Robert Brackenbury, and Richard found that he was so honest, that while he was there he would not let anybody hurt the little princes; so he sent away Brackenbury upon some business that was to take him two or three days, and gave the keys to a wicked servant of his own to keep till Brackenbury came back. This bad man's name was Tyrrell; and he had no sooner got the charge of the little king and his brother, than he sent for two persons more wicked even than himself, and promised them a great deal of money, if they would go into their room while they were asleep and murder them.

Their names were Dighton and Forrest. They

went into the room where the little princes were both in the same bed. Their little arms were round each

other's necks, and their little cheeks close together. Their prayer-book was lying close by them, and for a moment, when Forrest saw it, some good thoughts came into his heart, and he said he would not kill the pretty children. But Dighton put him in mind of the money he had been promised, and so they determined to do the wicked deed at once, and they took some cushions, and laid them over the poor children as they lay asleep, and smothered them.

Then they took them on their shoulders, and carried them to a little back staircase, near their room in the Tower, and buried them in a great hole under the stairs, and threw a heap of stones over them; and a long time afterwards, some workmen, who were employed to repair that part of the Tower, found their bones in that place.

And this was the end of our little King Edward the Fifth, and his brother York.

You will read something about their sister Elizabeth very soon.

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CHAPTER XXXV.

RICHARD III.-1483 to 1485.

How Richard the Third tried to make the people his friends; how the Duke of Buckingham rebelled and was put to death; how Richard was killed at Bosworth fighting against the Earl of Richmond, who was made King.

RICHARD, Duke of Gloucester, had made himself king, as I told you, when he murdered his young nephews in the Tower.

He tried to make the people forget the wicked way

in which he came to be king by making some good laws; but he could not succeed. The English could not love so base and cruel a man, and Richard had but a short and troublesome reign.

The first vexation he had was caused by a cousin of his, the Duke of Buckingham, almost as bad a man as himself, who had helped him in most of his bad deeds, but who did not mean to let him kill the little princes. So he got an army together, and hoped by beginning a civil war to punish Richard : but he was taken prisoner, and Richard treated him as he did Lord Hastings, that is, he cut off his head directly.

But there was another cousin of Richard's, and a much better man, about whom I must tell you a great deal more. His name was Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Now his father, Edmond Tudor, Earl of Richmond, was related to the old princes of Wales, who you must remember were Britons, and his mother, the Countess of Richmond, was a lady of the family of Lancaster, or the Red Rose. Richard III. hated the Earl of Richmond, because he knew that many people thought he ought to be king, and he did everything he could to injure him and his family. But Richmond himself was abroad, where Richard could not hurt him.

But after a little while Richmond wrote to his friends in England, that, if they would be ready to help him when he came, he would bring with him from abroad money and men, and then England might get rid of the wicked King Richard of the White Rose, and take him instead for their king.

The best gentlemen in England immediately got ready to receive Richmond; all the relations of the persons Richard had put to death were glad to join

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with him to punish that bad man. The people in Wales were delighted to think of having one belonging to their ancient princes to be their king, and, by the time he landed at Milford Haven, he found quite a large army ready to follow him.

Richard, who was brave, although he was cruel, got ready a large army also to fight Richmond, and he met him at a place called Bosworth, in Leicestershire, where they fought a great battle.

I have read that King Richard, when he was lying in his tent the night before the battle, could not help thinking of all the cruel things he had done. Besides those he had killed in battle, he remembered the young prince Edward of Lancaster, whom he stabbed at Tewksbury, and poor Henry VI., whom he had murdered in prison, and his own brother Clarence, whom he caused to be drowned. Then he began to think of Lord Hastings, and all his friends, six or seven, I think, whom he beheaded, and his little nephews, who were smothered in the Tower, and his cousin Buckingham, and, last of all, his wife, Queen Anne, whom he used so ill that she died.

And so when he got up in the morning he was tired and unhappy, and did not fight so well as he might have done.

However that might be, he was killed in the battle of Bosworth Field. His crown was found upon the field of battle, and Sir William Stanley put it upon the Earl of Richmond's head, upon which the whole army shouted out "Long live King Henry the Seventh!" and so from that day the British prince, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, and heir of Lancaster, was King of England.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

HENRY VII.-1485 to 1509.

How Henry the Seventh united the parties of the White and the Red Roses; how Lambert Simnel, and afterwards Perkin Warbeck, rebelled against him, but were subdued; how the people began to improve themselves in learning; how America was discovered; how King Henry did many useful things, but was not beloved by the people.

WHEN the Earl of Richmond was made king, and called Henry VII., many persons began to be afraid that the wars of the Roses would begin again. But Henry was a wise man, and as soon as he was crowned himself, and the people had owned him for their king, he sent to his cousin Elizabeth, the sister of the little princes who were smothered in the Tower, and asked her to be his wife.

All her friends were glad of this, so she consented; and as Henry was King of the Red Rose party, and she was Queen of the White Rose party, they agreed better than they had done for more than thirty years, and England began to be quiet and happy.

However, there were two disturbances in the beginning of Henry's reign that I must tell you of. There was a very good-looking young man, called Lambert Simnel, that some people thought was very like the son of that Duke of Clarence who was drowned in the Tower; and some persons, who wished to plague Henry VII., persuaded Lambert to say he was young Clarence, and that he had run away from the Tower, and had hidden himself till after his uncle Richard's death; but that now, as Richard and his little cousins were all dead, he had a right to be king. Some few