travel. I sought to pass'them by unnoted, but he who seemed to be the constable, or leader thereof, having already marked me, loudly called unto me with "Holla comrade, what may you be, and whither away so early?"

I answered unto him with my safest and truest reply, that I was the orphan son of a soldier who was slain at Bosworth, and was then travelling in search of entertainment and employ.

"Then if you lack these," responded the constable," by the sword of St. Paul! you're in good luck; for here you may have both, as you seem a stout young stripling and a soldier's son. But be you what you may, I trow that here's a safe sanctuary for you, whether you are flying from the claw of the sergeant or the Bishop's sompnour; and whether you were bred to the cart or the cloister, only mount helm and spear and you're made gentle at once, being upon the high road to fortune, full soon to become either a knight or a noble !"

"And whose quarrel must I draw sword in?” demanded I.

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Why, in no less an one," answered the leader "than that of Francis the second, the most noble Duke of Bretagne, against Charles of France. For ye shall wot, my brave comrade, that Edward, Lord Widvile, the queen's uncle, is leading forth a goodly party of volunteers unto his aid; the main body whereof hath marched on before towards the Isle of Wight, where we take shipping. And now, my mates, don your arms, and make you all ready for setting forth with what haste you may, whilst I give our new fellow a

stout.breakfast to make him march the better. By the bones!" continued the prating soldier, drawing me with him into the hostel, "fore God! brother, but you're in excellent luck to have lighted upon us thus; since in another hour we should have been upon our travel, and within five days upon the seas; when you would have lost the good tide which now floweth so fairly onward unto your fortune."

Thereupon I entered the hostel with the constable, not for that I trusted aught unto his glosing words or mighty promises, or deemed that I should escape the many pains and sorrows of a soldier's life, but because I saw that by following the Lord Widvile over the seas, I should be well removed from mine enemies, and might peradventure get me unto the Dutchess Margaret of Burgundy, who was the friend of my house, and so arrive at some better fortune. With these thoughts, I say, I went with the constable into the hostel; where, after having well fed and strengthened me, I did engage to serve in that cause as a voluntary in France, for so long as there should be war there, to be found in horse and arms, with four-pence by the day in sterling money.

The chiefest passages of that war between France and Bretagne, he conserved as great and public matters, which enter not into the story of my life, and so ask but small recital in this place. Whilst I served under the Lord Widvile, I was fain to keep secret not only my lofty birth, but also my favour unto King Richard, because of the hate in which he was held by that noble, for raving put to death his nephew Anthony, and

divers others of his house and party, for treason. Howbeit, the Lord Widvile himself was not long my leader, for upon his marching unto the reliet of St. Aubin du Cormier, all the power of France advanced against him under Louis de Tremouille,and the two armies might not part without doing battle. This, therefore, did we fight on Monday, the 28th day of July, in the year of Christ 1488, and a most fatal time did it prove; for the Lord Widvile, and the most part of the four hundred English which he had led into Bretagne, were slain, with 6000 Bretons and full 1200 of the French. I 'scaped from the field, sorrowful and wounded; yet lingered I still in Bretagne, as the soldier of the Lady Anne, the young dutchess thereof, until the war between her state and the realm of France was at length cunningly ended, by her becoming the queen of Charles VIII. in the year 1491. The king won over her counsellors to consent thereunto, by weighty bribes and goodly promises; and herself by importunity and terror, for that she well saw she must be either his wife or his captive. Whilst speaking of them, I may note in this place, that Charles was a well-formed man, though somewhat short, and of a fair face, yet having large strong features, and dark hair: the Dutchess Anne was a young maiden of good stature and comely visage, and she was wont to be clad in a vest of azure velvet and white ermine-skin powdered, with a robe of red velvet over all.

This time passed, I did next betake me unto the bold and noble Lady Margaret of York, the third wife of Charles the Hardy, the last French

duke of Burgundy, and sister unto my royal father; with whom I found right good entertainment and favour. She was one who ever sought to magnify and advance her own house, yet did I never declare my kindred unto her; albeit she made me one of the chief of that guard which alway attended upon her person, being all men of gentle birth, and though she was wont often to employ me in private services, familiarly calling me cousin, and saying that I had somewhat of the look of a Plantagenet, and specially the very trick of her brother Richard's visage. But natheless I disclosed not unto her the truth, for that I marked her to be beguiled with one Perkin Warbeck, the offspring of a merchant, whom she cunningly tutored to personate Richard, Duke of York, the second son of her brother, King Edward IV.; and so sent him unto England, where he was well received and his tale believed of many, and for a long space he kept the realm in tumult. This was, as I now think, about November, in the year of grace 1492, but I leave it unto story to recount his adventures; only noting that he uttered divers foul and false leasings against my father, affirming him to have murdered the young king, Edward V., in the Tower, some seven years before, when himself most wondrously escaped the like fate, albeit he could neither declare how, nor even in what nation he had passed that time. Yet being, as he was, of good presence and features, and fairspoken withal, he satisfied the demands of many who rose up in arms and followed his fortunes; and these were not of the common sort only, but divers noble and worshipful men believed and

affirmed his pretences to be true. But though some of his aiders thought thus, others befriended him only from discontent at Harry Tudor, who, as they deemed, had not largely enough rewarded them; and others again from a base desire to prosper by tumult and by spoil. Howbeit, all this time my truer and fairer claim to be a king -as I then thought it-was left unminded of any; and I felt much misliking and jealousy, that a lowborn adventurer was thus again preferred unto the real son of a sovereign; though, perchance, that very neglect saved me from the defeat and disgrace of Warbeck, his flight, imprisonment, and other sorrows, the which were ended only by the axe and the scaffold.

It chanced that, about this season, I became acquainted with certain of the cunning artists, who had aided in rearing those stately buildings in the realm of Burgundy, which have been imitated in divers fine and curious palaces erected in England.* Truly, I think that the world cannot

The highly ornamental style of domestic architecture which is considered as characteristic of the Tudor period, was certainly derived from the very rich edifices erected under the patronage of the Duke of Burgundy above mentioned, between the years 1419 and 1467; fine examples of which are to be found in the Maison de la Pucelle and the Hall of Justice at Rouen, and similar edifices at Bruxelles. Ghent, and Bruges. Mansions of this character,-wherein the features of the old gloomy castle were enriched and blended with a more stately and convenient style of building, were erected in England in the reign of Henry VI. but perhaps a more splendid instance was given in the royal palace of Sheen, built by Henry VII., after a fire there in 1500, to which he gave his own title of Richmond. It is related by Speed, that the "curious and exquisite building**