person of Richard, duke of York, that this young man was undoubtedly
that prince himself, and that no circumstance of his story was exposed
to the least difficulty. Such positive intelligence, conveyed by a
person of rank and character, was sufficient with many to put the matter
beyond question, and excited the attention and wonder even of the most
indifferent. The whole nation was held in suspense; a regular conspiracy
was formed against the king's authority, and a correspondence settled
between the malecontents in Flanders and those in England.

The king was informed of all these particulars; but agreeably to
his character, which was both cautious and resolute, he proceeded
deliberately, though steadily, in counterworking the projects of his
enemies. His first object was to ascertain the death of the real duke of
York, and to confirm the opinion that had always prevailed with regard
to that event. Five persons had been employed by Richard in the murder
of his nephews, or could give evidence with regard to it; Sir James
Tyrrel, to whom he had committed the government of the Tower for that
purpose, and who had seen the dead princes; Forrest, Dighton, and
Slater, who perpetrated the crime; and the priest who buried the bodies.
Tyrrel and Dighton alone were alive, and they agreed in the same story;
but as the priest was dead, and as the bodies were supposed to have
been removed by Richard's orders from the place where they were first
interred, and could not now be found, it was not in Henry's power to put
the fact, so much as he wished, beyond all doubt and controversy.

He met at first with more difficulty, but was in the end more
successful, in detecting who this wonderful person was that thus boldly
advanced pretensions to his crown. He dispersed his spies all over
Flanders and England; he engaged many to pretend that they had embraced
Perkin's party; he directed them to insinuate themselves into the
confidence of the young man's friends; in proportion as they conveyed
intelligence of any conspirator, he bribed his retainers, his domestic
servants, nay, sometimes his confessor, and by these means traced up
some other confederate; Clifford himself he engaged, by the hope of
rewards and pardon, to betray the secrets committed to him; the more
trust he gave to any of his spies, the higher resentment did he feign
against them, some of them he even caused to be publicly anathematized,
in order the better to procure them th