Page:Life and transactions of Mrs. Jane Shore (2).pdf/11

 11 making away with his two nephews, whom he after- wards caused to be murdered in the Tower, alledging that the Queen and Shore's wife had bewitched lint, shewing his withered arm, which all knew had been se from his cradle; and, that lord thinking to excuse then, said, 'if they had done so, they ought to be punished.' Richard furiously replied, "Thon traitor, dost thou serve me with ifs? I say, it is a truth very well known to thee, that they have done so, and that I will make good on thy body; therefore I arrest thee, Lord Hast- ings, for high treason.' And, soon after, he caused his head to be cut off in the Tower. Jane Shore had no sooner notice of the death of Lord Hastings, her paramour, but she perceived a storm was falling on her own head, therefore she thought it neces- sary to provide in time, and so she carried her jewels to her old confident, Mrs Blague, entreating her to conceal then for her ; but she, like a faithless woman, wheat Jane came and asked for them, not only denied them, but when, in the greatest need, she came, to crave ahus of her, she thrust her out of doors, threatening to have her whipped for her impudence. 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 niece. He ordered our Jane Shore to be apprehended, stripped of all she had, and do penance, by several times walking in a white sheet, and then walk bare-footed and bare-headed in her shift be- fore the procession, with a cross and wax taper in her nand, 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, amused her parent's death.