appeared equally impracticable
for him to destroy so many persons possessed of a preferable title, and
imprudent to exclude them. But a man who had abandoned all principles of
honor and humanity, was soon carried by his predominant passion beyond
the reach of fear or precaution; and Glocester, having so far succeeded
in his views, no longer hesitated in removing the other obstructions
which lay between him and the throne. The death of the earl of Rivers,
and of the other prisoners detained in Pomfret, was first determined;
and he easily obtained the consent of the duke of Buckingham, as well as
of Lord Hastings, to this violent and sanguinary measure. However easy
it was, in those times, to procure a sentence against the most innocent
person, it appeared still more easy to despatch an enemy without any
trial or form of process; and orders were accordingly issued to Sir
Richard Ratcliffe, a proper instrument in the hands of this tyrant,
to cut off the heads of the prisoners. The protector then assailed the
fidelity of Buckingham by all the arguments capable of swaying a vicious
mind, which knew no motive of action but interest and ambition. He
represented that the execution of persons so nearly related to the king,
whom that prince so openly professed to love, and whose fate he so much
resented, would never pass unpunished; and all the actors in that scene
were bound in prudence to prevent the effects of his future vengeance:
that it would be impossible to keep the queen forever at a distance from
her son, and equally impossible to prevent her from instilling into
his tender mind the thoughts of retaliating, by like executions, the
sanguinary insults committed on her family: that the only method of
obviating these mischiefs was to put the sceptre in the hands of a
man of whose friendship the duke might be assured, and whose years
and experience taught him to pay respect to merit and to the rights of
ancient nobility: and that the same necessity which had carried them so
far in resisting the usurpation of these intruders, must justify them
in attempting further innovations, and in making, by national consent,
a new settlement of the succession. To these reasons he added the offers
of great private advantages to the duke of Buckingham; and he easily
obtained from him a promise of supporting him in all his enterprises.

The duke of Glocester, knowing the importance of gaining Lord Hastings,
sounded at a distance his sentimen