CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
LAMBERT SIMNEL, THE BAKER'S BOY WHO PRETENDED TO BE A KING.
A scene of unwonted excitement was being enacted in Dublin.

The streets were thronged with people, the houses were gay with flags, soldiers lined the paths, and nobles in their grand carriages went by in procession.

The common folk shouted till they were hoarse, and pressed forward on every hand towards the great church of the city, to witness the ceremony which was taking place there.
Whence was all this excitement?
How came the Irish capital into such a state of festivity and holiday-making?
The story is a short one and a strange.
Some weeks before, a man in the dress of a priest, accompanied by a good-looking boy, had landed in Dublin, and made his way to the residence of the governor of the place, with whom he sought an interview.

On being admitted, he much astonished that nobleman by the tale he told.
It was well known that Richard the Third had during his lifetime shut up in prison the young Earl of Warwick, his nephew, whose title to the crown was better than his own.

The cruel uncle, who seemed unable to endure the presence of any of those whom he had so basely robbed of their inheritance, had already, as is well known, murdered those other two nephews whose claims were most prominent and unmistakable.