ELIZABETH OF YORK, of spices and sweet wines; that done, my lord the Queen's chamberlain, in very good words, desired, bathe Queen's name, the people there present to pray to God to send her the good hours ; and so she departed to her inner chamber, which was hanged and ceiled with rich cloth of blue arras, with fleur-de-lis of gold. In that chamber was a rich bed and pallet, the which pallet had a marvellous rich canopy of gold, with a velvet pall, garnished with bright red roses. Also, there was an altar, well furnished with relics ; and a cupboard of nine stages, well and richly garnished. Then the Queen recommended herself to the good praises of the lords ; and my lord her chamberlain drew the traverse or curtain which separated the chamber from the great chamber ; and from thenceforth no manner of officer came into the chamber, but ladies and gentlewomen, after the old custom." In this instance, however, the custom of excluding the male sex from the lying-in chamber was broken. The French ambassador, a few days after her retirement, particularly desired an interview with the Queen ; and being a nobleman of the highest rank, he was, by special favour, admitted to an audience with her highness, with whom he found only her mother, the Queen-Dowager Elizabeth, and the Countess of Richmond. The Princess was born on the twentyninth of October, and christened Margaret, after tho King's mother. The christening was solemnized with great pomp on the thirtieth of November. The sponsors were the King's mother, the Duchess of Norfolk, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The liishop of Ely officiated at the font; and, as presents, the babe received a silver box full of gold coin from her grandmother, a rich cup from Lady Norfolk, and two gilt flagons and a gold holy-water vessel, set with precious stones, from the Archbishop. Shortly after the christening of the Princess Margaret, the great prevalence of the measles induced the royal family to remove from "Westminster to Greenwich, where they passed a gloomy Christ mas, with " no disguisings, and but few plays." On the twenty-eighth of June, 1491, the Queen brought into the world her second son, Henry, afterwards Henry the Eighth, at Greenwich ; and in the next year, and but three weeks before the birth of her daughter Elizabeth, she had to mourn the death of her beloved mother, Elizabeth WoodviUe. This event, however, somewhat relieved the pecuniary necessities of the Queen. Her own scanty income, which was derived principally from the estates of the Mortimers in Herefordshire, and which was barely sufficient to enable her to support the dignity of her portionless Bisters, and to relieve the distresses of those who sought the charity of " Elizabeth the Good," being now increased by the addition of the Queen Mother's dower. In 1497, the Queen and her family narrowly escaped from the perils of fire. The King, the Queen, the Princess Margaret, and other " notable estates," were holding court at the palace at Shene, when, on the evening of the twenty-first of December, the palace was discovered to be on fire. An alarm was instantly given, but, by the violence of the flames, which for three hours resisted every effort to subdue them, the greater part of the old building was consumed; and the hangings, beds, apparel, plate, and jewels all burned, or spoiled. "Howbeit, to the King's good comfort, the royal family escaped unhurt, and no man or Christian creature thereby perished." Meanwhile, the pretensions of Pcrkin Warbeck disturbed the peace of the kingdom, and threatened to deprive the King and his consort of their regal dignity. This Perkin, said to be the son of a Florentine Jew, to whom Edward the Fourth had stood godfather, was persuaded by Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, and sister to Richard the Third, to personate her nephew Richard, one of the Princes who had been murdered in the Tower. The King of France, ever ready to sow the seeds of discord in England, received Warbeck at his court with great honour ; but, at the intercession of Henry, dismissed him, upon the prospect of an advantageous peace. Having quitted Paris, the pretender went to Burgundy, and the Duchess of that pro