r no sooner had Lady Clifford
taken up her abode with her father, the aged Lord de Vesci, than she was
summoned to London, and closely questioned as to what had become of her
boys. She said she had sent them out of the country, but as she had
heard nothing of them since, she did not know whether they were alive or
dead, and so the retreat of the high-born shepherd boy remained unknown.
But all the castles and broad lands that were his by right of
inheritance were given to the enemies of his family. The Barony of
Westmoreland, with Brougham Castle, was bestowed by Edward on his
brother Richard Duke of York, afterwards Richard the Third; and the
great manor of Shipton was conferred on Sir William Stanley, who, at a
later period, went over to the Lancasterian party himself, and you may
read in Shakespeare's play of "Richard the Third," that it was he who,
after the battle of Bosworth, where Richard was killed, picked up the
crown and placed it on the victor's head, saying, "Long live Henry the
Seventh!" We shall presently see what this event had to do with our
hero, Henry de Clifford.

II.

Londesborough was a beautiful place in the county of York, about sixteen
miles from York city. Lord de Vesci had other and larger estates, but
as his dignity of baron was limited to male heirs, his daughter could
only inherit two of his possessions, and Londesborough was one of them,
consequently young Henry de Clifford was its next heir in right of his
mother. He knew this, yet so well had his mind been trained by that
excellent parent, that he was content to live in a shepherd's cot
outside its gates with Robin and Maud, whom he soon became accustomed to
call father and mother. As they had come from Skipton, and brought with
them two little children of their own, the people of the hamlet where
they were now settled, did not know but that Henry was their eldest son,
and the little ones were so young that they were easily taught to
believe he was their brother. He wore a shepherd's frock of grey serge,
fastened round the waist by a leather belt, with half-boots made of
untanned deer-skin; and every morning he went out with his foster-father
to mind the flocks, taking with him, in a little wallet slung over his
shoulder, his mid-day meal, which he would eat as he sat on some grassy
mound, or by the side of a rivulet, from which he could fill his horn
cup with water. How different was this from the costly banquet in his
father's