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afterwards, neither history nor tradition records. She was not allowed to enjoy the company of her knight long; for stirring events were in train, which required his presence elsewhere. In 1521 a powerful alliance of European States was formed against Francis I., designed to humble the victor of Marignano. It comprised the Emperor, the Pope, the King of England, Florence, Venice, and Genoa. In 1522 England invaded Picardy and Flanders. That put an end to the treaty engagements of 1514, and made Richard's services needful as well as allowable to the French king. Indeed "Blanche Rose" did not wait to be summoned. The State papers and other official publications of that period relate how busy he was plotting against England and Scotland. King Francis took a delight in parading his partiality for the Duke of Albany and the "Duke of Suffolk." He rode in public with one of them on one side and one on the other. He slapped Richard on the back and said in the hearing of the Court: "My Lord of Suffolk, I will set you in England with 40,000 men within few days." He proposed a marriage for Richard with the daughter of the Duke of Holstein, and planned sundry invasions of England which, happily, did not come off. But Richard joined the French army under Guise and Vendôme, and fought against his countrymen in Picardy. There he raised a corps of 2000 men on his own authority, and led this welcome reinforcement to Francis at St Jean de Moustiers. In 1524 he accompanied Albany into Scotland, without, however, doing much hurt. But he greatly frightened Henry's officers. We find FitzVOL. CXLIX.-NO. DCCCCVIII.

william writing to Wolsey, urging him, in face of "this wretched traitor" being in the field, to "hasten over some men to give courage to the Flemings."

Then came the campaign which led to the catastrophe of Pavia. Richard joined the French army at Marseilles, and was, in company with Francis of Lorraine, placed at the head of his old corps the German lansquenets, who were delighted to fight under so practised and trusted a leader. They were 6000 at the beginning of the campaign, pitted against a larger number of their own brethren under Frundsberg, in the Emperor's service. On St Matthias' Day, in 1525, the battle of Pavia was fought, which lost Francis his liberty. Francis, as usual, showed no want of dash, but a lamentable lack of prudence. Mistaking the enemy's retreat, under the fire of his guns, for a settled defeat, he sent his infantry after them, placing the bulk of his army between the foe and his own artillery. The allies were not slow to turn this false move to account. Charging back upon their foes, they overwhelmed them with superior numbers. That lost the French the day. Richard's lansquenets did their best to retrieve the error. Having knelt down, as their manner was, and thrown dust behind them, they rushed, singing their familiar warsongs, into the fray with an impetus which promised to break the hostile ranks. "Had but the Switzers fought like the lansquenets," Francis said after battle, "the day would have been ours.' But the odds were too many against them. They were met by their own fellow-lansquenets—each side being furious with the other. The German men were wroth at seeing their comrades on the other

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side, fighting against their own country the French at seeing their brother - soldiers desert so faithful an employer as Francis. So no quarter was given on either side. And the French lansquenets -they had lost one-fourth of their number before the charge beganbeing wedged in between a superior force of Germans closing in on either side, were simply crushed as between two millstones. The list of killed was long-and brilliant. Among the slain were the two captains of the lansquenets, Francis of Lorraine and Richard de la Pole.

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The latter had—as a painting preserved in the Ashmolean Museum indicates-died protecting Francis with his sword. He was found buried under " un monceau of dead enemies against whom he had fought. There was loud rejoicing in the camp of the allies. It was given out that "three kings" had been taken or killedFrancis, the unfortunate King of Navarre, and, "to make up the trinity of kings," says a despatch addressed to Wolsey, "La Rose Blanche, whom they call the King of Scots." Appended to the curious despatch which Frundsberg forwarded to the Emperor, giving a report of the battle-the oldest record extant-is a drawing, showing three crowned knights, fancy portraits of the "kings."

One is prepared to find Henry VIII. ordering a triumph, and congratulating himself upon his happy riddance from a rival who had been more of a thorn in his side than the present generation is probably aware. But it does seem small to read, in the State Papers, of one of Henry's tools begging from Wolsey the king's authority for seizing "some goods of no great amount" that Richard had left at Metz.

The French were far more chivalrous in their treatment of the dead warrior. We read in Camden that "for his singular valour" his very enemy the Duke of Bourbon "honoured his remains with splendid obsequies, and attended in person as one of the chief mourners. Francis expressed his attachment to the fallen, and his indebtedness to him for brilliant services. "La France," says Gaillard, "perdit en lui un allié utile, qui la servit efficacement et sans rien exiger d'elle." Considering that he was an English subject, that may sound questionable praise. But though he may have shown too great willingness to avail himself of the excuse, it should be borne in mind that it was England's kings who first drove him into treason.

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The chapter of Metz, grateful for Richard's liberality, passed the following "resolution as we should say-founding a mass for the repose of their benefactor's soul: "Aprilis anno Domini 1525 in conflictu apud Paviensem civitatem quo tunc Franciscus Gallorum rex per exercitum Romanorum imperatoris captus et Hispaniam captivus ductus extituit, habito, obiit quondam illuster Richardus dux de Suffolk qui domum nostram dictam à la Haute Pierre sibi ante per nos ad vitam locatam obtinens valde somptuose restauravit, unde statuimus nunc anniversarium quotannum Ecclesiâ nostrâ pro salute animæ suæ perpetuo celebrari.'

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That mass ought, of course, to be read still. However, deans and chapters have as little respect for "pious founders"-though these be their own predecessors-as British Parliaments in democratic days. Consequently, the ecclesiastical function has long since been discontinued.

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Apart from Richard's death, Henry did not find himself much of a gainer by the victory of Pavia. He had contributed nothing directly to the battle, and Charles V. accordingly would concede him none of the spoils. On the contrary, grasping monarch that he was, under cover of a marriage-portion to be given to Henry's daughter, he asked for a subsidy of 600,000 ducats. We need not be surprised to find Henry shortly after concluding a treaty with France, which secured him two millions of crowns.

One more notice we have of Richard de la Pole, the last of his race. Describing Pavia, as he found it in 1594, Fynes Moryson says: "Neere that (the castle) is the Church of St Austine; there I did reade this inscription, written in Latin upon another sepulchre :The French King Francis I. being takeen by Cæsar's army neere

Pavia, the 24th of February, in the yeere 1525, among other lords, these were slaine: Francis Duke of Lorayne, Richard de la Pole, Englishman and Duke of Suffolk, banished by his tyrant King Henry VIII. At last Charles Parker of Morley, kinseman of the said Richard, banished out of England for the Catholike faith by Queene Elizabeth, and made Bishop here by the bounty of Philip, King of Spain, did out of his small means erect this monument to him."

This is the last memorial of a life which created not a little stir in its day, and might under more favourable circumstances have been made signally serviceable to Richard's own country. Even that last memorial has probably now disappeared. But still the "White Rose may fairly claim a place at any rate in the lighter records of English history.

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HENRY W. WOLFF.

A TROUBLE BEFORE AMERICA.

If there is any part of the world which appears more suitable than another for solving successfully the problems of modern life, it would seem to be America. There, all the elements are united, out of which a new regulation or a new order of things ought to arise. Colonised in faith and hope, free from the cares of empire or the necessity for alliances, and having a population representing nearly every European nationality, no other country has its way so clear, no other can more easily set itself the task of endeavouring to perfect the happiness of humanity. To the true American, as well as to the immigrant, the possibilities are endless that cluster round the play of unfettered energy. Each sees through the vision of his fancy the power of infinite enjoyment,that fountain of perpetual youth which the early tradition, believed by the Spaniards, placed in a land of gems and gold. Each is buoyed by the knowledge of almost inexhaustible resources, and of practical security against danger from without.

With all this, however, a feeling of doubt is growing among thoughtful Americans concerning the future of the nation. It is felt that democracy in its truest principle is not fulfilling the expectation of its early years. Its cosmopolitan characteristic - the good of the people is losing itself in the parochial idea of the good of a particular people according to their voting capacity, and a corresponding selfishness is permeating the mass of society, which must rob the individual of generous instincts. The enthusiastic socialist, bent on the propagation of a new gospel,

has so far taken no account of its narrowing tendency in his dreams for the renovation of the State; but under conditions of moral deterioration, such as presidential elections have latterly made apparent, it is alone sufficient to wreck all schemes of improvement whose foundation is laid on a typical humanity, without any trial being made of their intrinsic value. The greed and covetousness associated with the early discovery of the continent by the foreigner have therefore to be accounted for, as their impress has been left on its expansion side by side with that of the Pilgrim Fathers; and the fabled fountain, which at one time seemed to have been found in the development of the democratic spirit, is still to be sought by every one who desires the happiness of man.

In writing so, it is not, of course, denied that the progress of the world has been accelerated by the influence of the United States, which consolidated freedom and taught the way to wealth by throwing to the winds every vestige of "ancient prejudice"; but the lever that accomplished these results was education, and the early advantage derived from its adoption is now no longer exclusively retained. The increase of wealth, nevertheless, which remains the chief feature of the gain, cannot be taken as the gauge of progress, though it is commonly accepted as evidence; for although its distribution is greater than at any other time, thereby enabling vast numbers to enjoy a large material happiness, its whole drift, except in the British Isles, runs in the direction of the creation of monopolies: and

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cannot, however, rest satisfied here, as the winning of independence was the realisation of a hope long cherished in England. The right, too, on which self-government has been based— the reason and the probity of the individual-must be exercised to the full to make progress a fact; and this is not accomplished by the casting of a vote. A responsibility not to be forgotten attaches to the voter, requiring at his hands the consideration of the interests of the nation over and above all political machines. He must subordinate individual good to national gain; and where this is not a primary object, an end will be made to healthy advance. The Protective tariff that shuts off foreign competition with the cry of America for Americans, forces the cultivation of the onesided view. The consequences, accordingly, are visible in a reawakened spirit of sectarianism; and although the modern tendency of Congress is toward assuming the powers of a national council like Westminster, this is more the outcome of a wish to speak with authority than the natural flow of opinion to find a centre at Washington.

so long as this is the case, the interests of the many must be sacrificed to those of the few. The fight for freedom in America, the rebellion against dictation, after destroying all obstacles to that improvement of the race which is now a reality, has thus lost its prime significance in the modern unfolding of events. The selfishness of the nation in upholding a system of Protection, greatly accentuated by the M'Kinley tariff, is beginning to be reflected in the selfishness of the individual seeking a special good. Were it not actually in existence, the political philosopher would naturally look for its effect on private action, wherever a public policy is based on exclusivism, and expect to see produced internally a disposition disposition of affairs parallel to what exists externally. So that a democracy, of all forms of government, which cultivates nationally its own peculiar interests to the neglect of the welfare of humanity, must run the risk of its local affairs standing in the same relation to its general attitude as this stands towards the world. In the falseness of its position it is a community of stagnation, no matter how great the prosperity of the surface may seem, and sooner or If, therefore, American democlater will reap what it has sown. racy is not to belie the songs of Already the vigour and freshness the poets of the first years of the of youth, at one period so cap- century, who welcomed its birth tivating to outsiders, has been as the downfall of tyranny, it lost in the premature arrival of must restudy the history of its a middle-age of labour problems. early foundation. Its future must The America of to-day holds out be devoted to emancipating the no helping ideas to solve the mind of the public from the purhigher questions of life. Its suit of dividends, by giving a democracy appears to be content check to those monopolies of trade with its greatest achievement that are building up a greater desthe victory of self-government; potism than the mercantile system, and having provided a vote for the origin of the American rebelevery one at the attainment of lion. If it is not to turn in upon manhood, has retired from the itself like animal intelligence, with contest with an air of repose. It the fulfilment of the original ob

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