own hands, Richard vouchsafed an explanation of what he had
done to the young king. He told him that Earl Rivers, and Lord Gray,
and other persons belonging to their party, "had conspired together to
rule the kynge and the realme, to sette variance among the states,
and to subdue and destroy the noble blood of the realme," and that he,
Richard, had interposed to save Edward from their snares. He told him,
moreover, that Lord Dorset, who was Edward's half brother, being the
son of the queen by her first husband, and who had for some time held
the office of Chancellor of the Tower, had taken out the king's
treasure from that castle, and had sent much of it away beyond the
sea.

Edward, astonished and bewildered, did not know at first what to reply
to his uncle. He said, however, at last, that he never heard of any
such designs on the part of his mother's relatives, and he could not
believe that the charges were true. But Richard assured him that they
were true, and that "his kindred had kepte their dealings from the
knowledge of his grace." Satisfied or not, Edward was silenced; and he
submitted, since it was hopeless for him to attempt to resist, to be
taken back in his uncle's custody to Northampton.

CHAPTER XI.

TAKING SANCTUARY.

A.D. 1483

Alarm of the queen on hearing the news.--Visit of the
archbishop.--Hasting's message.--The queen is in great
distress.--Uncertainty in respect to Gloucester's designs.--Arrest
of the leading men in the Woodville party.--The queen
"on the rushes."--Her daughters.--Description of the
sanctuary.--Apartments.--The Jerusalem chamber.--Richard's
plans in respect to the coronation.--Reception of Richard's party
at London.--Richard establishes his court.--Dorset.--The queen's
friends dismissed.--Richard's titles.--Anxiety of the people
of England.--Forlorn situation of the queen.

When the news reached London that the king had been seized on the way
to the capital, and was in Gloucester's custody, it produced a
universal commotion. Queen Elizabeth was thrown at once into a state
of great anxiety and alarm. The tidings reached her at midnight. She
was in the palace at Westminster at the time. She rose immediately in
the greatest terror, and began to make preparations for fleeing to
sanctuary with the Duke of York, her second son. All her friends in
the neighborhood were aroused and summoned to her aid. The palace soon
became a scene of universal confusion. Every body was