Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. THE USURPATION OF RICHARD OF GLOUCESTER. On Friday, the I3th of June, 1483, there took place that memorable council in the Tower of London which the pen of Sir Thomas More has so graphically described, and which the genius of Shakespeare has immortalised. At the council- table sat, among other lords, the Archbishop of York, Lord Hastings, Lord Stanley, and Doctor Morton, Bishop of Ely, afterward cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury. The three latter had been the personal friends of the late king; all three were devoted to the interests of his son. It was nine o'clock in the morning when the protector entered the council-chamber and took his seat at the head of the table. He had played the sluggard, he said, pleasantly; he hoped the lords would forgive him for being late. His countenance retained its usual imperturbable expression. Not a word nor gesture of uneasiness escaped him. He even appeared to be in the highest spirits possible; jesting with the Bishop of Ely on the excellence of his strawberries, for which the garden ofhis episcopal residence, Ely House, in Holborn, was famous.
My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there; I do beseech you send for some of them. ?King Richard III., Act Ui. Sc. 4. The bishop accordingly despatched a servant for the fruit. In the meantime, having excused his absence to the members of the council, the protector retired awhile from the apartment, desiring the lords to proceed with their deliberations. When, in about an hour, he returned, his manner and appearance had undergone a complete and painful change. On his countenance, rage, hatred, and vengeance are said to have been forcibly and terribly depicted. A brief but awful pause ensued, during which the protector s…