“Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace, and wake in joy; Good angels guard thee from the boar’s annoy! Live, and beget a happy race of kings.” [Illustration] [Illustration: =The Little Princes in the Tower.= (_From the picture by Paul Delaroche._)] [Illustration: =RICHARD III. AT THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH.= (_From the picture by A. Cooper. By permission of Messrs. Henry Graves and Co._)] [Illustration] Chapter X. TUDOR TIMES. JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT. “_The white man landed;—need the rest be told?_ _The New World stretched its dusk hand to the Old;_ _Each was to each a marvel, and the tie_ _Of wonder warmed to better sympathy._” NOW the procession halts, while a momentous scene is enacted before our eyes. We are in the old seaport of Bristol, on a May morning in the year 1497, treading the rough cobbles of the quay whereat the good ship _Matthew_ and her consort lie. Stout, staunch vessels they are, fitted out and provisioned for the most adventurous voyage ever undertaken by Bristol ships. The royal blazon glistens on their mainsails, the flag of England flies from their mastheads. Some of the boldest and most skilful mariners in the land are on board, busy making everything ship-shape, “Bristol fashion,” for the voyage which is to begin to-day. Now you see a procession approaching. The Lord Mayor in his robes of state, with his chain of office about his neck, leads the way, and behind him troop the city fathers; then comes the bishop, with his attendant train of priests; and behind them, the observed of all observers, you see a father and his three sons. They are John, Lewis, Sebastian, and Santius Cabot—the father a citizen of Venice, the sons men of Bristol. The old city is saying farewell to them to-day, and the lusty cheers that greet them as they traverse the narrow streets show how deeply every Bristol man is interested in their enterprise. What is this enterprise? Whither are they bound? Any urchin in the streets will tell you. “Why, master, have you not heard of the Genoese seaman, Christopher Columbus?—he who five years ago set sail from Palos in three ships, and sailed to the west’ard across the ocean, seeking a new sea-road to far-off India and Cathay. Do you not know that he lighted on marvellous new lands, which he seized in the name of Spain, and then returned home to tell the wondrous news? There’s gold by the bucketful across the Western Ocean, and we Bristol folks mean to have our share of it. So we have fitted out the _Matthew_ and the other ship which you see yonder, and this very day John Cabot and his sons are to set sail. Would that I could sail with them too!” Many an English lad, in many a seaport, echoes his wish.