Page:Life and transactions of Jane Shore, concubine to King Edward IVth.pdf/13

13 Richard, by means aforesaid, having got to the crown, and to make himself seem fair by others sins, though he was a monster by nature, publicly declaring his mother to be a whore, his brother and his children to be bastards ; caused his Queen to be poisoned, and would have wedded his neice. He ordered our Jane Shore to be apprehended, stripped of all she had, and do pennance, by several times walking in a white sheet; and then walk bare-footed and bare-headed in her shift before the procession with a cross and wax taper in her hand, through Cheapside, which she did, looking so lovely in her blushes, that many a one pitied her, he also stripped all her friends and relations of whatever they had, pretending they had got it all by her means from the Crown in King Edward's reign; which, with the disgrace their only daughter was fallen into, caused her parents death.

Richard, not content with this, put out a severe proclamation to this effect: That on the pain of death and confiscation of goods, no one should harbour her in their houses, nor relieve her with food or raiment. So that she went wandering up and down to find her food upon the bushes, and on the dunehills, where some friends she had raised would throw bones with more meat than ordinary, and crusts of stale bread, in the places where she generally haunted. And a baker, who had been condemned to die for a riot in King Edward's reign, and saved by her means, as he saw her pass along in gratitude for her kindness, would trundle a penny loaf after her, which she thankfully received, and blessed him with tears in her eyes;