One might suppose that the end of this story would have put the Irish
people on their guard; but they were quite ready to receive a second
impostor, as they had received the first, and that same troublesome
Duchess of Burgundy soon gave them the opportunity. All of a sudden
there appeared at Cork, in a vessel arriving from Portugal, a young man
of excellent abilities, of very handsome appearance and most winning
manners, who declared himself to be Richard, Duke of York, the second
son of King Edward the Fourth. ‘O,’ said some, even of those ready
Irish believers, ‘but surely that young Prince was murdered by his
uncle in the Tower!’—‘It _is_ supposed so,’ said the engaging young
man; ‘and my brother _was_ killed in that gloomy prison; but I
escaped—it don’t matter how, at present—and have been wandering about
the world for seven long years.’ This explanation being quite
satisfactory to numbers of the Irish people, they began again to shout
and to hurrah, and to drink his health, and to make the noisy and
thirsty demonstrations all over again. And the big chieftain in Dublin
began to look out for another coronation, and another young King to be
carried home on his back.
Now, King Henry being then on bad terms with France, the French King,
Charles the Eighth, saw that, by pretending to believe in the handsome
young man, he could trouble his enemy sorely. So, he invited him over
to the French Court, and appointed him a body-guard, and treated him in
all respects as if he really were the Duke of York. Peace, however,
being soon concluded between the two Kings, the pretended Duke was
turned adrift, and wandered for protection to the Duchess of Burgundy.
She, after feigning to inquire into the reality of his claims, declared
him to be the very picture of her dear departed brother; gave him a
body-guard at her Court, of thirty halberdiers; and called him by the
sounding name of the White Rose of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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