第99章 ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE SEVENTH(3)

His faithful subjects,however,cared nothing for him,and hated his faithful troops:who,being of different nations,quarrelled also among themselves.Worse than this,if worse were possible,they began to plunder the country;upon which the White Rose said,that he would rather lose his rights,than gain them through the miseries of the English people.The Scottish King made a jest of his scruples;but they and their whole force went back again without fighting a battle.

The worst consequence of this attempt was,that a rising took place among the people of Cornwall,who considered themselves too heavily taxed to meet the charges of the expected war.Stimulated by Flammock,a lawyer,and Joseph,a blacksmith,and joined by Lord Audley and some other country gentlemen,they marched on all the way to Deptford Bridge,where they fought a battle with the King's army.They were defeated-though the Cornish men fought with great bravery-and the lord was beheaded,and the lawyer and the blacksmith were hanged,drawn,and quartered.The rest were pardoned.The King,who believed every man to be as avaricious as himself,and thought that money could settle anything,allowed them to make bargains for their liberty with the soldiers who had taken them.

Perkin Warbeck,doomed to wander up and down,and never to find rest anywhere-a sad fate:almost a sufficient punishment for an imposture,which he seems in time to have half believed himself-lost his Scottish refuge through a truce being made between the two Kings;and found himself,once more,without a country before him in which he could lay his head.But James (always honourable and true to him,alike when he melted down his plate,and even the great gold chain he had been used to wear,to pay soldiers in his cause;and now,when that cause was lost and hopeless)did not conclude the treaty,until he had safely departed out of the Scottish dominions.He,and his beautiful wife,who was faithful to him under all reverses,and left her state and home to follow his poor fortunes,were put aboard ship with everything necessary for their comfort and protection,and sailed for Ireland.

But,the Irish people had had enough of counterfeit Earls of Warwick and Dukes of York,for one while;and would give the White Rose no aid.So,the White Rose-encircled by thorns indeed-resolved to go with his beautiful wife to Cornwall as a forlorn resource,and see what might be made of the Cornish men,who had risen so valiantly a little while before,and who had fought so bravely at Deptford Bridge.

To Whitsand Bay,in Cornwall,accordingly,came Perkin Warbeck and his wife;and the lovely lady he shut up for safety in the Castle of St.Michael's Mount,and then marched into Devonshire at the head of three thousand Cornishmen.These were increased to six thousand by the time of his arrival in Exeter;but,there the people made a stout resistance,and he went on to Taunton,where he came in sight of the King's army.The stout Cornish men,although they were few in number,and badly armed,were so bold,that they never thought of retreating;but bravely looked forward to a battle on the morrow.Unhappily for them,the man who was possessed of so many engaging qualities,and who attracted so many people to his side when he had nothing else with which to tempt them,was not as brave as they.In the night,when the two armies lay opposite to each other,he mounted a swift horse and fled.When morning dawned,the poor confiding Cornish men,discovering that they had no leader,surrendered to the King's power.Some of them were hanged,and the rest were pardoned and went miserably home.

Before the King pursued Perkin Warbeck to the sanctuary of Beaulieu in the New Forest,where it was soon known that he had taken refuge,he sent a body of horsemen to St.Michael's Mount,to seize his wife.She was soon taken and brought as a captive before the King.But she was so beautiful,and so good,and so devoted to the man in whom she believed,that the King regarded her with compassion,treated her with great respect,and placed her at Court,near the Queen's person.And many years after Perkin Warbeck was no more,and when his strange story had become like a nursery tale,SHE was called the White Rose,by the people,in remembrance of her beauty.

The sanctuary at Beaulieu was soon surrounded by the King's men;

And the King,pursuing his usual dark,artful ways,sent pretended friends to Perkin Warbeck to persuade him to come out and surrender himself.This he soon did;the King having taken a good look at the man of whom he had heard so much-from behind a screen-directed him to be well mounted,and to ride behind him at a little distance,guarded,but not bound in any way.So they entered London with the King's favourite show-a procession;and some of the people hooted as the Pretender rode slowly through the streets to the Tower;but the greater part were quiet,and very curious to see him.From the Tower,he was taken to the Palace at Westminster,and there lodged like a gentleman,though closely watched.He was examined every now and then as to his imposture;

but the King was so secret in all he did,that even then he gave it a consequence,which it cannot be supposed to have in itself deserved.