South London

tle of London Bridge, took place also on a Sunday, twenty years afterwards.

n the year 1454 he had received the freedom of the City of London and the thanks of the Corporation for his services in putting down the pirates of the North Sea and the Channel

pacity he held Calais and prevented the despatch of Burgundians to th

rians. Yet on May the 12th the Bastard of Fauconberg presented himself at the head of 17,000 Kentish men at the gates of London Bridge, and stated that he was come to dethrone the usurper Edward, and to restore King Henry. He

before, and that his body had been exposed for two days in St. Paul's; they informed him that the Battle of Barnet had been disastrous to the Lancastrian

ge. The persistence makes one doubt the sincerity of his assurances. Why did he want to pass through London? If he merely wanted to get across he had his ships with him-they had come up the river and now lay off Ratcliffe. He could have

a letter urging him to lay down his arms and ac

the river wall had long since gone, but the houses themselves formed a wall, with narrow lanes leading to

of the City was answered by the artillery of the Tower. We should like to know more of this bombardment. Did they still use round stones for shot? Was much mischief done by the cannon? Probably little that was not easily repaired: the shot either struck the houses on the river's edge or it went clean over the City and fell in the fields beyond. Holinshed says that 'the Citizens lodged their great artillerie against

all killed. Robert Basset, Alderman of Aldgate, performed prodigies of valour. At Bishopsgate they did no good at all. In the end they fell back. Then the citizens threw open the gates and sallied forth. The Earl of Kent bro

bridge were fired and destroyed: the north gate was also fired, but at the bridge end there were planted half a dozen small piece

what had happened. He therefore ordered his fleet to await him in the Mersey, and marched as far as Kingston-upon-Thames. It is a strange, incongruous story. All his

ccordingly, he marched back to Blackheath, where he dismissed his men, ordering them to go home peaceably. As for himself, wi

him, knighted him, and made him Vice-Admiral of the Fleet. This was in May. Alas! in September we hear that he was

only one more of the thousand murders, perjuries, and treacheries of the worst fifty years that ever stained the history of the country. There was but one complete way of safety for Ed