Tracts, legal and historical

62
Henry, with which the Scots would not have com-
plied, might have attached too much importance to
an incident, which, as Otterburn informs us, ceased
after 1404 to be a subject of conversation. If
the principle in war be good, to make a golden bridge
for a flying enemy, it must equally hold in the case
of silly rumors against government that are sinking
in public credit, any notice of which would only
lead to revive them. It was therefore, perhaps,
better policy to allow the deception to die a natural
death, and to refrain from any step, either by insist-
ing upon the delivery of the impostor, or otherwise,
that might elicit such a consequence.
It is not a little remarkable, that Winton, al-
though he gives several particulars about the sup-
posed Richard, is utterly at a lose to account for the
manner in which he contrived to escape from Pom-
fret Castle. 1 Mr. Tytler fancies that, owing to the
fear of offending Albany, he was afraid to tell the
whole truth — but this seems to be another of those
theories in which that writer indulges, when he
finds himself in a difficulty, and it is little likery that
Winton, who could have no interest in the matter,
and being a Scot, could have apprehended no bad
consequences from the freest disclosure — after hav-
ing been rather diffuse in the other circumstances of
the story, should all at once have stopped short, and
Book IX. J " Bot I can nocht tell the case,
ch - xx - Off Pomfret as he chapit wase."
1. 104-5. y