Tracts, legal and historical

48
former, until completely tiring of his position, he
went to the borders to interest Sir William Clifford,
the governor of Berwick, in his behalf, who then
held the fortress against Henry. Some say that
this was owing to mere destitution, 1 while others
assert that he was actuated by treacherous motives.
But Clifford having dexterously entrapped the mur-
derer, instantly conveyed him south, where he re-
ceived a fit recompense for his offences, being, ac-
cording to a writer in the fifteenth century, " drawen
and hanged," and then beheaded and quartered, amid
the general odium and execration. 9 Clifford having
achieved this notable feat, and outwitted Serle,
who had mistaken his politics, was pardoned and
taken into favor. 3
After the year 1404, when this event happened,
the rumor of Richard's existence subsided, and in a
great measure ceased to agitate the nation. The
words of Otterburn, a cotemporary, and often quoted
by Mr. Tytler, are remarkable — " Quo mortuo
(Serle) cessavit in regno de vita Regis Ricardi con-
fabulatio."* This additionally proves, what has all
along been contended, that Serle was the life and soul
of the enterprize, and that, in consequence of his
i Walsingham, p. 414.
2 lb. and Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483, from
MSS. in the British Museum, written in the fifteenth century,
published at London 1827, p. 89.
" Walsingham, vt supra, and Speed, p. 3:30.
1 P. 249.