Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/171

] He soon perceived that Buckingham was elated with his royal descent, as a much more preferable one to that of Henry; and the king having no sons, he began to play upon his credulity, and prognosticated the highest destinies for his patron; he insinuated, in fact, that Buckingham would succeed the king on the throne.

All these circumstances were carefully hunted out by Wolsey through his spies, and wade the most of. The plot being ripe, the witnesses against the duke were secured from amongst his own servants. They were apprehended and committed to the Tower, where their hopes and fears could be successfully operated upon, and they could be held in reserve for the occasion. These men are said to have been put to the torture to extort the necessary confessions. They were Hopkins, the prophet, Delacourt, Buckingham's confessor, Perk, his chancelllor, and Charles Knevet, his steward. Whatever might be the case with the rest, the evidence of Knevet seems to have been voluntary and even officious. He was a relative of the duke, and had been his steward and confidential servant, but from some cause had been dismissed by him, and now was a ready and vindictive witness, a fit tool of the cardinal's malice.



All being ready, Buckingham, who was residing at his estate of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, was invited to Court. It is said that he obeyed the summons, unsuspicious of any evil intended him, but it is difficult to suppose this, when his own servants had been already arrested, and thrown into the Tower. He set out, however, and was soon after startled by observing three knights of the king's bodyguard riding at some distance in his rear, attended by a number of armed followers. Appearing to take no note of this, he travelled on to Windsor, and there his suspicions were greatly augmented by seeing those knights and their followers posted, as it were, on guard over him. He was not left long without confirmation strong that he was a doomed man, for the gentleman harbinger of the king, at Windsor, treated him with marked disrespect; and, on reaching Westminster, he went to pay his respects to Wolsey, but was curtly told that he was indisposed. The cardinal's servants had already their cue, and the coldness which they showed him gave the duke the gloomiest apprehensions. Taking his barge to row down to Greenwich, where the Court was, he was met by the barge of Sir Henry Marney, the captain of the body-guard, with a detachment of yeomen of the guard, who arrested him as a traitor, and conveyed him prisoner to the Tower, to the