314 HISTORY OF KINO HENRY VII. 



&quot; High and mighty king, your grace, and these 

 &quot; your nobles here present, may be pleased benignly 

 &quot; to bow your ears, to hear the tragedy of a young 

 &quot; man, that by right ought to hold in his hand the 

 61 ball of a kingdom ; but by fortune is made himself 

 &quot; a ball, tossed from misery to misery, and from 

 &quot; place to place. You see here before you the spec- 

 &quot; tacle of a Plantagenet, who hath been carried from 

 &quot; the nursery to the sanctuary ; from the sanctuary 

 &quot; to the direful prison ; from the prison to the hand of 

 &quot; the cruel tormentor ; and from that hand to the wide 

 &quot; wilderness, as I may truly call it, for so the world 

 &quot; hath been to me. So that he that is born to a great 

 &quot; kingdom, hath not ground to set his foot upon, 

 &quot; more than this where he now standeth by your 

 (f princely favour. Edward the Fourth, late King of 

 &quot; of England, as your grace cannot but have heard, 

 &quot; left two sons, Edward, and Richard, Duke of York, 

 &quot; both very young. Edward the eldest succeeded 

 &quot; their father in the crown, by the name of King 

 &quot; Edward the Fifth : but Richard, Duke of Glouces- 

 &quot; ter, their unnatural uncle, first thirsting after the 

 &quot; kingdom through ambition, and afterwards thirst- 

 &quot; ing for their blood, out of desire to secure himself, 

 &quot; employed an instrument of his, confident to him, as 

 &quot; he thought, to murder them both. But this man 

 &amp;lt;c that was employed to execute that execrable tra- 

 &quot; gedy, having cruelly slain King Edward, the eldest 

 &amp;lt; of the two, was moved partly by remorse, and 

 &quot; partly by some other mean, to save Richard his 

 &quot; brother ; making a report nevertheless to the 

 &quot; tyrant, that he had performed his commandment 



