a trusting friend by betraying him to his doom. For well he
sees that Buckingham has gone too far to recede. I would he had stood
with them,--his own scheming Countess and Buckingham. Then I could
have wiped all of them out at one blow." He struck the bell. "Summon
the Master of Horse," he ordered.

"Ratcliffe," he said, when the latter entered, "Buckingham revolts on
the eighteenth; Richmond lands in England that same day. Dispatch
instantly to the Lord Chancellor for the great seal, and have
commissions of array drawn. Let messengers start with the sun to all
the royal domains and summon hither every man who can wield a sword or
draw a bow. What's the weather?"

"There is no improvement, my liege."

"It will, of a surety, have rained itself out by morning. For it to
continue means a slow muster, and the time is all too short as it is,"
the King said meditatively. "And hark you, further," he broke out
suddenly, "let word go to Lord Stanley at Lathom, this night yet, of
this matter, bidding him instantly gather his retainers and report at
Nottingham."

Ratcliffe hurried away, to return almost instantly with a packet which
he gave the King.

"From Stanley," he said. "It arrived but this moment."

Richard flashed a smile across to De Lacy.

"He moves quickly, by St. Paul!" . . . then with a touch of sarcasm:
"Hold a bit, Ratcliffe; perchance our news may be a trifle old in
Lathom." He broke the seals and spread the parchment under the candles
on the table. It ran:

"To Our Sovereign Lord the King:

"It has come to us that Henry Tudor, styled Earl of Richmond, intends
to sail with an army from St. Malo, on the twelfth day coming of the
present month, and will adventure to land at the town of Plymouth on
the sixth day thereafter, there and then to proclaim himself King.
According, will we muster instantly our Strength and proceed, with all
dispatch, to meet Your Majesty at Nottingham, or wheresoever it may be
we are commanded.

"Written with humble allegiance and great haste at our Castle of
Lathom, this tenth day of October.

"Stanley."

"It will be unnecessary to advise the Lord Stanley--he has already
learned of the matter," said Richard--and Ratcliffe hurried away. He
passed the letter to De Lacy. "Read it. . . Now you see the depth and
foresight of this man. But for your chance discovery and furious ride
he would have been the first to warn me of this danger. Note his
shrewdness: