For of my selfe the drery fate to playne, I was sometime a prince withouten peere, When _Edward_ fift began his rufull raigne, Ay me, then I began that hatefull yeere, To compasse that which I haue bought so deere: I bare the swinge, I and that wretched wight The duke of _Glocester_, that _Richard_ hight. 9. For when the fates had reft that royall prince _Edward_ the fourth, cheife miroure of that name, The duke and I, fast ioyned euer since In faithfull loue, our secret drifts to frame, What hee thought best, to mee so seemde the same, My selfe not bent so much for to aspyre, As to fulfill that greedy duke’s desyre. 10. Whose restlesse mynd, sore thirsting after rule, When that hee sawe his nephewes both to bene Through tender years as yet vnfit to rule, And rather ruled by their mother’s kin, There sought hee first his mischiefe to begin, To plucke from them theire mother’s frends assynde, For well hee wist they would withstand[1581] his mynde. 11. To follow which hee ran so headlong swyft, With egre thirst of his desired draught, To seeke their deaths that sought to dash his drift, Of whome the chief the queene’s allies hee thought, That bent therto with mounts of mischief fraught, Hee knew their liues would bee so sore his let, That in their deaths his onely help hee set. 12. And I, most cursed caytife that I was, Seeing the state vnstedfast how it stoode, His chiefe complice to bring the same to passe, Unhappy wretch consented to their blood: Yea kings and peeres that swim in worldly good, In seeking bloud the end aduert you playne, And see if bloud ey aske not bloud agayne. 13. Consider _Cyrus_ in your cruell thought, A makelesse[1582] prince in riches, and in might, And weigh in mynd the bloudy deeds hee wrought, In sheading which hee set his whole delight: But see the guerdon lotted to this wight, Hee, whose huge powre no man might ouerthrowe, _Tomyris_ queene with greate dispite hath slowe. 14. His head dismembred from his mangled corps, Her selfe shee cast into a vessell fraught With clottered bloud of them that felt her force, And with these words a iust reward shee taught: “Drinke now thy fill of thy desired draught:” Loe, marke the fine that did this prince befall: Marke not this one, but marke the end of all. 15.