Before the King pursued Perkin Warbeck to the sanctuary of Beaulieu in
the New Forest, where it was soon known that he had taken refuge, he
sent a body of horsemen to St. Michael’s Mount, to seize his wife. She
was soon taken and brought as a captive before the King. But she was so
beautiful, and so good, and so devoted to the man in whom she believed,
that the King regarded her with compassion, treated her with great
respect, and placed her at Court, near the Queen’s person. And many
years after Perkin Warbeck was no more, and when his strange story had
become like a nursery tale, _she_ was called the White Rose, by the
people, in remembrance of her beauty.
The sanctuary at Beaulieu was soon surrounded by the King’s men; and
the King, pursuing his usual dark, artful ways, sent pretended friends
to Perkin Warbeck to persuade him to come out and surrender himself.
This he soon did; the King having taken a good look at the man of whom
he had heard so much—from behind a screen—directed him to be well
mounted, and to ride behind him at a little distance, guarded, but not
bound in any way. So they entered London with the King’s favourite
show—a procession; and some of the people hooted as the Pretender rode
slowly through the streets to the Tower; but the greater part were
quiet, and very curious to see him. From the Tower, he was taken to the
Palace at Westminster, and there lodged like a gentleman, though
closely watched. He was examined every now and then as to his
imposture; but the King was so secret in all he did, that even then he
gave it a consequence, which it cannot be supposed to have in itself
deserved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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