SLINGSBY. 247 



consent to die removal of those chief barriefs to his 

 advancement to the throne. With the lord Flas tings 

 he was less successful. Knowing Ihe importance of 

 gaining a person of his weight and consequence in 

 the state, he sounded his sentiments at a distance, 

 by means of Catesby, a lawyer, who lived in great 

 intimacy with that nobleman ; but found him im- 

 pregnable in his allegiance and fidelity to the 

 children of Edward ; who had ever honoured him 

 with his friendship. He saw, therefore, that there 

 were no longer any measures t&'be kept with him ; 

 and he determined to ruin utterly the man whom he 

 despaired of engaging to concur in his usurpation, 

 On the very day when Rivers, Gray, and Vaughau, 

 were executed, or rather murdered, at Pom fret, by 

 the advice of Hastings, the protector summoned a 

 council in the tower ; whither that nobleman, sus- 

 pecting no design against himself, repaired without 

 hesitation. The duke of Gloucester was capable 

 of committing the most bloody and treacherous 

 murders with the utmost coolness and indifference. 

 On taking his place at the council table, he appear- 

 ed in the easiest and most jovial mood imaginable. 

 He seemed to indulge himself in familiar conversa- 

 tion with the counsellors, before they should enter 

 on business ; and having paid some compliments to 

 Morton, bishop of Ely, on the good and early 

 strawberries which he raised in his garden at Hoi- 

 born, he begged the favour of having a dish of them, 

 which that prelate immediately dispatched a servant 

 to bring to him. The protector then left the coun- 

 cil as if called away by some other business ; but 



