242 



boy, she is seen " weeping bitterly over him, and he too 

 is weeping as fast in his turn."* 



Fearful tragedies are acting now in the dim distance 

 of time's perspective. They flit before the mental view, 

 fading, and seeming to appear again ; yet not the same, 

 though like in, terror and in kind. The shadowy figures 

 of Hastings, of Gray, and Rivers, are seen passing from 

 the block, and then the innocent forms of two young 

 children, emerging from the gloomy range of fortresses 

 belonging to the Tower. And loud is heard the sobbing, 

 and the pitiful screams of the poor mother, as she beats 

 upon her breast, and calls her sweet babes by name ; and, 

 kneeling down, implores the vengeance of the Just One, 

 on the guilty head of him who has thus cruelly deprived 

 her of her sons. 



The vaulted door of a spacious room is opening, and 

 across the furthest end seems flitting a strange succession 

 of sad scenes a young child's f funeral passes, and then 

 a burst of anguish comes remotely to the ear, as if across 

 wide waters, from a stern man, who yet cannot hide his 

 sorrow; then a woman's wail, but the wail soon dies 

 away, and a death scene and a funeral pass in faint 

 review. J Then the great fight of Bosworth, where a king 

 is slain, and another takes his crown; a bridal follows 

 and a coronation. 



Thus they pass ; events of other days are shadows now ; 



* Hall, 355. Sir Thomas Moore, 358. f Only son of Richard 

 III. + Death and funeral of Richard's Queen. 



