The truth is that no one could have been
more unlike the coarse Fastaff than Old
castle, who made himself loved by all by his
gentleness and goodness. But these quail
| ties were not enough to protect him from
the hatred of the priests, who saw in him
a dangerous enemy, fol, he was pupil of
| Wycliffe, and the. defender of the LoIIards.
| For a supposed offense against the king
he was cited to london, and imprisoned in the
| tower which still bears his name. Here he
was bullied by monks and priests, and finally
condemned by them to death at the stake-a
free, he had manfuly protested
In reply to the sentence of the court. he
said: ~
Eye judge of the body. which is but a
wretched thing, yet am certain and sure that
We can do no harm to my soul"
But his enemies had not calculated nm his
popularity. One dark night, some resolute
citizens forced their way into the Reaucbamn
Tower, and managed to effect the escane ~
their hero, who fled to his town house secpre
in the love of the citizens.
But the crafty monks again obtained a sen
| tapoa ne death against him. and ha had A. a :.