still detained in custody.
After a time he escaped from prison, and fled to the Priory of Sheen,
near Richmond, where he desired the prior, who was a favourite with
the king, to petition for his life and a pardon. If Henry had listened
to the advice of his counsellors he would have taken advantage of the
opportunity to rid himself of this persistent disturber of his peace;
but he was content to give orders that "the knave should be taken out
and set in the stocks." Accordingly, on the 14th of June 1499, Warbeck
was exposed on a scaffold, erected in the Palace Court, Westminster,
as he was on the day following at the Cross on Cheapside, and at both
these places he read a confession of his imposture. Notwithstanding
this additional disgrace, no sooner was he again under lock and key,
than his restless spirit induced him to concoct another plot for
liberty and the crown. Insinuating himself into the intimacy of four
servants of Sir John Digby, lieutenant of the Tower, by their means he
succeeded in opening a correspondence with the Earl of Warwick, who
was confined in the same prison. The unfortunate prince listened
readily to his fatal proposals, and a new plan was laid. Henry was
apprised of it, and was not sorry that the last of the Plantagenets
had thus thrust himself into his hands. Warbeck and Warwick were
brought to trial, condemned, and executed. Perkin Warbeck died very
penitently on the gallows at Tyburn. "Such," says Bacon, "was the end
of this little cockatrice of a king." The Earl of Warwick was beheaded
on Tower Hill, on the 28th of November 1499.

DON SEBASTIAN--THE LOST KING OF PORTUGAL.

King Sebastian of Portugal, who inherited the throne in 1557, seems,
even from his infancy, to have exhibited a remarkable love of warlike
exercises, and at an early age to have given promise of distinguishing
himself as a warrior. At the time of his accession, Portugal had lost
much of her old military prestige; the Moors had proved too strong for
her diminished armies; the four strongholds of Arzilla,
Alcazar-Sequer, Saphin, and Azamor, had been wrested from her; and
Mazagan, Ceuta, and Tangier alone remained to her of all her African
possessions. Consequently, the tutors of the boy-king were delighted
to see his warlike instinct, and carefully instilled into his mind a
hatred of the Paynim conquerors.

The lesson was well learnt, and from the moment King Sebastian reached
his 14th year (the period of his maj