to humanity,
that the natural sentiments of men, without any political or public
views, were sufficient to render his government unstable; and every
person of probity and honor was earnest to prevent the sceptre from
being any longer polluted by that bloody and faithless hand which held
it. All the exiles flocked to the earl of Richmond in Brittany, and
exhorted him to hasten his attempt for a new invasion, and to prevent
the marriage of the princess Elizabeth, which must prove fatal to all
his hopes. The earl, sensible of the urgent necessity, but dreading
the treachery of Peter Landais, who had entered into a negotiation with
Richard for betraying him, was obliged to attend only to his present
safety; and he made his escape to the court of France. The ministers of
Charles VIII., who had now succeeded to the throne after the death
of his father, Lewis, gave him countenance and protection; and being
desirous of raising disturbance to Richard, they secretly encouraged the
earl in the levies which he made for the support of his enterprise upon
England. The earl of Oxford, whom Richard's suspicions had thrown into
confinement, having made his escape, here joined Henry; and inflamed his
ardor for the attempt, by a favorable account which he brought of
the dispositions of the English nation, and their universal hatred of
Richard's crimes and usurpation.

{1485.} The earl of Richmond set sail from Harfleur, in Normandy, with
a small army of about two thousand men; and after a navigation of six
days, he arrived at Milford Haven, in Wales, where he landed without
opposition. He directed his course to that part of the kingdom, in hopes
that the Welsh, who regarded him as their countryman, and who had been
already prepossessed in favor of his cause by means of the duke of
Buckingham, would join his standard, and enable him to make head against
the established government. Richard, who knew not in what quarter he
might expect the invader, had taken post at Nottingham, in the centre
of the kingdom; and having given commissions to different persons in the
several counties, whom he empowered to oppose his enemy, he purposed in
person to fly, on the first alarm, to the place exposed to danger. Sir
Rice ap Thomas and Sir Walter Herbert were intrusted with his authority
in Wales; but the former immediately deserted to Henry; the second
made but feeble opposition to him; and the earl, advancing towards
Shrewsbury, received every day some