" He seemed, indeed, like one risen from the grave to set afloat
once more the banners of the White Rose of York.
The tidings of what was doing in Flanders quickly reached England, where
a party in favor of the aspirant's pretensions slowly grew up. Several
noblemen joined it, discontent having been caused by certain unpopular
acts of the king. Sir Robert Clifford sailed to Flanders, visited
Margaret's court, and wrote back to England that there was no doubt that
the young man was the Duke of York, whose person he knew as he knew his
own.
While these events were fomenting, secretly and openly, King Henry was
at work, secretly and openly, to disconcert his foes. He set a guard
upon the English ports, that no suspicious person should enter or leave
the kingdom, and then put his wits to task to prove the falsity of the
whole neatly-wrought tale. Two of those concerned in the murder of the
princes were still alive,--Sir James Tirrel and John Dighton. Sir James
claimed to have stood at the stair-foot, while Dighton and another did
the murder, smothering the princes in their bed. To this they both
testified, though the king, for reasons unexplained, did not publish
their testimony.
Henry also sent spies abroad, to search into the truth concerning the
assumed adventurer.
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