250 SLINGSBY. 



companied him : but this the lord Hastings slighted 

 as a mere conceit, though the next day it was but 

 too faithfully verified by the lamentable occurrence 

 which took place. The other circumstance is this ; 

 lord Hastings coming that day towards the tower, 

 and meeting wilh one Hastings, a pursuivant, on 

 the Tower-wharf, put him in mind that when he 

 met him last in that place, he was in some danger 

 of the king's displeasure, (Edward IV.) having some 

 ill office done him by the lord Rivers, the queen's 

 brother, saying, when I met thee here before it was 

 with an heavy heart. Yea, answered the pursuivant, 

 but thanked be God they got no good, nor you no 

 harm. Thou would 1 st say so indeed, replied the 

 lord Hastings, ifthou knewest what 1 know ; what 

 few else know yet, and more shall shortly. Meaning 

 that Rivers and Gray should that very day be be- 

 headed at Pomfret : little dreaming of the signal 

 vengeance that was about to overtake himself; and 

 that his own fate hung upon the same hour. For as 

 they without any trial, lost their lives upon the very 

 same day, and, as some say, the very same hour, by 

 his privity and counsel, so himself was taken away 

 by the tyranny of the very person with whom he had 

 unworthily complied in their murder.* 



So fell the great lord Hastings, a rare example 



* Vide. Dugdale's Baronetage I. p. 579 et passim. 

 Hume's History of England. Reigns of Edward IV and 

 V. These incidents in the life of Lord Hastings are 

 finely dramatized by our immortal Shakespeare, in his 

 inimitable Tragedy of Richard III. From the family 

 are descended the present marquis of Hastings, late go- 

 vernor general of India, and carl of Huntingdon, gorer- 

 nor of Demarara. 



