ent they should touch the shore.

[Sidenote: Gloucester mistaken.]

He was mistaken, however, in supposing that the paramour, whoever he
might be, was with the lady. Somerset, in the excess of his
precaution, had returned to London by land, leaving Lady Neville to
return by herself in the boat with the other passengers; for the boat
was a sort of packet which plied regularly between the village and
London. He, however, had stationed trusty persons not far from the
landing in London, who were to receive Lady Neville on her arrival and
convey her home.

[Sidenote: The boat arrives.]

Gloucester arrived at the landing before the boat reached the shore.
It was, however, now so dark that he despaired of being able to
recognize the persons he was in pursuit of, especially under the
disguise which he did not doubt that they would wear. So, in the
recklessness of his rage, he resolved to kill every body in the boat,
and thus to make sure of his revenge.

[Sidenote: Assault upon the boat.]

Accordingly, the moment that the boat touched the shore, he and his
followers rushed on board, and a dreadful scene of consternation and
terror ensued. Gloucester himself made his way directly toward the
figure of a lady, whose air, and manner, and style of dress indicated,
so far as he could discern them in the darkness, that she was probably
the object of his fury. He plunged his dagger into her breast. She, in
an agony of terror, leaped into the river. She was buoyed up by her
dress, and floated down the stream.

[Sidenote: Boatmen murdered.]

In the mean time, the work of murder on board the boat went on. The
duke and his men continued stabbing and striking down all around them,
until the passengers and the boatmen were every one killed. The bodies
were then all thrown into the river, stones having been previously
tied to them to make them sink.

[Sidenote: Cries.]

The people in the houses of the neighborhood, on the banks of the
river, heard the cries, and raised their heads a moment from their
pillows, or paused as they were walking along the silent streets to
listen. But the cries were soon suppressed, for the massacre was the
work of a few moments only, and such sounds were far too common in
those days in the streets of London, and especially on the river, to
attract much regard.

[Sidenote: The boat sunk.]

The boat was of course covered with blood. The duke ordered his men to
take it out into the middle of the rive