d give her daughter in marriage to
Richmond, and acknowledge him as king, provided he would first conquer
and depose King Richard, the common enemy.

The plan was accordingly all arranged. Richmond was in France at this
time, having fled there some time previous, after a battle, in which
his party had been defeated. They wrote to him, explaining the plan.
He immediately fell in with it. He raised a small force--all that he
could procure at that time--and set sail, with a few ships, from the
port of St. Malo, intending to land on the coast of Devonshire, which
is in the southwestern part of England.

In the mean time, the several leaders of the rebellion had gone to
different parts of the kingdom, in order to raise troops, and form
centres of action against Richard. Buckingham went into Wales. His
plan was to march down, with all the forces that he could raise there,
to the coast of Devonshire, to meet Richmond on his landing.

This Richard resolved to prevent. He raised an army, and marched to
intercept Buckingham. He first, however, issued a proclamation in
which he denounced the leaders of the rebellion as criminals and
outlaws, and set a price upon their heads.

Buckingham did not succeed in reaching the coast in time to join
Richmond. He was stopped by the River Severn, which you will see, by
looking on a map of England, came directly in his way. He tried to get
across the river, but the people destroyed the bridges and the boats,
and he could not get over. He marched up to where the stream was
small, in hopes of finding a fording place, but the waters were so
swollen with the fall rains that he failed in this attempt as well as
the others. The result was, that Richard came up while Buckingham was
entangled among the intricacies of the ground produced by the
inundations. Buckingham's soldiers, seeing that they were likely to be
surrounded, abandoned him and fled. At last Buckingham fled too, and
hid himself; but one of his servants came and told Richard where he
was. Richard ordered him to be seized. Buckingham sent an imploring
message to Richard, begging that Richard would see him, and, before
condemning him, hear what he had to say; but Richard, in the place of
any reply, gave orders to the soldiers to take the prisoner at once
out into the public square of the town, and cut off his head. The
order was immediately obeyed.

When Richmond reached the coast of Devonshire, and found that
Buckingham was not ther