m
to leave the country. The Flemings meanwhile had passed a law barring
his retreat into the Low Countries. Therefore, after hiding for a time
in the wilds of Ireland, he resolved to try the affections of the men
of Cornwall. No sooner did he land at Bodmin, than the people crowded
to his banners in such numbers, that the pretender, hopeful of
success, took upon himself for the first time the title of Richard
IV., king of England. Not to suffer the expectation of his followers
to languish, he laid siege to Exeter; but the men of Exeter, having
shut their gates in his face, waited with confidence for the coming of
the king. Nor were they disappointed. The Lords D'Aubeney and Broke
were despatched with a small body of troops to the relief of the city.
The leading nobles offered their services as volunteers, and the king,
at the head of a considerable army, prepared to follow his advanced
guard. Perkin's followers, who numbered about 7000 men, would have
stood by him; but the cowardly Fleming, despairing of success,
secretly withdrew to the sanctuary of Beaulieu. The Cornish rebels
accepted the king's clemency, and Lady Gordon, the wife of the
pretender, fell into the hands of the royalists. To Henry's credit it
must be mentioned that he did not visit the sins of the husband upon
the poor deluded wife, but placed her in attendance upon the queen,
and bestowed upon her a pension which she continued to enjoy
throughout his reign, and even after his death.

It was a difficult matter to know how to deal with the impostor
himself. It would have been easy to make the privileges of the church
yield to reasons of state, and to take him by violence from the
sanctuary; but at the same time it was wise to respect the rights of
the clergy and the prejudices of the people. Therefore agents were
appointed to treat with the counterfeit prince, and succeeded in
inducing him, by promises that his life would be spared, to deliver
himself up to King Henry. Once a captive, he was treated with derision
rather than with extreme severity, and was led in a kind of mock
triumph to London. As he passed along the road, and through the
streets of the city, men of all grades assembled to see the impostor,
and cast ridicule upon his fallen fortunes; and the farce was ended by
the publication of a confession in which Warbeck narrated his real
parentage, and the chief causes of his presumption to royal honours.

But although his life was spared, he was