ed thus far with a very smooth
countenance--and although he was a clever man, fair of speech, and not
ill-looking, in spite of one of his shoulders being something higher than
the other--and although he had come into the City riding bare-headed at
the King's side, and looking very fond of him--he had made the King's
mother more uneasy yet; and when the Royal boy was taken to the Tower,
she became so alarmed that she took sanctuary in Westminster with her
five daughters.

Nor did she do this without reason, for, the Duke of Gloucester, finding
that the lords who were opposed to the Woodville family were faithful to
the young King nevertheless, quickly resolved to strike a blow for
himself. Accordingly, while those lords met in council at the Tower, he
and those who were in his interest met in separate council at his own
residence, Crosby Palace, in Bishopsgate Street. Being at last quite
prepared, he one day appeared unexpectedly at the council in the Tower,
and appeared to be very jocular and merry. He was particularly gay with
the Bishop of Ely: praising the strawberries that grew in his garden on
Holborn Hill, and asking him to have some gathered that he might eat them
at dinner. The Bishop, quite proud of the honour, sent one of his men to
fetch some; and the Duke, still very jocular and gay, went out; and the
council all said what a very agreeable duke he was! In a little time,
however, he came back quite altered--not at all jocular--frowning and
fierce--and suddenly said,--

'What do those persons deserve who have compassed my destruction; I being
the King's lawful, as well as natural, protector?'

To this strange question, Lord Hastings replied, that they deserved
death, whosoever they were.

'Then,' said the Duke, 'I tell you that they are that sorceress my
brother's wife;' meaning the Queen: 'and that other sorceress, Jane
Shore. Who, by witchcraft, have withered my body, and caused my arm to
shrink as I now show you.'

He then pulled up his sleeve and showed them his arm, which was shrunken,
it is true, but which had been so, as they all very well knew, from the
hour of his birth.

Jane Shore, being then the lover of Lord Hastings, as she had formerly
been of the late King, that lord knew that he himself was attacked. So,
he said, in some confusion, 'Certainly, my Lord, if they have done this,
they be worthy of punishment.'

'If?' said the Duke of Gloucester; 'do you talk to me of ifs? I tell yo