e was to give.

In about an hour he returned, but his whole air and manner were now
totally changed. He came in with a frowning and angry countenance,
knitting his brows and setting his teeth, as if something had occurred
to put him in a great rage. He advanced to the council table, and
there accosting Lord Hastings in a very excited and angry manner, he
demanded,

"What punishment do you think men deserve who form plots and schemes
for my destruction?"

Lord Hastings was amazed at this sudden appearance of displeasure, and
he replied to the Protector that such men, if there were any such,
most certainly deserved death, whoever they might be.

"It is that sorceress, my brother's wife," said Richard, "and that
other vile sorceress, worse than she, Jane Shore. See!"

This allusion to Jane Shore was somewhat ominous for Hastings, as it
was generally understood that since the king's death Lord Hastings had
taken Jane Shore under his protection, and had lived in great intimacy
with her.

As Richard said this, he pulled up the sleeve of his doublet to the
elbow, to let the company look at his arm. This arm had always been
weak, and smaller than the other.

"See," said he, "what they are doing to me."

He meant that by the power of necromancy they had made an image of wax
as an effigy of him, according to the mode explained in a previous
chapter, and were now melting it away by slow degrees in order to
destroy his life, and that his arm was beginning to pine and wither
away in consequence.

[Illustration: THE COUNCIL IN THE TOWER.]

The lords knew very well that the state in which they saw Richard's
arm was its natural condition, and that, consequently, his charge
against the queen and Jane Shore was only a pretense, which was to be
the prelude and excuse for some violent measures that he was about to
take. They scarcely knew what to say. At last Lord Hastings replied,

"Certainly, my lord, if they have committed so heinous an offense as
this, they deserve a very heinous punishment."

"If!" repeated the Protector, in a voice of thunder. "And thou
servest me, then, it seems, with _ifs_ and _ands_. I tell thee that
they _have_ so done--and I will make what I say good upon thy body,
traitor!"

He emphasized and confirmed this threat by bringing down his fist with
a furious blow upon the table.

This was one of the signals which he had agreed upon with the people
that he had stationed without at the door of the