printer to take courage when the
length of the Golden Legend made him "half desperate to have accomplisht
it," and ready to "lay it apart;" and promised him a yearly fee of a
buck in summer and a doe in winter if it were done. Noble ladies lent
him their precious books. Churchmen brought him their translations. A
mercer of London prayed him to undertake the "Royal Book" of Philip le
Bel. The Queen's brother, the hapless Lord Rivers, chatted with him over
his own translation of the "Sayings of the Philosophers." His "Tully"
was printed under the patronage of Edward the Fourth. And among his
chief supporters was Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to whom his "Order of
Chivalry" was dedicated.

It is therefore no mere flight of fancy, but a supposition founded on
good evidence, that little Prince Richard may have beguiled some of the
weary hours of his captivity by visits to the Almonry, watching the
curious presses which struck off sheet after sheet of printing, and
talking to the good-natured printer, who must, by all accounts, have
been the cheeriest and busiest of men.

The Almonry is gone.

Bareheaded boys from Westminster School play foot-ball under the few
remaining descendants of the old elms in Dean's Yard, and hurry in and
out of the gateway with their school books under their arms. All that
remains of the ancient Sanctuary is that blue plate with white letters.
But within the great Abbey, the two little princes are in Sanctuary once
more; never again to leave it while the fabric stands. And William
Caxton sleeps in St. Margaret's Church close by, while his memory lives
in every printed page of the English tongue.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] "Memorials of Westminster Abbey." p. 405. Dean Stanley.

[27] Speech of Duke of Buckingham in Sir T. More's "Life of Richard the
Third."

[28] "Memorials of Westminster Abbey." p. 408. Dean Stanley.

[29] Holinshed's Chronicle. Vol. 3. p. 300.

[30] Sir Thomas More's History of Edward the Fifth, and Richard the
Third.

[31] Equal to about L2500 in the present day.

[32] C. Knight's History of England. Vol. 2. p. 176.

[33] More.

[34] More.

[35] "Memorials of Westminster Abbey," Dean Stanley. p. 411.

[36] More's Life of Edward the Fifth. p. 40.

[37] More.

[38] "Memorials of Westminster Abbey." p. 412.

[39] More.

[40] More.

[41] "King Richard the Third." Act III., Scene IV.

[42] Dart. Vol. I. p. 170.

CHAPTER V.

KING EDWARD THE SIXTH.

Betw