Part 15 (1/2)

And there could be but one effectual way to ”subdue his malys,” and to put permanently beyond the power of future mischief this ”never falsre traitor to be purvayde for,”--this ”most untrew creature lyvynge.”

The Duke was closely examined by his captors, and is said to have confessed the whole plan of the insurrection, and all particulars of the conspiracy.

He then made energetic efforts to obtain an interview with Richard, hoping to excite his compa.s.sion, or, as it has been also surmised, purposing if opportunity offered to despatch him with a concealed dagger. But he was sueing a much more able and crafty person than himself. Richard was about the last man to trust himself into the compromising company of his victim, and so into colloquy with one with whom he had aforetime been partner in so many crimes, and to whom he also owed so much, in acquiring his present position. Richard refused to see him, and his doom was immediate death, without further trial or arraignment.

BUCKINGHAM. Will not King Richard let me speak with him?

SHERIFF. No, my good lord; therefore be patient.

BUCKINGHAM. Hastings, and Edward's children, Rivers, Grey, Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward, Vaughan, and all that have miscarried By underhand corrupted foul injustice; If that your moody discontented souls Do through the clouds behold this present hour, Even for revenge mock my destruction!-- This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not?

SHERIFF. It is, my lord.

BUCKINGHAM. Why then All-Souls' day is my body's doomsday.

It was even so. On 2 November, 1483, being All-Souls day, the Duke of Buckingham was beheaded in or near the Market Place, at Salisbury.

It is singular that such little knowledge remains as to the exact spot where this unfortunate but unscrupulous man perished, and no official evidence at all exists as to his place of burial. Relative to this Sir R. C. h.o.a.re says,--

”It is remarkable that no allusion to this transaction is found in the doc.u.ments at Salisbury, even though it took place on the second of November, the day of choosing the Mayor and other public officers; whose appointment is recorded in the usual form.

Possibly the city authorities were too deeply implicated in the intended insurrection to risk even a reference to the subject.

The Pipe Roll of the reign of Richard III. has been carefully examined, but the search has been fruitless. It is proper to observe, however, that a stone is still pointed out, as that on which Buckingham suffered. This stone is in the yard adjoining the house now occupied by Messrs. Styles and Large, which formerly belonged to the Blue Boar Inn.”

Concerning this, Hall observes,--

”'Without arraignment or judgment, he was, in the open Market-place on a new scaffold, beheaded and put to death. His death he received at the hands of king Richard, whom he had before, in his affairs, purposes, enterprises, holden, sustained, and set forward, above all G.o.d's forbode.”

And this account is corroborated by doc.u.ments in the _Stafford MSS._, quoted by the historian of Shrewsbury. The pa.s.sage on the subject is as follows:--

”And so all the gentlemen of Harrefords.h.i.+re weare send for by Privy Seale to King Richard to _Salisburie_, and by that time Duke Henry of Buckingham, was brought by Sir James Tyler, the third daye, wheare he was pittifullie murdered by the said Kinge, for raisinge power to bring in King Henrie the Seventh.”

The Duke having been thus summarily disposed of, what became of the wretch that betrayed him? One account narrates,--

”Banister and his whole family were destroyed by the surprizing judgments of the Almighty. The Usurper refused to pay him the thousand pounds promised in the Proclamation, saying, 'He that would betray so good a Master, would be false to any other.'”

But according to another, and truer version, the informer received his reward, and,--

”with the king's commendation of his service in his letters patent; for he gave him the Manour and Lords.h.i.+p of Ealding in Kent, late belonging to the Duke of Buckingham. So the letters ran,--'RICHARD &c.,--_to al and singular the Officers, &c.,--Wit ye, that in consideration of the true and faithful service which our well beloved servant Rauf Banistre Esq, now late hath done unto us, for and about the taking and bringing of our said great Rebel into our hands, we have given unto the said Rauf, and to his heirs male, the said Manour for ever._'”

Both giver and receiver a congenial pair, and the gift that pa.s.sed a characteristic one, being a portion of the spoil of their victim. Of such men it may be said,--

”Shame and Desolation sit By their graves ever.”

But where was Buckingham buried, after he had been thus ”condemned and executed in such summary way, on a new scaffold erected in the Market-place of Salisbury.” A tomb to his memory is erected in Britford church, about a mile and a half distant from that city, but it is a cenotaph only, his body was not interred there; where then was its final resting-place, after his troublous life had found such disastrous extinction? Still further ignominy appears to have remained to be meted out to the inanimate form, after man had wreaked his last vengeance on the life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DISCOVERY MADE IN THE KITCHEN OF THE SARACEN'S HEAD INN, SALISBURY.

_From the Sat.u.r.day Magazine, 6 April, 1839._]

From an article in the _Sat.u.r.day Magazine_, 6 April, 1839, we gather the following,--