Read "The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck" by Mary Shelley online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Oh, Clifford! but bethink thee once again. And in thy thought oerrun my former time. And if thou can'st for blushing, view this face! --SHAKSPEARE.
-"Where is the traitor?" Neville's question resounded through Flanders, and was reechoed in groans from the English shores. Each man feared the other; and saw the mark of Henry's malice on the brow of all. It was a worse scene in England; executions followed imprisonment; the scaffolds flowed with blood, and suspicion was still greedy of prey. Among the papers seized by the King, there was found a letter from Clifford to Lord Fitzwater, containing these words: "I do protest, my Lord, that the proof of York's truth is most pertinent. You know this; and yet he who cut the crooked rose-bush to the roots, still doubts: forsooth, he is still at his 'ifs'--'if he were sure that that young man were King Edward's son, he would never bear arms against him.' Pray, deprive my Lord of his 'if;' for arms he must never bear: he is too principal to any cause."