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+Project Gutenberg's Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8
+       A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more
+       than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Charles F. Horne
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2009 [EBook #28455]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Christine P. Travers and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: ^ is used to mark superscript.]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Columbus before Isabella.]
+
+
+
+
+GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN
+
+
+_A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of_
+
+THE LIVES OF MORE THAN 200 OF THE MOST PROMINENT PERSONAGES IN HISTORY
+
+
+VOL. V.
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1894, BY SELMAR HESS
+
+edited by Charles F. Horne
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's arm.]
+
+New-York: Selmar Hess Publisher
+
+
+Copyright, 1894, by SELMAR HESS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.
+
+
+  SUBJECT                         AUTHOR                          PAGE
+
+  ĘNEAS,                      _Charlotte M. Yonge_,                 12
+  ETHAN ALLEN,                _Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham_,   200
+  KING ARTHUR,                _Rev. S. Baring-Gould_,               36
+  THE CHEVALIER BAYARD,       _Herbert Greenhough Smith_,          145
+  ST. BERNARD,                _Henry G. Hewlett_,                   60
+  ROBERT BRUCE,               _Sir J. Bernard Burke, LL.D._,       105
+  WILLIAM CAXTON,                                                  129
+  THE CID,                    _Henry G. Hewlett_,                   56
+  CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS,       _A. R. Spofford, LL.D._,             131
+  CAPTAIN JAMES COOK,         _Oliver Optic_,                      188
+  ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI,      _George Parsons Lathrop, LL.D._,      78
+  FREDERICK BARBAROSSA,       _Lady Lamb_,                          65
+  VASCO DA GAMA,              _Judge Albion W. Tourgée_,           139
+  THE GRACCHI,                _James Anthony Froude, LL.D._,        20
+  GUSTAVUS VASA,              _Charles F. Horne_,                  153
+  HANS GUTENBERG,             _Alphonse de Lamartine_,             121
+  HAROLD, KING OF ENGLAND,                                          54
+  WILLIAM HARVEY,                                                  172
+  HERCULES,                   _Charlotte M. Yonge_,                  1
+  JOHN HOWARD,                _Harriet G. Walker_,                 194
+  JOAN OF ARC,                _Ella Wheeler Wilcox_,               113
+  LEIF ERICSON,               _Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen_,             49
+  ST. LOUIS,                  _Henry G. Hewlett_,                   86
+  MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS,       _Samuel L. Knapp_,                   159
+  MARCO POLO,                 _Noah Brooks_,                        92
+  RICHARD COEUR DE LION,                                            71
+  ROLAND,                                                           39
+  ROLLO THE GANGER,           _Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen_,             44
+  SIEGFRIED,                  _Karl Blind_,                         31
+  CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH,         _Marion Harland_,                    166
+  PRINCE CHARLES STUART,      _Andrew Lang, LL.D._,                177
+  THESEUS,                                                           5
+  ULYSSES,                    _Charles F. Horne_,                    7
+  SIR WILLIAM WALLACE,                                             100
+  ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED,                                           111
+  XENOPHON,                   _Professor J. Pentland Mahaffy_,      15
+  ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA,  _Anna Jameson_,                       26
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME V.
+
+
+PHOTOGRAVURES
+
+  ILLUSTRATION                           ARTIST              TO FACE PAGE
+
+  COLUMBUS BEFORE ISABELLA,              _Vacslav Brozik_   _Frontispiece_
+  ULYSSES DEFYING THE CYCLOPS,           _Louis-Frederic
+                                           Schutzenberger_          10
+  THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI,             _Gustave Boulanger_        20
+  LEIF ERICSON OFF THE COAST OF
+    VINELAND,                            _O. A. Wergeland_          52
+  THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD,             _Wilhelm Bernatzik_        62
+  THE DEATH OF BARBAROSSA,               _Wilhelm Beckmann_         70
+  LOUIS IX. OPENS THE JAILS OF FRANCE,   _Luc Olivier Merson_       90
+  ARNOLD WINKELRIED AT SEMPACH,          _Konrad Grob_             112
+   JOAN OF ARC,                          _Mme. Zoe-Laure de
+                                           Chatillon_              118
+  MARY STUART AND RIZZIO,                _Georg Conrader_          162
+
+
+
+
+WOOD-ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES
+
+
+  HERCULES AT THE FEET OF OMPHALE,       _J. E. Dantan_              4
+  TRIBUTE TO THE MINOTAUR,               _A. Gendron_                6
+  ZENOBIA CAPTIVE,                       _H. Schmalz_               26
+  SIEGFRIED SLAYING THE DRAGON,          _K. Dielitz_               32
+  THE RUINS OF KING ARTHUR'S CASTLE,     _Percy Dixon_              38
+  ROLAND AT RONCESVALLES,                _Alphonse de Neuville_     42
+  ROLLO THE RANGER ATTACKS PARIS,        _Alphonse de Neuville_     46
+  EDITH SEARCHING FOR THE BODY OF
+    HAROLD,                              _Alphonse de Neuville_     56
+  THE CID ORDERING THE EXECUTION OF
+    AHMED,                               _Alphonse de Neuville_     58
+  RICHARD COEUR DE LION ON THE FIELD
+    OF ARSUR,                            _Gustave Doré_             74
+  THE VISION OF ST. FRANCIS,             _Chartran_                 84
+  THE EDUCATION OF LOUIS IX.,            _Chartran_                 86
+  GUTENBERG'S INVENTION,                 _E. Hillemacher_          126
+  THE FIRST SHEET FROM CAXTON'S PRESS,   _E. H. Wehnert_           130
+  COLUMBUS RIDICULED AT THE COUNCIL OF
+    SALAMANCA,                           _Nicolo Barabino_         134
+  BAYARD TAKING LEAVE OF THE LADIES OF
+    BRESCIA,                             _Alphonse de Neuville_    150
+  ABDICATION OF GUSTAVUS VASA,           _Hersent_                 156
+  CAPTAIN SMITH SAVED BY POCAHONTAS,     _Grosch_                  168
+  HARVEY DEMONSTRATING THE CIRCULATION
+    OF THE BLOOD,                        _Robert Hannah_           176
+  THE FIRST MEETING OF PRINCE CHARLES
+    WITH FLORA MACDONALD,                _Alex. Johnstone_         184
+  DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK,                 _J. Webber_               192
+  HOWARD RELIEVING A PRISONER,           _F. Wheatley_             198
+  ETHAN ALLEN AT TICONDEROGA,            _Alonzo Chappel_          204
+
+
+
+
+WORKMEN AND HEROES
+
+  The heights by great men reached and kept
+    Were not attained by sudden flight,
+  But they, while their companions slept,
+    Were toiling upward in the night.
+
+  --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+
+
+HERCULES
+
+By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+[Illustration: Hercules.]
+
+
+One morning Jupiter boasted among the gods in Olympus that a son would
+that day be born, in the line of Perseus, who would rule over all the
+Argives. Juno was angry and jealous at this, and, as she was the goddess
+who presided over the births of children, she contrived to hinder the
+birth of the child he intended till that day was over, and to hasten
+that of another grandson of the great Perseus. This child was named
+Eurystheus, and, as he had been born on the right day, Jupiter was
+forced to let him be King of Argos, Sparta, and Mycenę, and all the
+Dorian race; while the boy whom he had meant to be the chief was kept in
+subjection, in spite of having wonderful gifts of courage and strength,
+and a kind, generous nature, that always was ready to help the weak and
+sorrowful.
+
+His name was Alcides, or Hercules, and he was so strong at ten months
+old that, with his own hands, he strangled two serpents whom Juno sent
+to devour him in his cradle. He was bred up by Chiron, the chief of the
+Centaurs, a wondrous race of beings, who had horses' bodies as far as
+the forelegs, but where the neck of the horse would begin had human
+breasts and shoulders, with arms and heads. Most of them were fierce and
+savage; but Chiron was very wise and good, and, as Jupiter made him
+immortal, he was the teacher of many of the great Greek heroes. When
+Hercules was about eighteen, two maidens appeared to him--one in a
+simple white dress, grave, modest, and seemly; the other scarcely
+clothed but tricked out in ornaments, with a flushed face, and bold,
+roving eyes. The first told him that she was Virtue, and that, if he
+would follow her, she would lead him through many hard trials, but that
+he would be glorious at last, and be blest among the gods. The other was
+Vice, and she tried to wile him by a smooth life among wine-cups and
+dances and flowers and sports, all to be enjoyed at once. But the choice
+of Hercules was Virtue, and it was well for him, for Jupiter, to make up
+for Juno's cheat, had sworn that, if he fulfilled twelve tasks which
+Eurystheus should put upon him, he should be declared worthy of being
+raised to the gods at his death.
+
+Eurystheus did not know that in giving these tasks he was making his
+cousin fulfil his course; but he was afraid of such a mighty man, and
+hoped that one of these would be the means of getting rid of him. So
+when he saw Hercules at Argos, with a club made of a forest-tree in his
+hand, and clad in the skin of a lion which he had slain, Eurystheus bade
+him go and kill a far more terrible lion, of giant brood, and with a
+skin that could not be pierced, which dwelt in the valley of Nemea. The
+fight was a terrible one; the lion could not be wounded, and Hercules
+was forced to grapple with it and strangle it in his arms. He lost a
+finger in the struggle, but at last the beast died in his grasp, and he
+carried it on his back to Argos, where Eurystheus was so much frightened
+at the grim sight that he fled away to hide himself, and commanded
+Hercules not to bring his monsters within the gates of the city.
+
+There was a second labor ready for Hercules--namely, the destroying a
+serpent with nine heads, called Hydra, whose lair was the marsh of
+Lerna. Hercules went to the battle, and managed to crush one head with
+his club, but that moment two sprang up in its place; moreover, a huge
+crab came out of the swamp and began to pinch his heels. Still he did
+not lose heart, but, calling his friend Iolaus, he bade him take a
+firebrand and burn the necks as fast as he cut off the heads; and thus
+at last they killed the creature, and Hercules dipped his arrows in its
+poisonous blood, so that their least wound became fatal. Eurystheus said
+that it had not been a fair victory, since Hercules had been helped, and
+Juno put the crab into the skies as the constellation Cancer; while a
+labor to patience was next devised for Hercules--namely, the chasing of
+the Arcadian stag, which was sacred to Diana, and had golden horns and
+brazen hoofs. Hercules hunted it up hill and down dale for a whole year,
+and when at last he caught it, he got into trouble with Apollo and Diana
+about it, and had hard work to appease them; but he did so at last; and
+for his fourth labor was sent to catch alive a horrid wild boar on Mount
+Erymanthus. He followed the beast through a deep swamp, caught it in a
+net, and brought it to Mycenę.
+
+The fifth task was a curious one. Augeas, King of Elis, had immense
+herds, and kept his stables and cowhouses in a frightful state of filth,
+and Eurystheus, hoping either to disgust Hercules or kill him by the
+unwholesomeness of the work, sent him to clean them. Hercules, without
+telling Augeas it was his appointed task, offered to do it if he were
+repaid the tenth of the herds, and received the promise on oath. Then he
+dug a canal, and turned the water of two rivers into the stables, so as
+effectually to cleanse them; but when Augeas heard it was his task, he
+tried to cheat him of the payment, and on the other hand Eurystheus
+said, as he had been rewarded, it could not count as one of his labors,
+and ordered him off to clear the woods near Lake Stymphalis of some
+horrible birds, with brazen beaks and claws, and ready-made arrows for
+feathers, which ate human flesh. To get them to rise out of the forest
+was his first difficulty, but Pallas lent him a brazen clapper, which
+made them take to their wings; then he shot them with his poisoned
+arrows, killed many, and drove the rest away.
+
+King Minos, of Crete, had once vowed to sacrifice to the gods whatever
+should appear from the sea. A beautiful white bull came, so fine that it
+tempted him not to keep his word, and he was punished by the bull going
+mad, and doing all sorts of damage in Crete; so that Eurystheus thought
+it would serve as a labor for Hercules to bring the animal to Mycenę. In
+due time back came the hero, with the bull, quite subdued, upon his
+shoulders; and, having shown it, he let it loose again to run about
+Greece.
+
+He had a harder task in getting the mares of the Thracian king,
+Diomedes, which were fed on man's flesh. He overcame their grooms, and
+drove the beasts away; but he was overtaken by Diomedes, and, while
+fighting with him and his people, put the mares under the charge of a
+friend; but when the battle was over, and Diomedes killed, he found that
+they had eaten up their keeper. However, when he had fed them on the
+dead body of their late master they grew mild and manageable, and he
+brought them home.
+
+The next expedition was against the Amazons, a nation of women warriors,
+who lived somewhere on the banks of the Euxine, or Black Sea, kept their
+husbands in subjection, and seldom brought up a son. The bravest of all
+the Amazons was the queen, Hippolyta, to whom Mars had given a belt as a
+reward for her valor. Eurystheus's daughter wanted this belt, and
+Hercules was sent to fetch it. He was so hearty, honest, and
+good-natured, that he talked over Hippolyta, and she promised him her
+girdle; but Juno, to make mischief, took the form of an Amazon, and
+persuaded the ladies that their queen was being deluded and stolen away
+by a strange man, so they mounted their horses and came down to rescue
+her. He thought she had been treacherous, and there was a great fight,
+in which he killed her, and carried off her girdle.
+
+Far out in the west, near the ocean flowing found the world, were herds
+of purple oxen, guarded by a two-headed dog, and belonging to a giant
+with three bodies called Geryon, who lived in the isle of Erythria, in
+the outmost ocean. Passing Lybia, Hercules came to the end of the
+Mediterranean Sea, Neptune's domain, and there set up two
+pillars--namely, Mounts Calpe and Abyla--on each side of the Straits of
+Gibraltar. The rays of the sun scorched him, and in wrath he shot at it
+with his arrows, when Helios, instead of being angry, admired his
+boldness, and gave him his golden cup, wherewith to cross the outer
+ocean, which he did safely, although old Oceanus, who was king there,
+put up his hoary head, and tried to frighten him by shaking the bowl. It
+was large enough to hold all the herd of oxen, when Hercules had killed
+dog, herdsman, and giant, and he returned it safely to Helios when he
+had crossed the ocean.
+
+Again Eurystheus sent Hercules to the utmost parts of the earth. This
+time it was to bring home the golden apples which grew in the gardens of
+the Hesperides, the daughters of old Atlas, who dwelt in the land of
+Hesperus, the Evening Star, and, together with a dragon, guarded the
+golden tree in a beautiful garden. Hercules made a long journey,
+apparently round by the north, and on his way had to wrestle with a
+dreadful giant named Antęus. Though thrown down over and over again,
+Antęus rose up twice as strong every time, till Hercules found out that
+he grew in force whenever he touched his mother earth, and therefore,
+lifting him up in those mightiest of arms, the hero squeezed the breath
+out of him. By and by he came to Mount Caucasus, where he found the
+chained Prometheus, and, aiming an arrow at the eagle, killed the
+tormentor, and set the Titan free. Atlas undertook to go to his
+daughters, and get the apples, if Hercules would hold up the skies for
+him in the meantime. Hercules agreed, and Atlas shifted the heavens to
+his shoulders, went, and presently returned with three apples of gold,
+but said he would take them to Eurystheus, and Hercules must continue to
+bear the load of the skies. Prometheus bade Hercules say he could not
+hold them without a pad for them to rest on upon his head. Atlas took
+them again to hold while the pad was put on; and thereupon Hercules
+picked up the apples, and left the old giant to his load.
+
+One more labor remained--namely, to bring up the three-headed watch-dog,
+Cerberus, from the doors of Tartarus. Mercury and Pallas both came to
+attend him, and led him alive among the shades, who all fled from him,
+except Medusa and one brave youth. He gave them the blood of an ox to
+drink, and made his way to Pluto's throne, where he asked leave to take
+Cerberus to the upper world with him. Pluto said he might, if he could
+overcome Cerberus without weapons; and this he did, struggling with the
+dog, with no protection but the lion's skin, and dragging him up to the
+light, where the foam that fell from the jaws of one of the three mouths
+produced the plant called aconite, or hellebore, which is dark and
+poisonous. After showing the beast to Eurystheus, Hercules safely
+returned him to the under world, and thus completed his twelve great
+labors.
+
+Hercules was subject to fits of madness, in one of which he slew a
+friend, and as a penalty he allowed himself to be sold as a slave. He
+was purchased by the Queen of Lydia, Omphale, and remained in her
+service three years. She used to make him do a woman's work, and even
+dressed him at times in female garments, while she herself wore his
+famous lion skin and laughed at him.
+
+[Illustration: Hercules at the Feet of Omphale.]
+
+But strong as he was, Hercules had in time to meet death himself. He had
+married a nymph named Deianira, and was taking her home, when he came to
+a river where a Centaur named Nessus lived, and gained his bread by
+carrying travellers over on his back. Hercules paid him the price for
+carrying Deianira over, while he himself crossed on foot; but as soon as
+the river was between them, the faithless Centaur began to gallop away
+with the lady. Hercules sent an arrow after him, which brought him to
+the ground, and as he was dying he prepared his revenge by telling
+Deianira that his blood was enchanted with love for her, and that if
+ever she found her husband's affection failing her, she had only to make
+him put on a garment anointed with it, and his heart would return to
+her; he knew full well that his blood was full of the poison of the
+Hydra, but poor Deianira believed him, and had saved some of the blood
+before Hercules came up.
+
+Several years after, Hercules made prisoner a maiden named Iole, in
+Lydia, after gaining a great victory. Landing in the island of Euboea,
+he was going to make a great sacrifice to Jupiter, and sent home to
+Deianira for a festal garment to wear at it. She was afraid he was
+falling in love with Iole, and steeped the garment in the preparation
+she had made from Nessus's blood. No sooner did Hercules put it on, than
+his veins were filled with agony, which nothing could assuage. He tried
+to tear off the robe, but the skin and flesh came with it, and his blood
+was poisoned beyond relief. Unable to bear the pain any longer, and
+knowing that by his twelve tasks he had earned the prize of endless
+life, he went to Mount Oeta, crying aloud with the pain, so that the
+rocks rang again with the sound. He gave his quiver of arrows to his
+friend Philoctetes, charging him to collect his ashes and bury them, but
+never to make known the spot; and then he tore up, with his mighty
+strength, trees by the roots, enough to form a funeral pile, lay down on
+it, and called on his friend to set fire to it; but no one could bear to
+do so, till a shepherd consented to thrust in a torch. Then thunder was
+heard, a cloud came down, and he was borne away to Olympus, while
+Philoctetes collected and buried the ashes.
+
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+
+[Illustration: Theseus.]
+
+
+Theseus, the great national hero of Athens, is said to have been born at
+Troezen, where his father, Ęgeus, King of Athens, slept one night with
+Ęthra, the daughter of Pittheus, king of the place. Ęgeus, on his
+departure, hid his sword and his shoes under a large stone, and charged
+Ęthra, if she brought forth a son, to send him to Athens with these
+tokens, as soon as he was able to roll away the stone. She brought forth
+a son, to whom she gave the name of Theseus, and when he was grown up
+informed him of his origin, and told him to take up the tokens and sail
+to Athens, for the roads were infested by robbers and monsters. But
+Theseus, who was desirous of emulating the glory of Hercules, refused to
+go by sea, and after destroying various monsters who had been the terror
+of the country, arrived in safety at Athens. Here he was joyfully
+recognized by Ęgeus, but with difficulty escaped destruction from Media
+and the Pallantids, the sons and grandsons of Pallas, the brother of
+Ęgeus. These dangers, however, he finally surmounted, and slew the
+Pallantids in battle.
+
+His next exploit was the destruction of the great Marathonian bull,
+which ravaged the neighboring country; and shortly after he resolved to
+deliver the Athenians from the tribute that they were obliged to pay to
+Minos, King of Crete. Every ninth year the Athenians had to send seven
+young men and as many virgins to Crete, to be devoured by the Minotaur
+in the Labyrinth. Theseus volunteered to go as one of the victims, and
+through the assistance of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, who became
+enamoured of him, he slew the Minotaur and escaped from the Labyrinth.
+He then sailed away with Ariadne, whom he deserted in the island of Dia
+or Naxos, an event which frequently forms the subject of ancient works
+of art. The sails of the ship Theseus left Athens in were black, but he
+promised his father, if he returned in safety, to hoist white sails.
+This, however, he neglected to do, and Ęgeus, seeing the ship draw near
+with black sails, supposed that his son had perished, and threw himself
+from a rock.
+
+Theseus now ascended the throne of Athens. But his adventures were by no
+means concluded. He marched into the country of the Amazons, who dwelt
+on the Thermodon, according to some accounts, in the company of
+Hercules, and carried away their queen, Antiope. The Amazons in revenge
+invaded Attica, and were with difficulty defeated by the Athenians. This
+battle was one of the favorite subjects of the ancient artists, and is
+commemorated in several works of art that are still extant. Theseus also
+took part in the Argonautic expedition and the Calydonian hunt. He
+assisted his friend Pirithous and the Lapithę in their contest with the
+Centaurs, and also accompanied the former in his descent to the lower
+world to carry off Proserpine, the wife of Pluto. When Theseus was fifty
+years old, according to tradition, he carried off Helen, the daughter of
+Leda, who was then only nine years of age. But his territory was invaded
+in consequence by Castor and Pollux, the brothers of Leda; his own
+people rose against him, and at last, finding his affairs desperate, he
+withdrew to the island of Scyros, and there perished, either by a fall
+from the cliffs or through the treachery of Lycomedes, the king of the
+island. For a long time his memory was forgotten by the Athenians, but
+he was subsequently honored by them as the greatest of their heroes. At
+the battle of Marathon they thought they saw him armed and bearing down
+upon the barbarians, and after the conclusion of the Persian war his
+bones were discovered at Scyros by Cimon, who conveyed them to Athens
+where they were received with great pomp and deposited in a temple built
+to his honor. A festival also was instituted, which was celebrated on
+the eighth day of every month, but more especially on the eighth of
+Pyanipsion.
+
+The above is a brief account of the legends prevailing respecting
+Theseus. But he is, moreover, represented by ancient writers as the
+founder of the Attic commonwealth, and even of its democratic
+institutions. It would be waste of time to inquire whether there was an
+historical personage of this name who actually introduced the political
+changes ascribed to him; it will be convenient to adhere to the ancient
+account in describing them as the work of Theseus.
+
+[Illustration: Tribute to the Minotaur.]
+
+Before this time Attica contained many independent townships, which were
+only nominally united. Theseus incorporated the people into one state,
+removed the principal courts for the administration of justice to
+Athens, and greatly enlarged the city, which had hitherto covered little
+more than the rock which afterward formed the citadel. To cement their
+union he instituted several festivals, and especially changed the
+Athenęa into the Panathenęa, or the festivals of all the Atticans. He
+encouraged the nobles to reside at Athens, and surrendered a part of his
+kingly prerogatives to them; for which reason he is perhaps represented
+as the founder of the Athenian democracy, although the government which
+he established was, and continued to be long after him, strictly
+aristocratic.
+
+
+
+
+ULYSSES[1]
+
+         [Footnote 1: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By CHARLES F. HORNE
+
+[Illustration: Ulysses.]
+
+
+While courage and strength seemed to the ancient Greeks the noblest of
+virtues, they ranked wisdom and ready wit almost as high. Achilles was
+the strongest of the Grecian warriors at the siege of Troy, but there
+was another almost as strong, equally brave, and far shrewder of wit.
+This was Ulysses. It was he who ultimately brought about the capture of
+the city. Homer speaks often of him in his "Iliad;" and the bard's
+second great work, the "Odyssey," is devoted entirely to the wanderings
+of Odysseus, or, as we have learned from the Romans to call him,
+Ulysses. Whether he was a real person or only a creation of the poet's
+fancy, it is impossible to say. But as it is now generally agreed that
+there was a siege of Troy, it follows that there was probably a Ulysses,
+and his adventures, while in the main mythical, are of value as having
+perhaps some foundation in truth, and giving, at all events, a picture
+of what the old Greeks thought a hero should be and do.
+
+Ulysses was King of Ithaca when he was summoned to join the rest of the
+Grecian princes for the war with Troy. He had no wish to go, for he had
+lately married a beautiful girl, Penelope, and was happy as a man might
+be. So when the heralds came he pretended to be insane, and hitching a
+yoke of oxen to a plough he drove them along the sands of the sea-shore.
+He sang and shouted, and ploughed up the sand, and scattered salt as if
+he were sowing it, and cried out that he would soon have a beautiful
+crop of salt waves. The heralds watched him for a moment, and then
+returning to the princes told them that there was no use delivering the
+summons to Ulysses, for he had lost his wits. Then Palamedes, who, after
+Ulysses, was accounted shrewdest of the Greeks, went, and standing there
+on the beach, watched the plough. And he took Ulysses's baby son and
+threw him in front of the team to see if the father was indeed mad.
+Ulysses turned the plough aside to avoid the child; and then the princes
+knew it was all a pretence, and he had to go with them. But he never
+forgave Palamedes, and long after brought about his death.
+
+He was in many ways the ablest of the Greeks. Next to Achilles, Ajax was
+accounted the strongest; but Ulysses threw him in wrestling. Oilemenus
+was regarded as the swiftest of men, but Ulysses in a race outran him.
+When Achilles was slain Ulysses alone held back all the Trojans, while
+his comrades bore the body to their ships. Many other great exploits he
+performed, and his counsels were of much value to the Greeks through all
+the long siege. A great pile of spoils was heaped up to be given to the
+man who had been of most use to the assailants, and the Trojan prisoners
+themselves being called on to decide, gave it to Ulysses. At the last,
+when Achilles was dead, and the Greeks were all worn out and despairing,
+it was his fertile brain which originated the snare into which the
+Trojans fell.
+
+Now, with the other Greeks, Ulysses set out to return to his home. Yet
+first he stopped with his Ithacans to attack the Trojan city of Ciconia.
+The assault was unexpected and successful. Great treasure fell into the
+hands of the conquerors; but, in spite of their leader's entreaties,
+they persisted in stopping in the captured city for a night's carouse.
+The dispersed Ciconians rallied, gathered together their allies, and
+attacking the revellers, defeated them with great slaughter, so that
+less than half of them escaped in their ships. Yet this was only the
+first of the many mishaps which befell the ill-starred Ulysses. So
+persistently did misfortune pursue him that the superstitious Greeks
+declared that he must have incurred the hatred of the sea-god, Neptune,
+who would not let him cross his domains.
+
+No sooner had his flying ships escaped from Ciconia than they were
+struck by a terrific tempest which drove them far out of their course.
+For three days the storm continued; then, as it abated, they saw before
+them an unknown shore on which they landed to rest and recover their
+strength. It was the land of the lotos-eaters, and when Ulysses sent
+messengers to find out where he was, they, too, ate of the lotos fruit.
+It caused them to forget everything; their struggles and exhaustion,
+their homes, their leader, the great battles they had fought, all were
+obliterated. They only cared to lie there as the other lotos-eaters did,
+doing no work, but just dreaming all their lives, nibbling at the fruit,
+which was both food and drink, until they grew old and died.
+
+Ulysses knew that any life, no matter how wretched, was far better than
+this death in life. He forbade any other of his men to touch the fruit,
+and binding those who had already eaten it, he bore them, despite their
+pleading and weeping, back to his ships, which he at once led away from
+that clime of subtle danger. They next sighted a fertile island, where
+leaving most of his comrades for the rest they needed, Ulysses sailed
+in his own ship, exploring. He soon found himself in a beautiful
+country, where were seen vast herds of sheep and goats, but no people.
+Landing with his men, they explored it and found great caves full of
+milk and cheese, but still no people, only a huge giant in the distance.
+So sitting down in one of the caves they feasted merrily and awaited the
+return of the inhabitants.
+
+Now these inhabitants were giants, such as the one they had seen. They
+were called Cyclops, and had only one great eye in the middle of the
+forehead. The Cyclops who owned the cave in which the adventurers were
+was a particularly large and savage one named Polyphemus. When he
+returned at night and saw the men within, he immediately seized two of
+them, cracked their heads together, and ate them for supper. Then he
+went to bed. Ulysses and his terrified men would have slain the huge
+creature as he slept; but he had rolled a great stone in front of the
+door, and they could not possibly move it to escape. In the morning the
+monster ate two more of the unfortunates and then went off with his
+flocks, fastening the door as before. In the evening he ate two more.
+
+By this time the crafty Ulysses, as Homer delights to call him, had
+perfected his plans. He offered Polyphemus some wine, which so delighted
+him that he asked the giver his name, and said he had it in mind to do
+him a kindness. The crafty one told him his name was No-man. Then said
+the ogre, "This shall be your reward, I will eat No-man the last of you
+all." Then, heavy with the wine, he fell into a deep sleep. The tiny
+weapons of the wanderers would have been of little effect against this
+man-mountain, so taking a great pole, they heated it red-hot in the
+fire, and all together plunged it into his one great eye, blinding him.
+Up he jumped, roaring and howling horribly, and groping in the dark to
+find his prisoners; but they easily avoided him. Then came other Cyclops
+running at the noise from their distant caves, and called to him, "Who
+has hurt thee, Polyphemus?"
+
+He answered them, "No-man has hurt me, No-man has blinded me."
+
+Then they said, "If no man has hurt thee, thy trouble is from the gods,
+and we may not interfere. Bear it patiently, and pray to them."
+
+In the morning Polyphemus opened the door, and sitting in it, let his
+sheep pass out, feeling each one, so that the Greeks might not escape.
+But the crafty one fastened himself and his remaining comrades under the
+breasts of the largest sheep, and so, hidden by the wool, escaped
+unnoticed. They hurried to their ship and put out to sea. And now
+feeling safe, Ulysses shouted to the blind monster and taunted him,
+whereon, rushing to the shore, Polyphemus lifted up a vast rock and
+hurled it toward the sound he heard. It almost struck the vessel, and
+its waves swept the little craft back to the land. In great haste they
+shoved off again, and when they felt safe, shouted at him once more. He
+followed them, hurling rocks, but now they were beyond his reach and
+returned safely to their companions.
+
+Next the wanderers reached the island of Ęolus, who controls the winds.
+He received them with royal hospitality, pointed out to them their
+proper course to Ithaca, and when they left him, gave to Ulysses a bag
+in which he had tied up all the contrary winds, that they might have a
+fair one to waft them home. For nine days they sailed, and at last were
+actually in sight of their destination; but the seamen fancying there
+was treasure in Ęolus's bag opened it while their leader slept. At once
+leaped out all the wild winds, and there was a terrible tempest which
+swept the vessels back to their starting-point. Ęolus, however, refused
+to help them again, for he said they were plainly accursed of the gods.
+
+So they journeyed on as best they might, and came to the land of the
+Lęstrygonians. These people were of enormous strength and were
+cannibals; but Ulysses and his men knowing nothing of this, sailed into
+the narrow harbor. As they landed the cannibals rushed upon them and
+slew them, and hurling rocks from the top of the narrow entrance, sank
+those ships which would have escaped. Ulysses in his own ship managed to
+force his way out, but all the other ships were taken and their crews
+slain.
+
+Then, in deep mourning, Ulysses sailed on till he came to the home of
+Circe, a beautiful but wicked enchantress. Here he divided his crew into
+two parties, and while one half rested, the others went to find what
+place this was. Circe welcomed them in her palace, feasted them, and
+gave them a magic drink. When they had drunk this, she touched them with
+her wand, and they were turned into swine, all except one, who had
+feared to enter the palace, and now returning, told Ulysses that the
+others had disappeared. Then the hero arose and went alone to the
+palace; but on the way he sought out a little herb which might render
+the drink harmless. This he ate, and when Circe having given him the
+deadly cup, would have turned him also into a brute, he drew his sword
+as if to slay her. Terribly frightened, she besought mercy, and at his
+request restored his men to their own forms.
+
+Directed by her, Ulysses is said to have entered the abode of the dead,
+and conversed with the ghosts of all the great warriors who had been
+slain in the Trojan war, or who had died since. At last, when Circe had
+no more wonders to show him, the wanderer left her, once more directed
+on the road to Ithaca, and to some extent warned of the dangers which
+beset the path.
+
+First he had to pass the Sirens, beautiful but baleful maidens, who sat
+on a rocky shore and sang a magic song so alluring, that men hearing it
+let their ships drift on the rocks while listening, or threw themselves
+into the sea to swim to the maidens, and were drowned. No man had ever
+heard them and lived. Here the crafty one filled his companions' ears
+with wax, so they could not hear the Sirens' song, and he bade them bind
+him to the mast, so that he might hear it but could not go to them. This
+was done, and they passed in safety. Ulysses heard the sweet song, and
+raved and struggled to break his bonds, but they held fast. So he was
+the first to hear the Sirens' song and live. And some say he was the
+last as well, for in despair, thinking their music had lost its power,
+the maidens threw themselves into the sea.
+
+[Illustration: Ulysses defying the Cyclops.]
+
+Next the wanderers came to a narrow strait, on one side of which was
+Charybdis, a dread whirlpool from which no ship could escape, and on the
+other was the cave of Scylla, a monster having six snake-like heads,
+with each of which she seized a man from every passing ship. Choosing
+the lesser evil, the bold Ulysses sailed through the strait close to
+Scylla; and six poor wretches were snatched by the monster from the deck
+and devoured, but the rest escaped.
+
+[Illustration: Menelaus. Paris. Diomedes. Ulysses. Nestor. Achilles.
+Agamemnon.]
+
+Then they came to an uninhabited island, filled with herds of cattle.
+These were held sacred to the sun, and no man might slay or eat them
+without being punished by the gods. This Ulysses knew well, and warned
+his men against touching them; but great tempests now swelled up, and
+for a whole month the sailors could not leave the island. Their
+provisions gave out and they were starving. Then their leader wandered
+away looking for help, and while he was gone they slew some of the oxen
+and ate their fill. The storm died, and, Ulysses returning, they again
+set sail; but at once came a terrific hurricane, upset the ship, and
+drowned all of the guilty ones. Ulysses had not eaten the flesh of the
+oxen; and he alone was saved, clinging to a spar, and was tossed on the
+island of the nymph Calypso. After a long sojourn he escaped from here
+on a raft. But his old enemy Neptune again raised a storm, which broke
+his raft; and, naked and almost dead, he was thrown upon another shore,
+from which at last the pitying people sent him home. He had been away
+twenty years.
+
+His fair wife Penelope had been for four years past pestered with
+suitors, who declared that Ulysses must be dead. She put them all off,
+by saying that first she must finish a wonderful cloth she was weaving;
+and on this she undid each night what she had done in the day. Meanwhile
+they stayed in the palace, haughty and insolent, terrifying everybody,
+in defiance of the protests of Ulysses' infant son, now grown to be
+almost a man.
+
+The wanderer, coming alone and finding how things were, feared they
+would slay him; so, disguised as an old beggar man, he went to the
+palace. The suitors mocked him, and then in sport it was proposed to see
+who could bend the great Ulysses's bow. It was brought out, but none
+could bend it. The beggar asked leave to try, and they hesitated, but
+gave him leave. Right easily he bent it, and sent then a broad arrow
+through the leader of the suitors. Ulysses's son ranged himself by his
+side. Some old servants, recognizing him, did the same; and soon all
+those parasites were slain. Then was there a royal welcome from wife and
+son, and afterward from kinsmen and friends and servants, for the royal
+wanderer, whom the gods had spared, and who at last was returned home.
+
+
+
+
+ĘNEAS
+
+By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+[Illustration: Ęneas.]
+
+
+Among the Trojans at the fall of Troy there was a prince called Ęneas,
+whose father was Anchises, a cousin of Priam, and whose mother was said
+to be the goddess Venus. When he saw that the city was lost he rushed
+back to his house and took his old father Anchises on his back, giving
+him his penates, or little images of household gods, to take care of,
+and led by the hand his little son Iulus, or Ascanius, while his wife
+Creusa followed close behind, and all the Trojans who could get their
+arms together joined him, so that they escaped in a body to Mount Ida;
+but just as they were outside the city he missed poor Creusa, and though
+he rushed back and searched for her everywhere, he never could find her.
+Because of his care for his gods, and for his old father, he is always
+known as the pious Ęneas.
+
+In the forests of Mount Ida he built ships enough to set forth with all
+his followers in quest of the new home which his mother, the goddess
+Venus, gave him hopes of. He had adventures rather like those of Ulysses
+as he sailed about the Mediterranean. Once in the Strophades, some
+clusters belonging to the Ionian Islands, where he and his troops had
+landed to get food, and were eating the flesh of the numerous goats
+which they found climbing about the rocks, down on them came the
+harpies, horrible birds with women's faces and hooked hands, with which
+they snatched away the food and spoiled what they could not eat. The
+Trojans shot at them, but the arrows glanced off their feathers and did
+not hurt them. However, they all flew off except one, who sat on a high
+rock, and croaked out that the Trojans would be punished for thus
+molesting the harpies, by being tossed about till they should reach
+Italy, but there they should not build their city till they should have
+been so hungry as to eat their very trenchers.
+
+They sailed away from this dismal prophetess, and touched on the coast
+of Epirus, where Ęneas found his cousin Helenus, son to old Priam,
+reigning over a little new Troy, and married to Andromache, Hector's
+wife, whom he had gained after Pyrrhus had been killed. Helenus was a
+prophet, and he gave Ęneas much advice. In especial he said that when
+the Trojans should come to Italy they would find, under the holly-trees
+by the river-side, a large, white, old sow lying on the ground, with a
+litter of thirty little pigs round her, and this should be a sign to
+them where they were to build their city.
+
+By his advice the Trojans coasted round the south of Sicily, instead of
+trying to pass the strait between the dreadful Scylla and Charybdis, and
+just below Mount Etna an unfortunate man came running down to the beach
+begging to be taken in. He was a Greek, who had been left behind when
+Ulysses escaped from Polyphemus's cave, and had made his way to the
+forests, where he had lived ever since. They had just taken him in when
+they saw the Cyclop coming down, with a pine-tree for a staff, to wash
+the burning hollow of his lost eye in the sea, and they rowed off in
+great terror.
+
+Poor old Anchises died shortly after, and while his son was still
+sorrowing for him, Juno, who hated every Trojan, stirred up a terrible
+tempest, which drove the ships to the south, until, just as the sea
+began to calm down, they came into a beautiful bay, enclosed by tall
+cliffs with woods overhanging them. Here the tired wanderers landed,
+and, lighting a fire, Ęneas went in quest of food. Coming out of the
+forest they looked down from a hill, and beheld a multitude of people
+building a city, raising walls, houses, towers, and temples. Into one of
+these temples Ęneas entered, and to his amazement he found the walls
+sculptured with all the story of the siege of Troy, and all his friends
+so perfectly represented, that he burst into tears at the sight.
+
+Just then a beautiful queen, attended by a whole troop of nymphs, came
+into the temple. This lady was Dido; her husband, Sichęus, had been King
+of Tyre, till he was murdered by his brother, Pygmalion, who meant to
+have married her; but she fled from him with a band of faithful Tyrians
+and all her husband's treasure, and had landed on the north coast of
+Africa. There she begged of the chief of the country as much land as
+could be enclosed by a bullock's hide. He granted this readily; and
+Dido, cutting the hide into the finest possible strips, managed to
+measure off ground enough to build the splendid city which she had named
+Carthage. She received Ęneas most kindly, and took all his men into her
+city, hoping to keep them there forever, and make him her husband. Ęneas
+himself was so happy there that he forgot all his plans and the
+prophecies he had heard, until Jupiter sent Mercury to rouse him to
+fulfil his destiny. He obeyed the call; and Dido was so wretched at his
+departure that she caused a great funeral pile to be built, laid herself
+on the top, and stabbed herself with Ęneas's sword; the pile was burnt,
+and the Trojans saw the flame from their ships without knowing the
+cause.
+
+By and by Ęneas landed at a place in Italy named Cumę. There dwelt one
+of the Sibyls. These were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had endowed with
+deep wisdom; and when Ęneas went to consult the Cumęan Sibyl, she told
+him that he must visit the under-world of Pluto to learn his fate.
+First, however, he had to go into a forest, and find there and gather a
+golden bough, which he was to bear in his hand to keep him safe. Long he
+sought it, until two doves, his mother's birds, came flying before him
+to show him the tree where gold gleamed through the boughs, and he found
+the branch growing on the tree as mistletoe grows on the thorn.
+
+Guarded with this, and guided by the Sibyl, after a great sacrifice,
+Ęneas passed into a gloomy cave, where he came to the river Styx, round
+which flitted all the shades who had never received funeral rites, and
+whom the ferryman, Charon, would not carry over. The Sibyl, however,
+made him take Ęneas across, his boat groaning under the weight of a
+human body. On the other side stood Cerberus, but the Sibyl threw him a
+cake of honey and of some opiate, and he lay asleep, while Ęneas passed
+on and found in myrtle groves all who had died for love--among them, to
+his surprise, poor forsaken Dido. A little farther on he found the home
+of the warriors, and held converse with his old Trojan friends. He
+passed by the place of doom for the wicked, Tartarus; and in the Elysian
+Fields, full of laurel groves and meads of asphodel, he found the spirit
+of his father Anchises, and with him was allowed to see the souls of all
+their descendants, as yet unborn, who should raise the glory of their
+name. They are described on to the very time when the poet wrote to whom
+we owe all the tale of the wanderings of Ęneas, namely, Virgil, who
+wrote the "Ęneid," whence all these stories are taken. He further tells
+us that Ęneas landed in Italy, just as his old nurse Caiėta died, at the
+place which still is called Gaėta. After they had buried her they found
+a grove, where they sat down on the grass to eat, using large round
+cakes or biscuits to put their meat on. Presently they came to eating up
+the cakes. Little Ascanius cried out, "We are eating our very tables,"
+and Ęneas, remembering the harpy's words, knew that his wanderings were
+over.
+
+Virgil goes on to tell at much length how the king of the country,
+Latinus, at first made friends with Ęneas, and promised him his daughter
+Lavinia in marriage; but Turnus, an Italian chief who had before been a
+suitor to Lavinia, stirred up a great war, and was only conquered and
+killed after much hard fighting. However, the white sow was found in the
+right place with all her little pigs, and on the spot was founded the
+city of Alba Longa, where Ęneas and Lavinia reigned until he died, and
+his descendants, through his two sons, Ascanius or Iulus, and Ęneas
+Silvius, reigned after him for fifteen generations.
+
+
+
+
+XENOPHON[2]
+
+         [Footnote 2: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By PROFESSOR J. PENTLAND MAHAFFY
+
+(445-354 B.C.)
+
+[Illustration: Xenophon.]
+
+
+There is no figure in Greek history more familiar to us than this famous
+Athenian. There are passages in his life known to every schoolboy; we
+possess all the books he ever wrote; we know therefore his opinions upon
+all the important questions of life, religion, ethics, politics,
+manners, education, as well as upon finance and military tactics, not to
+speak of social intercourse and sport. And yet his early youth and late
+age are hidden from us. Like the models of Greek eloquence, which begin
+with tame obviousness, rise into dignity, fire, pathos, and then close
+softly, without sounding peroration, so Xenophon comes upon us, an
+educated young man, looking out for something to do; we lose him in the
+autumn of his life, when he was driven from the fair retreat which the
+old man had hoped would be his final resting-place. During seven years
+of his early manhood we find him in the middle of all the most stirring
+events in the Greek world. For thirty years later (394-62 B.C.), we hear
+him from his retired country-seat recording contemporary history,
+telling the adventures of his youth, from the fascinations of the ragged
+Socrates to the fascinations of the magnificent Cyrus, preaching the
+lessons of his varied life. Then came the bitter loss of his brave son,
+killed in the van at Mantinea. According to good authority he only
+survived this blow a couple of years. But even then he appears to have
+found distraction from his grief by a dry tract upon the Attic revenue.
+Such is the general outline which we shall fill up and color from
+allusions throughout his varied and manifold writings.
+
+He was a pure Athenian, evidently of aristocratic birth, and attracted,
+probably by his personal beauty, the attention of Socrates, who is said
+to have stopped him in the way, and asked him did he know where men of
+honor were to be found; upon his replying _no_, the sage said, follow me
+and learn. This apocryphal anecdote, at all events, records the fact
+that Xenophon attached himself to Socrates's teaching, and so afforded
+us perhaps the most remarkable instance of the great and various
+influence of that great teacher. We do not wonder at disciples like
+Plato; but here is a young man of fashion, of a practical turn, and
+loving adventure, who records in after years the teaching after his own
+fashion, and in a perfectly independent way, as the noblest of
+training. His youth, however, was spent in the distressful later years
+of the Peloponnesian War, which ended in fearful gloom and disaster for
+his native city. Intimate, apparently, with the great historian
+Thucydides, whose unfinished work he seems to have edited, and
+subsequently to have continued in his own "Hellenica," he must have long
+foreseen the collapse of the Athenian empire, and then he and many other
+adventurous spirits found themselves in a society faded in prosperity,
+with no scope for energy or enterprise. Such was the somewhat tame and
+vulgar Athens which succeeded to that of Pericles and Aristophanes, and
+which could not tolerate the spiritual boldness of Socrates. He tells us
+himself, in the third book of his "Anabasis," how he was tempted to
+leave Athens for the East by his friend Proxenus, who had made the
+acquaintance of the chivalrous and ambitious Cyrus, brother of the
+Persian king, and governor of southern Asia Minor. This prince was
+preparing secretly to invade Persia and dethrone his brother, and for
+that purpose was gathering troops and courting the favor of the Greeks.
+His splendid gifts were on a scale sufficient to dazzle men of small
+means and smaller prospects, like the youth of conquered Athens.
+Xenophon thought it right to consult his spiritual guide, Socrates, on
+the propriety of abandoning his country for hireling service. The
+philosopher advised him to consult the oracle at Delphi, but the young
+man only asked what gods he might best conciliate before his departure,
+and Socrates, though noting the evasion of his advice, acquiesced.
+
+When Xenophon arrived at Sardis, Proxenus presented him to Cyrus, who
+invited him to accompany him on his pretended campaign to Pisidia, and
+then coaxed him on with the rest into his enterprise against the king
+Artaxerxes. On this expedition or _anabasis_ up the country, Xenophon
+was only a volunteer, with no command, and under no man's orders, but
+accompanying the army on horseback, and enjoying the trip as a bright
+young man, well appointed by the prince, and full of intelligent
+curiosity, was sure to enjoy it. But then came the decisive day of
+Cunaxa, where Xenophon offered his services as an extra aide-de-camp to
+Cyrus, and where he witnessed the victory of his countrymen and the
+defeat of their cause by the rashness and death of Cyrus. In the crisis
+which followed he took no leading part, till the generals of the 10,000
+Greeks were entrapped and murdered by Tissaphernes. Then, in the midst
+of the panic and despair which supervened, he tells us in graphic words
+how he came to be a leader of men. He, too, with the rest, was in sore
+distress, and could not sleep; but anon getting a snatch of rest he had
+a dream. It seemed to him that there was a storm, and a thunderbolt fell
+on his father's house and set it all in a blaze. He sprang up in terror,
+and, pondering the matter, decided that in part the dream was good, in
+that when in great danger he had seen a light from Zeus; but partly,
+too, he feared it, for it came from the king of heaven. But as soon as
+he was fully awake the first clear thought that came into his head was:
+"Why am I lying here? The night advances, and with the coming day the
+enemy will be upon us. If we fall into the king's hands we must face
+torture, slavery, and death, and yet here we lie, as if it were a time
+for rest! What am I waiting for? Is it a general to lead me? and where
+is he? or till I am myself of riper age to command? Older I shall never
+be, if to-day I surrender to mine enemies." And so he rouses the
+officers of his murdered friend, Proxenos, and appeals to them all to be
+up and stirring, to organize their defence and appoint new leaders to
+direct them. Before dawn he has some kind of confidence restored, and
+the new organization in progress. Presently the Persians send to demand
+the surrender of the army whose generals they had seized, and find to
+their astonishment that their task of subduing the Greeks must begin
+afresh. Meanwhile the policy of the Greek army becomes defined. They
+threaten to settle in Mesopotamia and build a fortified city which shall
+be a great danger and a torment to the king. They really desire to
+escape to the coast, if they can but find the way.
+
+It was the king's policy to let them depart, but so harass them by the
+way as to produce disorder and rout, which meant absolute destruction.
+It was in conducting this retreat, as a joint general with the Spartan
+Cheirisophos, that Xenophon showed all his resource. There were no great
+pitched battles; no room for strategy or large combinations; but ample
+scope for resource in the details of tactics for meeting new and sudden
+difficulties, for maintaining order among an army of men that only
+acknowledged leaders for their ability. At first, in the plains, as they
+journeyed northward, the danger was from the Persian cavalry, for their
+own contingent had deserted to the enemy. This difficulty, which
+well-nigh ruined the 10,000, as it ruined Crassus in his retreat at
+Carrhę, he met by organizing a corps of Rhodian slingers and archers,
+whose range was longer than that of the Persians, and who thus kept the
+cavalry in check. When the plains were passed, and the mountains
+reached, there arose the new difficulties of forcing passes, of
+repelling wild mountaineers from positions commanding the road, of
+providing food, and avoiding false routes. The narrative of the
+surmounting of all these obstacles with tact and temper is the main
+subject of the famous "Anabasis." Still graver dangers awaited Xenophon
+when the retreating army had at last hailed the welcome sea--the Black
+Sea--and with returning safety returned jealousies, insubordinations,
+and the great problem what to do with this great army when it arrived at
+Greek cities. Xenophon had always dreamt of forming on the border of
+Hellenedom a new city state, which should honor him as its founder. The
+wilder spirits thought it simpler to loot some rich city like Byzantium,
+which was saved with difficulty from their lawlessness. The Spartan
+governors, who now ruled throughout the Greek world, saw the danger, and
+were determined to delay and worry the dangerous horde until it
+dissipated; and they succeeded so well that presently the 6,000 that
+remained were glad to be led by Xenophon to take service under the
+Spartan commander Thibron in Asia Minor (399 B.C.). But Xenophon was not
+given any independent command. He appears to have acted on the staff of
+the successive Spartan commanders till with King Agesilaus he attained
+personal influence, and probably planned the new expedition of that king
+to conquer Persia, which was only balked by a diversion wrought by
+Persian gold in Greece. With Agesilaus Xenophon returned therefore to
+Greece, and was present at the great shock of the rival infantries, the
+Theban and the Spartan, at Coronea (394 B.C.). But either his presence
+in the Spartan army, or his former action against the King of Persia,
+whom shifting politics were now bringing over to the Athenian side,
+caused him to be sentenced to banishment at Athens, and so made his
+return to his native city impossible. He went, therefore, with his royal
+patron to Sparta, and sojourned there for some time, even sending for
+his sons, now growing boys, from Miletus, and submitting them, at
+Agesilaus's advice, to the famous Spartan education. They grew up fine
+and warlike young men, so that the death of one of them, Gryllus, in a
+cavalry skirmish just before the great battle of Mantinea (362 B.C.)
+caused universal regret. But long before this catastrophe the Spartans
+gave Xenophon possession of an estate at Skillus, near the famous
+Olympia, which combined the pleasures of seclusion and of field sports
+with those of varied society when the stream of visitors assembled for
+the Olympic games (every four years). He himself tells us that he and
+his family, in company with their neighbors, had excellent sport of all
+kinds. He was not only a careful farmer, but so keen at hunting hares
+that he declares a man at this delightful pursuit "will forget that he
+ever cared for anything else." He had also built a shrine to his
+patroness, the goddess Artemis, and the solemn sacrifices at her shrine
+were the occasion of feasts, whose solemnity only enhanced their
+enjoyments. As Mr. Dakyns writes: "The lovely scenery of the place, to
+this day lovely; the delicious atmosphere; the rare combination of
+mountain, wood, and stream; the opportunity for sport; the horses and
+the dogs; the household, the farmstead, and their varying occupations;
+the neighboring country gentlemen, and the local politics; the recurring
+festival at Olympia with its stream of visitors; the pleasures of
+hospitable entertainment; the constant sacrifices before the cedar image
+of Artemis in her temple--these things, and above all the serene
+satisfaction of successful literary labors, combined to form an enviable
+sum total of sober happiness during many years." There can be no doubt
+that this was the first great period of his literary activity, though he
+may have edited, in early youth, his predecessor Thucydides, and
+composed the first two books of his historical continuation entitled
+"Hellenica." In his retreat at Skillus he composed a series of
+"Dialogues," in what is termed the Socratic vein; "Memorials" of his
+great master, a tract on household "Economy," another on a "Symposium,"
+or feast, one called "Hiero," or on the Greek tyrant, and an account of
+the "Laconian Polity," which he had so long admired and known. The tract
+on "Hunting" also speaks the experience at Skillus. The tract "On the
+Athenian State," preserved among his writings, is not from his hand, but
+the work of an earlier writer.
+
+With the sudden rise of the Theban power, and consequent depression of
+Sparta, he and other settlers around Skillus were driven out by the
+Eleans, and he lost his country-seat, with all its agreeable diversions.
+But probably the ageing man did not feel the transference of his home to
+Corinth so keenly as an English gentleman would. He was a thorough
+Greek, and therefore intensely attached to city life, Elis, his adopted
+country, being the only state which consisted of a country gentry.
+
+In the next place, a daily thoroughfare such as the Isthmus, must have
+been far more suitable for the collecting of historical evidence than
+Skillus, where the crowd came by only once in four years. And then his
+grown-up sons could find something more serious to do than hunting deer,
+boars, and hares in the glades of Elis. He may have known, too, that his
+chances of restoration to Athens were improving, and that he would do
+well to be within easy reach of friends in that city. Indeed we find
+that the rescinding of exile soon followed, and so he was able to send
+his two sons to do cavalry duty for Athens (and Sparta) against the
+Thebans. It is, indeed, likely that the young men were enrolled as
+Spartan volunteers. He himself must have kept very close to his literary
+work; for in these closing years of his life he brought out or re-edited
+the "Anabasis;" he discussed "Cavalry Tactics," he kept writing up
+contemporary history to the year 362 B.C., when the star of Thebes set
+with the death of Epaminondas; he completed his long and perhaps tedious
+historical novel, the "Education of Cyrus" (the elder), and lastly
+composed a curious and fanciful tract on the "Revenues of Athens." There
+is no evidence that he ever changed his residence back to his native
+city, but that he often went there when no obstacle remained, from the
+neighboring Corinth, is most probable. An open sailing boat could carry
+him, with a fair wind, in a few hours. Though a very old man, he was,
+however, still active with his pen when we lose him. His promising
+remaining son disappears with him from the scene; we hear of no
+descendants. The only offspring he has left us are his immortal works.
+The names of these have already been given, with the exception of the
+speech put into Socrates's mouth as his Defence, the tract on "The
+Horse," appendant to his "Cavalry Tactics," and his "Panegyric on
+Agesilaus." It remains to estimate their general features. Without
+controversy, he excelled all his great contemporaries in breadth of
+culture and experience, and in the variety of his interests. Philosophy,
+politics, war, husbandry, sport, travel, are all represented in his
+works. And upon all he has written with a clearness and a grace which
+earned for him the title of the "Attic Bee." But this breadth implies
+(as usual) a certain lack of depth, as is particularly obvious in his
+case, owing to the almost necessary comparison with his two mighty
+rivals--Thucydides, in history, Plato, in philosophy. It may, indeed, be
+considered hard luck for him that he stood between two such men, for
+they have necessarily damaged his reputation by comparison. Xenophon's
+portrait of Socrates is quite independent, and probably historically
+truer than that of Plato; but the sage lives for us in Plato, not in
+Xenophon. The Retreat of the Ten Thousand, and the wars of Epaminondas
+were far more brilliant than the operations of the Peloponnesian War.
+Yet, to the scholar, a raid in Thucydides is more than a campaign in
+Xenophon. For neither is his style so pure as that of either of his
+rivals, nor is his enthusiasm the same. We feel him always a polished
+man of the world--never the rugged patriot, never the rapt seer. He
+seems, too, to lack impartiality. He lavishes praise upon Agesilaus, a
+second-rate man, while he is curt and ill-tempered concerning
+Epaminondas, the real genius of the age. It is more than likely that he
+has colored his own part in the famous "Retreat," in glowing colors.
+His hereditary instincts lead him to approve of autocrats as against
+republics, Spartan discipline as against Attic freedom. Yet in himself
+he has shown a striking example how the latter could appreciate and
+embrace the former. As the simplest specimen of pure Attic prose he will
+ever be paramount in schools, neglected in universities--the recreation
+rather than the occupation of mature scholars. He is a great worthy, a
+man of renown; "nevertheless, he did not attain unto the first
+three"--the two masters of his own day, and the colossal Demosthenes.
+
+[Signature: J. Pentland Mahaffy.]
+
+
+
+
+THE GRACCHI
+
+Extracts from "Cęsar, a Sketch," by JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, LL.D.
+(164-133, 153-121 B.C.)
+
+[Illustration: The Gracchi.]
+
+
+Tiberius Gracchus was born about the year 164 B.C. He was one of twelve
+children, nine of whom died in infancy, himself, his brother Caius, and
+his sister Cornelia being the only survivors. His family was plebeian,
+but of high antiquity, his ancestors for several generations having held
+the highest offices in the Republic. On the mother's side he was the
+grandson of Scipio Africanus. His father, after a distinguished career
+as a soldier in Spain and Sardinia, had attempted reforms at Rome. He
+had been censor, and in this capacity he had ejected disreputable
+senators from the Curia; he had degraded offending Equites; he had
+rearranged and tried to purify the Comitia. But his connections were
+aristocratic. His wife was the daughter of the most famous of them,
+Scipio Africanus the Younger. He had been himself in antagonism with the
+tribunes, and had taken no part, at any time, in popular agitations.
+
+[Illustration: The Mother of the Gracchi.]
+
+The father died when Tiberius was still a boy, and the two brothers grew
+up under the care of their mother, a noble and gifted lady. They early
+displayed remarkable talents. Tiberius, when old enough, went into the
+army, and served under his brother-in-law in the last Carthaginian
+campaign. He was first on the walls of the city in the final storm. Ten
+years later he went to Spain as quęstor, when he carried on his father's
+popularity, and by taking the people's side in some questions, fell into
+disagreement with his brother-in-law. His political views had perhaps
+already inclined to change. He was still of an age when indignation
+at oppression calls out a practical desire to resist it. On his journey
+home from Spain he witnessed scenes which confirmed his conviction and
+determined him to throw all his energies into the popular cause. His
+road lay through Tuscany, where he saw the large estate system in full
+operation--the fields cultivated by the slave gangs, the free citizens
+of the Republic thrust away into the towns, aliens and outcasts in their
+own country, without a foot of soil which they could call their own. In
+Tuscany, too, the vast domains of the landlords had not even been fairly
+purchased. They were parcels of the _ager publicus_, land belonging to
+the state, which, in spite of a law forbidding it, the great lords and
+commoners had appropriated and divided among themselves. Five hundred
+acres of state land was the most which by statute any one lessee might
+be allowed to occupy. But the law was obsolete or sleeping, and avarice
+and vanity were awake and active. Young Gracchus, in indignant pity,
+resolved to rescue the people's patrimony. He was chosen tribune in the
+year 133. His brave mother and a few patricians of the old type
+encouraged him, and the battle of the revolution began. The Senate, as
+has been said, though without direct legislative authority, had been
+allowed the right of reviewing any new schemes which were to be
+submitted to the Assembly. The constitutional means of preventing
+tribunes from carrying unwise or unwelcome measures lay in a consul's
+veto, or in the help of the College of Augurs, who could declare the
+auspices unfavorable and so close all public business. These resources
+were so awkward that it had been found convenient to secure beforehand
+the Senate's approbation, and the encroachment, being long submitted to,
+was passing by custom into a rule. But the Senate, eager as it was, had
+not yet succeeded in engrafting the practice into the constitution. On
+the land question the leaders of the aristocracy were the principal
+offenders.
+
+Disregarding usage, and conscious that the best men of all ranks were
+with him, Tiberius Gracchus appealed directly to the people to revive
+the Agrarian law. His proposals were not extravagant. That they should
+have been deemed extravagant was a proof of how much some measure of the
+kind was needed. Where lands had been enclosed and money laid out on
+them, he was willing that the occupants should have compensation. But
+they had no right to the lands themselves. Gracchus persisted that the
+_ager publicus_ belonged to the people, and that the race of yeomen, for
+whose protection the law had been originally passed, must be
+re-established on their farms. No form of property gives to its owners
+so much consequence as land, and there is no point on which in every
+country an aristocracy is more sensitive. The large owners protested
+that they had purchased their interests on the faith that the law was
+obsolete. They had planted and built and watered with the sanction of
+the government, and to call their titles in question was to shake the
+foundations of society. The popular party pointed to the statute. The
+monopolists were entitled in justice to less than was offered them. They
+had no right to a compensation at all. Political passion awoke again
+after the sleep of a century. The oligarchy had doubtless connived at
+the accumulations. The suppression of the small holdings favored their
+supremacy, and placed the elections more completely in their control.
+Their military successes had given them so long a tenure of power that
+they had believed it to be theirs in perpetuity; and the new sedition,
+as they called it, threatened at once their privileges and their
+fortunes. The quarrel assumed the familiar form of a struggle between
+the rich and the poor, and at such times the mob of voters becomes less
+easy to corrupt. They go with their order, as the prospect of larger
+gain makes them indifferent to immediate bribes. It became clear that
+the majority of the citizens would support Tiberius Gracchus, but the
+constitutional forms of opposition might still be resorted to. Octavius
+Cęcina, another of the tribunes, had himself large interests in the land
+question. He was the people's magistrate, one of the body appointed
+especially to defend their rights, but he went over to the Senate, and,
+using a power which undoubtedly belonged to him, he forbade the vote to
+be taken.
+
+There was no precedent for the removal of either consul, prętor, or
+tribune, except under circumstances very different from any which could
+as yet be said to have arisen. The magistrates held office for a year
+only, and the power of veto had been allowed them expressly to secure
+time for deliberation and to prevent passionate legislation. But
+Gracchus was young and enthusiastic. Precedent or no precedent, the
+citizens were omnipotent, he invited them to declare his colleague
+deposed. They had warmed to the fight, and complied. A more experienced
+statesman would have known that established constitutional bulwarks
+cannot be swept away by a momentary vote. He obtained his Agrarian law.
+Three commissioners were appointed, himself, his younger brother, and
+his father-in-law, Appius Claudius, to carry it into effect; but the
+very names showed that he had alienated his few supporters in the higher
+circles, and that a single family was now contending against the united
+wealth and distinction of Rome. The issue was only too certain. Popular
+enthusiasm is but a fire of straw. In a year Tiberius Gracchus would be
+out of office. Other tribunes would be chosen more amenable to
+influence, and his work could then be undone. He evidently knew that
+those who would succeed him could not be relied on to carry on his
+policy. He had taken one revolutionary step already; he was driven on to
+another, and he offered himself illegally to the Comitia for
+re-election. It was to invite them to abolish the constitution, and to
+make him virtual sovereign; and that a young man of thirty should have
+contemplated such a position for himself as possible, is of itself a
+proof of his unfitness for it. The election day came. The noble lords
+and gentlemen appeared in the Campus Martius with their retinues of
+armed servants and clients; hot-blooded aristocrats, full of disdain for
+demagogues, and meaning to read a lesson to sedition which it would not
+easily forget. Votes were given for Gracchus. Had the hustings been left
+to decide the matter, he would have been chosen; but as it began to
+appear how the polling would go, sticks were used and swords; a riot
+rose, the unarmed citizens were driven off, Tiberius Gracchus himself
+and three hundred of his friends were killed, and their bodies were
+flung into the Tiber.
+
+Thus the first sparks of the coming revolution were trampled out. But
+though quenched and to be again quenched with fiercer struggles, it was
+to smoulder and smoke and burst out time after time, till its work was
+done. Revolution could not restore the ancient character of the Roman
+nation, but it could check the progress of decay by burning away the
+more corrupted parts of it. It could destroy the aristocracy and the
+constitution which they had depraved, and under other forms preserve for
+a few more centuries the Roman dominion. Scipio Africanus, when he heard
+in Spain of the end of his brother-in-law, exclaimed "May all who act as
+he did perish like him!" There were to be victims enough and to spare
+before the bloody drama was played out. Quiet lasted for ten years, and
+then, precisely when he had reached his brother's age, Caius Gracchus
+came forward to avenge him, and carry the movement through another
+stage. Young Caius had been left one of the commissioners of the land
+law; and it is particularly noticeable that, though the author of it had
+been killed, the law had survived him, being too clearly right and
+politic in itself to be openly set aside. For two years the
+commissioners had continued to work, and in that time forty thousand
+families were settled on various parts of the _ager publicus_, which the
+patricians had been compelled to resign. This was all which they could
+do. The displacement of one set of inhabitants and the introduction of
+another could not be accomplished without quarrels, complaints, and
+perhaps some injustice. Those who entered on possession were not always
+satisfied. The commissioners became unpopular. When the cries against
+them became loud enough, they were suspended, and the law was then
+quietly repealed. The Senate had regained its hold over the Assembly,
+and had a further opportunity of showing its recovered ascendency when,
+two years after the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, one of his friends
+introduced a bill to make the tribunes legally re-eligible. Caius
+Gracchus actively supported the change, but it had no success; and,
+waiting till times had altered, and till he had arrived at an age when
+he could carry weight, the young brother retired from politics, and
+spent the next few years with the army in Africa and Sardinia, he served
+with distinction; he made a name for himself, both as a soldier and an
+administrator. Had the Senate left him alone, he might have been
+satisfied with a regular career, and have risen by the ordinary steps to
+the consulship. But the Senate saw in him the possibilities of a second
+Tiberius; the higher his reputation, the more formidable he became to
+them. They vexed him with petty prosecutions, charged him with crimes
+which had no existence, and at length, by suspicion and injustice, drove
+him into open war with them. Caius Gracchus had a broader intellect than
+his brother, and a character considerably less noble. The land question
+he perceived was but one of many questions. The true source of the
+disorders of the commonwealth was the Senate itself. The administration
+of the empire was in the hands of men totally unfit to be trusted with
+it, and there he thought the reform must commence. He threw himself on
+the people, he was chosen tribune in 123, ten years exactly after
+Tiberius. He had studied the disposition of parties. He had seen his
+brother fall because the Equites and the senators, the great commoners
+and the nobles, were combined against him. He revived the Agrarian law
+as a matter of course, but he disarmed the opposition to it by throwing
+an apple of discord between the two superior orders. The high judicial
+functions in the commonwealth had been hitherto a senatorial monopoly.
+All cases of importance, civil or criminal, came before courts of sixty
+or seventy jurymen, who, as the law stood, must be necessarily senators.
+The privilege had been extremely lucrative. The corruption of justice
+was already notorious, though it had not yet reached the level of infamy
+which it attained in another generation. It was no secret that in
+ordinary causes jurymen had sold their verdicts, and, far short of
+taking bribes in the direct sense of the word, there were many ways in
+which they could let themselves be approached, and their favor
+purchased. A monopoly of privileges is always invidious. A monopoly in
+the sale of justice is alike hateful to those who abhor iniquity on
+principle, and to those who would like to share the profits of it. But
+this was not the worst. The governors of the provinces, being chosen
+from those who had been consuls or prętors, were necessarily members of
+the Senate. Peculation and extortion in these high functions were
+offences, in theory, of the gravest kind; but the offender could only be
+tried before a limited number of his peers, and a governor who had
+plundered a subject state, sold justice, pillaged temples, and stolen
+all that he could lay hands on, was safe from punishment if he returned
+to Rome a millionnaire and would admit others to a share in his spoils.
+The provincials might send deputations to complain, but these complaints
+came before men who had themselves governed provinces, or else aspired
+to govern them. It had been proved in too many instances that the law
+which professed to protect them was a mere mockery.
+
+Caius Gracchus secured the affections of the knights to himself, and
+some slightly increased chance of an improvement in the provincial
+administration, by carrying a law in the Assembly disabling the senators
+from sitting on juries of any kind from that day forward, and
+transferring the judicial functions to the Equites. How bitterly must
+such a measure have been resented by the Senate, which at once robbed
+them of their protective and profitable privileges, handed them over to
+be tried by their rivals for their pleasant irregularities, and stamped
+them at the same time with the brand of dishonesty! How certainly must
+such a measure have been deserved when neither consul nor tribune could
+be found to interpose his vote! Supported by the grateful knights, Caius
+Gracchus was for the moment all-powerful. It was not enough to restore
+the Agrarian law. He passed another aimed at his brother's murderers,
+which was to bear fruit in later years, that no Roman citizen might be
+put to death by any person, however high in authority, without legal
+trial, and without appeal, if he chose to make it, to the sovereign
+people. A blow was thus struck against another right claimed by the
+Senate, of declaring the Republic in danger, and the temporary
+suspension of the constitution. These measures might be excused, and
+perhaps commended; but the younger Gracchus connected his name with
+another change less commendable, which was destined also to survive and
+bear fruit. He brought forward and carried through, with enthusiastic
+clapping of every pair of hands in Rome that were hardened with labor, a
+proposal that there should be public granaries in the city, maintained
+and filled at the cost of the state, and that corn should be sold at a
+rate artificially cheap to the poor free citizens. Such a law was purely
+socialistic. The privilege was confined to Rome, because in Rome the
+elections were held, and the Roman constituency was the one depositary
+of power. The effect was to gather into the city a mob of needy
+unemployed voters, living on the charity of the state, to crowd the
+circus and to clamor at the elections, available no doubt immediately to
+strengthen the hands of the popular tribune, but certain in the long run
+to sell themselves to those who could bid highest for their voices.
+Excuses could be found, no doubt, for this miserable expedient, in the
+state of parties, in the unscrupulous violence of the aristocracy, in
+the general impoverishment of the peasantry through the land monopoly,
+and in the intrusion upon Italy of a gigantic system of slave labor. But
+none the less it was the deadliest blow which had yet been dealt to the
+constitution. Party government turns on the majorities at the polling
+places, and it was difficult afterward to recall a privilege which, once
+conceded, appeared to be a right. The utmost that could be ventured in
+later times, with any prospect of success, was to limit an intolerable
+evil, and if one side was ever strong enough to make the attempt, their
+rivals had a bribe ready in their hands to buy back the popular support.
+Caius Gracchus, however, had his way, and carried all before him. He
+escaped the rock on which his brother had been wrecked. He was elected
+tribune a second time. He might have had a third term if he had been
+contented to be a mere demagogue. But he, too, like Tiberius, had
+honorable aims. The powers which he had played into the hands of the mob
+to obtain, he desired to use for high purposes of statesmanship, and his
+instrument broke in his hands. He was too wise to suppose that a Roman
+mob, fed by bounties from the treasury, could permanently govern the
+world. He had schemes for scattering Roman colonies, with the Roman
+franchise, at various points of the empire.
+
+Carthage was to be one of them. He thought of abolishing the distinction
+between Romans and Italians, and enfranchising the entire peninsula.
+These measures were good in themselves--essential, indeed, if the Roman
+conquests were to form a compact and permanent dominion. But the object
+was not attainable on the road on which Gracchus had entered. The
+vagabond part of the constituency was well contented with what it had
+obtained, a life in the city, supported at the public expense, with
+politics and games for its amusements. It had not the least inclination
+to be drafted off into settlements in Spain or Africa, where there would
+be work instead of pleasant idleness. Carthage was still a name of
+terror. To restore Carthage was no better than treason. Still less had
+the Roman citizens an inclination to share their privileges with
+Samnites and Etruscans, and see the value of their votes watered down.
+Political storms are always cyclones. The gale from the east to-day is a
+gale from the west to-morrow. Who and what were the Gracchi, then?--the
+sweet voices began to ask--ambitious intriguers, aiming at dictatorship,
+or perhaps the crown. The aristocracy were right, after all; a few
+things had gone wrong, but these had been amended. The Scipios and
+Metelli had conquered the world: the Scipios and Metelli were alone fit
+to govern it. Thus, when the election time came round, the party of
+reform was reduced to a minority of irreconcilable radicals, who were
+easily disposed of. Again, as ten years before, the noble lords armed
+their followers. Riots broke out and extended day after day. Caius
+Gracchus was at last killed, as his brother had been, and under cover of
+the disturbance three thousand of his friends were killed along with
+him. The power being again securely in their hands, the Senate proceeded
+at their leisure, and the surviving patriots who were in any way
+notorious or dangerous were hunted down in legal manner, and put to
+death or banished.
+
+
+
+
+ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA
+
+By ANNA JAMESON
+
+(REIGNED 267-273 A.D.)
+
+[Illustration: Zenobia.]
+
+
+Of the government and manners of the Arabians before the time of
+Mahomet, we have few and imperfect accounts; but from the remotest ages
+they led the same unsettled and predatory life which they do at this
+day, dispersed in hordes, and dwelling under tents. It was not to those
+wild and wandering tribes that the superb Palmyra owed its rise and
+grandeur, though situated in the midst of their deserts, where it is now
+beheld in its melancholy beauty and ruined splendor, like an enchanted
+island in the midst of an ocean of sands. The merchants who trafficked
+between India and Europe, by the only route then known, first colonized
+this singular spot, which afforded them a convenient resting-place; and
+even in the days of Solomon it was the emporium for the gems and gold,
+the ivory, gums, spices, and silks of the far Eastern countries, which
+thus found their way to the remotest parts of Europe. The Palmyrenes
+were, therefore, a mixed race--their origin, and many of their customs,
+were Egyptian; their love of luxury and their manners were derived from
+Persia; their language, literature, and architecture were Greek.
+
+Thus, like Venice and Genoa, in more modern times, Palmyra owed its
+splendor to the opulence and public spirit of its merchants; but its
+chief fame and historical interest it owes to the genius and heroism of
+a woman.
+
+[Illustration: Zenobia Captive.]
+
+Septimia Zenobia, for such is her classical appellation, was the
+daughter of an Arab chief, Amrou, the son of Dharb, the son of Hassan.
+Of her first husband we have no account; she was left a widow at a
+very early age, and married, secondly, Odenathus, chief of several
+tribes of the desert, near Palmyra, and a prince of extraordinary valor
+and boundless ambition. Odenathus was the ally of the Romans in their
+wars against Sapor (or, more properly, Shah Poor), king of Persia; he
+gained several splendid victories over that powerful monarch, and twice
+pursued his armies even to the gates of Ctesiphon (or Ispahan), his
+capital. Odenathus was as fond of the chase as of war, and in all his
+military and hunting expeditions he was accompanied by his wife
+Zenobia--a circumstance which the Roman historians record with
+astonishment and admiration, as contrary to their manners, but which was
+the general custom of the Arab women of that time. Zenobia not only
+excelled her countrywomen in the qualities for which they were all
+remarkable--in courage, prudence, and fortitude, in patience of fatigue,
+and activity of mind and body--she also possessed a more enlarged
+understanding; her views were more enlightened, her habits more
+intellectual. The successes of Odenathus were partly attributed to her,
+and they were always considered as reigning jointly. She was also
+eminently beautiful--with the oriental eyes and complexion, teeth like
+pearls, and a voice of uncommon power and sweetness.
+
+Odenathus obtained from the Romans the title of Augustus, and General of
+the East; he revenged the fate of Valerian, who had been taken captive
+and put to death by Shah Poor: the eastern king, with a luxurious
+barbarity truly oriental, is said to have used the unfortunate emperor
+as his footstool to mount his horse. But in the midst of his victories
+and conquests Odenathus became the victim of a domestic conspiracy, at
+the head of which was his nephew Męonius. He was assassinated at Emessa
+during a hunting expedition, and with him his son by his first marriage.
+Zenobia avenged the death of her husband on his murderers, and as her
+sons were yet in their infancy, she first exercised the supreme power in
+their name; but afterward, apparently with the consent of the people,
+assumed the diadem with the titles of Augusta and Queen of the East.
+
+The Romans, and their effeminate emperor Gallienus, refused to
+acknowledge Zenobia's claim to the sovereignty of her husband's
+dominions, and Heraclianus was sent with a large army to reduce her to
+obedience; but Zenobia took the field against him, engaged and totally
+defeated him in a pitched battle. Not satisfied with this triumph over
+the haughty masters of the world, she sent her general Zabdas to attack
+them in Egypt, which she subdued and added to her territories, together
+with a part of Armenia and Asia Minor. Thus her dominions extended from
+the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and over all those vast and fertile
+countries formerly governed by Ptolemy and Seleucus. Jerusalem, Antioch,
+Damascus, and other cities famed in history, were included in her
+empire, but she fixed her residence at Palmyra, and in an interval of
+peace she turned her attention to the further adornment of her
+magnificent capital. It is related by historians, that many of those
+stupendous fabrics of which the mighty ruins are still existing, were
+either erected, or at least restored and embellished, by this
+extraordinary woman. But that which we have most difficulty in
+reconciling with the manners of her age and country, was Zenobia's
+passion for study, and her taste for the Greek and Latin literature.
+She is said to have drawn up an epitome of history for her own use; the
+Greek historians, poets, and philosophers were familiar to her; she
+invited Longinus, one of the most elegant writers of antiquity, to her
+splendid court, and appointed him her secretary and minister. For her he
+composed his famous "Treatise on the Sublime," a work which is not only
+admirable for its intrinsic excellence, but most valuable as having
+preserved to our times many beautiful fragments of ancient poets whose
+works are now lost, particularly those of Sappho.
+
+The classical studies of Zenobia seem to have inspired her with some
+contempt for her Arab ancestry. She was fond of deriving her origin from
+the Macedonian kings of Egypt, and of reckoning Cleopatra among her
+progenitors. In imitation of the famous Egyptian queen, she affected
+great splendor in her style of living and in her attire; and drank her
+wine out of cups of gold richly carved and adorned with gems. It is,
+however, admitted that in female dignity and discretion, as well as in
+beauty, she far surpassed Cleopatra. She administered the government of
+her empire with such admirable prudence and policy, and in particular
+with such strict justice toward all classes of her subjects, that she
+was beloved by her own people, and respected and feared by the
+neighboring nations. She paid great attention to the education of her
+three sons, habited them in the Roman purple, and brought them up in the
+Roman fashion. But this predilection for the Greek and Roman manners
+appears to have displeased and alienated the Arab tribes; for it is
+remarked that after this time their fleet cavalry, inured to the deserts
+and unequalled as horsemen, no longer formed the strength of her army.
+
+While Gallienus and Claudius governed the Roman empire, Zenobia was
+allowed to pursue her conquests, rule her dominions, and enjoy her
+triumphs almost without opposition; but at length the fierce and active
+Aurelian was raised to the purple, and he was indignant that a woman
+should thus brave with impunity the offended majesty of Rome. Having
+subdued all his competitors in the West, he turned his arms against the
+Queen of the East. Zenobia, undismayed by the terrors of the Roman name,
+levied troops, placed herself at their head, and gave the second command
+to Zabdas, a brave, and hitherto successful, general. The first great
+battle took place near Antioch; Zenobia was totally defeated after an
+obstinate conflict; but, not disheartened by this reverse, she retired
+upon Emessa, rallied her armies, and once more defied the Roman emperor.
+Being again defeated with great loss, and her army nearly dispersed, the
+high-spirited queen withdrew to Palmyra, collected her friends around
+her, strengthened her fortifications, and declared her resolution to
+defend her capital and her freedom to the last moment of her existence.
+
+Zenobia was conscious of the great difficulties which would attend the
+siege of a great city, well stored with provisions and naturally
+defended by surrounding deserts; these deserts were infested by clouds
+of Arabs, who, appearing and disappearing with the swiftness and
+suddenness of a whirlwind, continually harassed her enemies. Thus
+defended without, and supported by a strong garrison within, Zenobia
+braved her antagonist from the towers of Palmyra as boldly as she had
+defied him in the field of battle. The expectation of succors from the
+East added to her courage, and determined her to persevere to the last.
+"Those," said Aurelian in one of his letters, "who speak with contempt
+of the war I am waging against a woman, are ignorant both of the
+character and power of Zenobia. It is impossible to enumerate her
+warlike preparations of stones, of arrows, and of every species of
+missile weapons and military engines."
+
+Aurelian, in fact, became doubtful of the event of the siege, and he
+offered the queen the most honorable terms of capitulation if she would
+surrender to his arms; but Zenobia, who was aware that famine raged in
+the Roman camp, and daily looked for the expected relief, rejected his
+proposals in a famous Greek epistle, written with equal arrogance and
+eloquence; she defied the utmost of his power; and, alluding to the fate
+of Cleopatra, expressed her resolution to die like her rather than yield
+to the Roman arms. Aurelian was incensed by this haughty letter, even
+more than by dangers and delays attending the siege; he redoubled his
+efforts, he cut off the succors she expected; he found means to subsist
+his troops even in the midst of the desert; every day added to the
+number and strength of his army, every day increased the difficulties of
+Zenobia, and the despair of the Palmyrenes. The city could not hold out
+much longer, and the queen resolved to fly, not to insure her own
+safety, but to bring relief to her capital--such at least is the excuse
+made for a part of her conduct which certainly requires apology. Mounted
+on a fleet dromedary, she contrived to elude the vigilance of the
+besiegers, and took the road to the Euphrates; but she was pursued by a
+party of the Roman light cavalry, overtaken, and brought as a captive
+into the presence of Aurelian. He sternly demanded how she had dared to
+oppose the power of Rome? to which she replied, with a mixture of
+firmness and gentleness, "Because I disdained to acknowledge as my
+masters such men as Aureolus and Gallienus. To Aurelian I submit as my
+conqueror and my sovereign." Aurelian was not displeased at the artful
+compliment implied in this answer, but he had not forgotten the
+insulting arrogance of her former reply. While this conference was going
+forward in the tent of the Roman emperor, the troops, who were enraged
+by her long and obstinate resistance, and all they had suffered during
+the siege, assembled in tumultuous bands calling out for vengeance, and
+with loud and fierce cries demanding her instant death. The unhappy
+queen, surrounded by the ferocious and insolent soldiery, forgot all her
+former vaunts and intrepidity; her feminine terrors had perhaps been
+excusable if they had not rendered her base; but in her first panic she
+threw herself on the mercy of the emperor, accused her ministers as the
+cause of her determined resistance, and confessed that Longinus had
+written in her name that eloquent letter of defiance which had so
+incensed the emperor.
+
+Longinus, with the rest of her immediate friends and counsellors, were
+instantly sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers, and the philosopher
+met death with all the fortitude which became a wise and great man,
+employing his last moments in endeavoring to console Zenobia and
+reconcile her to her fate.
+
+Palmyra surrendered to the conqueror, who seized upon the treasures of
+the city, but spared the buildings and the lives of the inhabitants.
+Leaving in the place a garrison of Romans, he returned to Europe,
+carrying with him Zenobia and her family, who were destined to grace his
+triumph.
+
+But scarcely had Aurelian reached the Hellespont, when tidings were
+brought to him that the inhabitants of Palmyra had again revolted, and
+had put the Roman governor and garrison to the sword. Without a moment's
+deliberation the emperor turned back, reached Palmyra by rapid marches,
+and took a terrible vengeance on that miserable and devoted city; he
+commanded the indiscriminate massacre of all the inhabitants--men,
+women, and children; fired its magnificent edifices, and levelled its
+walls to the ground. He afterward repented of his fury, and devoted a
+part of the captured treasures to reinstate some of the glories he had
+destroyed; but it was too late; he could not reanimate the dead, nor
+raise from its ruins the stupendous Temple of the Sun. Palmyra became
+desolate; its very existence was forgotten, until about a century ago,
+when some English travellers discovered it by accident. Thus the blind
+fury of one man extinguished life, happiness, industry, art, and
+intelligence through a vast extent of country, and severed a link which
+had long connected the eastern and western continents of the old world.
+
+When Aurelian returned to Rome after the termination of this war, he
+celebrated his triumph with extraordinary pomp. A vast number of
+elephants and tigers, and strange beasts from the conquered countries;
+sixteen hundred gladiators, an innumerable train of captives, and a
+gorgeous display of treasures--gold, silver, gems, plate, glittering
+raiment, and Oriental luxuries and rarities, the rich plunder of
+Palmyra, were exhibited to the populace. But every eye was fixed on the
+beautiful and majestic figure of the Syrian queen, who walked in the
+procession before her own sumptuous chariot, attired in her diadem and
+royal robes, blazing with jewels, her eyes fixed on the ground, and her
+delicate form drooping under the weight of her golden fetters, which
+were so heavy that two slaves were obliged to assist in supporting them
+on either side; while the Roman populace, at that time the most brutal
+and degraded in the whole world, gaped and stared upon her misery, and
+shouted in exultation over her fall. Perhaps Zenobia may in that moment
+have thought upon Cleopatra, whose example she had once proposed to
+follow; and, according to the pagan ideas of greatness and fortitude,
+envied her destiny, and felt her own ignominy with all the bitterness of
+a vain repentance.
+
+The captivity of Zenobia took place in the year 273, and in the fifth
+year of her reign. There are two accounts of her subsequent fate,
+differing widely from each other. One author asserts that she starved
+herself to death, refusing to survive her own disgrace and the ruin of
+her country; but others inform us that the Emperor Aurelian bestowed on
+her a superb villa at Tivoli, where she resided in great honor; and that
+she was afterward united to a Roman senator, with whom she lived many
+years, and died at a good old age. Her daughters married into Roman
+families, and it is said that some of her descendants remained so late
+as the fifth century.
+
+
+
+
+SIEGFRIED[3]
+
+         [Footnote 3: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By KARL BLIND
+
+(ABOUT 450)
+
+[Illustration: Siegfried.]
+
+
+Siegfried is the name of the mythic national hero of the Germans, whose
+tragic fate is most powerfully described in the "Nibelungen Lied," and
+in a series of lays of the Icelandic Edda. A matchless warrior, a
+Dragon-killer and overthrower of Giants, who possesses a magic sword, he
+conquers the northern Nibelungs and acquires their famed gold hoard. In
+the great German epic he is the son of Siegmund and Siegelinde, who rule
+in the Netherlands. Going Rhine-upward to Worms, to Gunther, the King of
+the Burgundians, he woos and wins Kriemhild, the beautiful sister of
+that king, after having first helped Gunther to gain the hand of
+Brünhild, a queen beyond sea, in Iceland. No one could obtain that
+valiant virgin's consent to wedlock unless he proved a victor over her
+in athletic feats, and in trials of battle. By means of his own colossal
+strength and his hiding hood, Siegfried, standing invisibly at the side
+of Gunther, overcomes Brünhild. Even after the marriage has been
+celebrated at Worms, Siegfried has once more to help the Burgundian king
+in the same hidden way, in order to vanquish Brünhild's resistance to
+the accomplishment of the marriage. When, in later times, Kriemhild and
+Brünhild fall out in a quarrel about their husbands' respective worth,
+the secret of such stealthy aid having been given, is let out by the
+former in a manner affecting the honor of the Burgundian queen as a
+wife. Thereupon Hagen promises her to effect a revenge. Having deftly
+ascertained from Kriemhild the single vulnerable part of the hero, whose
+skin had otherwise been made impenetrable by being dipped into the
+Dragon's blood, Hagen treacherously murders Siegfried at a chase. The
+gold hoard is then sunk in the Rhine by Hagen, lest Kriemhild should use
+it as a means of bribing men for wreaking her own revenge. She afterward
+becomes the consort of Etzel, the heathen king of the Hiunes (Hunns) in
+Hungary, who resides at Vienna. Thither she allures the Burgundians,
+Hagen alone mistrusting the invitation. In Etzel's eastern land all the
+Burgundian knights, upon whom the Nibelung name had been conferred,
+suffer a terrible death through Kriemhild's wrath. Hagen, who refuses to
+the end to reveal to her the whereabouts of the sunken gold hoard, has
+his head cut off with Siegfried's sword by the infuriated queen herself.
+At last, she, too, is hewn down by the indignant, doughty warrior,
+Hildebrand; and so the lofty Hall, into which fire had been thrown, is
+all strewn over with the dead. "Here," says the poem, "has the tale an
+end. These were the sorrows of the Nibelungs."
+
+In this "Iliad of the Germans," which dates from the end of the twelfth
+century, the Siegfried story is given as a finished epic. But its
+originally heathen Teutonic character is overlaid there with admixtures
+of Christian chivalry. In the Edda and other Scandinavian sources, the
+tale appears in fragmentary and lyrical shape, but in a purer version,
+without additions from the new faith or from medięval chivalry. It is in
+the Sigurd-, Fafnir-, Brynhild-, Gudrun-, Oddrun-, Atli-, and Hamdir
+Lays of the Norse Scripture that the original nature of the older German
+songs, which must have preceded the epic, can best be guessed. Rhapsodic
+lays, referring to Siegfried, were, in all probability, part of the
+collection which Karl the Great, the Frankish Kaiser, ordered to be
+made. Monkish fanaticism afterward destroyed the valuable relics.
+Fortunately, Northmen travelling in Germany had gathered some of those
+tale-treasures, which then were treated by Scandinavian and Icelandic
+bards in the form of heroic lyrics. Hence the Eddic lays in question
+form now a link between our lost Siegfried "Lieder" and our national
+epic.
+
+Even as in the "Nibelungen Lied" so also in the "Edda," Sigurd
+(abbreviation for Siegfried) is not a Scandinavian, but a Southern, a
+Rhenish, a German hero. The whole scene of the tragic events is laid in
+the Rhinelands, where the killing of the Worm also takes place. On a
+hill in Frank-land Sigurd frees Brynhild from the magic slumber into
+which Odin had thrown her on a rock of punishment, because she, as a
+Valkyr, or shield-maiden of his, had brought about the death of a Gothic
+king to whom the god of battle had promised victory. In the south, on
+the Rhine, Sigurd is murdered. In the Rhine, Högni (Hagen) hides the
+Nibelung treasure. Many German tribes--Franks, Saxons, Burgundians,
+Goths, even a Svava-land, or Suabian land, are mentioned in the "Edda."
+The "Drama of Revenge," after Sigurd's death, though motives of the act
+somewhat different from those stated in the "Nibelungen Lied" are
+assigned, is also localized on the Lower Rhine, in the Hall of Atli, the
+King of the Hunes. In the "Nibelungen Lied," that name appears as Etzel
+(Attila), King of the Hunns.
+
+In the "Edda" and in the "Vilkina Saga," Germans are referred to as
+sources for some details of the Sigurd story. So strong was, in
+Scandinavia, the tradition of the Teutonic origin of the tale, down to
+the twelfth century, that, in a geographical work written in Norse by
+the Abbot Nicolaus, the Gnita Heath, where Sigurd was said to have
+killed the Dragon, was still placed half-way between Paderborn and
+Mainz. Thus it was from Germany that this grand saga spread all over the
+North, including the Faröer. In the "Hvenic Chronicle," in Danish songs,
+we even find Siegfried as "Sigfred;" Kriemhild as "Gremild;" and she is
+married to him at Worms, as in the "Nibelungen Lied," while in the
+"Edda" Sigurd's wife is called Gudrun, and the remembrance of Worms is
+lost. The scene of the Norse poems is wholly on Rhenish ground.
+
+[Illustration: Siegfried slaying the Dragon.]
+
+Now, in that neighborhood, in the northwest of Germany, a Teutonic tribe
+once dwelt, called Hunes, which is also traceable in Scandinavia. Sigurd
+himself is, in the "Edda," described as a Hunic king. His kith and
+kin dwell in Huna-land. "Hune" probably meant a bold and powerful
+warrior. The word still lingers in Germany in various ways; gigantic
+grave-monuments of prehistoric times are called Hunic Graves or
+"Hünen-Betten," and a tall, strong man a "Hüne." In his "Church History"
+the Anglo-Saxon monk Baeda, or Bede, when speaking of the various German
+tribes which had made Britain into an Angle-land, or England, mentions
+the Hunes. In the Anglo-Saxon "Wanderer's Tale" they also turn up,
+apparently in connection with a chieftain Aetla; that is, Atli. In
+Friesland, the Hunsing tribe long preserved the Hunic name. The word
+occurs in many personal and place names both in Germany and in England;
+for instance: Hunolt (a Rhenish hero), Hunferd, Hunlaf, Hunbrecht
+(champions among Frisians and Rhinelanders in the "Beowulf" epic);
+Huneboldt (bold like a Hune); Ethelhun (noble Hune); then there are, in
+German geography, the Hunsrück Mountain; Hunoldstein, Hunenborn,
+Hunnesrück, near Hildesheim, etc. Again, in England: Hundon, Hunworth,
+Hunstanton, Huncote, Hunslet, Hunswick, and many other places from Kent
+and Suffolk up to Lancashire and Shetland, where certainly no Mongolic
+Hunns ever penetrated. The Hunic Atli name is also to be found on
+English soil, in Attlebridge and Attleborough.
+
+After the Great Migrations the various tribes and races became much
+intermixed. It was by a misunderstanding which arose then between the
+German Hunes and the Hunns under Attila's leadership, that Kriemhild's
+revenge after the murder of Siegfried was poetically transferred from
+the Rhine to the Danube. The name of the Rhenish Atli, which is
+preserved in the "Edda," and which also occurs as a German chieftain's
+name on the soil of conquered Britain, easily served to facilitate the
+confusion. Even the composition of Attila's army lent itself to this
+transplantation of the second part of the Siegfried story to Danubian
+lands. For, though Attila was overthrown on the Catalaunian fields,
+mainly by Germanic hosts, to which Roman and Gallic troops were added,
+he had a great many Teutonic warriors in his own army. From this
+military intermingling of races so utterly dissimilar in blood and
+speech as the Hunns and the Germans, one of whose tribes were called
+Hunes, it is not difficult to conceive the shifting of the tragic issue
+of the Nibelung story to the East. Attila, the Hunn, slid into the
+previous Teutonic hero-figure of Atli, the Hune. This change will the
+more easily be understood when the deep impression is remembered which
+the terrible Mongolic war-leader had made on the popular mind in
+southern Germany, where the Nibelungen epic was cast into its present
+shape.
+
+The hold which the Siegfried story has had on the German people, through
+ages, can be gathered from the fact of its having kept its place, down
+to our days, in the workman's house and the peasant's hut, first by oral
+tradition, and then by rudely printed and illustrated chap-books ("Die
+Geschichte vom hürnenen Siegfried"). In this "Volksbuch" there are
+remarkable details concerning the hero's early life in a smithy and the
+prophecy of his assassination, which are lost in the "Nibelungen Lied,"
+but preserved in the "Edda." This circumstance--overlooked even by
+Simrock, who, like Jacob Grimm, has done much to show the German origin
+of the Norse Sigurd saga--is another curious bit of evidence of the
+undeniable Teutonic source of the corresponding Scandinavian and
+Icelandic stories and poems.
+
+Many attempts have been made to get at the historical kernel of the
+tale. Some would see in it traces of the songs which, according to
+Tacitus, were sung, of old, in honor of Armin (usually, though
+mistakenly, called Hermann), the deliverer of Germany from the Roman
+yoke. It has been assumed that the contents of these songs were combined
+with traditions of the deeds of Civilis, the leader of the Batavian
+Germans against Roman dominion, as well as of the conquest of Britain by
+Hengest. Recently, the Norse scholar, Gudbrand Vigfśsson, has once more
+started this "Armin" interpretation of the tale, under the impression
+that he was the first to do so; whereas, in Germany, Mone and
+Giesebrecht had worked out that idea already some sixty years ago. In
+order to support his theory, Vigfśsson boldly proposed to change the
+Hunic name of Sigurd, in the Eddic text, into "Cheruskian." He imagined
+the former name to be absurd, because Siegfried was not a Hunn; but
+Vigfśsson was unacquainted with the wide historical distribution of the
+Hunic name in Germany and England.
+
+Others saw in the Siegfried story an echo of the overthrow of the
+Burgundian king Gundahari (Gunther), by Attila, on the Rhine. Gundahari,
+who first threw himself with an army of 20,000 men against the Hunnic
+leader, gloriously fell with all his men. In the same way, in the
+"Nibelungen Lied," the Burgundian king, Gunther, is killed, with all his
+men, in the land of Etzel, the ruler of the Hiunes. Again, others have
+pointed to the feats of Theodorick, the king of the Eastern Goths; or to
+the fate of Siegbert, the king of the Austrasian Franks, who was
+murdered at the instigation of Fredegunda; or to the powerful Frankish
+family of the Pipins, from whom Karl the Great hailed, by way of trying
+to explain some parts of the Siegfried story. With the Pipins of
+"Nivella," we come upon a word in consonance with "Nibelung."
+
+Then the wars which the Frankish Kaiser Karl waged against the Saxons of
+Witukind, have been held to be indicated in the war which the Frankish
+Siegfried, in the "Nibelungen Lied," wages against the Saxons. To all
+appearance, however, the tale is a mixture of mythological and
+historical traditions. In the Middle Ages, and still much later,
+Siegfried was looked upon as an undoubtedly historical figure. His
+praise was sung through all Germany. His very tomb, one of his weapons,
+as well as his carved image, were shown under the name of Siegfried's
+grave, Siegfried's spear, and Siegfried's statue. So persistent was this
+belief that when, in the fifteenth century, Kaiser Frederick III. came
+to Worms, he had the alleged grave of "that second Hector and powerful
+giant" opened, to see whether his bones could be found. Only a head and
+a few bones were dug up, "larger than men's heads and bones usually
+are." At Worms, the Siegfried story was pictured, in ancient times, in
+the Town Hall and on the Mint. All round Worms, place-names connected
+with the Nibelung tale occur with remarkable frequency. If the lost
+rhapsodic songs could be recovered, both mythological and historical
+allusions would, in all likelihood, be found in them.
+
+An eminently Frankish tale, the Nibelungen cycle, has arisen in that
+martial German tribe which once held sway in the greater part of Europe.
+In its origin, the tale is considered by many careful investigators--so
+also by Richard Wagner, who founded his famous music-drama on it--to
+have been a Nature myth, upon which real events became engrafted. From
+this point of view, the earliest meaning of Siegfried's victory over the
+Dragon would signify the triumph of the God of Light over the monster of
+the chaotic aboriginal Night. It would be, on German ground, the
+overthrow of Python by Apollon. In this connection it is to be pointed
+out that Sigurd appears in the "Edda" as the hero "with the shining
+eyes," and that, in one of the German Rose Garden tales, twelve swords
+are attributed to him--a description which might be referred to the
+zodiac and to sunshine; so that he would be a solar hero. And even as
+Day is, in its turn, vanquished by Night; as Summer must yield to
+Winter; so also Siegfried falls in the end. The god which he originally
+was thus becomes human; the sad fate of so noble a champion gives rise
+to feelings of revenge for what is held to be an evil and criminal deed;
+and a tragedy is constructed, in which generations appear as actors and
+victims.
+
+A special feature of the Frankish myth is the hoard, the fatal treasure
+which works never-ending mischief. It is said to represent the metal
+veins of the subterranean Region of Gloom. There, as is stated in an
+Eddic record, Dark Elves (Nibelungs, or nebulous Sons of the Night) are
+digging and working, melting and forging the ore in their smithies,
+producing charmful rings that remind us of the diadems which bind the
+brows of rulers; golden ornaments and sharp weapons; all of which confer
+great power upon their owner. When Siegfried slays the Dragon, when
+Light overcomes Darkness, this hoard is his booty, and he becomes master
+of the Nibelungs. But the Dragon's dark heir ever seeks to regain it
+from the victor; so Night malignantly murders the Day; Hagen kills
+Siegfried. The treasure on which Siegfried's power is founded becomes
+the cause of his death; and through Death he himself, albeit originally
+a refulgent God of Light, is turned into a figure of gloom; that is, a
+Nibelung.
+
+There is much in the Norse Skalds which seems to support this
+mythological aspect of the tale. The name of Siegfried's murderer,
+Hagen--who is one-eyed, even as Hödur, the God of Night, who kills
+Baldur, the God of Light, is blind--has also been adduced for this
+interpretation. Hagen is explained as the Thorn of Death, the hawthorn
+(German Hagedorn), with which men are stung into eternal sleep, or
+rather into a death-like trance. Odin stings Brynhild into her trance
+with a sleeping-thorn. Hagen, in the sense of death, still lingers in
+the German expression, "Friend Hain," as a euphemism for the figure
+which announces that one's hour has come. The hawthorn was the special
+wood used for fire-burial in Germany; hence the figurative poetical
+expression which would make Hagen a synonym for death.
+
+In the German and Norse poems, as we possess them now, myth and
+apparently historical facts are inextricably welded together. A
+powerful representation of the Siegfried tale is given in the series of
+large pictures, at Munich, by the distinguished painter Schnorr von
+Karolsfeld.
+
+[Signature: Karl Blind.]
+
+
+
+
+KING ARTHUR
+
+By Rev. S. BARING-GOULD
+
+(About 520)
+
+[Illustration: King Arthur.]
+
+
+Arthur, king of the Siluri, or Dumnonii--British races driven back into
+the west of England by the Saxons--is represented as having united the
+British tribes in resisting the pagan invaders, and as having been the
+champion not only of his people but also of Christianity. He is said to
+have lived in the sixth century, and to have maintained a stubborn
+contest against the Saxon Cerdic, but the "Saxon Chronicle" is
+suspiciously silent as to his warfare and as to his existence. Indeed,
+the Welsh bards of the earliest period do not assert that he was a
+contemporary, and it is more than doubtful whether he is an historic
+personage. It is worthy of remark that the fame of Arthur is widely
+spread; he is claimed alike as a prince in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales,
+Cumberland, and the lowlands of Scotland; that is to say, his fame is
+conterminous with the Brithonic race, and does not extend to the Goidels
+or Gaels. As is now well known, Great Britain was twice invaded by races
+of Celtic blood and tongue; the first wave was that of the Goidels, and
+after a lapse of some considerable time a second Celtic wave, that of
+the Brithons, or Britons, from the east, overran Britain, and drove the
+Gaels to west and north. Finn and Ossian belong to the mythic heroic
+cycle of the Gaels, and Arthur and Merlin to that of the Britons. These
+several shadowy forms are probably deities shorn of their divinity and
+given historic attributes and position, much as, among the Norsemen,
+Odin, when he ceased to be regarded as the All-father, or God, came to
+be reckoned as an ancestor of the kings.
+
+In the lays of the Welsh bards, supposed to be as early as the sixth and
+seventh centuries (although no MS. is extant of older date than the
+twelfth century), Arthur and his brave companions are celebrated, but
+modestly and without marvels. It is possible that there may have existed
+in the sixth century a prince bearing the already well-known heroic
+name; and if so, about him the myths belonging to the remote ancestor or
+god have crystallized. The legendary additions begin to gather in the
+history of the Britons by Nennius, a writer supposed to have lived at
+the beginning of the seventh century; but Mr. Thomas Wright has shown
+("Biographia Literaria," Saxon period) that his history is a forgery of
+a much later date, probably of the tenth century. Mr. Skene, however
+("The Four Ancient Books of Wales"), makes fight to give Arthur an
+historic place, and we do not deny that there may have been a prince of
+that name. Next in order come the so-called Armoric collections of
+Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford (latter part of eleventh century), from
+which Geoffrey of Monmouth professes to translate, and in which the
+marvellous and supernatural elements largely prevail. Here for the first
+time the magician Merlin comes into association with Arthur. According
+to Geoffrey, Arthur's father, Uther, conceiving a passion for Igerna,
+wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, is changed by Merlin into the
+likeness of Gorlois, and Arthur is the result. After his father's death
+Arthur becomes paramount leader of the British, and makes victorious
+expeditions to Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, and also to France,
+where he defeats a great Roman army. During his absence his nephew,
+Modred, revolts, and seduces Prince Arthur's wife, Gweniver
+(Gwenhwywar). Arthur returning, falls in a battle with his nephew, and
+is carried to the Isle of Avalon to be cured of his wounds. Geoffrey's
+work apparently gave birth to a multitude of fictions, which came to be
+considered as quasi-historical traditions. From these, exaggerated by
+each succeeding age, and recast by each narrator, sprung the famous
+metrical romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, first in
+French and afterward in English, from which modern notions of Arthur are
+derived. In these his habitual residence is at Caerlon, on the Usk, in
+Wales, where, with his beautiful wife, Guinevere, he lives in splendid
+state, surrounded by hundreds of knights and beautiful ladies, who serve
+as patterns of valor, breeding, and grace to all the world. Twelve
+knights, the bravest of the throng, form the centre of this retinue, and
+sit with the king at a round table, the "Knights of the Round Table."
+From the court of King Arthur knights go forth to all countries in
+search of adventure--to protect women, chastise oppressors, liberate the
+enchanted, enchain giants and malicious dwarfs, is their knightly
+mission.
+
+The earliest legends of Arthur's exploits are to be found in the bardic
+lays attributed to the sixth and seventh centuries ("Myoyrian Archęology
+of Wales," 1801). A Welsh collection of stories called the "Mabinogion,"
+of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and translated into English
+by Lady Charlotte Guest in 1849, gives further Arthurian legends. Some
+of the stories "have the character of chivalric romances," and are
+therefore probably of French origin; while others "bear the impress of a
+far higher antiquity, both as regards the manners they depict and the
+style of language in which they are composed." These latter rarely
+mention Arthur, but the former belong, as Mr. Skene puts it, to the
+"full-blown Arthurian romance." Chrétien de Troies, the most famous of
+the old French trouvčres in the latter part of the twelfth century, made
+the Arthur legend the subject for his "Romans" and "Contes," as well as
+for two epics on Tristan; the Holy Grail, Peredur, etc., belonging to
+the same cycle. Early in the same century the Arthurian metrical romance
+became known in Germany, and there assumed a more animated and artistic
+form in the "Parzival" of Wolfram of Eschenbach, "Tristan und Isolt" of
+Gottfried of Strasburg, "Erec and Iwein" of Hartmann, and "Wigalois" of
+Wirnt. The most renowned of the heroes of the Arthurian school are
+Peredur (Parzival or Perceval), Tristan or Tristram, Iwein, Erec,
+Gawein, Wigalois, Wigamur, Gauriel, and Lancelot. From France the
+Arthurian romance spread also to Spain, Provence, Italy, and the
+Netherlands, even into Iceland, and was again transplanted into England.
+One of the publications that issued from the press of Caxton (1485) was
+a collection of stories by Sir Thomas Malory, either compiled by him in
+English, from various of the later French prose romances, or translated
+directly from an already existing French compendium. Copland reprinted
+the work in 1557, and in 1634 the last of the black-letter editions
+appeared. A reprint of Caxton's "Kynge Arthur," with an introduction and
+notes by Robert Southey, was issued in 1817--"The Byrth, Lyfe, and Actes
+of Kyng Arthur." The most complete edition is that by Thomas Wright,
+from the text of 1634.
+
+The name of King Arthur was given during the Middle Ages to many places
+and monuments supposed to have been in some way associated with his
+exploits, such as "Arthur's Seat," near Edinburgh, "Arthur's Oven," on
+the Carron, near Falkirk, etc. What was called the sepulchre of his
+queen was shown at Meigle, in Strathmore, in the sixteenth century. Near
+Boscastle, in Cornwall, is Pentargain, a headland called after him
+"Arthur's Head." Other localities take his name in Brittany. In the
+Middle Ages, in Germany, Arthur's Courts were buildings in which the
+patricians assembled. One such still remains at Danzig. There was one
+anciently at Thorn, about which a ballad and legend exist. Milton was
+meditating an Arthurian epic in 1639; and in our own day the interest of
+the legends about King Arthur and his knights has been revived by
+Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" and some of Wagner's operas. We must not
+omit to note the magnificent life-sized ideal bronze figure of Arthur,
+cast for the monument of Maximilian I., now in the Franciscan church at
+Innsbruck, and regarded as the finest among the series of heroes there
+represented.
+
+[Illustration: The Ruins of King Arthur's Castle.]
+
+
+
+
+ROLAND
+
+(740-778)
+
+  "O, for a blast of that dread horn,
+  On Fontarabian echoes borne
+      That to King Charles did come,
+  When Rowland brave, and Olivier,
+  And every paladin and peer
+      On Roncesvalles died!"--_Marmion._
+
+  "When Charlemain with all his peerage fell,
+      By Fontarabbia."--_Paradise Lost._
+
+[Illustration: Roland.]
+
+
+"A Roland for an Oliver!" Saving the passing reference by Scott and
+Milton, quoted above, Roland and Olivier are almost unknown to English
+readers, and yet their once familiar names, knit together for centuries,
+have passed into a proverb, to be remembered as we remember the
+friendship of David and Jonathan, or to be classed by the scholar with
+Pylades, and Orestes of classic story, or with Amys and Amylion of
+romance.
+
+The "Song of Roland" might be called the national epic of France. It
+corresponds to the "Mort d'Arthur" of England, the "Cid Chronicles" of
+Spain, the "Nibelungen Lied" of Germany, and the Longobardian legends of
+North Italy. Italian medięval literature is rich in the Roland romances,
+founded on the fabulous "Chronicle of John Turpin" and the "Chansons de
+Gestes," of which the "Song of Roland" is one. Of the Italian romances
+the "Morgante Maggiore" of Pulci was published as early as 1488,
+Boyardo's "Orlando Innamorata" in 1496, and Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso"
+in 1515. English versions of Boyardo and Ariosto have since been
+translated into the rhyming couplets of Hoole, and as late as 1831 into
+the _ottava rima_ stanzas of W. S. Rose. It was not, however, till
+April, 1880, that a full English translation of the original "Song of
+Roland," from MSS. written in the old _langue d'oil_ of Northern France,
+was published by Kegan, Paul & Co., from the pen of Mr. O'Hagan, Q.C.,
+of Dublin. Most probably it was a curtailed version of this romance that
+is referred to by Wace in his "Roman le Rou," when he records how, as
+the Normans marched to Senlac Hill, in 1066, the minstrel Taillefer
+sang,
+
+  "Of Roland and the heroes all
+   Who fell at fatal Roncesvall."
+
+Turning to the historical data on which the romance is based, it will be
+found that in the year 778 A.D. Charlemagne, accompanied by his nephew,
+Count Roland of Bretagne, and the flower of Frankish chivalry, made a
+raid across the Spanish border. Abdalrahman, the first of the great
+Spanish caliphs of Cordova, was engaged in putting down the rebellious
+chiefs who had refused to own their allegiance to the new caliphate. The
+frontier was therefore comparatively unprotected. The Spanish
+Christians, who maintained a precarious independence among the Asturias
+and Pyrenees, and who found it the wisest policy to be at peace with the
+Mohammedan rulers, were not strong enough to resist Charlemagne.
+Accordingly the Franks advanced nearly to Saragossa. On returning to
+France laden with spoil through the winding defile of Roncesvalles (the
+valley of thorns or briers), their rear-guard was cut off by a band of
+Basques or Gascons and Spanish-Arabians, and their leader, Roland,
+slain. To the presence of these Spanish Christians in the Moorish army
+must be attributed the origin of the many Spanish ballads on the
+victory, in which all the glory is due to the prowess of the national
+hero, Bernardo Del Carpio, "the doughtiest lance in Spain." It is
+curious also to note, on the other hand, that the Arabians themselves in
+their chronicles, translated by the Spanish historian Condé, make little
+of this victory, merely mentioning the fact. The Saracen King Marsil, or
+Marsilius, of Saragossa, so often referred to in this and other
+Carlovingian romances, is identified by Condé with the Mohammedan Wali,
+or Governor of Saragossa, Abdelmelic, the son of Omar, called by the
+Christians Omarus Filius, hence the corruption Marsilius.
+
+With these brief outlines of the history of Roncesvalles before us it is
+interesting to observe the grandiloquent strain of the old Norman
+_rymours_, the fearless exaggerations, and the total ignorance of the
+actual state of affairs in Spain under the enlightened and accomplished
+Arabians.
+
+  _"Carles li reis nostre emperere magnes,
+    Set anz tut pleins ad estet en Espaigne."_
+
+Our great emperor Charles the King had been for seven full years in
+Spain, so runs the chronicle; castle and keeper alike had gone down
+except Saragossa, the mountain town, where King Marsil held his court,
+surrounded by 20,000 Mohammedan nobles. At their council it was agreed
+to accept Spain as a fief from the emperor, and ten knights set out with
+golden bridles and silver saddles,
+
+  "And they ride with olive boughs in hand,
+   To seek the lord of the Frankish land."
+
+Near the pass of Roncesvalles, one of the Pyrenean "gates" of Spain,
+sits the emperor upon a throne of beaten gold. His form is tall and
+majestic, and his long white beard flows over his coat of mail. 'Tis
+whispered, too, that he is already two hundred years old, and yet, there
+he is in all his pride. Beside him stand his nephew Roland, the Lord
+Marquis of the marches of Bretagne; Sir Olivier; Geoffrey of Anjou, the
+progenitor of the Plantagenets; "and more than a thousand Franks of
+France." The Moslem knights are introduced to this council of war, King
+Marsil's offer is accepted, and Sir Ganelon is sent to Saragossa to
+represent the emperor. Jealous of Roland's military glory, and envious
+of the stores of pagan gold, the false Ganelon conspires with King
+Marsil to put the all-powerful Roland to death. King Marsil is assured
+that on receipt of the golden tribute, Charlemagne will be persuaded to
+leave Spain, while by the traitor's advice Roland will be appointed to
+remain behind and guard the rear of the retiring hosts. The scheme
+succeeded. Ganelon returned to the Frankish camp with the tribute-money
+for the emperor, and the traitor's gold for himself. The Franks begin
+their homeward march. They are now descending the mountains into their
+own fertile Gascon plains, and their hearts beat lightly, for
+
+  "They think of their homes and their manors there,
+   Their gentle spouses and damsels fair."
+
+But their great chief is silent and gloomy. Roland, the bravest of the
+brave, has been left behind with all the paladins, save Ganelon, beyond
+the gates of Spain. Last night the emperor dreamed he seemed to stand by
+Cizra's pass in Roncesvalles, when Ganelon appeared before him, wrenched
+the emperor's spear from out his hand, waved it on high, then dashed it
+in pieces. What did it mean? He remembered the ominous words of his
+peers, "Evil will come of this quest, we fear," and Ganelon's strange
+reply, "Ye shall hear."
+
+Meanwhile Sir Roland was far behind in Roncesvalles. He rode his gallant
+steed Veillantif; his white pennon, fringed with gold and set with
+diamonds, sparkled in the sunshine; and by his side he wore his famous
+sword Durindana, with its hilt of gold shaped like a cross, on which was
+graven the name of "Jesus." What a glorious picture of the Christian
+hero of medięval times! With him were Olivier, the good Archbishop
+Turpin, and the remaining knights who made up the Order of the Paladins
+of Charlemagne, together with an army of 20,000 men.
+
+The drums beat to arms in Saragossa's town, the tambours roll, the
+tabors sound, and 400,000 men attend the call of King Marsil. From a
+neighboring height Sir Olivier observes this countless host approaching.
+He calls to Roland to blow his ivory horn and bring back the emperor.
+Roland refuses, and the Franks prepare to fight; not, however, before on
+bended knee they receive the archbishop's benediction and a promise of
+paradise to all who die in this holy war against the pagan foe. With the
+old French battle-cry, "Mont-joie! Mont-joie!" the Christians dash the
+rowels into their steeds and close with the enemy. Homer does not relate
+a bloodier fight than that which follows, and which takes eighty-six
+stanzas, or fifty of Mr. O'Hagan's pages, to describe. Again and again
+the Christians charge the Saracens. What deeds the great sword Durindana
+did that day! The slain lie in thousands; the Saracens flee; and in the
+pursuit all are killed save _one_, who reaches Saragossa. The triumph,
+however, is short-lived; Ganelon had decreed that Roland must die, and
+so a mightier army than before marches forth to exterminate Roland's
+handful, now reduced to 300.
+
+During this battle a terrible storm passes over France,--thunder and
+whirlwinds, rain and hail, there came.
+
+The people thought that the end of the world had come, but this was only
+a foreshadowing of Roland's death. At last all the nobles are killed
+except Roland, Olivier, the archbishop, and sixty men. Then only will
+Roland deign to blow his horn. Charlemagne hears it thirty leagues away,
+and orders his army to return to Roncesvalles. Ganelon alone seeks to
+dissuade him, and is put in chains by the desire of the nobles, who
+suspect him. The army of Charles hurries back, but all too late. They
+will not arrive in time. Away in the Pass of Cizra, Roland looks around
+on his dead comrades and weeps. He returns to Olivier's side, who is
+engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter with King Marsil's uncle, the Moslem
+prince, Algalif, from whom he receives his death-wound. Olivier reels in
+his saddle, his eyes are dimmed with blood, and as he strikes madly
+about with his spear, he smashes Roland's helmet. The friend of Olivier
+is astonished, but soft and low he speaks to him thus:
+
+  "'Hast thou done it, my comrade, wittingly?
+    Roland who loves thee so dear am I.
+    Thou hast no quarrel with me to seek?'
+    Olivier answered, 'I hear thee speak,
+    But I see thee not; God seeth thee.
+    Have I struck thee, brother, forgive it me?'
+   'I am not hurt, O Olivier;
+    And in sight of God, I forgive thee here.'
+    Then to each other his head hath laid,
+    And in love like this was their parting made."
+
+With hands clasped Sir Olivier cries to God for admittance into
+Paradise, and for a blessing on "King Karl and France the fair," and
+above all on his brother Roland. Then his hands fall, his head sinks on
+his breast, and he passes away. Filled with grief, Roland murmurs:
+
+  "So many days and years gone by
+   We lived together.
+   And thou hast never done me wrong.
+   Since thou art dead, to live is pain."
+
+Once more Roland turns to where Count Walter of Hum and the archbishop
+alone stand at bay:
+
+  "And the heathen cries, 'What a felon three!
+   Look to it, lords, that they shall not flee.'"
+
+[Illustration: Roland at Roncesvalles.]
+
+Count Walter falls at last, just as they hear the welcome sound of
+Charlemagne's trumpets, at which the Saracens flee, leaving Roland and
+the archbishop unconquered. But their end is near. Roland swoons, and
+the good archbishop, in attempting to bring water in the famous horn
+for the dying Paladin, falls from loss of blood. Roland recovers only in
+time to see him die; then, as he feels that death is near him also, he
+looks once more on his goodly sword Durindana, and as he looks he cries:
+
+  "Oh fair and holy, my peerless sword,
+   What relics lie in thy pommel stored--
+   Tooth of St. Peter, Saint Basil's blood,
+   Hair of St. Denis beside them strewed,
+   Fragment of Holy Mary's vest--
+  'Twere shame that thou with the heathen rest,
+   Thee should the hand of a Christian serve,
+   One who should never in battle swerve."
+
+In despair lest it fall into pagan hands he tries to break it in pieces,
+and the mighty slashes he made in the rocks are still pointed out as the
+"Brčche de Roland." You remember Wordsworth's lines:
+
+                    "the Pyrenean breach,
+  Which Roland clove with huge two-handed sway,
+  And to the enormous labor left his name,
+  Where unremitting frost the rocky crescents bleach."
+
+Surely Roland might now rest from his labors, amid the "flowerets of
+Paradise." But no; he had yet to smash the head of a prowling Saracen
+who thought him an easy prey. In doing so he spoiled forever the ivory
+horn, his only weapon. Not till then could he clasp his hands as he went
+to rest, and not till then did
+
+  "God from on high send down to him
+   One of His angel cherubim."
+
+St. Michael it was, who with St. Gabriel bore his soul to Paradise.
+
+It would be too long a story to tell of the vengeance of the Emperor
+Charles, how _the sun stood still_ till the Franks had killed every one
+of the Saracens; how Ganelon was accused of treachery, tried by combat,
+and sentenced to be torn to pieces by wild horses. The story is a true
+tragedy, terrible as the tragedy of Oedipus. From another source we
+gather the mournful sequel.
+
+Long before the battle of Roncesvalles Roland and Olivier had met in
+single combat on a quiet island in the Rhone. Toward even a fleecy cloud
+hovered over them, and from its midst an angel "wrapped in rosy light"
+separated the combatants, bidding them be friends, and telling them to
+turn their swords against the enemies of the Faith. The heroes shook
+hands, the angel vanished, and from that day there were no truer friends
+than Roland and Olivier. Their union was further cemented by the
+betrothal of Roland to the Lady Alda, Sir Olivier's sister, a maiden who
+had already, in Roland's presence, proved herself as bold in war as she
+was loving in peace.
+
+
+
+
+ROLLO THE GANGER[4]
+
+         [Footnote 4: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN
+
+(860-932)
+
+[Illustration: Rollo the Ganger.]
+
+
+When King Harold the Fair-haired, in 872 A.D., had united all the
+scattered earldoms of Norway under his own sway, he issued a stringent
+order forbidding pillaging within his kingdom under penalty of outlawry.
+The custom of sailing out into the world as a viking and plundering
+foreign lands, was held to be a most honorable one in those days; and
+every chieftain who wished to give his sons the advantages of "a liberal
+education" and foreign travel, strained his resources in order to equip
+them for such an expedition. But the Norwegians of the ninth century had
+as yet no national feeling; and they regarded King Harold's prohibition
+against plundering their own shores as absurd and arbitrary. Rollo or
+Rolf, the son of the king's best friend, Ragnvald, Earl of Möre,
+undertook to disregard the order. Coming home from a cruise in the
+Baltic and being short of provisions, he landed in the south of Norway
+and made havoc among the coast dwellers. The king, determined to make an
+end of the nefarious practice, kept his word and outlawed him.
+
+Rollo, being unequal to a struggle with the king, betook himself to the
+Hebrides, where a number of other Norse chieftains had sought a refuge
+from similar persecutions. His great strength and sagacity, no less than
+his distinguished birth, secured him a favorable reception and much
+influence. He was so tall that no Norwegian horse could carry him, for
+which reason he was compelled always to walk, and was surnamed Rollo the
+Ganger, or Walker. Though not formally recognized as chieftain, he seems
+gradually, by dint of his eminence, to have assumed command over the
+Norse exiles; and it was probably at his advice that they resolved to
+abandon the bleak and barren Hebrides, and seek a more congenial home in
+a sunnier clime. At all events a large expedition was fitted out and set
+sail for the south, early in the tenth century. It landed first in
+Holland, but finding that all-too-accessible country already devastated
+by other vikings, they proceeded to the coast of France and entered the
+mouth of the river Seine. Charles the Simple, a feeble, foolish, and
+good-natured man, was then king of France, but utterly unequal to the
+task of defending his territory against foreign invaders or domestic
+pretenders. The empire of Charlemagne had been broken up and divided
+among his grandsons; and the fraction which was to be France, was then
+confined between the Loire and the Meuse.
+
+Here was a golden opportunity for Rollo the Ganger and his vikings.
+Meeting with no formidable opposition, they sailed up the Seine and cast
+anchor at the town of Jumičges, five leagues from Rouen. This ancient
+city, which had suffered much from recent sieges and invasions, was in
+no condition to defend itself. It was of slight avail that the priests
+chanted in the churches, with the fervor of despair: "Deliver us, oh
+God, from the fury of Norsemen!" The vikings continued to pillage the
+surrounding territory, and were daily expected to sack the city. In this
+dire dilemma the Archbishop of Rouen offered himself as an ambassador to
+the pagans, in the hope that perhaps he might become an instrument in
+the hand of God to avert the impending doom. But if, as seemed more
+probable, martyrdom was in store for him, he was ready to face death
+without flinching. Rollo, however, who could honor courage even in an
+enemy, received him courteously, and after a brief negotiation pledged
+himself, in case the city surrendered, to take peaceful possession of it
+and to molest no one. This pledge he kept to the letter. His ships
+sailed up the river, and the tall chieftain, at the head of his band of
+yellow-haired warriors, made his entry into Rouen, without a sword being
+drawn or a torch lighted. He inspected the fortifications, the water
+supply, and all points of strategic interest, and finding everything
+tolerably satisfactory, resolved to remain. Making Rouen his
+headquarters and base of supplies, the Norsemen made expeditions up the
+Seine and established a great fortified camp near the confluence of the
+Seine and the Eure. Hither a French army, under the command of Regnault,
+Duke of France, was sent to drive them out of the country. But before
+risking a battle Regnault chose to negotiate. He sent a certain Hasting,
+Count of Chartres, to Rollo in order to find out what was the aim and
+object of his invasion. This Hasting was himself a Norseman, and had,
+twenty years before, proved himself so formidable a foe, that the King
+of France had been compelled to buy his friendship by a concession of
+land and a noble title, in return for which favors Hasting had become a
+Christian and a vassal to the king. It was doubtful, perhaps, if this
+man, even though he may have acted in good faith, was the best
+ambassador to his countrymen. For he was himself a living example of
+what might be gained by audacity and a shrewd use of one's advantages.
+
+The following conversation is reported to have taken place between the
+Count of Chartres and the Norwegian vikings:
+
+"Gallant soldiers!" shouted Hasting, from afar, "what is your
+chieftain's name?"
+
+"We have no lord over us," they replied; "we are all equal."
+
+"For what purpose have you come to France?"
+
+"To drive out the people who are here, or make them our subjects, and
+win for ourselves a new country. But who are you? How is it that you
+speak our tongue?"
+
+"You know the story of Hasting," the count made answer; "Hasting, the
+great viking, who scoured the seas with his multitude of ships, and did
+so much damage in this kingdom?"
+
+"Ay, we have heard of that; but Hasting has made a bad end to so good a
+beginning."
+
+"Will you submit to King Charles?" was the ambassador's next query.
+"Will you give your faith and service, and receive from him gifts and
+honor?"
+
+"No, no," they cried back; "we will not submit to King Charles. Go back
+and tell him so, you messenger, and say that we claim the rule and
+dominion of whatever we win by our own strength and our swords."
+
+Hasting lost no time in communicating this message to the French and in
+urging a compromise. But Regnault called him a traitor, and would have
+none of his advice. He promptly attacked Rollo and his Norsemen, but
+suffered an overwhelming defeat. His army was cut to pieces, and he
+himself slain by a fisherman of Rouen who had attached himself to the
+invading force. Rollo followed up his victory by sailing up the river
+and laying siege to Paris; but the capital of France proved too strong
+for him and he had to retire to Rouen, whence he continued to havoc the
+surrounding country. He conquered the city of Bayeux and slew its ruler,
+Count Berenger, whose beautiful daughter, Popa, he married. Instead of
+organizing mere plundering expeditions, Rollo gradually changed his
+tactics and took permanent possession of the towns that fell into his
+hands. The peasants, too, who lived in the open country, found that it
+was their best policy to seek his friendship and pay him tribute, rather
+than rely upon the uncertain protection of the King of France. They had
+discovered before this that Rollo was a man whose word could be
+trusted--a lord of mighty will, who had a ruthless way of enforcing
+obedience, but was open-handed and generous withal to those who would
+serve his purposes.
+
+It could no longer be said with truth, as the vikings had said to
+Hasting, that they had no lord over them. Rollo, whose chieftainship had
+hitherto been based upon his genius for ruling, was now formally chosen
+king--a title which he later exchanged for that of Duke of Normandy. In
+Norway, previous to the conquests of Harold the Fair-haired, each
+province had had its king, who was not always hereditary, but was often
+chosen by the peasants themselves, because he possessed the qualities
+required of a leader. It was in accordance with the same custom that
+they now conferred kingship upon Rollo, whose valor, sagacity, and
+firmness of purpose had been amply proven. It was the power of the
+man--the weight and force of his personality--which they respected, no
+less than his clear-sightedness, his readiness of resource, and his
+skill in the rude statecraft of his age.
+
+[Illustration: Rollo the Ganger attacks Paris.]
+
+Encouraged by his previous successes, Rollo now made larger plans, and
+with the view to carrying them out, formed an alliance with some Danish
+vikings who had managed to effect a lodgement and maintain themselves
+for some years at the mouth of the Loire. Together they started upon an
+extensive campaign, the objective point of which was again Paris. But
+the powerful fortifications baffled the Norsemen, who possessed no
+machinery of destruction fit to cope with such defences. The siege had
+therefore to be abandoned. Dijon and Chartres also made a successful
+resistance. But a long chain of smaller cities surrendered, and the
+country was ravaged far and wide. The peasants took to the woods and
+refused to sow their fields, knowing that there was small chance of
+their reaping them. So desperate became the situation that nobles and
+peasants alike entreated the king to make peace with the Norsemen on
+whatever terms he could procure. The king was not unwilling to listen to
+such prayers. It occurred to him that in making a treaty with Rollo he
+would be killing two birds with one stone. He would not only be ridding
+France of a dangerous foe, but he might secure for himself a powerful
+friend who might help him keep the unruly nobles in order, and secure
+him in the possession of his shorn and reduced kingdom. With this end in
+view he invested Rollo with the sovereignty of his northern province,
+named after the Norsemen, Normandy, and conferred upon him the title of
+duke (912 A.D.). Rollo was to recognize Charles as his overlord, and
+defend him against external and internal foes; and he was to become a
+Christian and marry the king's daughter, Gisla. It is told, however,
+that when Rollo was required to kneel down and kiss the royal foot in
+token of fealty, he stoutly refused.
+
+"I will never bend my knee before any man," he said, "nor will I kiss
+anyone's foot."
+
+After much persuasion however, he permitted one of his men to perform
+the act of homage in his stead. His proxy stalked sullenly forward, and
+pausing before the king, who was on horseback, seized his foot and
+raised it to his lips. By this manoeuvre, the king came to make a
+somersault, at which there followed a great and disrespectful burst of
+laughter from the Norsemen.
+
+Shortly after the conclusion of this treaty Rollo was baptized, and his
+marriage to the Princess Gisla was celebrated with great pomp in the
+city of Rouen. His previous marriage to Popa does not seem to have
+caused him any scruple, though, as a matter of fact, he continued to
+regard the latter as his wife, and when Gisla died he resumed his
+marital relations with her, if indeed they had ever been interrupted.
+The princess had been to him nothing but a hostage from the king and a
+pledge of his good faith. But Popa, who was the mother of his son
+William, surnamed Longsword, he loved, and we do not hear that the fact
+that he had killed her father caused any serious trouble between them.
+
+As Duke of Normandy, Rollo exhibited a political insight and a genius
+for administration which in those turbulent days was certainly
+remarkable. He had the true welfare of his people at heart, and with a
+firm hand he maintained justice, protecting the weak, and restraining
+the strong. The laws which he made he enforced with stern impartiality,
+and no man could plead birth or privilege before him, if he wantonly
+offended. The farmers were Rollo's special care; for warrior though he
+was, he well knew that war is destructive, and that the prosperity of a
+land must be founded upon productive labor. The peasantry of Normandy
+were not slow to discover that they were better off under their new
+ruler than they ever had been under the old; and they rewarded Rollo
+with a sincere loyalty and devotion. Their confidence in his power to
+right wrong, became in the course of time half superstitious; and if any
+of them was in peril or suffered at the hands of his enemy, it became
+the fashion to shout: "Ha, Rou!"--Rou being a corruption of Raoul, the
+French form of Rolf or Rollo. Then it was the duty of everyone who heard
+this cry, to hasten to the aid of the sufferer or to pursue his
+assailant. It has been asserted that our "hurrah" is derived from this
+Norman shout, but I hold this to be more than doubtful.
+
+That Normandy was prosperous under the reign of Rollo, and that its
+people were contented, seems, however, to be well established. According
+to the legend, so great was the public security that property left on
+the highway could be found untouched after days and weeks; the farmer
+left his implements in the field without fear of losing them; and theft
+and robbery became comparatively rare. In a great measure this was, no
+doubt, due to the strict organization which Rollo introduced, and his
+insistence upon the personal accountability of each one of his subjects
+to himself. For he had learned one most important lesson from his enemy,
+Harold the Fair-haired. This king was the first to establish in Europe
+what is called the feudal system of land-tenure. He declared all land to
+be the property of the crown, and merely held in fief by the nominal
+owners. In recognition of the king's proprietorship, the latter,
+therefore, pledged themselves to pay a certain tribute, and to support
+the king in case of war, with a given number of armed men, in accordance
+with the size and value of their holdings. This same system Rollo is
+said to have introduced into Normandy, whence it spread over all Europe.
+Though we have now no more use for it, it proved a great and important
+element in the progress of civilization.
+
+Rollo the Ganger must have been nearly eighty years old when he died in
+927. His son, William Longsword, who succeeded him as Duke of Normandy,
+was a man of gentler disposition and in vigor and sagacity inferior to
+his father. Rollo's descendant in the fifth generation was William the
+Conqueror, who inherited in a larger measure the qualities of his great
+ancestor.
+
+[Signature: Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen.]
+
+
+
+
+LEIF ERICSON[5]
+
+         [Footnote 5: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN
+
+(About 1000)
+
+[Illustration: Leif Ericson.]
+
+
+The story of the Finding of Wineland the Good is contained, in somewhat
+differing versions, in two parchment books, the one belonging to the
+first, and the other to the last, quarter of the fourteenth century.
+Both agree in attributing the discovery to Leif the Lucky, the son of
+Eric the Red; though the Flatey Book says that he was induced to
+undertake this voyage by a certain Bjarne Herjulfson, who, having been
+driven out of his course by storms, had seen strange lands, but had not
+explored them.
+
+Leif's father, Eric the Red, was, like most Norsemen of his day, an
+unruly and turbulent man, whose sword sat loosely in its sheath. He was
+born about the middle of the tenth century at Jaederen, in Norway, but
+was outlawed on account of a manslaughter, and set sail for Iceland,
+where he married a certain Thorhild, the daughter of Jorund and
+Thorbjorg the Ship-chested. But the same high temper and quarrelsome
+spirit which had compelled him to leave Norway got him into trouble also
+in his new home. He was forced by blood-feuds and legal acts of
+banishment to change his abode repeatedly, and finally he was declared
+an outlaw. Knowing that his life was forfeited, Eric, as a last
+desperate chance, equipped a ship, and sailed "in search of that land
+which Gunbjörn, the son of Ulf the Crow, had seen when he was driven
+westward across the main;" and promised, in case he found it, to return
+and apprise his friends of the discovery. Fortune favored him, and he
+found a great, inhospitable continent, which (in order to allure
+colonists) he called Greenland; "for," he said, "men would be more
+easily persuaded thither, if the country had a good name." He landed in
+three or four places, but, being dissatisfied, broke up and started in
+search of more favorable localities. At the end of three years he
+returned to Iceland fought his foes and was defeated, but finally
+succeeded, by the backing of friends, in effecting a reconciliation with
+them. He spent the winter in Iceland, and sailed the following spring
+for Greenland, where he settled at a place called Brattahlid (Steep Lea)
+in Ericsfirth. Thirty-five ship-loads of people followed him, but only
+fourteen arrived safely. The remainder were shipwrecked, or driven back
+to Iceland.
+
+The interest now shifts from Eric to his son, Leif the Lucky, who
+becomes the hero of the Saga. Sixteen years after his father's
+settlement in Greenland, Leif, as behooved the son of a chieftain,
+equipped a ship and set out to see the world, and gather fortune and
+experience. He must then have been between twenty and twenty-five years
+old. He arrived in Drontheim, Norway, in the autumn, and met there King
+Olaf Tryggveson. The king, who had been baptized in England, was full of
+zeal for the Christian faith, and was employing every means in his power
+to christianize the country. But the peasantry, who were worshippers of
+Odin and Thor, refused to listen to him, and even compelled him to eat
+horse-flesh and participate in pagan rites. Under these circumstances it
+is not to be wondered at that he took kindly to the handsome young
+Icelander who displayed such an interest in the new religion, and
+listened attentively while the king expounded the faith to him. For Leif
+was a courteous and intelligent man, of fine presence, good address, and
+indomitable spirit. The king, says the Saga, "thought him a man of great
+accomplishments." It was not long before he concluded to accept
+Christianity, whereupon he was baptized, with all his shipmates. King
+Olaf then charged him to return to Iceland and induce the people to
+abandon idolatry and accept the true faith. Leif, knowing how deeply
+attached the Icelanders were to their old gods, was very reluctant to
+undertake this mission, but finally yielded to the king's persuasions,
+"provided the king would grant him the grace of his protection."
+
+He accordingly put to sea; but encountered heavy weather and was driven
+out of his course. For a long while he was tossed about by the tempest,
+until he came upon "lands of which he had previously no knowledge. There
+were self-sown wheat-fields and vines growing there. There were also
+those trees which are called _masur_ (maples?). And of all these things
+they took samples."
+
+The other version to which I have alluded is much more explicit, and
+recounts how Leif went to Greenland to visit his father, Eric the Red,
+and how there he heard the account of Bjarne Herjulfson's voyage, and of
+the unknown lands to the westward which he professed to have seen. The
+people, we read, blamed Bjarne for his lack of enterprise in failing to
+explore the territories of which he had caught glimpses, "so as to be
+able to bring some report of them." Leif, being of an adventurous
+spirit, was fired by this talk, and resolved to accomplish what the
+incurious Bjarne had left undone. He gathered together a crew of
+thirty-five men, and invited his father to command the expedition. Eric
+at first declined, saying that he was well stricken in years, and unable
+to endure the exposure of such a voyage. Leif insisted, however, that
+"he would be most apt to bring good luck," and the old man, yielding to
+his son's solicitation, mounted his horse and rode forth at the head of
+the ship-crew. But when he was nearing the beach, the horse stumbled and
+Eric was thrown and wounded his foot. This was held to be a bad omen,
+and as he was trying to rise, he exclaimed:
+
+"It is not destined that I shall discover any more lands than the one in
+which we are now living; nor can we now continue longer together."
+
+Leif, knowing persuasion to be vain, pursued his way alone, and embarked
+with his thirty-five shipmates.
+
+"When they were ready, they sailed out to sea and found first that land
+which Bjarne and his shipmates found last."
+
+It is not stated how long they had been at sea when this land was found.
+The account goes on as follows:
+
+"They sailed up to the land and cast anchor, and launched a boat and
+went ashore, and saw no grass there. Great ice mountains lay inland,
+back from the sea, and it was as a [table land of] flat rocks all the
+way from the sea to the ice mountains; and the country seemed to them to
+be entirely devoid of good qualities. Then said Leif: 'It has not come
+to pass with us in regard to this land as with Bjarne, that we have not
+gone upon it. To this country I will now give a name and call it
+Helluland' (_i.e._, The Land of Flat Rocks).
+
+"They returned to the ship and put out to sea, and found a second land.
+They sailed again to the land, came to anchor, launched a boat, and went
+ashore. This was a level wooded land, and there were broad stretches of
+white sand, where they went, and the land was level by the sea. Then
+said Leif: 'This land shall have a name according to its nature, and we
+will call it Markland' (_i.e._, Wood Land). They returned to the ship
+forthwith and sailed away upon the main, with northeast winds, and were
+out two 'doegr' before they sighted land. They sailed toward this land
+and came to an island which lay to the northward off the land. There
+they went ashore and looked about them, the weather being fine, and they
+observed that there was dew upon the grass; and it so happened that they
+touched the dew with their hands, and touched their hands to their
+mouths; and it seemed to them that they had never tasted anything so
+sweet as this. They went aboard their ship again, and sailed into a
+certain sound, which lay between the island and a cape which jutted out
+from the land on the north, and they stood in westering past the cape.
+At ebb-tide there were broad stretches of shallow water there, and they
+ran their ship aground; and it was a long distance from the ship to the
+ocean. Yet were they so anxious to go ashore that they could not wait
+until the tide should rise under their ship, but hastened to the land,
+where a certain river flows out from a lake. As soon as the tide rose
+beneath their ship, however, they took the boat and rowed to the ship,
+which they towed up the river, and then into the lake, where they cast
+anchor and carried their hammocks ashore, and built themselves booths
+there. They afterward determined to establish themselves there for the
+winter, and they accordingly built a large house. There was no lack of
+salmon either in the river or in the lake, and larger salmon than they
+had ever seen before. The country thereabouts seemed to be possessed of
+such good qualities that cattle would need no fodder there during the
+winter. There was no frost there during the winter, and the grass
+withered but little. The days and the nights were of more nearly equal
+length than in Greenland or Iceland."
+
+Now follows an account of the exploring parties which Leif sent out,
+some of which he joined, while at other times he remained behind to
+guard the house. Here occurs, with curious abruptness, this graphic bit
+of characterization: "Leif was a large and powerful man, and of most
+imposing bearing, a man of sagacity, and a very just man in all things."
+
+A very pretty incident is now related of the German Tyrker, who had been
+one of the thralls of Eric the Red, and of whom Leif was very fond. It
+was the custom in the households of Norse chiefs to give children into
+the special charge of a trusted thrall, who was then styled the child's
+foster-father. Sometimes the thrall was presented to the child as a
+"tooth-gift," _i.e._, in commemoration of its cutting its first tooth.
+
+"It was discovered one evening that one of their company was missing;
+and this proved to be Tyrker, the German. Leif was sorely troubled by
+this; for Tyrker had lived with Leif and his father for a long time, and
+had been very devoted to Leif when he was a child. Leif severely
+reprimanded his companions and prepared to go in search of him. They had
+proceeded but a short distance from the house when they were met by
+Tyrker, whom they received most cordially. Leif observed at once that
+his foster-father was in lively spirits.... Leif addressed him and
+asked: 'Wherefore art thou so belated, foster-father mine, and astray
+from the others?'
+
+"In the beginning Tyrker spoke for some time in German, rolling his
+eyes, and grinning, and they could not understand him. But after a time
+he addressed them in the Norse tongue.
+
+"'I did not go much farther [than you]; yet I have something novel to
+relate. I have found grapes and vines.'
+
+"'Is this indeed true, foster-father?' asked Leif.
+
+"'Of a certainty it is true' replied he; 'for I was born where there is
+no lack of either grapes or vines.'
+
+"They slept the night through, and on the morrow Leif said to his
+shipmates:
+
+"'We will now divide our labors; and each day will either gather grapes,
+or cut vines, or fell trees, so as to obtain a cargo of these for my
+ship.'
+
+"They acted upon this advice, and it is said that their after-boat was
+filled with grapes. A cargo sufficient for the ship was cut, and when
+the spring came they made their ship ready and sailed away. And from its
+products Leif gave the land a name and called it Wineland.
+
+"They sailed out to sea and had fair winds until they sighted Greenland,
+and the fells below the glacier; then one of the men spoke up and said:
+'Why do you steer the ship so close to the wind?' Leif answered: 'I have
+my mind upon my steering and upon other matters as well. Do you not see
+anything out of the common?' They replied that they saw nothing unusual.
+'I do not know,' says Leif, 'whether it is a ship or a skerry that I
+see.' Now they saw it, and said that it must be a skerry. But he was so
+much more sharp-sighted than they, that he was able to discern men upon
+the skerry. 'I think it best to tack,' says Leif, 'so that we may draw
+near to them and be able to render them assistance, if they stand in
+need of it. And if they should not be peaceably disposed, we shall have
+better command of the situation than they.'
+
+[Illustration: Leif Ericson off the Coast of Vineland.]
+
+"They approached the skerry, and lowering their sail, cast anchor and
+launched a second small boat, which they had brought with them.
+Tyrker inquired who was the leader of the party. He replied that his
+name was Thare, and that he was a Norwegian. 'But what is thy name?'
+Leif gave his name. 'Art thou a son of Eric the Red, of Brattahlid?'
+says he. Leif replied that he was. 'It is now my wish,' Leif continued,
+'to take you all into my ship, and likewise as much of your possessions
+as the ship will hold.'
+
+"This offer was accepted, and [with their ship] thus laden, they held
+their course toward Ericsfirth, and sailed until they arrived at
+Brattahlid. Having discharged his cargo, Leif invited Thare, with his
+wife, Gudrid, and three others to make their home with him, and procured
+quarters for the other members of the crew, both for his own and Thare's
+men. Leif rescued fifteen men from the skerry. He was from that time
+forth called Leif the Lucky."
+
+The time of Leif's voyage to Wineland has been fixed at 1000 A.D. For we
+learn that it took place while Olaf Tryggveson (995-1000 A.D.) was king
+in Norway; and scarcely less than four or five years could have elapsed
+since Leif's first meeting with the king in Drontheim, shortly after the
+death of his predecessor, Earl Hakon.
+
+The remainder of the Saga of Eric the Red is occupied with an account of
+the successive Wineland voyages of Thorwald Ericson, the brother of
+Leif, Thorfinn Karlsefne, and of Leif's sister, Freydis, who was as
+quarrelsome, proud, and pugnacious as her father. The Indians (called by
+the Norsemen Skrellings), who had failed to disturb Leif, made
+demonstrations of hostility against Thorfinn Karlsefne, and after the
+loss of several of his men, compelled him to abandon the attempt at a
+permanent settlement.
+
+The tradition of these Wineland voyages continued, however, to be
+transmitted from generation to generation in Iceland, and in the early
+part of the fourteenth century was committed to writing.
+
+It will be seen that the saga to which I have referred was not written
+primarily with a view to establish Leif's claim to be the discoverer of
+Wineland. In the first place the story, in the shape in which we have
+it, is more than a century and a half older than the Columbian
+discovery, and there could, accordingly, be no great glory in having
+found a country which had since been lost. Secondly, the saga is (like
+most Icelandic sagas) a family chronicle, purporting to relate all
+matters of interest pertaining to the race of Eric the Red. The Wineland
+voyages are treated as remarkable incidents in this chronicle, but they
+hardly occupy any more space than properly belongs to them in a family
+history which is concerned with a great many other things besides. The
+importance of this as corroborating the authenticity of the narrative,
+can scarcely be over-estimated.
+
+[Signature: Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen.]
+
+
+
+
+HAROLD, KING OF ENGLAND
+
+(1022-1066)
+
+[Illustration: Harold, King of England.]
+
+
+Harold II., the last of the native English kings, was the second son of
+Earl Godwin by his Danish wife Gytha, the sister of Earl Ulf, and was
+born about 1022. At an early age he was made Earl of the East Angles and
+he shared his father's outlawry in 1051, finding a refuge in Ireland.
+Next year, together with his brother Leofwin, he crossed the Channel
+with nine ships, defeated the men of Somerset and Devon at Porlock, and
+ravaged the country, next joined his father at Portland, and shared the
+triumph of his return. Harold was at once restored to his earldom, and
+next year (1053) succeeded to his father's earldom of the West Saxons.
+Henceforward he was the right hand of King Edward, and still more after
+the deaths of the old Earls Leofric and Siward, he directed the whole
+affairs of the kingdom, with an unusual union of gentleness and vigor.
+His brother Tostig succeeded Siward as Earl of the Northumbrians in
+1055, and two years later two other brothers were raised to earldoms:
+Gurth to that of the East Anglians, Leofwin to one formed out of Essex,
+Kent, and the other shires round about London. Meantime Harold drove
+back the Welsh marauders of King Griffith out of Herefordshire, and
+added that post of danger to his earldom. The death in 1057 of the
+Ętheling Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside, who had been brought back
+from Hungary as heir to the throne, opened up the path for Harold's
+ambition, and from this time men's eyes rested on him as their future
+king. And nature had equalled fortune in her kindness, for his handsome
+and stalwart figure and his gentle and conciliatory temper were kingly
+qualities that sat well upon his sagacity, his military skill, and his
+personal courage. Harold's policy throughout was thoroughly English,
+contrary to the predominant French influences that had governed the
+early part of Edward's reign. He was English in everything, even to his
+preference for secular priests to monks. He made his pilgrimage to Rome
+in 1058, and after his return completed his church at Waltham, known
+later as Waltham Abbey. In 1063, provoked by the fresh incursions of
+Griffith, he marched against him, and by making his men put off their
+heavy armor and weapons, and adopt the Welshmen's own tactics, he was
+able to traverse the whole country, and beat the enemy at every point.
+Griffith was killed by his own people, whereupon Harold gave the
+government to the dead king's brothers, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, who swore
+oaths of fealty both to King Edward and to himself.
+
+It is impossible to say exactly at what date occurred that famous visit
+of Harold to the court of Duke William, in Normandy, of the results of
+which the Norman writers make so much, although with many
+contradictions, while the English writers, with the most marked and
+careful unanimity, say nothing at all. It seems most likely that Harold
+did make some kind of oath to William, most probably under compulsion,
+when he had fallen into his hands after being shipwrecked on the coast
+of Ponthieu, and imprisoned by its Count Guy. Mr. Freeman thinks the
+most probable date to be 1064. It is at least certain that Harold helped
+William in a war with the Bretons, and in the Bayeux tapestry we see his
+stalwart form lifting up two Normans at once when they were in danger of
+being swept away by the river Coesnon, which divides Normandy from
+Brittany. The Norman writers make Harold formally swear fealty to
+William, promising to marry one of his daughters, and we are told that
+additional sanctity was given to this oath by its being made upon a
+chest full of the most sacred relics.
+
+In 1065, the Northumbrians rebelled against the rule of Tostig, and
+Harold found himself compelled, between policy and a sense of justice,
+to side with them, and to acquiesce in their choice of Morcar and the
+banishment of Tostig. At the beginning of 1066 King Edward died, his
+last breath being to recommend that Harold should be chosen king. He was
+crowned on January 6th, and at once set himself with steadfast energy to
+consolidate his kingdom. At York he won over the reluctant men of
+Northumbria, and he next married Ealdgyth, Griffith's widow, in order to
+secure the alliance of her brothers, Morcar and Edwin. His short reign
+of forty weeks and one day was occupied with incessant vigilance against
+the attacks of two formidable enemies at once. Duke William lost no time
+in beginning his preparations for the invasion of England, and Tostig,
+after trying the Normans and the Scots, and filibustering along the
+coasts on his own account, succeeded in drawing to his side the famous
+Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. In the month of September the two
+reached the Humber, and Harold marched to meet them, resting neither day
+nor night. The Icelandic historian, Snorro, in his dramatic narrative of
+the fight, tells how Harold rode out accompanied with twenty of his
+housecarls to have speech with Earl Tostig, and offer him peace; and
+when asked what amends King Hardrada should have for his trouble in
+coming, replied, "Seven feet of the ground of England, or more
+perchance, seeing he is taller than other men." At Stamford Bridge
+Harold overtook his enemy, and after a bloody struggle won a complete
+victory (September 25, 1066), both Tostig and Harold Hardrada being
+among the slain. But four days later Duke William landed at Pevensey.
+Harold marched southward with the utmost haste, bringing with him the
+men of Wessex and East Anglia, and the earldoms of his brothers; but the
+two earls, Edwin and Morcar, held aloof and kept back the men of the
+north, although some of the men of Mercia, in the earldom of Edwin,
+followed their king to the fatal struggle which was fought out from
+nine in the morning till past nightfall, on October 14, 1066. The
+English fought with the most stubborn courage, and the battle was only
+lost by their allowing the pretended flight of the Normans to draw them
+from their impregnable position on the crest of the hill, ringed with an
+unbroken shield wall. On its slope, right in front of the Norman army,
+waved the golden dragon of Wessex, as well as the king's own standard, a
+fighting man wrought upon it in gold. Here Harold stood with his mighty
+two-handed axe, and hewed down the Normans as they came. Before
+nightfall he fell, pierced through the eye with an arrow. His housecarls
+fought where they stood till they fell one by one; his brothers, Gurth
+and Leofwin, died beside him. The king's body was found upon the field,
+recognized only by a former mistress, the fair Eadgyth Swanneshals
+("Edith of the swan's neck").
+
+At first, William ordered it to be buried on the rocks at Hastings, but
+seems after to have permitted it to be removed to Harold's own church at
+Waltham. Than Harold, no braver or more heroic figure ever filled a
+throne; no king ever fought more heroically for his crown. If he failed,
+it was because he had to bow his head to fate, and in his death he saved
+all the honor of his family and his race. His tragic story has given a
+subject for a romance to Lytton, and for a stately drama to Tennyson.
+
+[Illustration: Edith searching for the Body of Harold.]
+
+
+
+
+THE CID
+
+By HENRY G. HEWLETT
+
+(1026-1099)
+
+[Illustration: The Cid.]
+
+
+The narratives concerning the life and exploits of the Cid are, to a
+great extent, merely poetic. Yet it has been wisely said, that much
+which must be rejected as not fact may still be accepted as truth; that
+is, there is often to be found under the husks of legend and myth, a
+sound kernel of historical reality. This may be the case with respect to
+the Cid, who probably was a warrior so remarkable for genius or bravery
+above his fellows that he gathered up in a single fame the reputation of
+many others, with whose deeds he was credited, and whom, as a class, he
+accordingly represents in history.
+
+Spain, long one of the most flourishing provinces of the Roman Empire,
+was among the first to fall under the sway of the Visigoths, a warlike
+but enlightened race, which soon embraced Christianity. For three
+centuries the country remained under Gothic rule, but fell, in 712,
+by the invasion of the Arabian conquerors of Africa--a remnant of
+Christians only preserving an independent monarchy in the mountains of
+Asturia. This little seed of freedom grew and bore fruit. France proved
+a formidable barrier against further invasion; and in Spain itself
+internal jealousies among the Arab families weakened the Moslem and
+strengthened the Christian power. In the eleventh century there were
+several states in Spain wholly unfettered by a foreign yoke. The enmity
+between the two races and creeds was bitter, and war raged perpetually.
+Yet it often happened that, at the prompting of private revenge or
+family quarrels, alliances were made between kingdoms thus naturally
+opposed to each other. A recollection of this fact is essential to a
+clear understanding of Spanish history at this period.
+
+At the commencement of the eleventh century the chief Christian states
+of Spain became, through divers marriages, united under one king,
+Sancho, who died in 1034 dividing his territories among his three sons:
+of whom Garcia took Navarre, Ferdinand, Castile, and Ramirez, Aragon.
+Leon, the remaining Christian monarchy, was ruled by Bermudez III.,
+whose sister Ferdinand of Castile had married. Just as this apparent
+junction of interest occurred among the warriors of the Cross, the
+greatest confusion prevailed among those of the Crescent. The mighty
+house of the Ommiades--perhaps the most illustrious of the factions into
+which the successors of the Prophet were divided--no longer commanded
+the allegiance of the Arabs of Spain. Its last prince fled, and the
+chief cities fell into the hands of independent lords, who constituted
+themselves petty Emirs in their own dominions. Instead, however, of
+taking full advantage of this state of anarchy to extend their united
+power, the Christian kings weakened each other by unnatural and deadly
+quarrels. Ferdinand, King of Castile, seems to have been the principal
+aggressor. His great captain in his wars, both with Moslem and Christian
+states, was Rodrigo Laynez, who was called also by the Spaniards Ruy
+Diaz de Rivar, from the name of his birthplace, and by the Arabs _El
+Sayd_ (Lord), which has been altered into Cid. He was probably born
+about the year 1026, or rather later, at the Castle of Rivar, near
+Burgos, in Old Castile, of a noble but not wealthy family. He joined the
+army of Ferdinand, and rose by his talents, strength, and courage to the
+highest place in that king's service. Among the romantic stories told of
+his early career is one concerning his marriage, which forms the subject
+of a popular ballad. The father of Rodrigo, having been injured by a
+Count Gomez, the young knight defied the latter to a duel and slew him.
+The count's daughter, Ximena, in a storm of grief and rage, flew to the
+king, and cried for vengeance on Rodrigo, who met her face to face, and
+awaited the result of her entreaties.
+
+No one, however, was hardy enough to offer himself as the damsel's
+champion against so doughty a warrior, and Rodrigo calmly retired. His
+manly bearing and fame won him a place in the very heart which he had so
+deeply offended; and, with truly Spanish impetuosity, Ximena gave him,
+not only pardon, but love. She again repaired to the king and asked
+leave to bestow her hand upon the knight, urging the curious plea that
+she foresaw he would one day be the most powerful subject in the realm.
+Informed of this request, of which the king approved, Rodrigo consented
+to the marriage, as an act of obedience to his sovereign and of justice
+to the lady. The meeting of this strangely matched pair is thus
+described in the ballad (Lockhart's translation):
+
+  "But when the fair Ximena came forth to plight her hand,
+   Rodrigo, gazing on her, his face could not command:
+   He stood, and blushed before her: thus at the last said he,
+  'I slew thy sire, Ximena, but not in villany:
+   In no disguise I slew him; man against man I stood;
+   There was some wrong between us, and I did shed his blood:
+   I slew a man; I owe a man; fair lady, by God's grace,
+   An honored husband shalt thou have in thy dead father's place.'"
+
+It is unfortunate that this charming story is supposed to have but
+little foundation in fact. Many of Rodrigo's legendary exploits are
+still less authentic; but history and fable unite in declaring him a
+warrior of no common stamp. His master, King Ferdinand, as we have said,
+invaded the territories of his brothers and friends, besides those of
+his enemies. Garcia, Ramirez, and Bermudez successively fell before his
+attacks, which Rodrigo, in the true spirit of knightly obedience to his
+lord, did not hesitate to lead. Sancho, the king's eldest son, was
+Rodrigo's most intimate friend; and on the accession of the prince to
+his father's throne on the death of Ferdinand, in 1065, Rodrigo became
+Campeador (or, as the Arabs call him, _El Cambitur_); that is, head of
+the army. The new king followed in his father's courses of injustice,
+and drove his brother, Alfonso, King of Leon, into exile.
+
+[Illustration: The Cid ordering the Execution of Ahmed.]
+
+In 1072 Sancho besieged Zamora, which one of his sisters, whom he had
+likewise despoiled, held out against him. The king was killed during the
+siege, and, as it was suspected, by the agency of his exiled brother,
+Alfonso, who succeeded to the throne. Rodrigo felt his friend's death
+deeply, and did not scruple to avow his suspicions of Alfonso. Before
+promising allegiance, the Campeador insisted that the king should
+cleanse himself by an oath of the accusation which popular rumor had
+brought against him. To this Alfonso, whether innocent or guilty, not
+unnaturally demurred; but the powerful warrior was firm, and the king at
+last yielded. When the appointed day arrived, Alfonso made his
+appearance, surrounded by his courtiers, all obsequiously vying in
+praise of his glory and virtue, and contemptuous denunciations of his
+daring accuser. Rodrigo stood alone and gazed on the king sternly. Some
+of the nobles endeavored to dissuade him from holding this attitude of
+opposition, and to induce him to forego the demand which he had made;
+but he put them aside and repeated his challenge. Alfonso dared not
+refuse to accept, and accordingly recited aloud the form of oath
+prescribed on such occasions, affirming, in the presence of his maker
+and the saints of heaven, that he was guiltless of the death of his
+brother. He had no sooner concluded than all eyes were turned upon the
+Cid, who, in deep, solemn tones, and with the most impressive
+earnestness of manner, imprecated on the head of his king every curse
+that heaven or hell could inflict, if, in taking that oath, he had
+committed perjury. The awed assembly then broke up. Rodrigo, from that
+hour, was hated by the king and shunned by the court.
+
+Yet, aware of the Cid's value, Alfonso seems to have concealed his
+resentment for some time, and even endeavored to win the affection of
+his great subject by allying him in marriage with one of the royal
+family. Rodrigo's wife was now dead, and he consented to marry the
+princess proposed to him, whose name was also Ximena. The marriage took
+place in 1074. It had not the effect, however, of uniting the king and
+the Cid. After having achieved a brilliant success over the Arabs of
+Granada, who were at war with two other Moslem states in alliance with
+Castile, and having signalized his humanity by releasing all his
+prisoners, the great Campeador was disgraced and banished by his
+ungrateful master. At the court of the Emir of Saragossa the exile found
+a ready welcome, and was appointed to a high post in the government of
+the kingdom. He did not bear arms against his own sovereign, but headed
+the Arabs in several battles with the Christians of Aragon and other
+states. The invasion of a Moorish host in Spain, under the eminent
+Caliph Jusef Ben Taxfin, chief of the Almoravides and conqueror of
+Morocco; the rapid subjugation of the independent Emirs, and the defeat
+of Alfonso's army at the battle of Zalaka, in 1087, recalled the
+Castilians to a sense of Rodrigo's worth. He was invited to return by
+Alfonso, and with great generosity consented, bringing with him a large
+body of men raised by his own exertion and cost. For two years he made
+his name terrible to the Moors, as the great Christian champion.
+
+But even this fame was not sufficient to secure his influence at court,
+and about the year 1090 he was once more banished, and his estates were
+seized. He appears from this time to have commenced a life of
+adventurous and independent warfare with the Moors. He besieged Alcocer,
+a strong Moorish fortress on the borders of Aragon, and finally took it.
+With a band of determined warriors of his own stamp he ravaged,
+consumed, and spoiled all the Moslem territories which he invaded,
+making a castle on a rock in Ternel his chief stronghold, and thence
+sallying out in forays. The place has been ever since called the Rock of
+the Cid.
+
+The last and greatest achievement of this hero was the taking of
+Valencia. This city was in the hands of a Moslem prince, Alcadir by
+name, who had refused to acknowledge the authority of Jusef and the
+Almoravides over Spain, which they were attempting to subdue. The Cid,
+either as an ally of Alcadir, or from motives of policy, assisted him in
+the defence of the city; but it was taken through the treachery of its
+Cadi, Ahmed. For this service, the traitor was made governor in the room
+of Alcadir, who fell fighting bravely. A kinsman of the betrayed king
+determined to avenge his death, and asked the Cid's aid, which was
+promptly given. The Arabian historians relate that Ahmed yielded after a
+brief siege, on conditions of safety for himself and family. It is
+further related that this promise was faithlessly broken, and the guilty
+Ahmed sentenced by Rodrigo to be burned alive for his crimes. The
+Christian historians happily acquit the Cid's memory of this barbarity;
+but all unite in recording the successful siege of the city, which he
+took in 1094. While he lived, the Moors vainly tried to retake it; but
+on his death, which is supposed to have occurred in 1099, Valencia again
+fell. Romance has colored with glowing tints this scanty historic
+outline of the Cid's life. Spanish literature, for two or three hundred
+years after his death, is almost confined to epic or ballad poetry, of
+which he is the hero. To acquire such a fame demanded a force of
+character, which, if not accurately painted by these loving and fanciful
+narrators, cannot have fallen far short of the glory with which the
+world will forever associate the name of the Cid Campeador.
+
+
+
+
+ST. BERNARD
+
+By HENRY G. HEWLETT
+
+(1091-1153)
+
+[Illustration: St. Bernard.]
+
+
+In 1091, when the career of the Cid was drawing to a close in Spain, a
+yet greater Christian champion was born in France; greater, if only in
+this, that the weapons of his warfare were not carnal. That the work was
+good in itself, we think will be clear from a perusal of the life of the
+warrior-monk, St. Bernard.
+
+His birthplace was Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy; his father,
+Tecelin, a knight of honorable reputation, and so absorbed in his
+profession that he was compelled to leave the care of his seven sons, of
+whom Bernard was the third, to his wife Aleth. She was a pious and
+gentle woman, strictly attached to the duties of religion, and anxious
+for the spiritual rather than the temporal welfare of her children, whom
+she therefore devoted to the cloister. A dream, it is said, had
+indicated to her the future fame of her third son, before his birth. He
+rapidly displayed signs of possessing no ordinary character. His
+education was undertaken by the then celebrated school of Chantillon and
+the University of Paris, where he remained some years, actively pursuing
+his studies. His mother died soon after his return home, and he then
+proceeded to fulfil her wish, which accorded with his own, of becoming a
+monk. His father and friends endeavored to dissuade him from this step,
+but instead, he persuaded five of his brothers and twenty-five other
+friends to join him in the career which he had chosen. His father and
+remaining brothers subsequently followed him, and the whole family took
+monastic vows. Bernard did not select for his abode one of those
+monasteries whose wealth and splendor had corrupted the intention of
+their founders, and softened the severity of the original discipline.
+His motive was truly religious, and took the superstitious form then
+almost inseparable from earnest piety. He and his comrades entered the
+poor convent of Citeaux, near Dijon, where the rules of life enjoined by
+St. Benedict in the sixth century were observed with great rigor.
+Frequent watchings, fasts, bleedings, and scourgings, for the purpose of
+mortifying the body; abstinence from conversation or laughter; habits of
+perpetual devotion, laborious exertion, and humble obedience to the
+abbot, were the main features of the system. Bernard undertook the
+duties of his office with such incessant zeal, and displayed such
+amazing control over his appetites, that he seriously weakened his
+health, but at the same time enlarged his reputation to such an extent
+that the convent became overcrowded with the number of those whom he had
+attracted thither. He was therefore appointed, after three years'
+residence at Citeaux, to head a colony of monks which was to be fixed in
+the valley of Clairvaux--a desolate though beautiful spot in the
+bishopric of Langres. The tears of their brethren accompanied the
+departure of Bernard and the twelve others who composed the band. It was
+in the year 1115, and at the age of twenty-six, that he was made Abbot
+of Clairvaux. His appearance at the consecration is described as that of
+a corpse rather than a man, so emaciated with the rigors of devotion had
+he become. He had frequent visions, perhaps from his weakness, in one of
+which he imagined that the Virgin Mary herself appeared to him. The
+privations of the members of his little colony were most severe. The
+season for sowing had been spent in building the convent, and when the
+winter came they were reduced to little better than starvation. Coarse
+bread and beech-leaves steeped in salt were their only food. This scanty
+sustenance, together with the strict adherence to the Benedictine rule,
+in which Bernard still persisted, so shattered his health, that the
+bishop of the diocese, who was his personal friend, at last interfered,
+and released him from the active duties of abbot. But as soon as a brief
+respite had restored his strength, Bernard renewed his self-mortifying
+practices. A fresh attack of illness followed, and he was obliged
+permanently to relax his habits. In after-years he lamented the error
+into which his early enthusiasm and mistaken zeal had led him, the
+effects of which greatly marred his future influence for good.
+
+Though debarred from laboring in his own sphere, Bernard's energetic
+mind would not let him rest, and he began from this time to exercise
+the power which his reputation for sanctity had brought him, in
+political life. He well knew the nature of the position which he was
+thus enabled to take, and did not shrink from its perils. "Bernard!
+wherefore art thou here on earth?" is said to have been his
+constant self-appeal. Poor and unarmed, a priest or monk in those
+days had nothing wherewith to oppose the tyranny of the powerful
+nobility, save the weapons of religion and intellect. How
+righteously they could be used we shall see in the case of Bernard.
+In repeated instances he interposed the weight of his authority
+between the anger of a king or noble and the weakness of a subject
+or tenant, and scarcely ever failed in his object. One of the most
+remarkable examples of this kind was his conduct toward the Count of
+Aquitaine. This nobleman, a man of immense strength of will no less
+than body, and violent and despotic beyond his fellows, having
+espoused the cause of one rival Pope against another, dismissed from
+their sees several excellent bishops in his territory who were
+adverse to his views, and supplied their places without regard to
+fitness of character. Bernard, having twice remonstrated in vain,
+after the last interview held a solemn mass in the church near the
+count's castle, at which that nobleman, as excommunicated, could not
+be present, but stood outside. The consecration of the wafer was
+duly performed, and the blessing bestowed upon the people, when
+Bernard suddenly made his way through the crowd, bearing in his hand
+the Host on its paten (or plate), and confronted the astonished
+count as he stood at the church door amid his soldiery. With pale,
+stern face, and flashing eyes, the daring monk thus addressed the
+haughty chief: "Twice have the Lord's servants entreated you, and
+you have despised them. Lo! now the blessed Son of the Virgin--the
+Head and Lord of that Church which you persecute--appears to you!
+Behold your Judge, to whom your soul must be rendered! Will you
+reject Him like His servants?" A hush of awe and expectation among
+the bystanders followed these words, broken by a groan from the
+conscience-stricken count, whose imagination was filled with such
+lively terror of Divine wrath that he fell fainting to the ground.
+Though raised up by his men, he again fell speechless. Bernard,
+seizing the opportunity, called to his side one of the deposed
+bishops, and on the count's recovery ordered that the kiss of
+reconciliation should be bestowed, and the exile restored. The
+effect of this scene was not transient, for the proud spirit had
+been subdued in the count's heart, and he performed penance for his
+offences by going on pilgrimage.
+
+[Illustration: The Vision of St. Bernard.]
+
+Various other instances of Bernard's boldness in rebuking kings, nobles,
+and even Popes, might be adduced. His most remarkable appearance as a
+political peace-maker was in the dispute which took place after the
+death of Pope Honorius II., as to the succession to the popedom. Two
+rival factions at Rome contended for the claims of separate candidates:
+one a wealthy and worldly, the other a learned and pious, cardinal.
+Bernard, as we may suppose, supported the cause of the latter, who took
+the name of Innocent II. At the council of Etampes, where Louis VI. of
+France and his nobles were assembled, the monk's eloquence prevailed
+over all the arguments of diplomacy, and the influence of France was
+pledged to the side of Innocent. Bernard next engaged aid from Henry I.,
+of England, and Lothaire, the Emperor of Germany. He then proceeded to
+Milan, where the party of the rival Pope, Anaclete, and his supporter,
+Conrad, Duke of Suabia, Lothaire's antagonist, was strongest. Bernard's
+fame was so great, and the imaginations of those who beheld him so
+fascinated by his force of will, that on his way the sick were carried
+forth to meet him, and numerous miracles were said to be wrought by the
+touch of his garments. In Milan, through his eloquence, Anaclete's party
+was completely vanquished, and the Milanese so impressed that they
+offered to displace their archbishop in Bernard's favor. But on this and
+other occasions he steadily refused any such rank, content to live and
+die in a sphere where he could be more useful, if less exalted. He
+returned to France, after a lengthened absence, in 1135, meeting on his
+way with a royal reception.
+
+He was once more absorbed in the duties of his office, as Abbot of
+Clairvaux, when again summoned to Italy by Innocent II., to oppose the
+power of Roger, the Norman King of Sicily, whose aid Anaclete had
+obtained. Bernard first passed into Germany, and successfully mediated
+between the emperor and the Suabian princes, inducing the latter to
+relinquish their rebellion. Lothaire was then prevailed upon to aid
+Innocent by force of arms, while Bernard proceeded to employ force of
+intellect in the same service. He first won over by his arguments many
+of Anaclete's chief supporters, and then accepted a challenge which King
+Roger threw out, to dispute publicly in the Court of Salerno as to the
+claims of the rival Popes, with Anaclete's champion, Cardinal Pietro di
+Pisa. At this public contest Bernard not only confuted, but converted,
+the cardinal, and reconciled him to Innocent. With Roger, Bernard was
+not so successful, and a battle ensued between the armies of the
+contending Popes. Innocent was captured, but contrived to make favorable
+terms with Roger; and a peace was agreed to, which was finally ratified
+by the death of Anaclete, in 1138. Another anti-pope having been set up,
+Bernard used his personal influence with the pretender, and induced him
+to yield. Thus the schism in the Church was healed, and the good abbot
+returned to Clairvaux.
+
+In 1146 he was mainly instrumental in promoting the second crusade. News
+reached Europe that, two years before, the Christian state of Edessa
+(which, as we have already seen, was founded by Baldwin, brother of
+Godfrey de Bouillon) had, through the weakness of its government, fallen
+into the hands of the Sultan of Bagdad, and Jerusalem was again in
+peril. Inflamed with enthusiasm, Bernard stirred up the hearts of his
+countrymen to zeal in the cause of the Cross. Louis VII., of France, was
+readily persuaded to undertake the crusade as a penance for his crimes;
+but the Emperor Conrad, of Germany, was indisposed to exertion; and to
+him, therefore, Bernard hastened, rousing the people of France and
+Germany as he travelled through. The frozen reluctance of the monarch
+could not withstand the fiery earnestness of the monk. Conrad is said to
+have dissolved into tears at the discourse, and eagerly accepted the
+cross which was offered. While in Germany Bernard showed his liberality
+of thought--rare in those days--by sternly rebuking the ignorance of a
+monk who was denouncing the Jews as the cause of the recent calamities.
+At the council of Vezelay (in Burgundy), held in 1146, Bernard's
+eloquence was as exciting in its influence on his hearers as that of
+Pope Urban had been on a previous occasion. As the speaker, at the end
+of his oration, held up the cross which was to be the badge of the
+enterprise, Louis VII. threw himself at the feet of his subject, and the
+whole assembly thronged round him, shouting the old war-cry, "It is
+God's will!" Bernard distributed to thousands of eager hands all the
+crosses which he had brought with him; and finding these insufficient
+for the demand, took off the Benedictine robe which he wore, and tore it
+into cross-shaped pieces. So impressed were the chiefs of the crusading
+army with his power over the people, that at a subsequent assembly they
+even offered the command of the expedition to him--an unwarlike monk.
+
+He declined the post on the ground of unfitness, but had he accepted it,
+the issue of the crusades might have been different from what it was.
+His authority would at least have kept in check the discords, perfidies,
+and excesses to which he, probably with justice, afterward attributed
+the failure of the enterprise. From these causes, together with a fatal
+incapacity on the part of the French and German generals, the second
+crusade resulted in nothing but the wholesale massacre of the Christian
+armies by the Turks. Bernard, who had predicted the success of the
+expedition, was deeply distressed at the unfortunate result; the more
+as, with great injustice, the weight of popular indignation fell upon
+him and seriously damaged his influence. This disappointment, however,
+did not discourage him, and only served to concentrate his attention for
+the rest of his life on the more immediate duties of his calling.
+
+These he had never neglected, even while immersed in religious politics.
+By advice and example he greatly reformed the discipline of monastic
+life. He continually preached in his own convent; and, either personally
+or through agents, is said to have founded upward of sixty monasteries
+in alliance with Clairvaux. Among them the Hospice of Mount St. Bernard,
+in Switzerland, has distinguished itself by loving deeds worthy of its
+founder. Bernard was an eminent theologian, both in theory and practice,
+and many of his works are extant. They disclose very forcibly his strong
+intellect and warm heart. Many of his opinions were most liberal for his
+age, and he rejected several tenets, on which the Roman Catholic Church
+has since insisted, with a decision which would have ranked him among
+heretics had he lived a few centuries later. He manifested,
+nevertheless, a want of freedom in his conduct toward the great Abelard,
+who in that age represented the true Protestant spirit of inquiry into
+the received doctrines of the Church. Against this daring thinker
+Bernard unjustifiably employed the weight of authority which he
+possessed, to silence what he deemed a dangerous boldness of opinion.
+Toward Abelard personally, however, he displayed nothing but generous
+and respectful courtesy, even in the heat of controversy; and it is
+satisfactory to know that a cordial interchange of kindly feeling passed
+between these two eminent men long before their deaths.
+
+Many of Bernard's wise and good deeds are recorded, which cannot be
+noticed here. We may refer to but one, which greatly influenced the
+world for centuries after his death; namely, the sanction and aid which
+he gave to the establishment of the Knight-Templars, a body of
+soldier-priests, who devoted their lives to the preservation of the
+Holy Places and the protection of pilgrims. Had they faithfully adhered
+to the statutes which he drew up for their conduct, the exhibition of
+zeal which they were designed to make might have been as blessed to
+Christendom as their arrogance was cursed.
+
+A few years before his death, Bernard had the gratification of seeing
+one of his own disciples raised to the papal chair, as Pope Eugenius
+III. The new pontiff recognized his master's authority no less than
+before his accession, and Bernard's counsel and influence were
+repeatedly used in his behalf. But the over-activity of the good abbot
+too soon decayed the slender strength which his firm will had wrested,
+as it were, from death in a hand-to-hand struggle that lasted for more
+than forty years. Always sickly, frequently reduced to the brink of the
+grave, yet perpetually at work, his constitution gave way in 1155, at
+the age of sixty-three. His last act was worthy of his life. He was on a
+dying-bed when a discord broke out between the nobles and the burghers
+of the town of Mentz. Bernard rose, and once more entered the arena of
+strife with the olive-branch of peace in his hand. The proud barons and
+the angry citizens listened humbly to his gentle words, and shrank from
+the mild glances of those eyes which his biographers scarcely ever
+mention without calling _dove-like_. The turbulence of passion was
+hushed, and Bernard returned to die. The filial tears of his disciples
+at Clairvaux, and the regrets of all the nation, followed him to the
+grave. About twenty years after his death a decree of canonization
+awarded him the title of Saint, which, considering how it has been
+disgraced by unholy bearers, will not seem so fitly to recognize his
+merit as that name which the reverence of the Church has further
+bestowed on him--the _last_ of the Fathers.
+
+
+
+
+FREDERICK BARBAROSSA
+
+By Lady LAMB
+
+(1121-1190)
+
+
+It seems almost incredible that no history should exist of the childhood
+and early life of an emperor of such note as "Barbarossa;" yet, in spite
+of most diligent search, we have been compelled almost to renounce one
+of the most pleasing tasks of a biographer, which consists in making
+acquaintance with a hero in his infancy, and through childhood and youth
+following his career to fame and glory. So far as we have been able to
+discover, no trace, except a few dry data, exists of "Frederick of the
+Red Beard," until we find him setting out with his uncle, Conrad III.,
+in the spring of 1147, to join the second crusade against the Saracens.
+The date of his birth is given as 1121, his father being Duke Frederick
+of Hohenstauffen (surnamed "le Borgne") and his mother Judith, daughter
+of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria; opinions are divided on the
+subject of his birthplace, some writers mentioning the castle of
+Veitsberg, near Ravensburg, others the town of Weiblingen, in Nuremburg;
+but since the main interest of his history does not begin until his
+succession to the paternal duchy of Swabia, and his departure for the
+Holy Land in 1147; his marriage with Adelaide, daughter of Theobald,
+Margrave of Vohburg, in 1149; and finally his accession to the imperial
+throne in 1152, we must resign ourselves to silence on the subject of
+his earlier years, and take up his history from the death of Conrad
+III., and that monarch's choice of him as a successor, to the exclusion
+of his own son.
+
+[Illustration: Frederick Barbarossa.]
+
+From every possible point of view, Frederick of Hohenstauffen justified
+his uncle's choice: endowed with the most brilliant qualities of heart
+and mind, he had already earned the suffrages of a great portion of his
+new subjects by the manner in which he had distinguished himself during
+the above-mentioned campaign in the Holy Land; moreover, as the son of
+Frederick of Hohenstauffen and Judith, daughter of Henry the Black, Duke
+of Bavaria, Ghibelline by his father and Guelph on his mother's side,
+there seemed good ground for the hope that in him might terminate the
+differences of the two contending factions. The election diet was
+accordingly assembled at Frankfort, and it being there decided to
+confirm Conrad's choice and to invest Frederick with the imperial
+insignia, he was proclaimed King of the Romans and of Germany, and
+anointed at Aix-la-Chapelle on March 5, 1152, the ceremony being
+performed by Arnoul de Gueldre, Archbishop of Cologne. Not lightly or
+eagerly did the new emperor accept these dignities, but after mature and
+careful consideration of his capacity to undertake the responsibility of
+guiding Germany through shoals and quicksands which had little by
+little enveloped the fair countries won three hundred years before by
+the valiant Charlemagne.
+
+Tidings of ever-recurring disturbances determined Frederick to make an
+expedition into Italy, as soon as affairs in Germany would admit of his
+absence; but there was much to be done first--many princes to be dealt
+with, who, from different motives viewing his election with
+dissatisfaction, would take immediate advantage of his departure to
+bring all the horrors of civil war into his dominions. Bavaria, for
+example, had been wrested from Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, during
+his minority, by Conrad III., and now he conjured Frederick, with tears
+and threats, to restore it to him. This, by dint of much diplomacy,
+Frederick effected, and the result was that for some years he gained a
+stanch ally, instead of a designing enemy.
+
+Having decided this quarrel and several others, into which we need not
+enter, Frederick prepared for that first expedition into Italy which, as
+we have seen, he had resolved on from the commencement of his reign.
+
+At the head of a numerous army he passed into Switzerland, and encamped
+near the lake of Constance; when, under the banner of Count von
+Lenzburg, the inhabitants of the three "cents" or cantons of Schwyz,
+Uri, and Unterwalden came to do homage and offer their feudal service in
+the field. At the same time, and while still engaged in assembling the
+forces with which to march into Italy, deputies from the city of Lodi
+arrived, and throwing themselves at his feet, besought his interference
+against the oppressions of the Milanese, who had declared for Adrian
+IV., and whose town was indeed the very hot-bed of the papal faction.
+The emperor instantly sent letters commanding the Milanese to make full
+reparation to their unfortunate neighbors; but on perusal of his behests
+they tore the missives in a thousand pieces, and flung them in the faces
+of the messengers, sending back by them as their sole answer an open
+defiance of his authority. Enraged at this insolence, Frederick crossed
+the Alps, but, too prudent to risk an immediate attack on Milan,
+strongly fortified and well garrisoned as it was, he sought rather to
+weaken it through the other towns with which it was in league, and
+accordingly besieged in turn Rosate, Cairo, and Asti, which all fell
+into his hands, and ended with the total demolition of the city of
+Tortona, which he reduced to ashes, afterward even levelling the ground
+upon which it had stood. This last victory proved the accuracy of
+Barbarossa's judgment, as regarded the remainder of the fifteen towns of
+the so-called "Lombard League," most of which, intimidated by his
+energetic measures, sent ambassadors to do homage on their account. He
+now seized the iron crown of Lombardy; was crowned at Pavia and again at
+Monza, after which he entered into negotiations with Adrian IV. for the
+performance of the coronation ceremony at Rome.
+
+We now come to the second marriage of our hero, when Beatrix, the only
+child and heiress of Reinold of Burgundy, became his bride; and an echo
+of the old romantic halo which surrounds that incident in Barbarossa's
+life reaches us, even in this prosaic age, as we picture to ourselves
+the gallant, handsome Frederick riding off with his trusty knights to
+deliver the fair heiress of Count Reinold from the gloomy prison in
+which her uncle, Count William, had confined her in order to appropriate
+the rich domains of "Franche-Comté." Over hill and dale sped the
+chivalrous band till the grim castle was reached; a halt was ordered,
+and an envoy sent to summon Count William to yield both his fortress and
+the fair prisoner. At first the count meditated resistance, but on
+looking out and investigating the number of Frederick's followers, he
+decided to submit, and congratulated himself on his determination when
+Frederick's messenger said, on behalf of his master, that if the castle
+were not given freely it would be taken by force, the fair Beatrix
+released, and her gloomy prison walls be prevented from hiding any other
+like iniquity by being razed to the ground. Prudence, we hear, is the
+better part of valor, and evidently Count William shared in the opinion,
+for we learn that he promptly let down the drawbridge, over which
+Frederick and his followers passed, and whence they presently issued,
+bearing in their midst the quondam prisoner, the lovely Beatrix, whose
+eyes, moist with tears of gratitude, looked trustingly in the handsome
+face of her deliverer. So now, away, away to the old church at
+Wurtzburg! deck the streets, ring the bells, bid priests don their
+vestments and burghers their best, and fall in merrily with the gay
+procession that comes to do honor to Barbarossa and his fair bride!
+
+Thus far the little romance of our emperor and Beatrix; now to return to
+the sober and solemn statement of facts. During 1157 and the next year,
+Frederick busied himself with a campaign against Poland, and compelled
+Boleslaw, the king, to acknowledge the supremacy of the head of the
+German Empire, and to take the oath of fealty, barefoot and with his
+naked sword hung round his neck; after which he bestowed the kingdom
+upon Wladislaw of Bohemia, whom he had appointed regent of the German
+states during his absence, and whom he now took this opportunity to
+reward. New disputes began to arise between Pope Adrian and Frederick;
+and when at Besanēon some indiscreet remarks of His Holiness as to
+having "conferred the imperial crown" on, and "accorded it by favor" to
+Frederick, were mentioned, that monarch waited no longer, but collected
+a fresh army, and marched into Italy to chastise the pontiff, who, on
+hearing of his approach, and scared at the prospect of such a calamity,
+hastened to explain away his words as best he might. The emperor
+accepted his excuses, but as he was so far on the road, determined to
+attack Milan, whose inhabitants had increased the anger he already felt
+for them by rebuilding Tortona (which, as we know, he had totally
+destroyed), and expelling the inhabitants of Lodi from their dwellings
+for having called him to mediate on the subject of their wrongs. With
+100,000 men (for almost all of the Lombard cities had, either willingly
+or by force, contributed their militia) and 15,000 cavalry, he advanced
+toward Milan and laid siege to it. The inhabitants made a most obstinate
+resistance, and were at length only vanquished by the impossibility of
+finding food for the vast population within the walls. A capitulation
+was effected, by which the emperor contented himself with very moderate
+conditions, the most severe being that which condemned the city to the
+loss of her privileges; but when the chief nobles came to deliver the
+keys, barefooted and with every token of humility, he forgot their
+former insolence, and only required, in return for his clemency, a
+renewal of the oath of fealty and their promise to rebuild the town of
+Lodi.
+
+To put an end to these ever-recurring disputes Frederick called together
+a diet at Roncaglia, to which each of the Italian towns was commanded to
+send its representative; the four most learned jurists from the
+university of Bologna being also requested to attend, for the purpose of
+drawing up a document which should conclusively define the relations
+between himself, as head of the empire, and the vassals and imperial
+cities of Italy. But when the learned quartet had heard all the points
+of dispute, and were in possession of the facts, their decision gave
+such almost limitless power to Frederick that several of the towns, and
+more especially Milan, refused to abide by it and prepared for further
+resistance.
+
+Frederick had not been idle all the time these schisms were raging; on
+the contrary, he had made a third expedition to Italy, from which he had
+been compelled to return, leaving the flower of his army lying dead,
+stricken down with pestilence. The next six years were spent in settling
+various disputes and complications which had arisen in Germany during
+his absence; in causing his son Henry, a child of only five years of
+age, to be crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle; and in keeping some sort of check
+on his vassal, Henry the Lion, who, now that he had increased his power
+by a marriage with Matilda, daughter of Henry II. of England, was no
+unimportant person in the empire, and moreover one extremely liable to
+become sulky and unmanageable if he had a chance, or the smallest
+grievance to complain of.
+
+The news now spread through Europe of the reconquest of Jerusalem by
+Saladin. These tidings effaced every other thought; the new Pope, Urban,
+forgot the thunders of the Church which he had been keeping, like a
+second sword of Damocles, suspended over Frederick's head; the emperor
+buried his resentment; a general peace was concluded, and Barbarossa,
+then in his seventieth year, gave the regency of his dominions to his
+son Henry, and joyfully taking up the cross--accompanied by his son
+Frederick, the flower of German chivalry, and an army of 100,000
+men--marched by way of Vienna to Presburg, and thence through Hungary,
+Servia, and Roumelia.
+
+Isaac Angelus, the Greek emperor, who had promised to furnish the German
+troops with provisions and assist Frederick in all ways, with the
+proverbial duplicity of his nation, broke his word, harassed him on his
+march, and threw Count von Diez, his ambassador, into prison; which
+treachery greatly incensed the emperor, and caused him to give
+permission to his soldiers to plunder; the results being that the
+country soon bore sad traces of their passage, and that the two
+important towns of Manioava and Philippopolis were completely destroyed.
+This reduced Isaac, professedly, to a state of contrition; and when
+Barbarossa advanced toward Constantinople, the Greek emperor, anxious to
+conciliate him, placed his entire fleet at his disposal for the
+transport of the German army. Scarcely had they entered Asia Minor
+before Isaac's good resolutions abandoned him, and leaguing himself with
+another faithless ally of Frederick, the Sultan of Iconium, they beset
+the German troops, and did everything they possibly could to make the
+march more difficult; however, though they tried both fair means and
+foul, their evil practices resulted in their own defeat, and the
+Oriental Christians soon found they had every reason to congratulate
+themselves upon the arrival of such a champion.
+
+The fanaticism of a Turkish prisoner, who, acting as guide, wilfully
+sacrificed his life in order to mislead Frederick's army, involved the
+Germans in almost endless troubles by taking them amidst pathless
+mountains, where the horrors of starvation and the entire lack of water
+added yet more miseries to their condition. Brave where all were
+despairing, encouraging his men with cheering words and hopeful looks,
+their gallant old leader rode on, and footsore, half-starved, thirsty,
+and wretched as they were, the men tried, though tears of agony filled
+their eyes, to raise the notes of their Swabian war-song to please him.
+Frederick, Duke of Swabia, hastened forward with half the remaining
+army, and gaining a victory over a body of Turks, pushed on till he came
+to the town of Iconium; when, scattering the enemy before him, he put
+the inhabitants to the sword, gained a great booty, and, more than all,
+food, drink, and rest for his weary men.
+
+A body of Turks had meanwhile crept round the town, and surrounded the
+columns which were advancing under Barbarossa; worn out with sorrow,
+hunger, and thirst, even his courage gave way for one moment, as he
+thought that this band of Turks had only, in all probability, reached
+him by passing over the dead bodies of his brave son and the gallant
+Swabians; the aged monarch bowed his head, and the scorching tears of
+rage ran down his cheeks; then dashing his hand across his eyes, he
+cried: "Christ still lives! Christ conquers!" and shouting to his
+followers, they fell on the Turks like lions; Barbarossa with his own
+hand sending many a one to his last sleep. Then they marched forward to
+Iconium, where rest and plenty awaited them, and where the old emperor
+doubtless found much cause for thankfulness when he threw himself into
+the arms of his brave son.
+
+At Iconium the army stayed for some time, the soldiers being in sad need
+of repose; and then starting afresh, continued as far as the little
+river Saleph; when, the road being encumbered with cattle, and the
+emperor impatient of delay, he commanded his men to cross the stream and
+plunged into the water. Here this hero of many combats, this brave and
+wise king, was destined to end his long life in an obscure river, of
+which he had probably never heard; the current was too strong for his
+horse, and, nobly as the animal battled against it, both rider and steed
+were drowned.
+
+The Germans, almost frantic with grief and dismay, made frenzied efforts
+to regain the body of their leader; and, when at last they succeeded,
+they conveyed it with much loving care to Antioch, where it was buried
+in St. Peter's Church.
+
+With the history of the crusade after the death of our hero, we have
+nothing to do further than to say that his son, Frederick, took the
+chief command and led the brave followers of his gallant father until a
+pestilence occasioned his death at Acre, in the following year, when the
+remnant of the once formidable army returned to Germany.
+
+[Illustration: The Death of Barbarossa.]
+
+How Barbarossa still lingers in the hearts of his people even now, when
+all these hundreds of years divide his time from theirs, is shown by
+a dozen legends. Most of these profess an utter disbelief in the death
+of their loved emperor; one of them tells how, in a rocky cleft of the
+Klyfhaüser Mountains, Barbarossa still sleeps calmly and peacefully; he
+sits before a marble table into which and through which his red beard
+has grown; his head is bowed on his folded hands, and though he from
+time to time lifts it and opens his eyes, it is but to shut them again
+quickly, for the right time of his awakening is not come; he has seen
+the ravens flying round the mountain, and his long sleep will only end
+when their black forms are no longer visible, when he will step forth
+and avenge the wrongs of the oppressed.
+
+Another story says that he is lying in the Untersberg near Salzburg, and
+that when the dead pear-tree which, thrice cut down, plants itself
+afresh, shall bud forth and blossom, the gallant "Rothbart" will come
+out into the bright daylight, hang his shield on the pink-flowered
+bough, throw down his gauntlet as a gage to all evil-doers, and, aided
+by the good and chivalrous few who will still be inhabitants of this bad
+world, will vanquish cruelty and wickedness, and realize the dream of a
+golden age they have for so long anticipated.
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD COEUR DE LION
+
+(1157-1199)
+
+[Illustration: Richard Coeur de Lion.]
+
+
+Richard I., King of England, surnamed Coeur de Lion, was the third son
+of Henry II. and his queen, Eleanor, and was born at Oxford, in the
+king's manor house there, afterward the monastery of the White Friars,
+in September, 1157. By the treaty of Montmirail, concluded on January 6,
+1169, between Henry and Louis VII. of France, it was stipulated that the
+duchy of Aquitaine should be made over to Richard, who should do homage
+and fealty for it to Louis, and should espouse Adelais, or Alice, that
+king's youngest daughter; and in 1170 King Henry, being taken ill at
+Domfront, in Maine, made a will, by which he confirmed this arrangement.
+In 1173 Richard, with his younger brother, Geoffrey, and their mother,
+joined their eldest brother, Henry, in his first rebellion against their
+father. On the submission of the rebels, in September, 1174, Richard
+received two castles in Poitou, with half the revenue of that earldom,
+and, along with Geoffrey, did homage and swore fealty to their father.
+Nevertheless Richard continued from this time to hold the government of
+the whole of Aquitaine, and to be usually styled, as before, Duke of
+Aquitaine, or Duke of Poitou (which were considered as the same title),
+although it appears that King Henry now looked upon the arrangements
+made at the treaty of Montmirail as annulled, and that dukedom to have
+actually reverted to himself. In 1183 Richard refused, when commanded by
+his father, to do homage for Aquitaine to his elder brother, Henry; on
+which his brothers Henry and Geoffrey invaded the duchy, and a new war
+ensued between them and their father, who was assisted by Richard,
+which, however, was terminated by the death of the eldest of the three
+brothers in June of that same year, when Richard became his father's
+heir-apparent. But at an interview between King Henry and Philip
+Augustus, now King of France, in November, 1188, Richard, apparently
+impelled by a suspicion that his father intended to leave his crown to
+his younger brother, John, and also professing to resent his father's
+conduct in withholding from him his affianced bride, the French king's
+sister, suddenly declared himself the liegeman of Philip for all his
+father's dominions in France; whence arose a new war, in which Philip
+and Richard speedily compelled King Henry to yield to all their demands,
+and a treaty to that effect was about to be signed when King Henry died,
+on July 6, 1189. Richard was present at the burial of his father in the
+choir of the convent of Fontevrault.
+
+Notwithstanding his apprehensions, real or affected, of his brother
+John, Richard made no particular haste to come over to England, but,
+contenting himself with ordering his mother, Queen Eleanor, to be
+liberated from confinement, and to be invested with the regency of that
+kingdom, he first proceeded to Rouen, where he was formally acknowledged
+as Duke of Normandy on July 20th, and it was August 13th before he
+arrived at Portsmouth (or, as others say, at Southampton). His
+coronation, from which the commencement of his reign is dated, took
+place in Westminster Abbey on September 3d. It was on occasion of that
+ceremony that a furious riot broke out among the Jews in London, which
+was in the course of the next six months renewed in most of the great
+towns throughout the kingdom. At York, in March, 1190, a body of 500
+Jews, with their wives and children, having taken refuge in the castle,
+found no other way of saving themselves from their assailants than by
+first cutting the throats of the women and children and then stabbing
+one another.
+
+A short time before his father's death Richard, and his then friend,
+Philip Augustus, had, as it was expressed, taken the cross, that is to
+say, had publicly vowed to proceed to the Holy Land, to assist in
+recovering from the infidels the city and kingdom of Jerusalem, which
+had recently (1187) fallen into the hands of the great Saladin. The
+mighty expedition, in which all the principal nations of Western
+Christendom now joined, for the accomplishment of this object is known
+by the name of the Third Crusade. Leaving the government of his kingdom
+during his absence in the hands of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely and
+chancellor, and Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham and justiciary, Richard
+took his departure from England on December 11th of this same year,
+1189, and proceeding to Normandy, united his forces with those of
+Philip Augustus in the plain of Vezelay on July 1, 1190. The two friends
+proceeded together at the head of an army of more than 100,000 men as
+far as Lyons, where they separated on the 31st; Philip taking the road
+to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles, where he was to meet his fleet.
+The fleet, however, not arriving so soon as was expected, Richard in his
+impatience hired thirty small vessels for the conveyance of himself and
+his suite, and, sailing for Naples, arrived there on August 28th. On
+September 8th he proceeded by sea to Salerno, where he remained till the
+23d, and then sailed for Messina, which port his fleet had reached about
+a week before, with the army, which it had taken on board at Marseilles.
+The French king had also arrived at Messina a few days before his
+brother of England.
+
+The two kings remained together at Messina till the end of March, 1191.
+During their stay Richard compelled Tancred, who had usurped the crown
+of Sicily, to relinquish the dower of his sister Joan, the widow of
+William, the late sovereign, and to pay him besides forty thousand
+ounces of gold. In return he betrothed his nephew, Arthur, the son of
+his next brother, Geoffrey, to Tancred's infant daughter, and formed a
+league offensive and defensive with the Sicilian king--a connection
+which afterward cost him dear, for it was the source of the enmity of
+the Emperor Henry VI., who had married Constantia, the aunt of William,
+and claimed the throne of Sicily in right of his wife. After the dispute
+with Tancred had been settled, the latent rivalry of Richard and Philip
+broke out in a quarrel about the Princess Adelais, whom her brother
+Philip insisted that Richard should espouse, in conformity with their
+betrothment, now that his father no longer lived to oppose their union.
+But if Richard had ever cared anything for the French princess, that
+attachment had now been obliterated by another, which he had some years
+before formed for Berengaria, the beautiful daughter of Sancho VI.
+(styled the Wise), King of Navarre; in fact he had by this time sent his
+mother Eleanor to her father's court to solicit that lady in marriage,
+and, his proposals having been accepted, the two were now actually on
+their way to join him. In these circumstances Philip found himself
+obliged to recede from his demand; and the matter was arranged by an
+agreement that Richard should pay a sum of ten thousand marks, in five
+yearly instalments, and restore Adelais, who had previously been
+conducted into England, and the places of strength that had been given
+along with her as her marriage portion, when he should have returned
+from Palestine.
+
+Richard, having sent his mother home to England, sailed from Messina on
+April 7th, at the head of a fleet of about two hundred ships, of which
+fifty-three were large vessels of the sort styled galleys; his sister,
+the queen dowager of Sicily, and the Princess Berengaria accompanying
+him. The King of France had set sail about a week before. Several
+months, however, elapsed before Richard reached the Holy Land, having
+been detained by an attack which he made upon the island of Cyprus;
+Isaac, the king, or emperor, of which had ill used the crews of some of
+the English ships that had been driven upon his coasts in a storm.
+Richard took Limasol, the capital, by assault; and that blow was soon
+followed by the complete submission of Isaac and the surrender of the
+whole island. Isaac was put into confinement, and remained a captive
+till his death in 1195. Meanwhile the island of Cyprus was made over by
+Richard, in 1192, to Guy of Lusignan, upon his resignation of the now
+merely titular royalty of Jerusalem to his rival Henry of Champagne and
+Guy's posterity reigned in that island till the year 1458.
+
+Having married Berengaria at Limasol, Richard set sail from Cyprus, on
+June 4th (1191), with a fleet now described as consisting of thirteen
+large ships called busses, fifty galleys, and a hundred transports; and
+on the 10th he reached the camp of the crusaders assembled before the
+fortress of Acre, the siege of which had already occupied them not much
+less than two years, and had cost the lives, it is said of nearly two
+hundred thousand of the assailants. But the presence of the English
+king, although he was suffering from severe illness, and had to be
+carried to the trenches on a litter, immediately inspired so much new
+vigor into the operations of the Christian army that, on July 12th, the
+place surrendered, and Saladin, who had been harassing the besiegers
+from the neighboring mountains, withdrew, in conformity with the terms
+of capitulation. This great event, however, was immediately followed by
+an open rupture between Richard and King Philip, whose rivalry had
+already exhibited itself in a variety of ways, and more particularly in
+the support given by Richard to the claim of Guy of Lusignan, and by
+Philip to that of Conrad of Montferrat to the vacant crown of Jerusalem.
+Philip, in fact, took his departure from Palestine on the last day of
+July, leaving only ten thousand men, under the command of the Duke of
+Burgundy.
+
+[Illustration: Richard at the Battle of Arsur.]
+
+Richard performed prodigies of valor in the Holy Land, but, although a
+signal defeat of Saladin on September 7th at Arsur was followed by the
+capture of Jaffa and some other places of less importance, Jerusalem,
+which was the main object of the crusade, so far from being taken was
+not even attacked. Jaffa, however, after it had again fallen into the
+hands of Saladin, was recovered by the impetuous valor of the English
+king. At last, on October 9, 1192, Richard set sail from Acre in a
+single vessel, his fleet, having on board his wife, his sister, and the
+daughter of the captive King of Cyprus, having put to sea a few days
+before. The three ladies got safe to Sicily; but the first land the king
+made was the island of Corfu, which he took about a month to reach. He
+left Corfu about the middle of November with three coasting-vessels
+which he hired there; but after being a few days at sea he was compelled
+by a storm to land on the coast of Istria, at a spot between the towns
+of Aquileia and Venice. After narrowly escaping first from falling at
+Goritz into the hands of Maynard, a nephew of Conrad of Montferrat (to
+whose murder in Palestine Richard, upon very insufficient evidence, was
+suspected to be an accessory), and then at Friesach from Maynard's
+brother, Frederick of Batesow, he was taken on December 21st, at Erperg,
+near Vienna, by Leopold, Duke of Austria (a brother-in-law of Isaac of
+Cyprus), and was by him consigned to close confinement in the castle of
+Tyernsteign, under the care of his vassal, Baron Haldmar. In the course
+of a few days, however, by an arrangement between Leopold and the
+Emperor Henry VI., the captive king was transferred to the custody of
+the latter, who shut him up in a castle in the Tyrol, where he was bound
+with chains, and guarded by a band of men who surrounded him day and
+night with drawn swords. In this state he remained about three months.
+Meanwhile, intelligence of his having fallen into the hands of the
+emperor had reached England, and excited the strongest sensation among
+all ranks of the people. It is sufficient to mention that during his
+absence a struggle for supremacy had for some time been carried on with
+varying success between the king's brother, John, and Longchamp, the
+chancellor, who had acquired the entire regency, and had also been
+appointed papal legate for England and Scotland; and that this had
+resulted, in October, 1191, in the deposition of Longchamp, by a council
+of the nobility held in St Paul's Churchyard, London; after which he
+left the country, and although he soon ventured to return, ultimately
+deemed it most prudent to retire to Normandy. The supreme authority was
+thus left for a time in the hands of John, who, as soon as he learned
+the news of his brother's captivity, openly repaired to Paris, and did
+homage to the French king for the English dominions on the Continent.
+
+[Illustration: Richard Coeur de Lion.]
+
+On returning to England, John raised an army to support his pretensions,
+while his confederate, Philip, took up arms in his behalf in France,
+and, entering Normandy, overran a great part of that duchy, although
+Rouen, the capital, was preserved principally by the exertions of the
+Earl of Essex, lately one of Richard's companions in the Holy Land. In
+England, also, John met with a general opposition to his usurpation of
+the regal authority, which soon compelled him to conclude an armistice
+with a council of regency that had been appointed by the prelates and
+barons. This was the position of affairs when Longchamp, having
+discovered Richard's place of confinement, after much solicitation
+prevailed upon the emperor to allow the royal prisoner to be brought
+before the diet at Hagenau, where, accordingly, he made his appearance
+on April 13, 1193, and defended himself with so much eloquence against
+the several charges made against him in regard to Tancred and the
+kingdom of Sicily, to his conquest of Cyprus, and to the murder of
+Conrad of Montferrat, that Henry found himself compelled by the general
+sentiment of the diet to order his chains to be immediately struck off,
+and to agree to enter upon negotiations for his ransom. Longchamp was
+immediately despatched to England with a letter to the council of
+regency, and the result was, that, notwithstanding the insidious efforts
+both of John and his friend, Philip of France, to prevent the
+conclusion of the treaty, Richard was at last liberated, on February 4,
+1194, after seventy thousand marks had been actually paid to the
+emperor, and hostages given for the payment of thirty thousand more. The
+English king had also engaged to release both Isaac of Cyprus and his
+daughter, and he had besides, at the persuasion, it is said, of his
+mother, Eleanor, the more effectually to conciliate Henry, formally
+resigned his crown into the hand of the emperor, who immediately
+restored it to him to be held as a fief of the empire, and burdened with
+a yearly feudal payment to his superior lord of five thousand pounds.
+This strange transaction rests on the authority of the contemporary
+annalist Hoveden. Richard, descending the Rhine as far as Cologne,
+proceeded thence across the country to Antwerp, and, embarking there on
+board his own fleet, landed at Sandwich on March 13th.
+
+Most of John's strongholds had been wrested from his hands before his
+brother's return, and now the rest immediately surrendered and he
+himself fled the country, and with his principal adviser, Hugh, Bishop
+of Coventry, having been charged with high treason, and not appearing to
+plead after forty days, was outlawed and divested of all his
+possessions.
+
+Meanwhile it was thought necessary that Richard should be crowned again,
+and that ceremony was accordingly performed at Winchester by Hubert,
+Archbishop of Canterbury, on April 17th. Then, leaving Hubert guardian
+of England and grand justiciary, on May 2d, following, having, with his
+characteristic activity employed almost every moment since his arrival
+in raising an army and procuring funds for its maintenance by all sorts
+of exactions and the most unscrupulous use of every means in his power,
+he again set sail from Portsmouth, his whole soul bent on chastising the
+King of France. Owing to adverse winds he was a fortnight in reaching
+Barfleur, in Normandy, where, as soon as he landed, he was met by his
+brother John, who professed contrition and implored his pardon, which,
+on the intercession of his mother, Eleanor, was granted. Richard now
+marched against Philip, and several engagements took place between them,
+in most of which the English king was successful. But the war, though it
+lasted for some years, was distinguished by few remarkable events. A
+truce for one year was agreed to on July 23d, and although hostilities
+were resumed some time before the expiration of that term, a peace was
+again concluded in the end of the following year, which lasted till the
+beginning of 1197.
+
+All this time Hubert, assisted by Longchamp, who had been restored to
+his office of chancellor, is said to have presided over the government
+at home with great ability. Hubert had been educated under the famous
+Glanvil, and he seems, in the spirit of his master, to have exerted
+himself in re-establishing and maintaining the authority of the law, by
+which alone, even if he did no more, he must have materially contributed
+to the revival of industry. The large sums, however, which he was
+obliged to raise by taxation to meet the expenses of the war, in the
+exhausted state to which the country had been reduced provoked much
+popular dissatisfaction; and the third year of the king's absence in
+particular was distinguished by the remarkable commotion excited by
+William Fitz-Osbert, styled Longbeard, a citizen of London, who is
+admitted to have possessed both eloquence and learning, and whose whole
+character and proceedings might not improbably, if he had had his own
+historian, have assumed a very different complexion from what has been
+given to him. Longbeard, who acquired the names of the Advocate and King
+of the Poor, is affirmed to have had above fifty thousand of the lower
+orders associated with him by oaths which bound them to follow
+whithersoever he led. When an attempt was made to apprehend him by two
+of the wealthier citizens, he drew his knife and stabbed one of them,
+named Geoffrey, to the heart, and then took refuge in the church of St
+Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, the tower of which he and his followers
+fortified, and held for three days, when they were at last (April 7,
+1196), dislodged by fire being set to the building. Fitz-Osbert was
+first dragged at a horse's tail to the Tower, and then to the Elms in
+West Smithfield, where he was hanged, with nine of his followers. The
+people, however, long continued to regard him as a martyr.
+
+The war between Richard and Philip broke out again in 1197, and in the
+course of this campaign Richard had the gratification of capturing the
+Bishop of Beauvais, a personage whom he had reason to regard as a main
+instigator of the severities and indignities which he had sustained at
+the hands of the emperor. The bishop was taken armed cap-ą-pie and
+fighting, and when Pope Celestine recommended him to the clemency of
+Richard as his son, the English king sent his holiness the bishop's coat
+of mail, with the following verse of Scripture attached to it: "This
+have we found; know now whether it be thy son's coat, or no." This same
+year, too, finished the career of the Emperor Henry, who, in his last
+moments, is said to have expressed the extremest remorse for the manner
+in which he had treated the great champion of the Cross. Richard's other
+enemy, Leopold, Duke of Austria, had been killed by a fall from his
+horse two years before.
+
+A truce, as usual, at the end of the year, again suspended hostilities
+for a space. The war was renewed on its termination, and in this
+campaign (of the year 1198) Richard gained one of his greatest victories
+near Gisors, when Philip in his flight fell into the river Epte, and was
+nearly drowned. After this, by the intercession of the Pope's legate, a
+truce was concluded between the two kings for five years, and they never
+met again in fight; although they probably would, notwithstanding the
+truce, if both had lived. But on March 26th in the following year, 1199,
+as Richard was engaged in reducing the castle of Chaluz, the stronghold
+of one of his Aquitanian vassals, Vidomar, Viscount of Limoges, who it
+seems had refused to surrender a treasure found on his estate, to which
+the king laid claim in right of his feudal superiority, Coeur de Lion
+was struck in the left shoulder by an arrow, aimed from the rampart of
+the castle by a youth named Bertrand de Gurdun. The wound would not have
+been dangerous but for the mismanagement of the surgeon in his attempts
+to extract the arrow-head, which had broken off in the flesh. As it was,
+Richard lived only till Tuesday, April 16th. The shot was a fatal one in
+every way; in the fury into which the wound of the king threw the
+besieging army the castle was taken by storm, and all the persons found
+in it were immediately hanged, as some authorities say, by the king's
+orders, with the exception only of Gurdun. He was brought into the
+presence of his dying victim, when Richard, under the impulse of
+generosity or compunction, gave him his liberty, with a hundred
+shillings to take him home; but after the king's death he was flayed
+alive, and then hanged, by order of Marchadee, the leader of the
+Brabantine mercenaries serving in Richard's army.
+
+The character of Richard is, of course, not to be judged without
+reference to the general manners of the age in which he lived. It is
+probable enough that there was hardly an excess, either of violence or
+licentiousness, into which his impetuous temperament did not
+occasionally precipitate him; but he seems to have had nothing base or
+malignant in his composition; and that he was as capable of acts of
+extraordinary generosity and disinterestedness as of excesses of brutal
+fury or profligacy. Of the courage and strength of will proper to his
+race, he had his full share, with more than his share of their strength
+of thew and sinew; and his intellectual powers, both natural and
+acquired, were also of a high order. He was renowned in his own day not
+only as beyond all dispute the stoutest and most gallant of living
+heroes, but as likewise occupying a place in the foremost rank of those
+who excelled in wit, in eloquence, and in song.
+
+
+
+
+ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI[6]
+
+         [Footnote 6: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP, LL.D.
+
+(1182-1226)
+
+[Illustration: St. Francis of Assisi.]
+
+
+One reason why those beings who are known to us as saints are so little
+understood is, that their lives are usually written in one of two ways,
+both equally unsuited to popular appreciation. Either they are presented
+in a dry, bare, matter-of-fact manner, which requires all the knowledge
+and sympathy of the initiated to give it vital meaning; or else they are
+surrounded with an appanage of portents, visions, miracles,
+legends--spread before the reader without discrimination or
+explanation--which confuse the mind and soul, and absolutely repel all
+who do not share the faith of the subject and the biographer.
+
+As a matter of fact, no Catholic is obliged to accept these legends and
+traditions literally, except in those cases where the authorities of
+the Church, after a scrutiny, which is always deliberate and searching,
+declare that a miracle was wrought. But every Catholic, by the very
+nature of his belief in the actual presence of the Divinity among men,
+must acknowledge and maintain that miracles have been wrought by that
+supernatural power constantly, ever since apostolic times; that they may
+and do occur, through the same power, at any moment to-day; and always
+will occur. In the ordinary gossip of the world, men hold to the maxim
+that if reports are current, all pointing to one particular fact, there
+must be truth in them. "Where there is so much smoke there is sure to be
+some fire." We should at least accord the same, if not a greater, degree
+of probability and of credence to stories of the saints which have been
+carefully, competently examined. "The love of the marvellous," says
+Chavin de Malin, in his book on St. Francis, "is but a remnant of our
+original greatness. Man was created to contemplate the wonders of the
+Divinity; and, until he clearly beholds them, he is borne onward by an
+interior desire to love and admire everything which bears the slightest
+resemblance to them.... _A person utterly ignorant of the practices of a
+spiritual life can no more do justice to the life of a saint, than a
+blind man could adjudicate on the merits or demerits of a painting._" He
+adds that, with regard to the religious occupations of the Middle Ages,
+"the positive bounds of history could not be kept, digressions were made
+on all sides, and thus around the true history of saints, like a poetic
+wreath, wonder and amazement were both entwined. Christianity has had
+its denominated legendary tales, which invariably are based on truth,
+and should not be rejected by the historian without serious reflection
+and profound study."
+
+There is still another way of regarding the saints; the purely material
+view, which denies the immediate action of supernatural power upon the
+details of natural daily life, mental or physical. This view--or rather,
+this abstention from seeing--is futile; because, without a particle of
+actual proof to sustain its negative, it refuses to admit possibilities
+of truth to which the really comprehensive and perceptive mind must
+always hold itself open.
+
+Saint Francis was born at Assisi, in Umbria, in 1182; near the close of
+the twelfth century, which has been called a "century of mud and blood,
+when darkness prevailed over light, evil over good, the flesh over the
+spirit." Umbria was then, as it is now, a beautiful and fertile valley,
+rich in citron, almond, aloe, with forest trees of oak and pine and fir,
+to which long cultivation has added grapevines, engarlanding the elms,
+and orchards of the pale-leaved olive-tree, that give the landscape a
+somewhat transparent, aėrial effect. The province is encircled on one
+hand by the yellow Tiber; on the other, by the bluish foot-hills of the
+Apennines; and it is full of ancient little towns, nestled in the vales,
+or perched upon the airy hill-crests, with crenelated towers and
+terraces which command far-reaching and inspiring views. Old Perugia
+guards the northern entrance to this exquisite region; and five leagues
+to the northeast of that town is the saint's birthplace, Assisi.
+
+His father was Peter Bernard of Moriconi, better known as "Bernardone,"
+a rich merchant who carried on extensive business with France. In those
+days Italian merchants maintained a lavish mode of life, resembling that
+of the nobles; and as the disorders of the period and the perils
+attending travel compelled them to send armed escorts with their convoys
+of merchandise, there was something of military daring and display
+mingled with their business and their surroundings. The wife of
+Bernardone, however, whose name was Pica (of the noble Bourlemont family
+of Provence), was remarkable for her piety; the son--in this, as in so
+many historic instances of genius or distinction--inheriting his rare
+quality from the mother's side. She had but one other child, a younger
+son, Angelo, who, notwithstanding his heavenly name, seems to have been
+a boy after Bernardone's own pattern; since he, later on, reviled
+Francis and called him a fool for his piety and self-renunciation.
+Angelo's descendants were still living in Assisi in the latter half of
+the sixteenth century. Whether they shared their ancestor's contemptuous
+opinion of the Saint has not been recorded; but it seems probable that
+the homage of the world, rendered to the poor ascetic for several
+centuries, may have made some impression on their minds, if not their
+souls.
+
+Just before the birth of Francis, his mother suffered greatly. A
+pilgrim, coming to the house for alms, told the servants: "The mother
+will be delivered only in a stable, and the child see the light upon
+straw." This appeared strange and unreasonable enough. Nevertheless his
+advice was followed. Pica was carried to the stable, and there she gave
+birth to her first son, whom she caused to be baptized John, after the
+beloved apostle of Jesus. Her husband, Bernardone, was absent at the
+time on a business tour in France. Upon his return, he was delighted at
+finding that he had a boy; and he insisted on giving him the surname
+Francis, in commemoration of that country with which he drove such a
+flourishing trade. Possibly he was also moved by the thought--albeit the
+chroniclers do not say so--that his wife's family came from Southern
+France. At all events, Francis was the name by which the son came to be
+known throughout his life and in history.
+
+Under priestly teachers he received an education which, for that time,
+was a fairly good one, in Latin, French, and literature. At the age of
+fourteen his father took him into partnership; and for ten years the
+young man bought and sold with him, or travelled for him. But while
+Bernardone was a hard, avaricious man, the son differed from him greatly
+in disposition; being fond of dress, of song, and feasting, gayety, and
+gaming. He was generous even to prodigality, full of wit and
+imagination, very sympathetic withal, and compassionate. Thomas of
+Celano thus describes him: "His figure was above the middle height and
+well set. He was thin, and of a very delicate constitution. He had an
+oval face, broad brow, white, close-set teeth, dark complexion, black
+hair, regular features, expressive countenance, rosy lips, and a
+charming smile." With all his roystering, dissipation, and extravagance,
+however, he was a foe to immorality, always rebuked impurity in severe
+terms, and kept his own purity intact. This lavish and somewhat reckless
+pursuit of other pleasures gave his parents much anxiety; although his
+mother, Pica, said in his defence, "I see in him, even in his
+amusements, a nobility of character which gives me the highest hopes of
+his future." But up to his twenty-fourth year nothing seemed more
+unlikely than that he should have any vocation to a holy life. He was
+called the "flower of the youth" of Assisi, rejoiced in his gay
+leadership of the rich young men of the place, and dreamed of winning
+military glory.
+
+In this capacity of taking the lead, and in the confident belief he
+often expressed that he would one day receive honor from the world, we
+see one natural germ of his later spiritual eminence. Another and more
+potent germ was the love of the poor, and his pity for them, which he
+manifested from childhood. In 1201, taking part as a soldier in a brief
+war between Assisi and Perugia, he was captured, with several of his
+companions, and imprisoned for a year. This experience, his first touch
+of adversity, sobered him a little; opening his eyes to the contrast
+between prosperity, with idle amusement and flattery, on the one hand,
+and on the other, suffering. Soon after his return home, also, he was
+stricken down by a long and painful illness. When he rose from it and,
+as a convalescent, took his first walk into the country, he was
+astonished to find that the beautiful Umbrian landscape which he had
+always so enjoyed, seemed to him cold, discolored, and sombre. A natural
+effect of illness, one may say. Yet it more often happens that when a
+convalescent returns to fresh air and the beauty of the earth, his
+pleasure in them is heightened. At all events Francis was vividly
+impressed with the nothingness of nature, as compared with the eternal
+splendor of God. But presently the passion for warlike renown took
+possession of him again. In 1206 he volunteered to join the Count of
+Brienne, a Guelph champion of Italian national independence, who was
+defending the Two Sicilies against the attacks of the German emperor,
+Frederick II. Announcing to his friends that he was about to become a
+great captain, Francis set out for the field of war, richly apparelled
+and with a brilliant retinue.
+
+In truth he was shortly to become a great captain, though not as he
+expected, in war, but in peace. On the way to Spoleto, southward, a
+voice that seemed to come from heaven sounded in his ears; just as Saul
+was appealed to while on his way to Damascus and was converted by it
+into _St. Paul_. To the young Umbrian, half asleep, the voice said:
+"Francis, which can do thee most good; the master or the servant, the
+rich one or the pauper?" He replied: "The master and the rich one." And
+the voice resumed: "Why, then, leavest thou God, who is both rich and
+the Master, to run after man, who is only the servant and the pauper?"
+Then Francis cried: "Ah, Lord; what willest Thou I should do?" "Go,"
+said the voice, "return to thy native city, for the vision thou hast had
+has a spiritual meaning. It is from God, not men, thou shalt receive its
+accomplishment."
+
+Heedless of whatever taunts might be flung at him, he turned back. But
+the youth of Assisi, though surprised, were rejoiced to see him, and
+begged him to preside once more at their revels. He gave them a final
+magnificent banquet, at which they noticed that he was silent and
+preoccupied. Immediately afterward he retired to a grotto, where he
+passed his days alone, entreating God to pardon the misspent years of
+youth and to direct him in the right way. Here he had a vision of Jesus
+Christ nailed to the cross. It is probably impossible to prove a vision;
+but that this one was real to Francis, at least, we may judge by its
+effects. Thenceforth he devoted himself to a pious life of marvellous
+self-abnegation. Seeing the change that had come upon him, his former
+friends fell away; but he, undisturbed, went on performing works of
+charity; making gifts of money, food, and even his own clothes to the
+poor. Again a voice spoke to him, from the crucifix of the dilapidated
+old church of St. Damien: "Francis, go and repair my house, which you
+see falling into ruins!" The young ascetic obeyed literally, and,
+passing through the streets, begged from all whom he met a stone or two
+to help rebuild the old church. Bernardone had been absent several
+months on one of his business trips; but his home-coming, this time, was
+not so pleasing to him as when his boy had been born. For, seeing the
+young man's complete transformation, all his selfish love of him turned
+into rage. He imprisoned him for a while in his own house; but Pica,
+recognizing that it was useless to oppose her son's religious vocation,
+finally set him free, and Francis took refuge in St. Damien's church.
+His father pursued him there, and brought before the Bishop of Assisi a
+complaint against him, demanding that he should give up all the money in
+his hands. Francis not only surrendered his money, but stripped off his
+clothing and gave it to his father, saying: "Until now I have called
+Peter Bernardone my father. Henceforth I can boldly say, 'Our Father,
+who art in heaven,' in whom I have placed all my treasures and my
+hopes."
+
+The bishop covered him with his mantle and held him clasped in his arms,
+until the by-standers brought Francis the cloak of a poor peasant. "Oh,
+what a grand bankrupt this merchant becomes to-day!" Bossuet wrote of
+him, long afterward. "Oh man worthy of being written in the book of the
+evangelical poor, and henceforward living on the capital of Providence!"
+From that time Francis wore mendicant's garb and begged his food in the
+streets.
+
+What did he accomplish by all this? To begin with, he succeeded in
+rebuilding three churches. But his influence was destined to be much
+more far-reaching than that, and of a very different nature. One day,
+while he was supplicating in church, his brother Angelo passed near him,
+and said to a friend, scoffingly: "Go, ask him to sell you some drops of
+his sweat." "No," said Francis; "I shall not sell my sweat to men. I
+shall sell it at a higher price, to God." He gave his sweat, his toil,
+his sufferings, and his renunciation to God, in exchange for the
+regeneration of men in a corrupt age.
+
+All Europe, at that time the whole civilized world, was suffering. The
+mass of the people were the poor, who were in deep distress, ground down
+by the pride and oppressions of the barons and the rich. The country was
+devastated by wars, large and small. The emperors of Germany were trying
+to establish their dominion over Italy and to control the Pope. The
+Church itself, after emerging from an heroic struggle with centuries of
+barbarism, had been obliged to accept and use the feudal system as a
+means of self-defence; and now the wrongs, the injustices, the
+selfishness of feudal society were beginning to exercise a corrupting
+influence on the exterior of the Church itself. Unselfish and holy men
+in ecclesiastical places, both high and humble, preserved the spirit and
+sanctity of Christian faith, but were not able wholly to counteract the
+evils of pride, wealth, and luxury that invaded the Church from the
+worldly side, and infected its unworthy servants. Francis perceived that
+the only hope or relief possible to that age lay in a decisive spiritual
+revolution, to be effected without violence, which would recall people
+to the primitive simplicity, unselfishness, and absolute devotion of the
+time of Christ and the apostolic period. This revolution could be
+accomplished, he saw, only by a personal example so strong, so
+undeviating, so entirely free from self-seeking, that all men would be
+compelled to pause and consider it, and then to act upon it. He
+therefore sacrificed his whole life for the good of the race. In the end
+he achieved his aim, single-handed, single-souled. No one who believes
+in God and in Christianity throughout, can maintain that Francis of
+Assisi brought about these results by mere unaided human power. The
+human element relies upon will, coercion, manoeuvre, and even intrigue.
+Francis gave up all these means. He first served the lepers for a month,
+living with them and taking care of them. This should especially
+interest us to-day; since Father Damien's self-immolating life among the
+lepers of the Hawaiian Islands in recent years is so well known to us,
+and since the first refuge of Saint Francis from the world was St.
+Damien's church, in Assisi. Portiuncula, "The Little Portion," was one
+of the churches which he had rebuilt, and was his favorite. While he was
+listening to the Gospel there, one day in February, 1209, these words
+were read from the altar: "Do not possess gold nor silver, nor money in
+your purses; nor scrip for your journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a
+staff."
+
+That precept decided him. He saw his vocation as a devotee of holy
+poverty. Straightway he began preaching everywhere the duty of poverty
+and love of the poor; and gradually he drew to himself disciples, until
+they numbered twelve; sometimes accosting his old friends, sometimes
+strangers, who immediately joined him and consented to give up all
+worldly things, for the love of God. Most of them were men of rank and
+wealth, who had never known privation; yet they gave up social positions
+where they had been accustomed to command, accepted dire penury with him
+in a hut at Rivotorto, and submitted themselves to him in entire
+obedience. "Bread begged from door to door is the bread of angels," said
+Francis. They went barefoot, wore a coarse gray tunic with a cincture of
+cord, prayed much, helped the sick and needy, discoursed to and exhorted
+the people, and lived on bread and water chiefly. Amid all these
+austerities they thanked God that they had been chosen to give an
+example of perfect happiness! Their leader insisted upon incessant
+industry and unfailing cheerfulness. "Think of your errors in your
+cells," he commanded. "Weep, kneeling before God. But before others be
+gay, and maintain an air of ease." At first they called themselves
+simply "penitents from Assisi," and for a time they were treated with
+ridicule, scorn, and even violence. But their mission was to suffer
+everything, to rejoice at insults and injuries and, by patience, compel
+recognition of the dignity of every human creature under whatsoever
+guise he might present himself. In this they succeeded.
+
+To a novice he said one day, "Brother, let us go out and preach." Taking
+him along, he went up into Assisi and they walked through the streets
+without saying a word; then returned to the convent. "And our preaching,
+father?" asked the novice. "It is done," replied the Saint; implying
+that a modest, thoughtful exterior and the force of example are often
+the most eloquent kind of preaching. But in 1209 it became clear to him
+by an inward vision in which the Christ came to him as a shepherd, that
+great numbers would flock to follow him; and, though he had not thought
+of founding an Order, he now saw that it would be necessary. He
+therefore drew up a simple Rule in twenty-three chapters; the gist of
+which was that they were to possess no money, no property whatever; that
+they were neither to blame nor to judge any one; were to hold themselves
+profoundly respectful toward all members of the clergy; to say not a
+word against the rich or against luxury; to preach, everywhere, concord
+and the love of God and one's neighbor; to bind themselves to obedience
+and chastity, as well as poverty; to do penance and persist in the
+perfect faith of Christ. Not until sixteen years later did the Lateran
+Council ordain that all religious orders must receive the approval of
+the Holy Father. But Francis did not wait for decrees. His humility,
+obedience, and loyalty to the Vicar of Christ led him to repair to Rome
+with his companions and there ask the permission of Pope Innocent III.,
+which he quickly obtained. The Rule was rewritten in 1619. Some of the
+brethren suggested that he take the advice of a cardinal in formulating
+his rules; but the Saint declared that God had willed that he should
+"appear as a new sort of madman in the world," arresting the attention
+of the people and bringing them to reflect, without qualification, upon
+"the folly of the cross," and that he alone must direct the manner in
+which this was to be done.
+
+[Illustration: The Vision of St Francis.]
+
+His order multiplied rapidly, and convents were established in all parts
+of Europe; although he was inclined to object to costly buildings, and
+was prevailed upon to let them stand on the plea that they were needed
+to shelter travellers and pilgrims. He established also the order of
+Poor Clares, so called from a noble maiden, Clare, who became its first
+superior. This was, for women, what his order of the Friars Minor was
+for men; though the Clares remained strictly enclosed, while the Friars
+went abroad preaching, and established missions in various quarters of
+the globe. Finally, he formed his Third Order, which included laymen and
+laywomen living in the world, who bound themselves by simple vows of
+virtue and charity, while continuing in their accustomed phase of life.
+Thousands joined the Friars; and probably millions were enrolled in the
+Third Order. It has been said that Francis first made known to the
+Middle Ages the power of association among the weak and humble, and that
+from the pages on which he inscribed his institutes sprang modern
+democracy in Italy. Certain it is that the Emperor Frederick II.
+received a letter from some of his Italian feudal supporters, saying:
+"The Friars Minor ... have raised themselves against us. They have
+publicly condemned both our mode of life and our principles, they have
+shattered our rights, and have brought us to nothingness." Yet the
+Franciscan Friars and the Third Order had done this only by the contrast
+of example, of poverty, fasting, prayer, self-denial, and charity of the
+heart as well as of the hands.
+
+The work of Saint Francis did much to undermine feudalism; and it almost
+regenerated the spirit of Christianity in the thirteenth century. "Man
+of the people," writes R. F. O'Connor, "he did more for the people than
+ever yet had been done by any one; whose vocation was to revive in the
+midst of a corrupting opulence the esteem and practice of poverty, which
+he ennobled, ... and, without setting class against class, _or violating
+the least point of the divine or human law_, levelled every social
+barrier and united princes and peasants in a bond of union which neither
+time nor eternity was to sever."
+
+This phase of his influence should interest us of to-day, when the same
+problems of wealth and poverty and of superficiality in religion
+confront our arrogant modern "civilization." That St. Francis was not a
+madman is evident from the orderliness of his work, his clear
+legislative and administrative capacity, his calm, powerful, amiable
+sway over all sorts of people. Yet he was possessed by an absolute
+passion and ecstasy of charity and universal love, which raised him
+above the apprehension of the gross, material mind. It was this
+supremacy of the spiritual in him which enabled him to accomplish
+marvels of practical result. Toward the end of his life, this exaltation
+of the spirit produced upon his body a singular phenomenon. His hands
+and feet appeared to be transpierced by large nails, and a wound opened
+in his side, from which blood frequently flowed. In a word, he bore the
+wounds, or "stigmata" of Christ, on his own body. The nails were
+distinct from the wound, but were apparently blackened flesh; being
+inseparable from the hands and feet. This phenomenon was well attested
+at the time. Within the present century several similar cases have
+occurred, under the observation of modern and approved sceptical men of
+science, who find that they occur when there has been much fasting, loss
+of sleep, and constant meditation upon the Passion of Christ. Their
+testimony states the conditions and verifies the fact, but does not
+explain it.
+
+He died at his convent of St. Mary of the Angels (Portiuncula), October
+4, 1226, in perfect lucidity of mind, with patience and simple
+resignation, while giving good counsel to his brethren. Of death he
+spoke gently as "our sister death;" and when, during his illness, his
+physician was obliged to cauterize him with a red-hot iron, he blessed
+the iron, speaking of it as "our brother fire," and submitted to the
+cauterization, or moxa, without a murmur or sign of pain. One remarkable
+thing about him was his extraordinary recognition of all the powers and
+elements of nature as related to man in one family under God. This was
+the origin of his famous short "sermon to the birds," which has been
+preserved. He talked to them and to all other animals as though he
+firmly believed that they could understand him, and could adore their
+Creator as well as he; though it is not probable that he supposed they
+would understand him precisely as men would, or adore in the same way.
+It is clear that St. Francis had a great influence over animals, even
+over wolves.
+
+Nowadays we have many lion-tamers and tiger-tamers, who rely simply upon
+human will and craft. Therefore it is not astonishing that St. Francis,
+who relied upon Divine power, should have been able to tame beasts. What
+is surprising is, that he should have been able to control men, who are
+so much harder to tame.
+
+The poems of St. Francis--his "Canticle of the Sun," "Canticle of Love,"
+and "Canticle of Charity"--exemplify the immense and tender scope of his
+exquisite love and good-will. His Order continues, and has given rise to
+subsidiary organizations such as the Recollects and the Capuchins.
+Thousands of people in common life belong to his Third Order, now, and
+continue his work unostentatiously. His spirit is alive and operative in
+the world to-day, nearly six hundred and seventy years since he left
+this earth.
+
+[Signature: George Parsons Lathrop.]
+
+
+
+
+ST. LOUIS
+
+By HENRY G. HEWLETT
+
+(1215-1270)
+
+[Illustration: St. Louis.]
+
+
+The most striking features of the political history of France during the
+tenth and eleventh centuries are the conflict of the feudal aristocracy
+on the one hand, with monarchical and democratical power on the other,
+and the influence exerted by the Crusades on both.
+
+[Illustration: The Education of Louis IX.]
+
+The Crusades aided much in the accomplishment of the final result, the
+destruction of the power of the nobility. In the first place, they
+glorified the character of feudalism by enforcing the principles of
+chivalry. To be a "true knight," a man must be devout, just, merciful,
+and pure. Many Crusaders, indeed, fell far short of this high ideal; but
+there can be no doubt that, on the whole, it elevated the standard of
+morality, and checked the rampant tyranny which had previously
+prevailed. Founded on a principle of sincere though mistaken piety, the
+Crusaders recognized all who took the cross as brethren; hence the
+meanest serf became, in some measure, free; and the same benign
+sentiment extended its effect to all classes. The attraction of a common
+cause in foreign lands further contributed to wean the Crusaders from
+the class quarrels and domestic feuds which occupied them at home.
+During their absence the crown was enabled to acquire a strength which
+had previously been spent in the repression of constant rebellions. And
+the need of money for the expedition obliged many feudal lords to
+contract with the communes for the sale of lands or liberties.
+
+Such was the condition of France at the commencement of the thirteenth
+century. The balance of power, however, was only sustained by the
+activity of all the parties concerned. The slightest wavering on the
+part of the crown would be fatal, the least opportunity seized. A wise,
+sincere, and humane ruler was needed to confirm and enlarge the vantage
+ground which law and order had already obtained; and such a ruler rose
+in the person of Louis IX., who ascended the throne in 1226.
+
+His father, Louis VIII., was a man of weak character, whose reign was
+chiefly signalized by the horrible persecution of the Protestant
+Albigenses of Provence, which, under the sanction of Innocent III., and
+later Popes, had been carried on by Simon de Montfort and other
+fanatics, since 1209. Louis himself had died of fever when about to
+commence the siege of Toulouse.
+
+The Queen Dowager, Blanche, of Castile, was a woman of great energy, and
+during the minority of her son she bravely contested her claims to the
+regency of the kingdom against those of Philip, her husband's brother,
+whom Henry III., of England, supported. She appealed, not in vain, to
+the gratitude of the metropolis, which the Capetian kings had
+befriended; and at her call a large force of citizens joined her. With
+their aid she defeated Philip and other nobles, who opposed her son's
+coronation, and by two treaties, in 1229 and 1231, she both extended the
+limits of her kingdom and put an end to civil war. Over Louis, who was
+but eleven years old when his father died, she exercised a somewhat
+rigorous, but a holy and prudent discipline, to which he was much
+indebted for strengthening his moral and mental constitution. He was
+educated at the Abbey of Royaumont by Vincent de Beauvais, and though
+not remarkable for talents, possessed considerable decision of
+character, and a large share of personal courage. It is, however, by the
+piety, purity, and benevolence of his soul that he stands forth so
+prominently in the history of Europe. The year of his coronation all the
+jails of the kingdom were thrown open by the royal command. A nature
+more truly loving and lovable has rarely been bestowed on any member of
+the human family. Yet, with all these paramount excellences, his life
+presents a tragedy--the fatal consequences of unreasoning faith. All his
+errors--we cannot justly call them faults--proceeded from this prolific
+source. Before recording these, it will be gratifying to point out the
+happier results of those noble and wise qualities which have consecrated
+his name.
+
+After the treaty of 1231, France remained at peace for some years,
+during which time Louis married Margaret of Provence, a princess only
+inferior in worth to himself. Soon after attaining his majority he was
+called upon to contend with the Count of Brittany and other nobles who
+resisted his authority. At the head of his vassals Louis marched against
+the rebels, and was so prompt and energetic in his measures that the
+count was forced to yield and sue for pardon in the attitude of a
+criminal, with a rope round his neck. Henry III. crossed the channel
+with an army to support the rebellion, and recover, if possible, the
+possessions which King John had surrendered to King Philip. The armies
+met at Saintes, in 1242, where the French were victorious, the rebels
+subsequently submitting, and Henry returning home.
+
+In 1244 Louis had a severe illness, which was attended with danger to
+his life. During the progress of it, he vowed to undertake a new crusade
+should he recover. The fulfilment of this vow was opposed by Blanche of
+Castile (who still had great influence over her son) and many of his
+best counsellors; but Louis was inflexible where religion and honor
+demanded a sacrifice.
+
+In 1248 he collected a large army, and prepared to start by way of
+Sicily, the nearest route to Palestine, when he remembered that the
+island belonged to Frederick II., of Germany, who was under
+excommunication by the Pope. All attempts to shake the decision of
+Innocent IV. failed; and yielding to the pious weakness of fearing to
+rest in an excommunicant's territory, Louis changed his plans, and
+determined to pass by way of Cyprus and Egypt--a route which proved the
+ruin of the expedition. He committed the regency of France to his
+mother, assumed the staff of pilgrimage, and accompanied by his wife and
+brothers, left Paris on June 12, 1248. He stayed for several months in
+Cyprus, until his armament amounted to 50,000 men, and then sailed for
+Egypt.
+
+Arrived at the port of Damietta, he caused the oriflamme (the national
+standard of France) to be waved above his head; and, arrayed in complete
+armor, he unsheathed his sword, and leaped into the sea, followed by the
+knights. The inhabitants fled, and the French took possession of the
+city. The inundation of the Nile prevented their further movements for
+several months. Licentiousness and disease were fostered by this delay,
+in spite of the king's remonstrances; and their unopposed success made
+the Crusaders careless as to the tactics of the enemy.
+
+On the subsidence of the Nile, Louis fortified Damietta, and left his
+queen and her ladies there, while he, with the main army, advanced on
+Cairo, the metropolis of Egypt, where the sultan resided. Near
+Mansourah, the Crusaders became perplexed by the intricacy of the
+canals, and a hasty dash across one of these, made by the king's
+brother, the Count of Artois, with 2,000 men, led to a calamitous
+result. Mansourah was apparently deserted, and the count's troops, who
+preceded their comrades at some distance, commenced pillaging the
+houses. The inhabitants, who were only concealed, showered down stones
+from the roofs; and at the same moment, a large body of the sultan's
+army made an attack in front. Louis reached Mansourah in time to save a
+few of his men, but found his brother and several others slain. The
+Moslem camp was captured, but proved a doubtful prize. The plains were
+barren and scorching, and the harassing assaults of the Egyptians, who
+poured "Greek fire" (missiles filled with combustible materials) on
+their foes, rendered the situation more intolerable still. Pestilence
+broke out, and the king himself fell dangerously ill. He then ordered a
+retreat to Damietta, whither the sick were to be conveyed in galleys.
+These were intercepted, and the sick murdered by the Egyptians; while,
+at the same time an attack was made on the Christian camp.
+
+[Illustration: St. Louis.]
+
+Louis was so weak that he could scarcely ride, but nevertheless would
+not desert his post. He rode between the ranks, encouraging his men,
+till he fainted and was obliged to withdraw from the field. His quaint
+and affectionate biographer, the Lord of Joinville, who was with him in
+this expedition, thus describes the scenes which ensued: "Of all his
+men-at-arms there was only one with him, the good knight, Sir Geoffrey
+de Sargines; and who, I heard say, did defend him like as a faithful
+servant doth guard his master's cup from flies--for every time that the
+Saracens did approach the king he defended him with vigorous strokes of
+the blade and point of his sword, and his strength seemed doubled. At
+last he brought the king to a house where there was a woman from Paris;
+and laying him on the ground, placed his head on the woman's lap,
+expecting every moment that he would breathe his last." In this
+half-dying condition a body of Egyptians found him, and bore him to the
+tent of the sultan. The defeat of the Christians, who were weakened by
+the climate, disease, and want of food, was general; many fell by the
+sword, and the rest were taken prisoners with their king.
+
+In captivity Louis showed a noble resignation and courage amid the
+apostasy of many. He won the respect of the sultan, who treated him with
+generosity, and listened to the terms of ransom which he proposed. The
+queen remained at Damietta, which was strongly garrisoned. Fearful,
+nevertheless, of falling into the hands of the Moslems, who would have
+carried her into the sultan's harem, she prayed an old knight in her
+suite to slay her with his sword, should there be any danger of that
+event. "I had determined on so doing, madam," was the answer. Margaret's
+heroism was not put to this severe test, for the surrender of Damietta
+was one of the conditions of her husband's release; and after paying in
+addition a sum of 400,000 livres, Louis was on the point of being set
+free. An insurrection, however, suddenly arose among the Mamelukes, or
+Tartarian troops, in whose hands the real power of the state was placed,
+and the sultan was murdered. A party of the assassins, it is said,
+entered the chamber of Louis with their scimitars drawn, but his calm
+dignity saved him, and the treaty was carried out by the new sultan.
+
+Many of the French nobles returned home, but the king, faithful to his
+vow, proceeded to Syria, and spent four years in strengthening the
+fortresses of Tyre and other Christian towns, redeeming many Crusaders
+from slavery, and reducing to order the disturbed condition of the
+country.
+
+The death of the Queen Dowager Blanche, who had governed France wisely
+during her regency, recalled him in 1254, after an absence of six years.
+He still wore the cross upon his shoulder, as a token that his oath as a
+Crusader was not yet fulfilled; but he never once neglected the more
+pressing and necessary duties which devolved on him as a monarch. His
+immediate work was to supersede the arbitrary legislation which the
+nobles exercised in their manorial courts over their tenants. He
+accordingly introduced into general use the famous code of Roman laws
+known as the Pandects of Justinian, and constituted the chief civil
+lawyers, who had studied its contents and were best acquainted with its
+principles, into a Parliament, or Court of Justice. The nobles and the
+clergy were duly represented in this assembly; but its clerks, or
+lawyers, were especially favored by the king, who seconded their own
+efforts to absorb the business of the court as much as possible. Louis
+further mediated between the tyranny of the nobles and the weakness of
+their tenants, by encouraging the practice of appealing to the crown in
+case of injustice. This he even extended to ecclesiastical matters; a
+bold step for one so devoted to the Church. The prohibition of the
+barbarous custom of duelling to decide personal quarrels was another of
+his humane laws. These, and divers other ordinances, founded in a like
+spirit of equity, are known in a collected shape as the _Institutes of
+St. Louis_. His enactment touching appeals from the Church to the Crown,
+and the prohibition which he likewise issued against the levying of
+money in France for the use of the Pope without the king's license, are
+known as a _Pragmatic Sanction_--a term applied to any especially
+important national decree. Louis set the example of enforcing the laws
+personally, and none was fitter to administer them than he. Under an oak
+in the forest of Vincennes, near Paris, often sat the good king to hear
+appeals and petitions from his poor subjects. His social and foreign
+relations were as fully attended to as his political reforms. He first
+placed the French navy on a substantial footing. To him Paris owed a
+public library, a hospital for the blind, and the establishment of a
+body of police. Under his sanction, also, his confessor, Robert de
+Sorbon, founded the famous theological college called by his name. So
+scrupulously just and honorable was Louis, that he appointed a
+commission to ascertain what restitution of territory should be made to
+nations which had been mulcted by the conquests of his predecessors, and
+he thus more than once sacrificed extensive possessions for the sake of
+a principle. By a treaty in 1255, made with Henry III., Louis restored
+to the English crown the provinces of which Philip Augustus had deprived
+it, and obtained in return the surrender of Henry's rights in Normandy
+and other fiefs. The reputation which Louis thus acquired among his
+fellow-monarchs led to his being asked to act as mediator in several
+quarrels, and gave him many opportunities of exhibiting his peaceful and
+loving policy.
+
+[Illustration: Louis IX. opens the Jails of France.]
+
+The mental blindness of which we have spoken led him to commit errors,
+which, if his misled conscience had not sanctioned them, would deserve
+the name of crimes. Toward Jews and heretics he showed no mercy,
+issuing severe and unjust laws against them "for the good of his soul."
+The duty of the historian is to record these failings of a noble nature
+as impartially as its beauties; but the evil must, in all fairness, be
+credited to the Church and system which taught, and not to the believer
+who practised.
+
+In 1270 the affairs of the East again attracted the attention of Europe,
+and recalled Louis to the fulfilment of his vow, which he had only
+postponed. The Greeks had retaken the city of Constantinople from the
+French and Venetian Crusaders some years previously, yet the
+reconstitution of the Christian Empire of the East had not availed to
+check the aggressions of the Moslem in Palestine. Benocdar, the Sultan
+of Egypt, had already taken Cęsarea and Jaffa; and news now came that
+Antioch had fallen, 100,000 Christians having been massacred in the
+siege. The seventh and last Crusade was at once set on foot by outraged
+Europe, and Louis led the expedition, in which France was, as usual,
+foremost. He raised an army of 6,000 horse and 30,000 foot, and was
+accompanied by his three sons, the King of Navarre, and several nobles
+of high rank. His brother, Charles of Anjou (the new King of Naples),
+and Edward I., of England, (then prince), were to join the French in the
+course of the year. Some romantic intelligence that the Moslem King of
+Tunis was desirous of being baptized, induced the pious Louis again to
+try the African, instead of the Asiatic, route to Palestine. He narrowly
+escaped with his life, in a tempest which overtook the fleet in the
+Mediterranean, but landed in Sardinia, and after recruiting here again
+set sail, and anchored off Carthage. He met with opposition, instead of
+welcome, from the inhabitants of the coast, and was obliged to besiege
+Tunis. The excessive heat of the climate and the unhealthiness of the
+soil proved a second time fatal to the army. Plague at last broke out,
+and Louis was himself seized. Finding himself dying, he sent for Philip,
+his eldest son and successor. Placing in his hand a written paper, the
+good king prayed his son to follow the directions which it
+contained--directions for the conduct of his life, as king and
+individual; enforcing those principles of love to God and man which had
+guided his own career. Then, requesting to be lifted from his bed, Louis
+instructed his attendants to strew the floor of his tent with ashes and
+place him thereon, that he might die as he had lived, in an attitude of
+humiliation and penitence toward his creator. This was done, and shortly
+afterward, as though in vision fulfilling the vow which he was not
+permitted to realize, he uttered, "I will enter thy house--I will
+worship in thy sanctuary!" and expired. His age was but fifty-four.
+
+A few hours elapsed, and the sound of a trumpet echoed through the
+plague-stricken and half-deserted camp. It was the note of Charles of
+Naples, whose fleet had just arrived off the coast. Meeting with no
+response, he rode rapidly toward the tent of the king, and on entering
+saw his body lying still warm upon the ashes. The rites of burial were
+not performed with the usual formalities, his remains being distributed
+among his relatives. The flesh was kept by Charles, who buried it, on
+his return to Sicily, in the great Abbey of Monreale, at Palermo. The
+bones and other parts were conveyed back to France. Those who have
+visited Paris will not forget the exquisite Gothic structure known as
+the "Sainte Chapelle," which is attached to the Palais de Justice,
+containing the courts of law. It was erected by Louis as a receptacle
+for certain supposed relics of Christ. The windows of the chapel are
+entirely composed of stained glass, and as the sunbeams strike upon
+them, their tints of crimson, blue, and orange blend into a rainbow-like
+harmony of glowing and lustrous color, which recalls the heart of Louis
+IX., enshrined within those walls, as its fitting human antitype. He was
+canonized about thirty years afterward, under the title of St. Louis.
+
+
+
+
+MARCO POLO[7]
+
+         [Footnote 7: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By NOAH BROOKS
+
+(1256-1324)
+
+[Illustration: Marco Polo.]
+
+
+In the month of November, in the year 1295, there appeared in the
+beautiful city of Venice three strangers, who were clothed in an
+outlandish and shabby garb of a Tartar cut. They claimed to be of
+Venice, but, according to one of their biographers, one Ramusio,
+"through the many worries and anxieties they had undergone, they were
+quite changed in aspect, and had got a certain indescribable smack of
+the Tartar both in air and accent, having, indeed, all but forgotten
+their Venetian tongue." They went to the house of the Polo family,
+demanding entrance and claiming to be Nicolo Polo, Maffeo, his brother,
+and Marco, son of the elder of the two brothers, Nicolo. They were
+laughed to scorn as pretenders and impostors; for the three missing
+members of the Polo family had been gone away from Venice some
+twenty-odd years; it was in 1271 that the Polos were last heard from,
+then at Acre, journeying into the Far East.
+
+But the three somehow gained access to their own house, then in the
+possession of one of their relations. And the news of their home-coming
+was presently noised abroad throughout the city of Venice; so much so
+that the people for days talked of little else save the reappearance in
+the land of the living of the long-lost travellers. Many, however,
+doubted if these really were the brothers Polo and young Marco; this
+last was a mere lad of seventeen when he went away, and now was grown to
+be a portly man of forty-odd years. So incredulous were the townsfolk
+that the brothers hit upon a scheme to convince the doubting ones. They
+made a grand feast to which all the gentry were invited, for the Polo
+family were of noble birth and had held station in the state. The
+entertainment was served in great splendor with gold and silver dishes,
+and the three travellers, when they sat down, were dressed in robes of
+the richest crimson satin flowing down to the ground. After some of the
+courses had been eaten, they retired to their chamber and came forth
+again dressed in other robes of crimson silk damask, very rich, and the
+satin garments were cut up and divided among the servants. Again, later
+on in the repast, they retired, and when they came again to the table
+they wore other robes, of the richest crimson velvet, and the second
+garments were cut up and divided as the others had been. When the dinner
+was over they took off the velvet robes, and these were disposed of in
+like manner. "These proceedings," says the honest Ramusio, "caused much
+wonder and amazement among the guests," which we can well imagine.
+
+Next, dismissing all the servants, the younger one of the three, Marco
+Polo, went to an inner chamber and brought forth to the table the coarse
+and shabby dresses in which the three had arrived in Venice. Then,
+taking sharp knives, the travellers ripped open the seams and welts of
+the garments, and shook from them a vast profusion of diamonds, rubies,
+sapphires, carbuncles, emeralds, and other precious stones. The guests
+were dumfounded and amazed. "And now," says Ramusio, "they recognized
+that in spite of all former doubts, these were in truth those honored
+and worthy gentlemen of the Casa Polo that they claimed to be; and so
+all paid them the greatest honor and reverence." Furthermore, we are
+told that when the story got wind in Venice, straightway the whole city,
+gentle and simple, flocked to the house to embrace the three travellers,
+and to make much of them with every conceivable demonstration of
+affection and respect.
+
+This was the wonderful home-coming of the three Polos, who for
+twenty-four years had been wandering in the East, and who, when they set
+out on their homeward journey, a journey beset with untold difficulties
+and dangers, took the precaution to conceal in their garments, as above
+told, the wealth which they had accumulated while they were at the court
+of the Great Khan of Tartary. It reads like a romance, a story out of
+"The Arabian Nights' Entertainments." But it is all true, and the
+archives of Venice corroborate pretty nearly all the details herein set
+forth. Indeed, as a prophet is not without honor save in his own country
+and among his own kindred, it must be said that the later generation of
+Venetians found less difficulty in believing the tales of the three
+travellers than did those who first heard them. In telling these tales,
+they had frequent occasion to use the word "millions," a word not then
+common among the Venetians, as to say that the Great Khan had revenues
+amounting to ten or fifteen _millions_ of gold, and so on. And the
+people gave Marco, who seems to have been the story-teller of the party,
+the nickname of Messer Marco Millioni. Curiously enough, this name
+appears in the public records of old Venice.
+
+Of the final exit of the elders of the Polo family, Nicolo and Maffeo,
+we have no trustworthy account. As they were well stricken in years when
+they returned from their long sojourn in Cathay, we may suppose that
+they did not live long after their return to Venice. But the younger
+Marco had a busy and stirring life. At that time the republics of Venice
+and Genoa were rivals for the ruling of the seas and the monopoly of
+maritime trade everywhere. A Venetian galley could not meet one from
+Genoa without a fight, and the fleets of the two states were continually
+at war.
+
+Marco, being one of the representatives of the noble Venetian families
+who were required to come to the support of the state with at least one
+galley, entered the naval service of Venice in command of a war galley,
+and was engaged in the great battle between Venice and Genoa near
+Curzola, off the Dalmatian coast, in 1298, three years after his return
+from Cathay. The Venetians were beaten ignominiously, and 7,000 of them
+were taken prisoners and carried to Genoa. It was a lucky thing for the
+world that Marco Polo was thus put into enforced idleness, and that he
+had for a companion in confinement an educated gentleman, one
+Rusticiano, of Pisa. Otherwise, most likely we never would have heard of
+the travels of Marco Polo, whom some of the later chroniclers have
+likened to Columbus, the discoverer of America.
+
+To beguile the tedium of their imprisonment, Marco was wont to tell his
+traveller's tales to his companion, Rusticiano, and this worthy
+gentleman conceived the notion of writing out the marvellous adventures
+and observations of his fellow-prisoner. We must bear in mind that the
+Italian gentry of that time did not hold in high esteem the art of
+writing, and although Marco was not inferior to any man in daring or
+adventurousness, he was willing to leave to the scriveners the task of
+writing about such matters. But, in the end, the advice of Rusticiano
+prevailed, and the Pisan gentleman set down from the dictation of Marco
+"The Book of Ser Marco Polo Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the
+East." This was, up to that time, the most important book of travels and
+voyages ever written. Indeed, it was the most important book of any kind
+written during the Middle Ages.
+
+The book contributed more new facts toward a knowledge of the earth's
+surface, says one skilled authority, than any book that had been written
+before. The writer was the first to describe China, or Cathay, in its
+vastness of territory, its wonderfully rich and populous cities, and the
+first to tell of Tartary, Thibet, Burmah, Siam, Cochin-China, the Indian
+Archipelago, the Andaman Islands, of Java and Sumatra, of the fabled
+island of Cipangu, or Japan, of Hindustan, and that marvellous region
+which the world learned to know as Farther India. From far-voyaging
+sailors he brought home accounts of Zanzibar and Madagascar, and the
+semi-Christian country of Abyssinia, where some accounts located that
+mysterious potentate called Prester John. He had traversed Persia and
+had picked up a vast amount of information concerning the country of
+Siberia, with its polar snows and bears, its dog-sledges, and its almost
+everlasting winter. He traversed the entire length of Asia.
+
+Surely, Europe might well be dazed when this account of regions, until
+then unknown, was unrolled before the scholars and explorers who could
+read the few precious books then in circulation. For it should be
+remembered that the art of printing was then unknown, and only in
+manuscript did any book make its appearance. Rusticiano wrote in a very
+poor sort of French; for then, as now, that language was commonest in
+all the cities of Europe. How much of the language of the book of Marco
+Polo's travels was Marco's, and how much was the worthy Rusticiano's, we
+are unable to decide. The facts in that famous book were duly vouched
+for by Marco. The opening chapter, or prologue, inflated and wordy,
+after the fashion of the times, was undoubtedly Rusticiano's. He began
+thus: "Great Princes, Emperors, and Kings, Dukes and Marquises, Counts,
+Knights, and Burgesses! and People of all degree who desire to get
+knowledge of the various races of mankind and of the diversities of the
+sundry regions of the World, take this Book and cause it to be read to
+you. For ye shall find therein all kinds of wonderful things, and the
+divers histories of the Great Hermenia, and of Persia, and of the Land
+of the Tartars, and of India, and of many another country of which our
+Book doth speak, particularly and in regular succession, according to
+the description of Messer Marco Polo, a wise and noble citizen of
+Venice, as he saw them with his own eyes."
+
+This portentous prologue ends with these great swelling words: "And I
+may tell you that in acquiring this knowledge he spent in those various
+parts of the World good six-and-twenty years. Now, being thereafter an
+inmate of the Prison at Genoa, he caused Messer Rusticiano, of Pisa, who
+was in the same Prison likewise, to reduce the whole to writing; and
+this befell in the year 1298 from the birth of Jesus."
+
+One year later, in the summer of 1299, Marco Polo was set at liberty and
+returned to Venice, where he died peacefully in 1324. His last will and
+testament, dated January 9, 1323, is preserved among the archives of
+Venice, and a marble statue in his honor was set up by the Venetians, in
+the seventeenth century, and may be seen unto this day in the Palazzo
+Morosini-Gattemburg, in the Campo S. Stefano of that city.
+
+How came Marco Polo to be drawn so far into the vague and shadowy East?
+Somewhere about the middle of the thirteenth century, certain members of
+the Polo family had established a trading-house in Constantinople, then
+pretty near the end of the world from Europe. These adventurous
+Venetians, in 1260, sent the two brothers, Nicolo and Maffeo, still
+further to the eastward on a trading journey to the Crimea. Led on by
+one adventure and another, and lured by the hope of new and greater
+gains, they ascended the Volga northward and eastward, crossed Bokhara,
+and finally broke into one of the northwestern provinces of China, or
+Cathay, then faintly known in Europe by various names, the most classic
+of which was Seres.
+
+Here they made their way to the capital city of the Great Mongol Empire,
+the seat of government where ruled the Great Khan, a very mighty
+potentate, Kublai Khan, grandson of the famous conqueror, Ghenghis Khan.
+Kublai Khan resided at the wonderful city of Cambuluc, which we now know
+as Pekin. North of the Great Wall, and some one hundred and eighty miles
+from Cambuluc, was the Great Khan's summer palace, one of the wonders of
+the world, reading of which in Purchas' account of Marco Polo's
+travels, it is said that Coleridge fell asleep and dreamed the famous
+poem beginning:
+
+  "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
+     A stately pleasure dome decree,
+   Where Alph, the sacred river, ran,
+   Through caverns measureless to man,
+     Down to a sunless sea."
+
+These Polo brothers were the first Europeans that the Great Khan had
+ever seen; but before this time, Friar Plano Carpini, in 1246, and Friar
+William Rubruquis, in 1253, had penetrated into Mongolia on some errand
+not now distinctly understood, but far enough to learn that a great and
+civilized country existed somewhere in the eastern extremity of Asia.
+They also learned that beyond this extremity of the continent there was
+a sea; people had until then believed that the eastern end of Asia
+disappeared in a vast and reedy bog, beyond which was deep and
+impenetrable darkness. More exact knowledge of that far eastern sea was
+subsequently acquired by the Venetian travellers. From these wandering
+friars the Great Khan had heard, at second-hand, doubtless, of European
+princes, potentates, and powers, and of the Pope of Rome.
+
+He was mightily taken with the noble Venetians, and we are told that he
+treated them with every courtesy and consideration. He was anxious to
+secure through them the aid of the Sovereign Pontiff, of whose functions
+he entertained high respect, in the civilizing of the hordes that had
+lately been added to the Mongol Empire by wars of conquest. And he
+entreated the good offices of the polished and cultivated Venetians in
+securing for him the good offices of the Pope for that end. Accordingly,
+the two brothers, after satisfying to some degree their curiosity, set
+out for home, full of tales of their strange adventure, we doubt not;
+and they reached Venice in 1269, only to find that the Pope Clement IV.
+was dead, and that no successor had been chosen in his place.
+
+There was a long interregnum, and the brothers, taking with them the son
+of Nicolo, the young Marco, then a stout lad, began to retrace their
+steps to Cathay, despairing of being able to enlist the one hundred
+priests which the Great Khan had asked them to borrow for missionary
+purposes from the Pope.
+
+At Acre, then held by European powers that had been engaged in the
+crusades for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, they took counsel with
+one Tebaldo Visconti, an eminent prelate, who was Archdeacon of Liége
+and a person of great consequence in the Eastern church. At their
+request, he wrote letters to the Great Khan, authenticating the causes
+of their failure to fulfil the wishes of the Khan in the matter of
+obtaining the missionaries whom he desired. Then they pushed on toward
+the farther East, and while waiting for a vessel to sail from the port
+of Ayas, on the Gulf of Scanderoon, then the starting-point for the
+Asiatic trade, they were overtaken by the news that their friend the
+Archdeacon Tebaldo had been chosen Pope, under the title of Gregory X.
+They at once returned to Acre, and were able to present to the newly
+elected pontiff the request of the Great Khan and get a reply. But
+instead of one hundred teachers and preachers, they were furnished with
+only two Dominican friars; and these lost heart and drew back before the
+journey was fairly begun. It may be said here that the Great Khan, being
+disappointed by the Roman Church, subsequently applied to the Grand
+Llama of Thibet, and from that source secured the teachers whom he so
+greatly desired. The Great Khan appears to have been an enlightened and
+liberal sovereign, and, according to his lights, was willing to furnish
+to his people the best form of religion that was to be had. He preferred
+the religion of the elegant and polished Italians, but, failing to get
+this, he naturally turned his eyes in the direction of Thibet, then an
+unknown land to all Europeans, but regarded in Mongolia as a region of
+some considerable civilization.
+
+The three members of the Polo family finally set out on their return to
+Cathay, leaving Acre in November, 1271. They proceeded by the way of
+Ayas and Sivas to Mardin, Mosul, and Bagdad to Hormuz, at the mouth of
+the Persian Gulf. Here they met with some obstacle and turned from
+Hormuz, and traversed successively Kerman and Khorassan, Balkh, and
+Badakhshan, by the way of the upper Oxus, to the plateau of Pamir;
+thence crossing the steppes of Pamir, the three travellers descended
+upon Kashgar, whence they proceeded by Yarkand and Khotan to the
+vicinity of Lake Lob; and, crossing the desert of Gobi, they reached the
+province of Tangut in the extreme northwestern corner of China, or
+Cathay. Skirting the northern frontier, they finally reached the actual
+presence of the Great Khan, who was then at his summer palace of
+Kaipingfu, before spoken of, situated at the base of the Khingan
+Mountains, fifty miles north of the Great Wall. One may form some idea
+of the difficulties of Asiatic travel in those days, as well as the
+leisurely habits of the time, by considering that this journey occupied
+the three Venetians three years and a half. They arrived at the palace
+of the Khan about May, 1275.
+
+The Polos were very cordially and gladly received by the potentate, then
+ruling over a territory so vast that it has been well said that, "In
+Asia and Eastern Europe scarcely a dog might bark without Mongol leave,
+from the borders of Poland and the coast of Cilicia to the Amoor and the
+Yellow Sea." Kublai Khan regarded the young Marco with especial favor,
+and soon began to employ him in errands and commissions of importance.
+"The Young Bachelor," as he is called in his book, took pains to acquire
+at once an acquaintance with the Chinese alphabet, and to learn the
+languages and dialects of the countries in which he found profitable and
+interesting employment.
+
+It appears that the Khan had been greatly annoyed by the stupidity of
+his own officials and agents. They attended only to the errands on which
+they were sent, and brought back absolutely no knowledge of the distant
+countries that they visited, except that which they were specially
+directed to fetch. Very different was the conduct of the young Venetian.
+He was shrewdly observant, of a lively disposition, and given to
+inquiring into the strange and wonderful things which he beheld in those
+remote parts of the world, hitherto secluded from the observation of
+Europeans. He made copious and minute notes of all that he saw and
+heard, for the benefit of his imperial master. These notes afterward
+served him a good purpose, as we shall see; for they were the basis of
+the book that has made the name of Marco Polo famous throughout the
+world. When he returned to the imperial court, we can imagine the
+satisfaction with which the picturesque and intelligent narrations of
+what he had seen and heard were received by the Great Khan.
+
+In the records of the Mongol dynasty has been found a minute setting
+forth the fact that a certain Polo, undoubtedly young Marco, was
+nominated a second-class commissioner attached to the privy council of
+the Empire, in the year 1277. His first mission appears to have taken
+him on public business to the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, Sechuen and
+Yunnan, in the southern and southwestern part of China, and east of
+Thibet. Even now, those regions are comparatively unknown to the rest of
+the world; and one must needs admire the intrepidity of the young
+Venetian who penetrated their wild mountain fastnesses, traced their
+mighty rivers, and carried away for the delight of the Great Khan, much
+novel information concerning the peoples that so numerously flourished
+in that cradle of the human race.
+
+In his book Marco Polo does not greatly magnify himself and his office,
+and it is only incidentally, as it were, that we know that he was for
+three years governor of the great city of Yangchau. Following the
+details laid down in his book, the accuracy of which we have no reason
+to doubt, we find him visiting the old capital of the Khans, in
+Mongolia, employed in Southern Cochin-China, and on a mission to the
+Indian Seas, when he visited some of the states of India, of which
+Europeans at that time had only dimly heard the most fabulous and vague
+accounts. That the Polos were all favorites of the Great Khan is
+sufficiently evident; but it does not appear that any but Marco was in
+the employment of the Khan. All three of them doubtless made hay while
+the sun shone, and gathered wealth as they could, trading with the
+people and making use of their Venetian shrewdness in dealing with the
+natives, who were no match for the cunning traders from the Rialto.
+
+Naturally, they longed to carry their wealth and their aged heads--for
+the two elders were now well stricken in years--safely back to their
+beloved Venice on the Adriatic, so far away. But Kublai Khan would not
+listen to any of their suggestions, and turned a deaf ear to their
+hints. A happy chance intervened to bring them out of the wild,
+mysterious realm of the Great Khan. Arghun, Khan of Persia, a
+great-nephew of Kublai, had lost by death his favorite wife, who was of
+one of the Mongol tribes, and who, dying in 1286, laid a parting
+injunction on the Khan that he should wed none but a Mongol princess.
+Sorely mourning her, the Persian Khan sent an embassy to the court of
+Kublai Khan to solicit a suitable bride for him. The Lady Kuchachin, a
+damsel of seventeen, beautiful and virtuous, was selected by the Court
+and was made ready to be sent to Tabriz, then the capital of the Persian
+Empire. The overland journey was highly dangerous, as it lay through
+regions tenanted by hostile and warlike tribes, besides being
+portentously long to be undertaken by a delicate young princess. The
+Persian envoys, accordingly, entreated the Great Khan to send with them
+by sea the three foreigners, of whose seamanship they undoubtedly held
+high opinion, especially as the young Marco had just returned from his
+distant and venturous voyage to the Indian Seas. With much reluctance
+the Khan consented, and the argosy set forth.
+
+Having given leave for the three Venetians to sail, the Great Khan
+fitted them out nobly and endowed them with handsome presents at
+parting. They sailed, so far as we can now make out, from the port of
+Zayton, better known as Chinchau, in Fokien, at the beginning of the
+year 1292, two hundred years before Columbus set forth upon his voyage
+across the Ocean Sea.
+
+It was an ill-starred and unfortunate voyage for the three Polos and
+their precious charge, although all escaped with their lives and
+treasure. They were detained five months on the coast of Sumatra, and
+there were even longer detentions off the southern coast of India, so
+that more than two years had passed since their departure from Fokien,
+when they arrived at the camp of the then reigning prince of Persia. The
+Khan of Persia, they found, had died before they set sail from China,
+and his son, Ghazan Khan, reigned in his stead.
+
+After the custom of the times and the people, however, the princess was
+married without ado to the successor of the royal person to whom she had
+been betrothed before leaving far-off Cathay. It is related that she
+took her leave of the three noble Venetians, to whom she had become like
+a daughter and sister, with many tears and protestations of affection;
+for they had been very choice in their care of her, and she lamented
+their departure with sincere sorrow and many tears.
+
+Leaving the princess at the camp of the Khan (for he was now at war),
+the Venetians pushed on to Tabriz, where they made a long halt, resting
+and refreshing themselves after their long and wearisome journey. Then
+they again took up their line of march westward, and reached Venice, as
+we have seen, in November, 1295, only to find their identity denied and
+their stories disbelieved, until, by an artifice, they made themselves
+truly known to their fellow-townsmen, who had long since given them up
+for dead.
+
+Marco Polo's book, dictated by him in prison, is remarkable for its
+reserve and its scantiness of all semblance of ornament in its literary
+style. Messer Marco evidently did not greatly affect the arts and graces
+of fine writing. Like most of the Italian gentlefolk of his day and
+generation, he held the business of writing in low esteem. Some of his
+chapters are very brief indeed, the text being no greater in bulk than
+the headings which his amanuensis put over them of his own motion. Of
+the original manuscript, written in French, copies were made for the use
+of the learned, the art of printing being as yet not invented. There are
+now in existence no less than eighty of these manuscripts, in various
+languages, more or less differing from each other in unimportant
+details; but all substantially verifying the facts of the wonderful
+history of Messer Marco Polo as here set forth. The most precious of
+these is known as the Geographical text, and is preserved in the great
+Paris Library; from it was printed, in 1824, one of the most valued of
+the texts now in existence. But the most useful and satisfactory of all
+the printed editions is that edited and annotated by Colonel Henry Yule,
+and printed in London in 1871. The first printed edition of Marco Polo's
+book was in the German text, and was published in 1477.
+
+Many writers have dwelt long on the question, Did Columbus gather any
+information from the book of Marco Polo that aided him in forming his
+theory, that one could reach India and Cathay by sailing westward from
+Spain out into the Sea of Darkness? We cannot satisfactorily answer that
+question. But we do know that all Europe, at the time of Marco Polo's
+adventurous journey eastward, resolutely turned its back upon the
+Atlantic, and looked toward Cathay and the Far Orient for a road to the
+fabulous diamond mines and spice islands that were believed to exist
+somewhere in the vague and mysterious East. Many philosophers, among
+whom was Columbus himself, thought the globe much smaller than it really
+is; but it was Columbus who was apparently charged with a divine mission
+to teach the world that sailing due westward from the Pillars of
+Hercules would bring the voyager to the dominions of Prester John, the
+Indies, and Cipangu.
+
+When Columbus set sail for his hazardous venture into the Sea of
+Darkness, he was armed with letters to Prester John, the traditional
+Christian prince of the Far East; and his first landfall, as we know
+now, was by him supposed to be an outlying portion of that vast region
+vaguely known to the explorers who followed Marco Polo, as Farther
+India. But centuries rolled away before the world saw the facts of
+geography as we know them, or learned to accept as true the marvellous
+stories of Marco Polo, whose priceless legacy was first dimly known to
+the few, and was dubbed the Romance of the Great Khan.
+
+[Signature: Noah Brooks.]
+
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM WALLACE
+
+(1270-1305)
+
+
+The life and exploits of this most popular national hero of the Scots
+have been principally preserved in a legendary form by poetry and
+tradition, and are only to a very small extent matter of contemporary
+record, or illustrated by authentic documents. There is no extant
+Scottish chronicler of the age of Wallace. Fordun, the earliest of his
+countrymen from whom we have any account of him, is his junior by nearly
+a century. Wyntoun, the next authority, is still half a century later.
+His chief celebrator is the metrical writer Blind Harry, or Harry the
+Minstrel, whose work confesses itself by its very form to be quite as
+much of a fiction as a history, and whose era, at any rate, is supposed
+to be nearly two centuries subsequent to that of his hero. Some few
+facts, however, may be got out of the English annalists Trivet and
+Hemingford, who were the contemporaries of Wallace.
+
+[Illustration: Sir William Wallace.]
+
+There are contradictory statements of the year of his birth, but it is
+probable he was born about 1270. His family was one of some distinction,
+and he is said to have been the younger of the two sons of Sir Malcolm
+Wallace, of Elderslie and Auchinbothie, in the neighborhood of Paisley.
+His mother, who according to one account was Sir Malcolm's second wife,
+is stated by the genealogists to have been Margaret, daughter of Sir
+Raynald or Reginald (other authorities say Sir Hugh) Crawford, who held
+the office of Sheriff of Ayr.
+
+The history of Wallace down to the year 1297 is entirely legendary, and
+only to be found in the rhymes of Harry the Minstrel; though many of the
+facts which Harry relates still live as popular traditions in the
+localities where the scenes of them are laid, whether handed down in
+that way from the time when they happened, or only derived from his
+poem, which long continued to be the literary favorite of the Scottish
+peasantry. Harry, who, it may be observed, professes to translate from a
+Latin account written by Wallace's intimate friend and chaplain, John
+Blair, makes him to have been carefully educated by his uncle, a wealthy
+churchman who resided at Dunipace, in Stirlingshire, and to have been
+afterward sent to the grammar-school of Dundee. Here his first memorable
+act is said to have been performed; his slaughter of the son of Selby,
+the English governor of the castle of Dundee, in chastisement of an
+insult offered him by the unwary young man; Wallace with his dagger
+struck him dead on the spot. This must have happened, if at all, in the
+year 1291, after Edward I. of England had obtained possession of all the
+places of strength throughout Scotland on his recognition as Lord
+Paramount by the various competitors for the crown, which had become
+vacant by the death of the infant Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, in
+September, 1290.
+
+This bold deed committed by Wallace, who in making his escape is
+asserted to have laid several of young Selby's attendants as low as
+their master, was immediately followed by his outlawry. He now took to
+the woods, and gifted as he was with eloquence, sagacity, and other high
+mental powers and accomplishments (to this the testimony of Fordun is as
+express and explicit as that of his poetical biographer), not less than
+with strength and height of frame and all other personal advantages, he
+soon found himself at the head of a band of attached as well as
+determined followers, who under his guidance often harassed the English
+soldiery, both on their marches and at their stations, plundering and
+slaying, as it might chance, with equally little remorse. Particular
+spots in nearly every part of Scotland are still famous for some deed of
+Wallace and his fellow-outlaws, performed at this period of his life;
+but for these we must refer to the Blind Minstrel. The woods in the
+neighborhood of Ayr would seem to have been his chief haunt; and some of
+his most remarkable feats of valor were exhibited in that town, in the
+face and in defiance of the foreign garrison by which it was occupied.
+Both his father and his elder brother are said to have fallen in
+_rencontres_ with the English during this interval. It was now also that
+he fell in love with the orphan daughter of Sir Hew de Bradfute, the
+heiress of Lamington, having, it is said, first seen her at a church in
+the neighborhood of Lanark. The Scotch writers affirm that this lady,
+whom he appears to have married, and who at any rate bore him a
+daughter, a year or two after forming her connection with Wallace fell
+into the hands of his enemies, and was barbarously executed by order of
+Hazelrig, the English Sheriff or Governor of Lanark, while her husband,
+or lover, was doomed to witness the spectacle from a place where he lay
+in concealment. Such private injuries were well fitted to raise his
+hatred to an unextinguishable flame.
+
+How far the guerilla warfare maintained by Wallace and his associates
+contributed to excite and spread the spirit of resistance to the English
+government, we have scarcely the means of judging; but it seems probable
+that it aided materially in producing the general insurrection which
+broke out in the spring of 1297. The accounts we have of the
+commencement of that movement represent Wallace at its head, in command
+of a considerable force, and in association with some of the most
+distinguished persons in the kingdom, such as the Steward of Scotland
+and his brother, Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, Sir William Douglas, etc.
+Soon after this he was joined by the younger Robert Bruce (afterward
+King Robert I.) who had hitherto, as well as his father, who was still
+alive (the son of the original competitor for the crown), professed to
+adhere to the English king.
+
+This, however, appears to have been but an ill-cemented confederacy.
+When the force despatched by Edward to quell the revolt presented itself
+before the Scottish army posted near Irvine, in Ayrshire, the leaders of
+the latter, throwing off the authority of their nominal chief, could no
+more agree what to do than whom to obey: and the result was that Bruce,
+the Steward, Douglas, and others of them, availing themselves of the
+diplomatic talents of the Bishop of Glasgow, concluded a treaty on July
+9th, by which they agreed to acknowledge Edward as their sovereign lord.
+All the rest ultimately acceded to this arrangement, except only Wallace
+and his friend, Sir Andrew Moray, of Bothwell. The treaty of Irvine,
+which is printed by Rymer, is, we believe, the first of the few public
+documents in which mention is made of Wallace; to the instrument (which
+is in French) are subjoined the words, "Escrit ą Sir Willaume," the
+meaning of which Lord Hailes conceives to be, "that the barons had
+notified Wallace that they had made terms of accommodation for
+themselves and their party." The words, moreover, on the supposition
+that they refer to Wallace, of which there seems to be little doubt,
+show that he had before this date obtained the honor of knighthood. It
+had probably been bestowed upon him (as was then customary) by some
+other knight, one of his companions in arms, since his elevation from
+being the captain of a band of outlaws to be the commander-in-chief of
+the national forces.
+
+Wallace now retired to the north, carrying with him, however, a
+considerable body of adherents, to whom additional numbers rapidly
+gathered, so that he soon found himself in a condition to recommence
+aggressive operations. Directing his force to the northeastern coast, he
+surprised the castle of Dunottar, cleared Aberdeen, Forfar, Brechin, and
+other towns of their English garrisons, and then laid siege to the
+castle of Dundee. While he was engaged in this last attempt, news was
+brought that the English army was approaching Stirling; upon which,
+leaving the siege to be carried on by the citizens of Dundee, he
+hastened to meet the enemy in the field. The result was the complete
+defeat and rout of the English, at the battle of Stirling Bridge, fought
+on September 11, 1297--a battle which once more, for the moment,
+liberated Scotland. The English were immediately driven or fled from
+every place of strength in the country, including Berwick itself.
+
+Availing himself of this panic and of the exhilaration of his
+countrymen, Wallace pursued the fugitives across the border; and putting
+himself at the head of a numerous force, he entered England on October
+18th, and, remaining till November 11th, wasted the country with fire
+and sword from sea to sea, and as far south as to the walls of
+Newcastle. It was during this visitation that the prior and convent of
+Hexham obtained from him the protection preserved by Hemingford. It is
+dated at Hexildesham (Hexham), November 7th, and runs in the names of
+"Andreas de Moravia, et Wilhelmus Wallensis, duces exercitus Scotię,
+nomine pręclari principis Joannis, Dei gratia, Regis Scotia illustris,
+de consensu communitatis regni ejusdem," that is, "Andrew Moray and
+William Wallace, commanders-in-chief of the army of Scotland, in the
+name of King John, and by consent of the community of the said kingdom."
+The John here acknowledged as King of Scotland was Baliol, now in the
+hands of Edward, and living in a sort of free custody in the Tower of
+London. Wallace's associate in the command was the young Sir Andrew
+Moray, son of his faithful friend of that name, who had retired with him
+from the capitulation of Irvine, and who had fallen at the battle of
+Stirling Bridge.
+
+One of the most curious of the few public papers in which the name of
+Wallace occurs was a few years since discovered by Dr. Lappenburg, of
+Hamburg, in the archives of the ancient Hanseatic city of Lübeck. It is
+a letter, in Latin, addressed to the authorities of Lübeck and Hamburg,
+informing them that their merchants should now have free access to all
+ports of the kingdom of Scotland, seeing that the said kingdom, by the
+favor of God, had been recovered by war from the power of the English.
+The letter is dated "apud Badsing tonam" (the true word, it has been
+suggested, is probably Haddingtonam), October 11, 1297, that is, a few
+days before the invasion of Cumberland and Northumberland. It is in the
+name of "Andreas de Moravia et Willelmus Wallensis, duces exercitis
+regni Scotię, et communitas, eiusdem regni"--like the Hexham
+protection--but without any mention of King John.
+
+After his triumphal return from his incursion into England, Wallace
+assumed the title of Guardian of the Kingdom in the name of King John,
+whether formally invested with that dignity or only hailed as such by
+the gratitude of his countrymen. In a charter, printed in Anderson's
+"Diplomata," conferring the constabulary of Dundee on Alexander
+Skirmischur (Scrimgeour) and his heirs, and dated at Torphichen (in the
+county of Linlithgow) March 29, 1298, he styles himself, "Willelmus
+Walays miles, Custos Regni Scotię, et ductor exercituum ejusdem, nomine
+pręclari principis Domini Johannis, Dei gratia Regis Scotię illustris,
+de consensu communitatis ejusdem." The grant is stated to have been made
+with the consent and approbation of the nobility ("per consensum et
+assensum magnatum dicti regni.")
+
+But this supreme elevation did not last long. Supported only by his own
+merits and the admiration and attachment of his humbler
+fellow-countrymen, Wallace, a new man, and without family connection,
+would probably have found it difficult or impossible to retain his high
+place, even if he had had nothing more to contend with than domestic
+jealousy and dissatisfaction. Fordun relates that many of the nobility
+were in the habit of saying, "We will not have this man to rule over
+us." Meanwhile the energetic English king, who had been abroad when the
+defeat of Stirling Bridge lost him Scotland, had now returned home, and
+was already on his march toward the borders at the head of a powerful
+army. A body of English, which had landed in the north of Fife, led by
+Aymer de Vallois, Earl of Pembroke, is said by the Scottish authorities
+to have been attacked and routed by Wallace on June 12, 1298, in the
+forest of Blackironside, in that county; but when the two main armies
+met on July 22d, in the neighborhood of Falkirk--the Scots commanded by
+Wallace, the English by their king in person--the former, after a
+gallant and obstinate resistance, were at last forced to give way, and
+the battle ended in a universal rout accompanied with immense slaughter.
+
+This defeat did not put an end to the war; but it was taken advantage of
+by the Scottish nobility to deprive Wallace of his office of guardian or
+chief governor of the kingdom. The Scottish accounts say that he
+voluntarily resigned the supreme power; it is certain, at any rate, that
+Bruce, his rival Comyn, and Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrew's, were now
+appointed joint guardians of Scotland, still in the name of Baliol. For
+some years after this our accounts of Wallace are slight and obscure;
+but he appears to have returned with a chosen band of followers to the
+practice of the desultory warfare in which he had originally
+distinguished himself. The legendary histories continue to detail his
+deeds of prowess performed in harassing the enemy both on their marches
+and in their camps and strongholds. And to fill up the story, they also
+make him to have paid two visits to France--the first in 1300, the
+second in 1302. The next well-ascertained fact regarding him is that
+when the Scottish leaders were at last obliged to submit to Edward at
+Strathorde, on February 9, 1304, Wallace was not included in the
+capitulation, one of the clauses of which (printed in the original
+French in Ryley's "Placeta Parliamentaria") is to the effect that as for
+Wallace (Monsieur Guillaume de Galeys), he might, if he pleased, give
+himself up to the king's mercy ("quil se mette en la voluntč et en la
+grace nostre seigneur le Roy, si lui semble, que bon soit"). He was soon
+after summoned to appear before a parliament or convention of Scotch and
+English nobility, held at St. Andrew's; and upon their not presenting
+themselves, he and Sir Simon Frisel, or Fraser, were pronounced outlaws.
+For some time his retreat remained undiscovered, although his active
+hostility still continued occasionally to make itself felt. A principal
+person employed in the attempts to capture him appears to have been
+Ralph de Haliburton; but how he was actually taken is not known. Sir
+John Menteith (a son of Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith), to whose
+treachery his delivery to the English king is attributed by Blind Harry
+and popular tradition, appears to have really done nothing more than
+forward him to England after he was brought a prisoner to Dumbarton
+Castle, of which Menteith was governor under a commission from Edward.
+
+On being brought to London, Wallace was lodged in the house of William
+Delect, a citizen, in Fenchurch Street; and on the next day, being the
+eve of St. Bartholomew, he was brought on horseback to Westminster, and
+in the hall there, "being placed on the south bench," says Stow,
+"crowned with laurel for that he had said in times past that he ought to
+bear a crown in that all," he was arraigned as a traitor, and on that
+charge found guilty, and condemned to death. After being dragged to the
+usual place of execution--the Elms, in West Smithfield--at the tails of
+his horses, he was there hanged on a high gallows, on August 23, 1305,
+after which he was "drawn and quartered." His right arm was set up at
+Newcastle, his left at Berwick; his right leg at Perth, his left at
+Aberdeen; his head on London Bridge. Wallace's daughter, by the heiress
+of Lamington, married Sir William Bailie, of Hoprig, whose descendants
+through her inherited the estate of Lamington.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT BRUCE
+
+By Sir J. BERNARD BURKE, LL.D.
+
+(1274-1329)
+
+
+Robert Bruce was born in the year 1274, on the Feast of the translation
+of St. Benedict, being March 21st, and was undoubtedly of Norman origin.
+In an annual roll containing the names of those knights and barons who
+came over with William the Conqueror, we find that of Brueys; and from
+the Domesday Book it appears that a family of the same name were
+possessed of lands in Yorkshire. Coming down to a later period, 1138,
+when David I. of Scotland made his fatal attack upon England--fatal,
+that is, to himself and his people--the English barons, previous to the
+battle of Cutton Moor, near Northallerton, sent a message to the
+Scottish king, by Robert Bruce, of Cleveland, a Norman knight, who
+possessed estates in either country. Upon his death, this knight
+bequeathed his English lands to his eldest son, and those in Annandale
+to his younger, who received a confirmation of his title by a charter of
+William the Lion. From this root sprung Robert Bruce, the competitor for
+the crown with Baliol, whose grandson was the more celebrated Robert
+Bruce, the younger, Earl of Carrick in virtue of his mother's title, and
+afterward King of Scotland. He was the eldest of three brothers and
+seven sisters, whose marriages with some of the leading families of
+Scotland proved an important element of success to the future hero. His
+earliest years were passed at the castle of Turnberry, where his mother
+resided; but as he grew older, his father, who considered himself an
+English baron, thought proper that he should be removed to the English
+court. The friendship subsisting between Edward the First and the Earl
+of Carrick induced the former to adopt the earl's son; so that the
+confiding monarch trained up his mortal enemy in the use of those arts
+and weapons which were one day to be turned against himself.
+
+[Illustration: Robert Bruce.]
+
+The family of Bruce, as we have already noticed, were competitors for
+the Scottish throne with Baliol, in whose favor an award was pronounced
+by Edward, when called upon to arbitrate between them. At this time the
+elder Bruce was far advanced in years; his son, the Earl of Carrick, was
+still in the prime of life, and his grandson, Robert Bruce was eighteen
+years of age. Upon the old man being required to do homage for his lands
+in Scotland to the new monarch of that country, he indignantly refused,
+exclaiming, "I am Baliol's sovereign, not Baliol mine; and rather than
+consent to such a homage, I resign my lands in Annandale to my son, the
+Earl of Carrick." But Carrick was not less proud, or averse to anything
+that might call in question his claim to the crown of Scotland, and in
+like manner refused to hold any lands of Baliol. As, however, according
+to the feudal law, he must either divest himself of his estate, or do
+homage for it, he adopted the former alternative, and resigned the lands
+of Annandale in favor of his son, Robert. The young baron, less
+scrupulous than his relatives, did not hesitate to accept his father's
+gift, which, upon feudal principles, carried with it the title of Earl
+of Carrick, and did homage for the same to Baliol. By his father's
+death, in 1304, he became possessed of the family estates in England.
+
+From this time Bruce played his part with skill, though in justice it
+must be allowed that his patriotism was not altogether without the alloy
+of a selfish ambition; and perhaps it would be expecting too much from
+human nature, even in its best and highest forms, to look for anything
+else. Neither can we free him from the charge of dissimulation in that
+he swore a fealty to Baliol, which it is plain he never intended to
+observe, and affected gratitude and attachment for the English monarch,
+while in secret he was preparing to undermine him. An excuse for this
+has been sought by his more partial admirers in the necessity of the
+case, arising from the well-known sagacity of Edward, who would
+otherwise have penetrated his purposes and crushed them in the bud
+without scruple. Nor was this the only obstacle in his path to empire.
+Upon the failure of Baliol and his only son, Edward, the ancient and
+powerful family of the Comyns were ready to dispute his title to the
+crown, which they claimed for themselves. John, commonly called the Red
+Comyn, who had been the determined opponent of Wallace, possessed, in
+the event of the monarch dying without issue, the same right to the
+throne which was vested in Bruce himself. He, too, had connected himself
+by marriage with the royal family of England, and was at this time one
+of the most powerful subjects in Scotland. When Baliol leagued with
+Comyn to throw off the supremacy of Edward, whose hand, whether justly
+or not, had raised him to the Scottish throne, the Bruces and their
+party, tempted by the promise of a crown, lent their best aid to the
+English monarch. Upon the termination of the campaign the elder Bruce
+demanded the fulfilment of Edward's promise, to which the latter
+indignantly replied that he had not come into Scotland to conquer a
+kingdom for him; so that Bruce reaped nothing else at the time from his
+service, than the satisfaction of seeing his rival, Baliol, dethroned,
+and the influence of the Comyns effectually diminished.
+
+In 1296 Edward held a parliament at Berwick, compelling the Scotch
+barons to do him homage, and the young lord of Carrick concurred in the
+national submission. But notwithstanding this outward show of fealty, he
+became, in the time of Wallace's success, suspected of entertaining
+designs upon the crown. At first, indeed, he had joined against Wallace,
+and wasted the lands of his adherent, Douglas, with fire and sword; yet,
+soon after his return home, he summoned the Annandale men, who were the
+vassals of his father, then in the service of Edward, and thus addressed
+them: "You have already heard, without doubt, of that solemn oath, which
+I lately took at Carlisle, and I cannot deny the fact; but the oath was
+a foolish one, and exacted by fear; it was my body that took the oath,
+and not my mind; but its having been taken at all is now to me the cause
+of much remorse and sorrow; yet erelong I hope to be absolved from it by
+our Holy Father. In the meanwhile, I am resolved to go and join my
+fellow-countrymen, and assist them in their efforts to restore to its
+liberty the land of my nativity, for none, as you know, is an enemy of
+his own flesh, and as for me, I love my people. Let me beseech you,
+then, to adopt the same resolution, and you shall ever be esteemed my
+most dear friends and approved counsellors."
+
+To this request the men of Annandale deferred giving any answer till the
+morning, and took advantage of the night to retire, so that Bruce could
+only join the insurgents with his own vassals of Carrick.
+
+The first disappointment might have taught Bruce to desist from his
+design, for which the time was not yet ripe; but blinded by ambition, he
+entered into a strict alliance with Wishart, the Bishop of Glasgow, and
+the Steward of Scotland, the principal leaders of the insurrection. Upon
+joining his new associates, he found their purposes utterly incompatible
+with his views upon the crown. Wallace, the soul of the party, had ever
+supported the claims of Baliol, and his great supporter, Sir Andrew
+Moray, a near connection of the Comyns, had the same object. During the
+campaign, therefore, of 1298, which concluded with the battle of
+Falkirk, Bruce shut himself up in his castle of Ayr, maintaining a
+cautious neutrality, while his father continued to reside in England and
+to serve Edward in his wars. The king, however, did not admire this cold
+system of neutrality. He in consequence determined to attack the castle
+of Ayr, and Bruce, dreading the consequences, razed it to the ground,
+and sought an asylum in the mountain fastnesses of Carrick.
+
+In the following year, when Wallace had resigned the regency, John
+Comyn, of Badenoch, and Sir John de Soulis, were chosen governors of the
+kingdom, and the party of Bruce availed themselves of the opportunity to
+advance his influence by opposition to those in power, and by defeating
+every measure taken for the public benefit. An attempt was made by those
+who really wished well to the national cause, or who dreaded that their
+disunion might be fatal to all alike, to reconcile the contending
+factions; with this view they elected Bruce, and Lamberton, Bishop of
+Glasgow, joint regents in the name of Baliol; but this ill-assorted
+coalition soon fell to pieces, as might have been expected, where the
+views which one party entertained in secret were so utterly opposed to
+the avowed purposes of all.
+
+The policy which actuated Bruce on this occasion may be easily
+explained. It was clear that Edward would never consent to the
+restoration of Baliol, then in exile, and the Comyns had taken so
+decided a part against him, that it seemed most improbable he would ever
+consent to raise one of that family to the throne. Continuing,
+therefore, the same line of duplicity with which he had commenced, and
+which he had only abandoned for a single instant in the vain hope of
+persuading the party of Wallace to openly adopt his claims, he now
+endeavored by submission and affected attachment to win the favor of the
+English monarch. Edward, he well knew, had the power, could he be
+brought to entertain the inclination, to place him on the Scottish
+throne, and if this point were once attained, Bruce trusted that means
+would afterward occur of shaking off all dependence upon his benefactor.
+In these designs he to a certain extent succeeded, but not in his main
+object. If he was crafty, Edward was yet craftier. He had fallen into
+the same error that his father had, in 1296, and was outwitted by the
+superior political ability of him whom he had intended to deceive, and
+who, it must be confessed, was equally insincere. Edward cheated both
+father and son, by holding out to them the hope of a crown he never
+meant them to attain, his object being to unite the two countries; an
+excellent purpose in itself, if we could only bring ourselves to
+overlook the fraud and violence by which it was to be accomplished.
+When, therefore, the Comyns submitted, in 1304, and he proceeded to the
+settlement of his new dominions, the Earl of Carrick found that his only
+gain was the being employed among the commissioners in organizing a
+system of government. He had, however, reaped no little advantage from
+his dissimulation. While Baliol was an exile and Comyn in disgrace, he
+had preserved his estates, and won the king's confidence without losing,
+but rather augmenting, his influence with the Scotch. At the same time
+he saw that Comyn was still powerful; his claims to the throne were more
+generally admitted by the people, and without his concurrence nothing
+could be effected. Thus situated, Bruce submitted to his rival this
+alternative: "Give me your land, and I shall bind myself to support your
+title to the kingdom, and, when we have expelled our enemies, to place
+the crown upon your head; or, if thou dost not choose to assume the
+state of the kingdom, here am I ready to resign to you my estates, on
+condition that you second me in my efforts to regain the throne of my
+fathers." Comyn accepted the latter alternative, but immediately
+betrayed the design to Edward, and sent him the letter, or indenture, by
+which Bruce had bound himself. But the latter, when suddenly charged
+with it, denied his hand and seal with a coolness that could only belong
+to one long practised in the arts of dissimulation, and demanded time to
+prove his innocence. Arch-deceiver as the English king himself was, he
+yet allowed himself to be duped by this specious effrontery, and Bruce
+escaping into Scotland, murdered Comyn in the church of the Grey Friars,
+at Dumfries. Soon afterward he was crowned at Scone, and the revolution
+spread far and wide; upon hearing which, Edward sent an invading army
+into Scotland. Superiority of force and military skill soon compelled
+Bruce to retreat to the mountain fastnesses, that offered a better place
+of security than the strongest castle, for castles might be stormed; but
+here, if danger threatened him at one point, he had only to retreat to
+one more remote and more rugged, and thus at any time was enabled to
+baffle his pursuers when he found them too powerful to be resisted. A
+series of fights--battles they could hardly be called--and adventures
+now ensued which have all the coloring of romance, but which entailed so
+much of hardness and privation upon his followers, that after a while it
+became evident he would not be able much longer to keep them from
+abandoning a cause so desperate. Then, again, a spark of hope was
+kindled by the disaffection growing out of the severity which Edward
+exercised upon all who had been in arms to resist him. Numbers in
+consequence flocked to Bruce, and fresh adventures succeeded of a yet
+more romantic nature than those already mentioned; the fortunes of the
+wanderer seeming now to be at the lowest ebb, and then again rising into
+a prosperous flood, which as rapidly subsided, making it a matter of
+some difficulty for him to escape being stranded by the falling waters.
+It was during this season that Douglas disgraced himself and the
+Scottish name by barbarities that have never been surpassed, and rarely
+even equalled.
+
+The death of the great Edward--for great he was, in spite of all his
+faults--and the accession of his son, the feeble Edward II., left an
+open field to Bruce, who was as much superior to those that now opposed
+him, as he had been overcrowned by the genius of his late adversary. He
+marched from victory to victory, and would, no doubt, have brought the
+contest to a happy termination, had he not been seized by an alarming
+sickness. At first, it threatened to be fatal; things were again
+beginning to look gloomy for Scotland; but in the moment of extreme
+peril, he shook off his disease by a strong effort, and once more led
+his followers through a series of triumphs, which were crowned by the
+great battle of Bannockburn. Though we cannot allow the ambition which
+seeks a crown to pass for patriotism, it is impossible to deny the
+highest praise to the courage, firmness, and ability displayed by Bruce
+through the whole of this trying period. None may deny that he deserved
+a crown, and when once obtained, it acquired a lustre from the talents
+of him who wore it.
+
+Bruce soon found himself in a condition to assist his brother Edward in
+the attempt to drive the English out of Ireland. But here the usual good
+fortune of the Scotch abandoned them. After a hard-fought campaign,
+attended by many vicissitudes, his sagacity saw that the attempt was
+hopeless, and he returned to Scotland. Shortly afterward, the turbulent
+and aspiring Edward Bruce was slain in battle.
+
+His wonted success attended Bruce in the field, in the midst of which,
+however, a plot was formed against his life and government. Fortunately
+it was revealed in time by the Countess of Strathearn, to whom the
+conspirators had the weakness to confide their intentions; and soon
+afterward, to crown his prosperity, Edward II. was compelled by a series
+of defeats to conclude a peace. But Bruce's health began to be impaired,
+and when war again broke out between the countries, upon the deposition
+of Edward II. and the succession of his son, Edward III., he was unable
+to lead his projected expedition against England. It ended in failure,
+if not in defeat.
+
+A short interval of health and hope gleamed upon him after this attack,
+and peace was concluded between the two countries, greatly to the
+dissatisfaction of the English, who, justly enough, considered
+themselves sacrificed to the ambition of the queen-mother, Isabella, and
+of her favorite, Mortimer. But this momentary promise of health and
+vigor soon passed away, and it became plain to all that the life of this
+brave and sagacious monarch was drawing rapidly to a close. In
+expectation of the final event he had given orders to have a magnificent
+tomb made at Paris; which was brought to Bruges, thence through England
+into Scotland, and on its arrival erected in the church of the
+Benedictines at Dunfermline.
+
+Bruce died in his fifty-fifth year, and was buried in the abbey-church
+of Dunfermline, as he had desired.
+
+In the prime of his life Bruce was upward of six feet high; his
+shoulders were broad, his chest full and open; the cheek-bones strong
+and prominent, and the muscles of the back and neck of great size and
+thickness; his hair curled short over a broad forehead, and the general
+expression of his face was calm and cheerful; yet, when he pleased, he
+could assume a character of stern command. Such, at least, Bruce has
+been described by the old historian, and we may easily believe it, since
+the outward semblance agrees so well with what is recorded of his life
+and actions.
+
+
+
+
+ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED
+
+(DIED, 1386)
+
+[Illustration: Arnold von Winkelried.]
+
+
+The incident with which this name is connected is, after the purely
+legendary feat of Tell, the best known and most popular in the early
+history of the Swiss Confederation. We are told how, at a critical
+moment in the great battle of Sempach, when the Swiss had failed to
+break the serried ranks of the Austrian knights, a man of Unterwalden,
+Arnold von Winkelried by name, came to the rescue. Commending his wife
+and children to the care of his comrades, he rushed toward the
+Austrians, gathered a number of their spears together against his
+breast, and fell pierced through, having opened a way into the hostile
+ranks for his fellow-countrymen, though at the price of his own life.
+But the Tell and Winkelried stories stand in a very different position
+when looked at in the dry light of history; for, while in the former
+imaginary and impossible men (bearing now and then a real historical
+name) do imaginary and impossible deeds at a very uncertain period, in
+the latter we have some solid ground to rest on, and Winkelried's act
+might very well have been performed, though, as yet, the amount of
+genuine and early evidence in support of it is very far from being
+sufficient.
+
+The Winkelrieds of Stanz were a knightly family when we first hear of
+them, though toward the end of the fourteenth century they seem to have
+been but simple men without the honors of knighthood, and not always
+using their prefix "von." Among its members we find an Erni Winkelried
+acting as a witness to a contract of sale on May 1, 1367; while the same
+man, or perhaps another member of the family, Erni von Winkelried, is
+plaintiff in a suit at Stanz, on September 29, 1389, and in 1417 is the
+landamman (or head-man) of Unterwalden, being then called Arnold
+Winkelriet. We have, therefore, a real man named Arnold Winkelried
+living at Stanz, about the time of the battle of Sempach. The question
+is thus narrowed to the points, was he present at the battle, and did he
+then perform the deed commonly attributed to him? The determination of
+this question requires a minute investigation of the history of that
+battle, to ascertain if there are any authentic traces of this
+incident, or any opportunity for it to have taken place.
+
+1. EVIDENCE OF CHRONICLES.--The earliest known mention of the incident
+is found in a Zurich chronicle (discovered in 1862 by Herr G. von Wyss),
+which is a copy, made in 1476, of a chronicle written in, or at any rate
+not earlier than, 1438, though it is wanting in the sixteenth century
+transcript of another chronicle written in 1466, which up to 1389
+closely agrees with the former. It appears in the well-known form, but
+the hero is stated to be "ein getrüwer man under den Eidgenozen," no
+name being given, and it seems clear that his death did not take place
+at that time. No other mention has been found in any of the numerous
+Swiss or Austrian chronicles, till we come to the book "De Helvetię
+Origine," written in 1538 by Rudolph Gwalther (Zwingli's son-in-law),
+when the hero is still nameless, being compared to Decius or Codrus, but
+is said to have been killed by his brave act. Finally we read the full
+story in the original draft of Giles Tschudi's chronicle, where the hero
+is described "as a man of Unterwalden, of the Winkelried family," this
+being expanded in the first rescension of the chronicle (1564) into "a
+man of Unterwalden, Arnold von Winkelried by name, a brave knight;"
+while he is entered (in the same book, on the authority of the
+"Anniversary Book" of Stanz, now lost) on the list of those who fell at
+Sempach, at the head of the Nidwald (or Stanz) men, as "Herr Arnold von
+Winkelried, ritter," this being in the first draft "Arnold Winckelriet."
+
+2. BALLADS.--There are several war songs on the battle of Sempach
+which have come down to us, but in one only is there mention of
+Winkelried and his deed. This is a long ballad of sixty-seven
+four-line stanzas, part of which (including the Winkelried section)
+is found in the additions made between 1531 and 1545 to Etterlin's
+chronicle by H. Berlinger of Basel, and the whole in Werner
+Steiner's chronicle (written 1532). It is agreed on all sides that
+the last stanza, attributing the authorship to Halbsuter, of
+Lucerne, "as he came back from the battle," is a very late addition.
+Many authorities regard it as made up of three distinct songs (one
+of which refers to the battle and Winkelried), possibly put together
+by the younger Halbsuter (citizen of Lucerne in 1435, died between
+1470 and 1480); though others contend that the Sempach-Winkelried
+section bears clear traces of having been composed after the
+Reformation began, that is, about 1520 or 1530. Some recent
+discoveries have proved that certain statements in the song, usually
+regarded as anachronisms, are quite accurate; but no nearer approach
+has been made toward fixing its exact date, or that of any of the
+three bits into which it has been cut up. In this song the story
+appears in its full-blown shape, the name of Winckelriet being
+given.
+
+[Illustration: Arnold Winkelried At Sempach.]
+
+
+
+
+JOAN OF ARC[8]
+
+         [Footnote 8: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
+
+(1412-1431)
+
+[Illustration: Joan of Arc.]
+
+
+In the history of the world since the dawn of time, there is no other
+character so remarkable to me as that of Joan of Arc.
+
+You have but to think of any young girl of your acquaintance, seventeen
+years old, and try to imagine her leading an army to battle, storming a
+fort, or planning a campaign, in order to realize in a measure the
+astounding qualities possessed by this wonderful being.
+
+Not only did she do all this as wisely as the most astute general who
+ever lived, but she succeeded in liberating France from the hands of the
+English, where we have very good reason to think it might have otherwise
+remained to this day; for the English were gaining ground steadily, and
+the French dauphin was utterly discouraged, and had ceased to make an
+effort to maintain his rights, when Joan of Arc came to his rescue.
+
+The English king, Henry V., had died in the midst of his triumphs. Two
+months later, imbecile Charles VI., of France, passed away also, and
+Henry VI., of England, was proclaimed king of both nations; while at the
+same time the dauphin was hailed King of France by his few followers.
+But his fortunes were at the lowest ebb, his small army, stationed at
+Orleans, was in need of food. Four thousand of his men went out to
+search for provisions, and encountered half that number of English
+soldiers. A battle ensued, and five hundred of the bravest French
+soldiers were left dead on the field of strife. Despite their bravery,
+hunger and fatigue had unfitted them to combat with their well-fed
+adversaries.
+
+The dauphin had shut himself in the castle of Chinon, with fair women
+and gay comrades, while the siege was raging before the walls of
+Orleans. He was at that time a weak and vacillant youth, given over to
+the same pleasures and vices which drove his father mad and caused his
+brother's death. He had no pride in rescuing his crown from the English,
+and it must be confessed that the treatment he had received from his own
+mother and his own countrymen, who sold him to the enemy, was sufficient
+to dishearten a stronger nature than his. Added to this, he was doubtful
+of his legitimate right to the throne, owing to his mother's depraved
+career. But when, in the midst of his orgies, the news was brought to
+him, in the castle of Chinon, that his army was defeated before the
+walls of Orleans, what little hope or courage he had left seemed to
+desert him and he sank into a state of despair.
+
+And far away on the frontier, in the little village of Domremy, a young
+girl watched her flocks, and wept over the fate of her beloved country;
+and weeping, prayed that God would save France from the oppressor. How
+earnestly she prayed, and how well God listened, history has recorded in
+a tale more wonderful than any story ever conceived by the imagination
+of man, and sadder than any other save the story of the Nazarene upon
+the Cross of Calvary.
+
+The end of France as a nation seemed at hand. The nobility had been led
+into captivity and sold to an invading enemy; the clergy had seen its
+altars defamed by arrogant strangers. Industry had been ruined by civil
+wars during the long imbecility of Charles VI., and the succeeding
+ravages made by the English. Villages were depopulated, homes desolated,
+and look where they might, the people of France saw no hope of aid, save
+from on high.
+
+Of this epoch Henry Martin says, "The people expected nothing from human
+sources; but a sentiment of indestructible nationality stirred in their
+hearts and told them that France could not die. Hoping nothing from
+earth, they lifted their souls to heaven; an ardent religious fervor
+seized upon them, which had no part with clergy or creed. It rose from
+the extremity of their need, and fixed its root in an old oracle of the
+Middle Ages, which had predicted that France should be 'lost through a
+woman and saved by a virgin.'"
+
+France had certainly been lost through its wicked queen; that part of
+the old prophecy had been fearfully fulfilled; the remaining clause was
+yet to be verified. The people, excited to a religious frenzy by their
+desperate straits and their faith in the old superstition, prayed more
+fervently with each day; and their prayers rose like great white eagles
+and settled upon the heart of that strange divine child, who was weeping
+over the fate of France while she watched her sheep on the plains of
+Domremy.
+
+A humbly born girl was Joan of Arc, unable to read or write; women who
+could do more than that were rare in those days, so she was not despised
+on account of her ignorance, but highly respected for her industry and
+piety. An enthusiastic Catholic, she added to her church duties by
+active benevolence and kindness to the sick and poor in her native town.
+Often she was seen to kneel in the fields and pray; and there was a
+chapel some miles from Domremy to which she used to make a pilgrimage
+every Sunday and offer prayers to the Virgin. There was, too, in the
+forest of Bois Chemin a famous beech-tree under which a stream of clear
+water flowed; and a superstition prevailed among the people of Domremy
+that fairies had blessed this tree and bestowed healing properties upon
+the waters of the stream. The priest and the villagers marched about the
+sacred tree once each year singing solemn chants, and the young people
+hung its boughs with garlands, and danced under its shading branches.
+Joan dearly loved this spot, and it became her favorite haunt. The
+echoes of war reverberated even to this quiet frontier hamlet, and in
+her hours of reverie she dwelt sadly upon the stories of bloodshed and
+suffering which she heard her elders repeat.
+
+She was twelve years old when the dauphin was proclaimed king by his few
+followers; and in all his flight from province to province, fleeing
+before the usurpers of his throne, no heart in all France suffered more
+keenly than the heart beating in the breast of this humble shepherd
+girl. The misfortunes of the dauphin, the woes of her country, took
+complete possession of her expanding mind. Her pure young soul yearned
+toward the Infinite in one ceaseless prayer; and when any soul is so
+lifted up above all thought of self, praying for the good of others, a
+response never fails to come. It is only selfish prayers which remain
+unanswered. Joan's beautiful nature was like the sensitive plate
+prepared to receive the impression; and while she prayed the angels to
+save France, the angels prepared her to become the saviour.
+
+One summer day, when she was in her fourteenth year, she was running in
+the fields with her companions, when, as she afterward declared, "she
+felt herself lifted as by an invisible force and carried along as if she
+possessed wings." Her companions gazed upon her with astonishment,
+seeing her fly beyond their reach. Then she heard a voice, which
+proceeded from a great light above her; and the voice said, "Joan, put
+your trust in God, and go and save France."
+
+This strange experience filled her with terror; but ere many days she
+heard the voice again, and this time she saw the figure of a winged
+angel. "I am the Archangel Michael," the voice said, "and the messenger
+of God, who bids you to go to the aid of the dauphin and restore him to
+his throne."
+
+Overcome with fear, she fell on her knees in tears; but the angel
+continued to appear to her, accompanied with two female forms, and
+always urging her to go to the aid of her country. Fear gave place to
+ecstacy, and in the heart of this divine child awoke the audacious idea
+whose climax astounded the whole world.
+
+At first she reasoned with the voices, telling them "she was but a poor
+girl, who knew nothing of men or war." But the voices replied, "Go and
+save France; God will be with you, and you have nothing to fear."
+
+During three years she listened to these voices, which made themselves
+heard by her two or three times each week. She seemed consumed by an
+inward fever, and strange words escaped her. One day she said to a
+laborer, that "midway between Coussi and Vaucouleurs there lived a maid
+who should bring the dauphin to his throne."
+
+These words were repeated to her father and they alarmed him; and we
+cannot wonder that they did. How could he think otherwise than that his
+little girl was losing her senses? How could he dream of the divine and
+superhuman powers that had descended upon her from a higher world? He
+told her brother that if Joan should attempt to follow the army, as he
+feared she might, "he would rather drown her with his own hands." Her
+parents set a watch upon her movements, and decided to marry her to a
+young man who was secretly enamored of her. They connived with this
+admirer to swear before an officer of the law that Joan had promised him
+her heart; but she so strenuously denied the assertion before the judge
+that she gained her case.
+
+Just at this epoch the people of Domremy were obliged to fly before an
+invading troop of soldiers. When they returned to their village they
+found their church burned and their homes pillaged. Joan regarded this
+as a direct punishment for her hesitation in heeding the "voices." She
+would hesitate no longer, and after repeated delays and disheartening
+rebuffs, she succeeded in winning her way, with a few believers in her
+mission, to the king's castle.
+
+When Charles finally consented to an interview, he disguised one of his
+courtiers as king, and he was disguised as a courtier; but Joan was not
+deceived by clothing; she fell at his feet, clasped his knees, and
+exclaimed, "Gentle king, God has taken pity on you and your people; the
+angels are on their knees praying for you and them."
+
+The king was impressed with her lofty enthusiasm, and plied her with
+questions. Her responses astonished him. One reliable authority tells us
+that she revealed to him something known only to himself--and answered a
+question which he had that day demanded of God in the privacy of
+prayer--the question of his legitimate right to the throne. Joan told
+him that he had asked this question of God, and that she was able to
+reply to it in the affirmative.
+
+The king was so astonished and overjoyed at this proof of the maiden's
+powers, that he expressed belief in her divine mission; but he quickly
+relapsed into doubt again, and Joan was obliged to endure a very
+critical examination before a parliament, where she confused and
+confounded the learned doctors by her simple words: "I know not A or B,
+but I am commanded by my voices to raise the siege of Orleans and crown
+the dauphin at Rheims." When one aggressive doctor, with a bad accent,
+asked sarcastically; "what language her voices spoke," she replied,
+"Better than yours, sir," which brought the laughter of the whole
+parliament upon him. A messenger sent to Domremy, to ascertain the early
+conduct of the maid, returned with accounts of her piety and
+benevolence. All this worked in her favor, together with the strong
+faith which the masses reposed in her; for the people remembered the old
+prophecy and believed that the maiden had come to deliver France.
+
+Even the doctors of theology were affected by this prophecy, and the
+result was the final equipment of Joan for battle. When arrayed in a
+knight's armor she refused to accept a sword. "The voices told me," she
+said, "that in the church vault at Fierbois there lies a sword marked
+with five crosses which I must carry, and no other."
+
+A messenger was sent, who found the sword exactly as she had described
+it. This naturally swelled the faith of the people in her divine
+mission. She ordered a white banner made, covered with the lilies of
+France, and with the inscription, "Jesus Maria," emblazoned upon it. At
+the end of two months she entered the town of Blois, where the army was
+stationed, seated upon a fine horse, her head bare, her dark curls
+streaming in the wind, an air of triumph and joy on her face. Six
+thousand soldiers were drawn up to receive her. But the pleasure-loving
+young dauphin, be it said to his shame, was enjoying himself in his
+castle and was not there to meet her. Nothing had yet been decided about
+the position Joan was to occupy, but the wild enthusiasm of the army at
+once made her its leader.
+
+The very first act of this pure being was an attempt to uplift the moral
+status of the army. Women of evil repute were sent away with good
+advice, and the men were called to battle by prayer and confession.
+Coarse soldiers followed her to mass, fascinated by her peculiar spell,
+and rough language was silenced in her presence. Remarkable as has
+seemed Joan's career up to this point, it was simple compared to the
+miracles which ensued. Modest as the simplest maiden in private life,
+gentle as a child in all matters pertaining to herself, utterly devoid
+of self-seeking interests, she was yet enabled to plan campaigns, direct
+attacks and lead armies with all the skill of any world-renowned
+general. In the dead of night, with a band of 200 men, she entered the
+beleaguered city of Orleans in the face of the English enemy. The
+inhabitants crowded about her, regarding her rightly with wonder and
+awe. Her first act was to hasten to a cathedral where the Te Deum was
+being chanted by torch-light. She then selected her home with a lady of
+spotless reputation, in order that all her hours of repose might be
+guarded from suspicions of evil. The following day she directed a letter
+of warning to be sent to the English, urging them to retreat before
+compelled to do so by the "fire of Heaven." She then reconnoitred the
+city, determining in her mind where to begin the attack; and as she saw
+no signs that the English had taken heed of her letter, she finally
+mounted the walls of the town, and in a loud voice warned the English to
+depart before overtaken with the shame and disaster in store for them.
+To this the English responded with insults and ribald words, and told
+her to "Go home and keep her cows." Joan wept at their insults to her
+modesty, and would have at once opened an attack, had she not been
+dissuaded by her generals, who begged her to await the arrival of her
+army.
+
+Despite their bold words, the English were so influenced by Joan's
+peculiar power, that they allowed her army to enter Orleans with a
+convoy of provisions, and made no resistance. They seemed to be
+paralyzed with fear, and many of them expressed a belief that she was
+aided by the devil. Although the maid was immensely popular with the
+army, a lurking secret jealousy of her was already at work in the
+breasts of some of her officers; and these men chose an hour when she
+was taking a brief repose, to open an attack upon the English, hoping to
+take the glory of a conquest to themselves. But Joan's Voices awoke her,
+and told her the blood of France was being spilled; and seizing her
+white banner, she mounted her horse, and rushed into the strife, turning
+the tide of battle at once in favor of the French army, which had
+already suffered loss. Wherever the white flag was seen, a superhuman
+strength seemed to take possession of the men; and after a fierce battle
+of three hours, the bastile of St. Loup was won by the French.
+
+The bastile des Augustins fell next, and here Joan was slightly wounded
+in the foot; but she resolved to attack the only remaining hold of the
+English the following day. Her officers counselled together and reported
+themselves unfavorable to this project, as the bastile des Tournelles
+was very strong, and filled with the bravest of the English army. But
+Joan replied, "I, too, have been at council with God, and we shall fight
+to-morrow."
+
+They did fight, the English with fury, the French "as if they believed
+themselves immortal." After three hours of warfare Joan saw her men
+hesitate under the fierce attack of the enemy. She seized a ladder,
+planted it against a wall, and began to ascend it. At that moment an
+English arrow struck her between the neck and shoulder, and she fell to
+the ground. The disheartened soldiers bore her from the field, and
+dressed her wound, from which she extracted the arrow with her own hand,
+shedding womanly tears meanwhile. After the wound was dressed, a vision
+came to her, and with sudden strength she remounted her horse and rode
+back to battle.
+
+The English, believing her nearly dead from her wound, were terrified to
+see her return, and lost courage from that moment; while the French,
+electrified by her unexpected presence, fought with such zeal that
+before nightfall the maid led her army into Orleans crowned with
+triumph. It was only seven days since she had entered the city, and Joan
+had already verified her assertion that she could and would "raise the
+siege of Orleans."
+
+The indolent and unworthy dauphin, however, refused to go to Rheims and
+be crowned and so fulfil the second part of Joan's mission. He said
+there were ports along the Loire which needed to be taken first so the
+girl general laid out her campaign and added Beaugency and Jargeau to
+her other conquests. The English had become filled with superstitious
+fear of her power, attributing it to the devil. But the Dauphin of
+France still dallied with light women in his castle, and treated Joan
+with coldness and suspicion. The army now became so unanimous in the
+desire that the king should go to Rheims, that he finally, with
+reluctance, consented. On July 16th, after having taken Troyes and
+Chalons on the way, the French army entered Rheims; and there, on the
+following day, the dauphin was anointed with holy oil and received the
+crown of France.
+
+Happy, but modest and humble in her happiness, rejoicing only in the
+prosperity of the king and the country, the sublime saviour of her land
+knelt before her sovereign after the ceremonies were concluded and said,
+"Gentle king, I wish now that I might return toward my father and my
+mother, to keep my flocks and my herds as heretofore." Alas for the
+happiness of the poor girl and the honor of two countries, that her
+request was not granted!
+
+Joan's father was present on this occasion, and the inn where he lodged
+at the king's expense, and the cathedral where the dauphin was crowned,
+still exist in Rheims.
+
+[Illustration: Joan of Arc.]
+
+During all Joan's life as a soldier and general, she exhibited a most
+touching humanity toward the conquered enemy. She would spring from her
+horse to sooth the wounds of a suffering English soldier, and it is
+recorded of her that she carried a dying enemy in her arms to a
+confessor, and remained with him till his soul took flight. The people
+adored her, the soldiers of her army idolized her, and the king realized
+that she was of too great value to him to permit her to go in peace to
+her old humble home. So Joan remained, asking that the king would
+remove all impost from the village of Domremy, in place of bestowing a
+title upon her family as he offered to do. For three hundred years her
+request was obeyed. From this time to the tragic end, the story of
+Joan's life is a hard one to relate. Although we are nearing the fifth
+centennial of her birth, the recital of her sufferings and death must
+still wring tears from every heart which is not made of stone. The
+feeling of jealousy which great success, of even the most worthy and
+noble souls, arouses in meaner natures, had already sprung up against
+Joan. This feeling increased as the days passed by and she added more
+and more to her glory by the conquest of Laon, Soissons, Compičgne, and
+Beauvais. Paris was next besieged, and here Joan was seriously wounded,
+an event which depressed the king and the army.
+
+Her wound disabled her from action, and she was left lying on the field
+until evening, neglected, and seemingly forgotten. Already conscious of
+the growing sentiment of jealousy among her officers, this final proof
+of their indifference to her fate must have been more painful to her
+pure and lofty mind than the physical agony she was enduring. But even
+lying there, wounded, she cheered on the men as they passed her in the
+combat, and revived their failing courage.
+
+She was enabled to resume action the next day; her plans were all
+perfected, and judging from her past triumphs we can but suppose victory
+would have attended her, had not that most remarkable mandate arrived
+from the king, commanding the French army to retreat to Saint-Denis.
+
+To the undying shame of his memory be it said that Charles VII. entered
+into a plot, with jealous enemies of Joan, to force failure upon her.
+The people and the soldiers had grown to believe her infallible; the
+king and his favorites determined that she should be proven fallible.
+They deemed the country sufficiently safe, the army sufficiently strong,
+to enable them to go on now and claim victories of their own, without
+having their divine deliverer share the glory.
+
+Next to the crime of Isabel, who sold her son and her country to the
+enemy, this base act of Charles VII. stands unparalleled in infamy. So
+discouraged and heart-broken was Joan over the conduct of the king,
+although she did not understand the deep-laid plot against her, that she
+resolved to abandon the life of a soldier and enter the church of
+Saint-Denis. She hung up her armor and her sword, but when the king
+heard of this he sent for her to return to the army. He was not yet sure
+of himself, and he wanted her where he could call upon her if need be.
+
+Joan returned with reluctance; "her Voices" counselled her to keep to
+her resolution; but she was so accustomed to obey the king, that for the
+first time she allowed an earthly voice to overrule the counsels of her
+heavenly guides. And from this hour her star set; from this hour her
+path led into darkness. Soon after her return to the army she broke the
+magic sword with which she had achieved so many conquests; the Voices,
+too, were silent, and all this troubled her. The king kept her away from
+all active warfare, and she grew restive and impatient with her life of
+inaction. The army, which under her influence had been reformed of half
+its vices, now separated from her by the king's orders and fell into
+the most wild excesses. Joan prayed and pleaded to be allowed to go
+again into combat, and finally the king allowed her to do so; but such
+success attended her, and such enthusiasm seized upon her soldiers, that
+the jealous favorites of the king were alarmed. They resolved to prevent
+any further triumphs for her, but to pretend great friendship and
+admiration meanwhile.
+
+The king was influenced to bestow honors and titles upon her family, and
+to present her two brothers, who had fought in the army, with swords of
+silver; all of which Joan received coldly and with indifference, for
+meantime she was suffering such agony as only so brave and valiant a
+soul could suffer in being kept from her duty.
+
+After four months of this galling life, Joan could not fail to see that
+she was the victim of a jealous plot. What suffering to a nature so
+honest and self-sacrificing as hers, to discover that the king for whom
+she had achieved such miracles, was a coward and a hypocrite, unworthy
+of her respect and faith.
+
+But it was surely this knowledge which actuated Joan to take a few brave
+men, and without orders from the king, to go in aid of William de Flavy,
+commander of the fortress of Compičgne, who was in distress. She set
+out, and on the evening of May 24th, headed an attack upon the English.
+She fought nobly and well, but before the close of the combat, she was
+obliged to sound a retreat, and as she was attempting to escape through
+the half-closed city gate, an English archer came up behind and pulled
+her to the ground.
+
+Joan of Arc was a prisoner. The joy of the English was overwhelming--the
+despair of the French correspondingly great; and that despair gave place
+to anger when it was learned that William de Flavy, the man whom she had
+tried to defend, had betrayed her into the hands of the English because
+he was jealous of her. This man's wife slew him when she learned of his
+base act, and was pardoned for the crime when she told its cause. In all
+the cities which Joan had delivered from English control, public prayers
+and processions were ordered; people walked barefooted and bareheaded,
+chanting the _Miserere_, in the streets of Tours. She was imprisoned
+first at Beaurevoir, then in the prison of Arras, and from there she was
+taken to Le Crotoy.
+
+It was customary in those days to exchange prisoners taken in arms, or
+to ransom them; but the English had suffered such loss and defeat
+through Joan that they determined she should die.
+
+Their only way to do this without publicly dishonoring themselves, was
+to accuse her of being a witch, and to compel the "religious" tribunal
+of her own land to become her murderer.
+
+During the first six months of her captivity Joan was treated humanely;
+but the defeat of the English at Compičgne awoke anew the superstitions
+of the English, who believed that, though a prisoner, she exercised her
+spell upon the army; and she was taken to Le Crotoy, and cast into an
+iron cage with chains upon her wrists and ankles. After being starved,
+insulted, and treated with the most hellish brutality in prison for
+nearly ten months, the saviour of France was brought before a tribunal
+of men, all of them her enemies. There were three days of this shameful
+pretence of a trial, and the holy maid, deserted by those whom she had
+crowned with glory and benefits, was trapped into signing a paper which
+she supposed only a form of abjuration, but which proved to be a
+confession of all the crimes with which she was charged; and after she
+was returned to her dungeon this was exhibited to the people to convince
+them of her guilt and turn the tide of public sympathy. The Bishop of
+Beauvais then sentenced her to prison for the rest of her life, on
+condition that she resume woman's apparel; yet one morning she woke to
+find no dress in her prison but the clothes she had worn in battle. No
+sooner had she donned these than the bishop appeared, and accused her of
+disobedience to the orders of the Church, and he fixed her execution for
+the next day.
+
+When the horrible fact was made known to her that she was to be burned
+at the stake in the market-place of Rouen, before a multitude of people,
+she burst into piercing cries of agony. Her physical strength, courage,
+and brain-power were all impaired by the months of abuse she had
+endured, and her very soul was torn by the neglect and indifference
+which the base king manifested toward her. Up to the very last hour she
+had believed deliverance would come, but it came only through death.
+Never since that spectacle of the bleeding Nazarene upon the Cross of
+Calvary, has the world beheld so terrible a picture of crucified
+innocence and purity as that of Joan of Arc, the saviour of France,
+burning in the market-place of Rouen. With her dying breath she cried
+out that the Voices were real, and that she had obeyed God in listening
+to their counsels.
+
+Her last word was the name of--Jesus.
+
+[Signature: Ella Wheeler Wilcox.]
+
+
+
+
+HANS GUTENBERG
+
+By ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
+
+(1400-1468)
+
+
+Hans Gensfleisch Gutenberg von Sorgeloch was a young patrician--born at
+Mainz, a free and wealthy city on the banks of the Rhine, in the year
+1400. His father, Friel Gensfleisch, married Else von Gutenberg, who
+gave her name to her second son John.
+
+It is probable that if Mainz, his country, had not been a free city,
+this young gentleman would have been unable to conceive or to carry into
+execution his invention. Despotism and superstition equally insist upon
+silence; they would have stifled the universal and resistless echo which
+genius was about to create for written words. Printing and liberty were
+both to spring from the same soil and the same climate.
+
+[Illustration: Hans Gutenberg.]
+
+Mainz, Strasburg, Worms, and other municipal towns on the Rhine, then
+governed themselves, under the suzerainty of the empire, as small
+federal republics, like Florence, Genoa, Venice, and the other states of
+Italy. The nobility warlike, the burgesses increasing in importance, and
+the laboring population vacillating between these two classes, who
+alternately oppressed and courted it, from time to time, here as
+everywhere, fought for supremacy. Outbursts of civil war, excited by
+vanity or interest, and in which the victory remained sometimes with the
+patricians, sometimes with the burgesses, and at others with the
+artisans, made them alternately victors, conquered, and proscribed. This
+is the history of all cities, of all republics, and of all empires.
+Mainz, was a miniature of Rome or Athens, only the proscribed party had
+not the sea to cross to escape from their country; they went outside the
+walls, and crossed the Rhine; those of Strasburg going to Mainz, and
+those of Mainz to Strasburg, to wait until their party recovered power,
+or until they were recalled by their fellow-citizens.
+
+In these intestine struggles of Mainz, the young Gutenberg, himself a
+gentleman, and naturally fighting for the cause most holy in a son's
+eyes--that of his father--was defeated by the burgesses, and banished,
+with all the knights of his family, from the territory of Mainz. His
+mother and sisters alone remained there in possession of their property,
+as innocent victims on whom the faults of the nobility should not be
+visited. His first banishment was short, and peace was ratified by the
+return of the refugees. A vain quarrel about precedence in the public
+ceremonies on the occasion of the solemn entry of the Emperor Robert,
+accompanied by the Archbishop Conrad, into Mainz, refreshed the
+animosity of the two classes in 1420, and young Gutenberg, at the age of
+nineteen, under went his second exile.
+
+The free city of Frankfort now offered itself as a mediator between the
+nobles and plebeians of Mainz, and procured their recall on condition of
+the governing magistracy being equally shared between the high classes
+and the burgesses. But Gutenberg, whether his valor in the civil war had
+rendered him more obnoxious and more hostile to the burgesses; whether
+his pride, fostered by the traditions of his race, could not submit
+patiently to an equality with plebeians; or whether, more probably, ten
+years of exile and study at Strasburg had already turned the bent of his
+thoughts to a nobler subject than the vain honors of a free city,
+refused to return to his country. His mother, who watched over her
+son's interest at Mainz, petitioned the republic to allow him to receive
+as a pension a small portion of the revenues of his confiscated
+possessions. The republic replied that the young patrician's refusal to
+return to his country was a declaration of war, and that the republic
+did not pay its enemies. Gutenberg, persisting in his voluntary exile
+and in his disdain, lived on the secret remittances of his mother.
+
+But at Strasburg he already enjoyed so great a popularity for his
+disposition and his acquirements, that one day, when the chief
+magistrate of Mainz was passing the territory of Strasburg, he was
+arrested by the friends of Gutenberg, shut up in a castle, and did not
+recover his liberty until the city of Mainz had signed a treaty which
+restored the exile his patrimony. Thus this youth, the great tribune of
+the human mind, whose invention was destined to destroy forever the
+prejudices of race, and to restore, in after-times, liberty and civil
+equality to all the plebeians of the world, began his life, as yet
+unrecognized, at the head of the patrician party of his country, in
+these struggles between the privileged castes and the people. Fortune
+seemed to delight in the contrast. But Gutenberg's wisdom, increasing
+with his age, was afterward destined to reunite the people and nobility,
+who looked on each other as enemies.
+
+The restoration of his goods allowed young Gutenberg to satisfy his
+literary, religious, and artistic tastes, by travelling from town to
+town to study monuments, and visit men of all conditions celebrated for
+their science, their art, or even their trade. The artisans of Germany
+then held nearly the same rank as the artists. It was at the time when
+the trades, scarcely known, were confused with the arts, and when the
+most humble professions produced their earliest masterpieces, which, on
+account of their novelty, were looked upon as prodigies. Gutenberg
+travelled alone, on foot, carrying a knapsack containing books and
+clothes, like a mere student visiting the schools, or a journeyman
+looking for a master. He thus went through the Rhenish provinces, Italy,
+Switzerland, Germany, and lastly, Holland, not without an object, like a
+man who lets his imagination wander at the caprice of his footsteps, but
+carrying everywhere with him a fixed idea, an unchanging will led by a
+presentiment. This guiding star was the thought of spreading the word of
+God and the Bible among a vaster number of souls.
+
+Thus it was religion which, in this young wandering apostle, was seeking
+the soil wherein to sow a single seed, of which the fruit hereafter was
+to be a thousand various grains. It is the glory of printing that it was
+given to the world by religion, not by industry. Religious enthusiasm
+was alone worthy to give birth to the instrument of truth.
+
+What mechanical processes Gutenberg may until then have revolved in his
+mind, remains unknown. Whatever they were, chance effaced them all, and
+brought him at once upon his great discovery. One day, at Haarlem, in
+Holland, the verger of the cathedral, named Lawrence Koster, with whom
+he had established friendly relations, showed him in the sacristy a
+Latin grammar, curiously wrought in engraved letters on a wooden board,
+for the instruction of the seminarists. Chance, that gratuitous teacher,
+had produced this approach to printing.
+
+The poor and youthful sacristan of Haarlem was in love. He used to walk
+on holydays to the spring outside the town, and sit under the willows by
+the canals, to indulge in his day-dreams. His heart full of the image of
+his bride, he used to amuse himself, in true lover's fashion, by
+engraving with his knife the initials of his mistress and himself,
+interlaced, as an emblem of the union of their hearts and of their
+interwoven destinies. But, instead of cutting these ciphers on the bark,
+and leaving them to grow with the tree, like the mysterious ciphers so
+often seen on the trees in the forests and by the brooks, he engraved
+them on little blocks of willow stripped of their bark, and still
+reeking with the moisture of their sap; and he used to carry them, as a
+remembrance of his dreams and a pledge of affection, to his lady-love.
+
+One day, having thus cut some letters on the green wood, probably with
+more care and perfection than usual, he wrapped up his little work in a
+piece of parchment, and brought it with him to Haarlem. On opening it
+next day to look at his letters, he was astonished to see the cipher
+perfectly reproduced in brown on the parchment by the relieved portion
+of the letters, the sap having oozed out during the night and imprinted
+its image on the envelope. This was a discovery. He engraved other
+letters on a large platter, replaced the sap by a black liquid, and thus
+obtained the first proof ever printed. But it would only print a single
+page. The movable variety and endless combinations of characters
+infinitely multiplied, to meet the vast requirements of literature, were
+wanting. The invention of the poor sacristan would have covered the
+surface of the earth with plates engraved or sculptured in relief, but
+would not have been a substitute for a single case of movable type.
+Nevertheless, the principle of the art was developed in the sacristy of
+Haarlem, and we might hesitate whether to attribute the honor of it to
+Koster or Gutenberg, if its invention had not been with one the mere
+accidental discovery of love and chance, and, in the other, the
+well-earned victory of patience and genius.
+
+At the sight of this coarse plank, the lightning from heaven flashed
+before the eyes of Gutenberg. He looked at the plank, and, in his
+imagination, analyzed it, decomposed it, put it together again, changed
+it, divided it, readjusted it, reversed it, smeared it with ink, placed
+the parchment on it, and pressed it with a screw. The sacristan,
+wondering at his long silence, was unwittingly present at this
+development of an idea over which his visitor had brooded in vain for
+the last ten years. When Gutenberg retired, he carried a new art with
+him.
+
+On the morrow, like a man who possesses a treasure, and knows neither
+rest nor sleep until he has hidden it safely, Gutenberg left Haarlem,
+hastened up the Rhine until he reached Strasburg, shut himself up in his
+work-room, fashioned his own tools, tried, broke, planned, rejected,
+returned to his plans, and again rejected them, only to return to them
+again; and ended by secretly executing a fortunate proof upon parchment
+with movable wooden types, bored through the side with a small hole,
+strung together and kept close by a thread, like square beads on a
+chaplet, each with a letter of the alphabet cut in relief on one
+side--the first printer's alphabet, coarse, but wonderful--the first
+company of twenty-four letters, which multiplied like the herds of the
+patriarchs, until at last they covered the whole earth with written
+characters, in which a new and immaterial element--human thought--became
+incarnate.
+
+Gutenberg, perceiving at the first glance the immense social and
+industrial bearing of his invention, felt that his weak hand, short
+life, and moderate property would be spent in vain on such a work. He
+experienced two opposite wants--the necessity of associating with
+himself persons to assist in meeting the expenses and in executing the
+mechanical labor, and the necessity of concealing from his assistants
+the secret and real object of their labors, for fear lest his invention
+might be divulged and pirated, and the glory and merit of his discovery
+taken from him. He cast his eyes on the nobility and rich gentry of his
+acquaintance at Strasburg and Mainz. He probably met with rebuffs from
+all quarters, on account of the prejudice then prevailing that
+handicrafts were derogatory to a gentleman. He was, therefore, obliged
+to sink his rank, become a workman, associate with artisans, and mix
+with the people, in order to raise the people to the high level of
+morality and intelligence.
+
+Under the pretence of working together at _a new and marvellous craft_,
+such as jewelry, clock-making, and grinding and setting precious stones,
+he entered into a deed of partnership with two wealthy inhabitants of
+Strasburg, Andrew Dritzchen and Hans Riffe, bailiff of Lichtenau; and
+afterward with Faust, a goldsmith and banker of Mainz, whose name,
+confounded with that of Faustus, the wondrous sorcerer of German fable,
+the master of mystery, and the friend of the Evil One, caused the
+invention of printing to be attributed to magic; and, lastly, with
+Hulmann, whose brother had just established the first paper-mill at
+Strasburg.
+
+In order the more effectually to conceal from his partners the real
+object of his pursuit, Gutenberg joined them in several artistic and
+secondary enterprises. Continuing in secret his mechanical researches on
+printing, he employed himself publicly in these other occupations. He
+taught Dritzchen the art of cutting precious stones. He himself polished
+Venetian glass for mirrors, or cut pieces of it into facets, setting
+them in copper frames ornamented with wooden figurines representing
+personages from history or fable, from the Bible or the Testament. These
+articles, which found sale at the fair of Aix-la-Chapelle, kept up the
+funds of the association, and assisted Gutenberg in the secret expenses
+reserved for accomplishing and perfecting his design.
+
+To conceal it the better also from the restless curiosity of the public,
+who began to circulate a suspicion of witchcraft against him, Gutenberg
+left the town, and established his workshop in the ruins of an old
+deserted monastery, called the Convent of St. Arbogast. The solitude of
+the place, only inhabited by the houseless poor of the suburbs, covered
+his first attempts.
+
+In a corner of one of the vast cloisters of the monastery, occupied by
+his partners for their less secret labors, Gutenberg had reserved for
+himself a cell, always closed with lock and bolt, and to which none but
+himself ever had access. He was supposed to go there to draw the
+designs, arabesques, and figurines for his jewelry and the frames of his
+glasses; but he passed his days and sleepless nights there, wearing
+himself out in the pursuit of his invention. There it was that he
+engraved his movable types in wood, and projected casting them in metal,
+and studied hard to find the means of inclosing them in _forms_, whether
+of wood or of iron, to make the types into words, phrases, and lines,
+and to leave spaces on the paper. There it was that he invented colored
+mediums, oleaginous and yet drying, to reproduce these characters,
+brushes and dabbers to spread the ink on the letters, boards to hold
+them, and screws and weights to compress them. Months and years were
+spent, as well as his own fortune and the funds of the firm, in these
+persevering experiments, with alternate success and disappointment.
+
+At length, having made a model of a press, which seemed to him to
+combine all the requirements of printing, according to his ideas at that
+time, he concealed it under his cloak, and walking to the town, went to
+a skilful turner in wood and metal, named Conrad Saspach, who lived in
+the Mercer's Lane, asking him to make the machine of full size. He
+requested the workman to keep it secret, merely telling him that it was
+a machine by the help of which he proposed to produce some masterpieces
+of art and mechanism, of which the marvels should be known in due time.
+
+The turner, taking the model in his hands, and turning it backward and
+forward with the smile of contempt that a skilful artist usually puts on
+when looking at a rough specimen, said, somewhat scornfully, "But it is
+just simply a press that you are asking me for, Master Hans!"
+
+"Yes," replied Gutenberg, with a grave and enthusiastic tone, "it is a
+press, certainly, but a press from which shall soon flow in
+inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvellous liquor that
+has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of man! Through it God will spread
+his Word. A spring of pure truth shall flow from it; like a new star, it
+shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore
+unknown to shine among men." He retired. The turner, who understood not
+these words, made the machine, and delivered it at the monastery of
+Arbogast.
+
+This was the first printing-press.
+
+As soon as he was in possession of his press, Gutenberg began printing.
+Little is known of the first works which he sent out; but the strongly
+religious disposition of the inventor leaves no doubt concerning the
+nature of the labors to which he devoted the first-fruits of his art.
+They were, to a certainty, religious books. The art invented for the
+sake of God, and by his inspiration, began with his worship. His later
+publications at Mainz are a proof of it; the divine songs of the
+Psalmist, and the celebrated Latin Bible, were the first works issued at
+Mainz from the machine invented by Gutenberg, and applied to the use of
+the most sacred powers of man, lyrical praise of his Maker, and
+lamentation for the woes of earth. Under the hands of this pious and
+unfortunate man, praise and prayer were the first voices of the press.
+The press ought ever to be proud of it.
+
+[Illustration: Gutenberg's Invention.]
+
+But great tribulation awaited him after his triumph. We have seen that
+the necessity of procuring funds obliged him to take partners. The
+necessity that subsequently arose of getting assistance for the
+multifarious labor of a great printing establishment obliged him to
+confide his occupation, and even the secret of his process, to his
+partners and to a number of workmen. His partners, tired of supplying
+funds to an enterprise which, for want of perfection, was not then
+remunerative, refused to persevere in the ungrateful occupation.
+Gutenberg begged them not to abandon him at the very moment that fortune
+and glory were within his grasp. They consented to make fresh advances,
+but only on condition of sharing completely his secret, his profits, his
+property, and his fame.
+
+He sold his fame to procure success to his work. The name of Gutenberg
+disappeared. The firm absorbed the inventor, who soon became a mere
+workman in his own workshop. It was a parallel to the case of
+Christopher Columbus brought back in irons on board his own vessel, by a
+crew to whom he had opened a new world.
+
+This was not all. The heirs of one of the partners brought an action
+against him to contest his invention, his property, and his right of
+carrying on the work. They compelled him to appear before the judges at
+Strasburg, to make him submit to some more complete and more legal
+spoliation than the voluntary abandonment he had himself acknowledged.
+His perplexity before the court was extreme. To justify himself, it was
+necessary to enter into all the technical details of his art, which he
+did not as yet wish to make completely public, reserving to himself, at
+least, the secret of his hopes. The judges, being inquisitive, pressed
+him with insidious questions, the answers to which would have exposed
+the secret of all his processes. He evaded them, preferring an adverse
+decision to the publication of his art. To succeed in penetrating the
+secret of the discovery which filled people's imaginations, the judges
+summoned his most confidential workmen, and required them to give
+evidence of what they knew. These men, simple-minded, yet faithful and
+strongly attached to Gutenberg, refused to reveal anything. Their
+master's secret was safer in their hearts than in the breasts of his
+more grasping associates. None of the great mysteries of the art
+transpired. Gutenberg, ruined, condemned, perhaps banished, retired
+alone and in poverty to Mainz, his native place, to recommence his
+labors and begin his life and fame anew.
+
+He was still young, and the report of his lawsuit at Strasburg had made
+his fame known all over Germany, but he returned a workman to a city
+which he had quitted as a knight. Humiliation, poverty, and glory
+contended with each other in his fate and in the behavior of his
+fellow-citizens. Love alone recognized him for what he had been, and for
+what he was one day to become.
+
+On his return to Mainz, having been relieved from degradation and ruin
+by the woman he loved, as Mohammed was by his first wife, Gutenberg gave
+himself entirely up to his art, entered into partnership with Faust and
+Schoeffer, Faust's son-in-law; established offices at Mainz, and
+published, still under the name of the firm, Bibles and Psalters, of
+remarkable perfection of type.
+
+Schoeffer had for a long time carried on the business of a scrivener,
+and a trade in manuscripts in Paris. His travels, and his intimacy with
+the artists of that town, had made him acquainted with mechanical
+processes for working in metals, which he adapted, on his return to
+Mainz, to the art of printing. These new means enabled him to cast
+movable leaden types in a copper matrix, with greater precision than
+before, and thus to give great neatness to the letters. It was by this
+new process that the Psalter, the first book bearing a date, was printed
+in 1457. Soon afterward the Mainz Bible, recognized as a masterpiece of
+art, was produced under the direction of Gutenberg, from types founded
+by Peter Schoeffer's process.
+
+The tendency of the new art, which began by cheapening sacred books
+under the auspices of the Church alone, escaped, during the first years
+of its existence, the notice of the Roman court, which saw an auxiliary
+in what it afterward considered as an opponent.
+
+"Among the number of blessings which we ought to praise God for having
+vouchsafed during your pontificate," says a dedication in the time of
+Paul II., "is this invention, which enables the poorest to procure
+libraries at a low price. Is it not a great glory to your Holiness, that
+volumes which used to cost _one hundred pieces of gold_ are now to be
+bought for four, or even less, and that the fruits of genius, heretofore
+the prey of the worms and buried in dust, begin under your reign to
+arise from the dead, and to multiply profusely over all the earth?"
+
+Meanwhile, Faust the banker, and Schoeffer the workman, Gutenberg's new
+partners, were not long in giving way, like his former partner, one
+Mentel or Metelin at Strasburg, to the temptation of absorbing by
+degrees Gutenberg's glory, the most tempting of all possessions, because
+of its immortality. Like many others, they hoped to deceive posterity,
+if not their own contemporaries. After recognizing, in the Epistle
+Dedicatory prefixed to the German translation of Livy, printed by Hans
+Schoeffer, and addressed to the Emperor Maximilian, "that the art of
+printing was invented at Mainz by that sublime mechanician Hans von
+Gutenberg," they forgot this confession, and seven years later assumed
+to themselves all the merit and honor of the discovery.
+
+A short time afterward, the Emperor Maximilian, erecting the printers
+and compositors into a species of intellectual priesthood, relieved them
+by the nobility of their occupation from all degradation of rank. He
+ennobled the art and the artists together; he authorized them to wear
+robes embroidered with gold and silver, which nobles only had a right to
+wear, and gave them for armorial bearings an eagle with his wings spread
+over a globe, a symbol of the flight of written thoughts, and of its
+conquest of the world.
+
+But Gutenberg was no longer upon earth to enjoy the possession of that
+intellectual world, religious and political, of which he had only had a
+glimpse, like Moses, in the vision of his dream in the monastery of St.
+Arbogast. Despoiled by his partners of his property and of his fame;
+expelled again, and for the last time, from his country by poverty, his
+only consolation being that he was followed by his wife, who remained
+faithful through all his troubles; deprived by death of all his
+children; advanced in years, without bread, and soon afterward, by his
+wife's decease, a widower, he was received by the Elector of Nassau,
+the generous Adolphus. The elector created him his counsellor of state
+and chamberlain, in order to enjoy in an honorable familiarity the
+conversation of this surpassing genius, who was afterward to hold
+converse with all times and all places. This shelter afforded to
+Gutenberg sheds everlasting lustre on Nassau and its prince. We meet in
+history with instances where a generous hospitality has given happiness
+and immortal fame to the most insignificant potentates and to the
+smallest of states.
+
+Gutenberg continued printing with his own hands, at Nassau, under the
+eyes of his Męcenas, the elector, during several years of peace and
+quiet. He died at the age of sixty-eight, leaving his sister no
+inheritance, but bequeathing to the world the empire of the human mind,
+discovered and achieved by a workman.
+
+"I bequeath," he says in his will, "to my sister all the books which I
+printed at the monastery of St. Arbogast." The poor inventor's only
+legacy to his surviving relative was the common property of almost all
+inventors like himself--wasted youth, a persecuted life, a name
+aspersed, toil, watchings, and the oblivion of his contemporaries.
+
+
+
+
+WILLIAM CAXTON
+
+(1412-1491)
+
+[Illustration: William Caxton.]
+
+
+William Caxton, to whom England owes the introduction of printing, was
+born, according to his own statement, in the Weald of Kent. Of the date
+of his birth nothing is known with certainty, though Oldys places it in
+1412. Lewis and Oldys suppose that between his fifteenth and eighteenth
+years he was put apprentice to one Robert Large, a mercer or merchant of
+considerable eminence, who was afterward, successively, sheriff and lord
+mayor of London, and who upon his death, in 1441, remembered Caxton in
+his will by a legacy of 20 marks. Caxton at this time had become a
+freeman of the Company of Mercers. His knowledge of business, however,
+induced him, either upon his own account or as agent of some merchant,
+to travel to the Low Countries for a short time. In 1464 we find him
+joined in a commission with one Robert Whitehill, to continue and
+confirm a treaty of trade and commerce between Edward IV. and Philip,
+Duke of Burgundy; or if they find it necessary, to make a new one. They
+are styled in it ambassadors and special deputies. This commission at
+least affords a proof that Caxton had acquired a reputation for
+knowledge of business. Seven years afterward Caxton describes himself as
+leading a life of ease, when, "having no great charge or occupation," he
+set about finishing the translation of Raoul le Fevre's "Recueil des
+Histoires de Troye," which he had commenced two years before, in 1469.
+The original was the first book he printed, and this translation the
+third. Of Caxton's pursuits and travels abroad, we know little more than
+that in his peregrinations he confined himself, for the most part, to
+the countries of Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, and finally
+entered into the service, or at least the household, of Margaret,
+Duchess of Burgundy, who encouraged him to finish his translation of Le
+Fevre's "History of Troy," assisted him with her criticisms upon his
+English, and amply rewarded him upon the completion of his labor. From
+the prologues and epilogues of this work we discover that he was now
+somewhat advanced in years, and that he had learnt to exercise the art
+of printing, but by what step he had acquired this knowledge cannot be
+discovered; his types only show that he acquired it in the Low
+Countries. He does not appear to have seen any of the beautiful
+productions of the Roman, Venetian, and Parisian presses before he had
+caused his own font of letters to be cut.
+
+The original of Raoul's "History," the "Oration of John Russell on
+Charles, Duke of Burgundy, being created a Knight of the Garter," and
+the "Translation" of Raoul, were, as far as we know, Caxton's first
+three works; the last finished in 1471. A "Stanza," by Wynkyn de Worde,
+notices an edition of "Bartholomoeus, de Proprietatibus Rerum," as
+printed by Caxton at Cologne (about 1470), but the actual existence of
+this edition is unknown. Nor has more certain information yet been
+obtained of the exact period of Caxton's return to his native country.
+The usual supposition has been that he brought the art of printing into
+England in 1474, and this date is indicated by the figures which are
+united in the centre of his device as a printer. In 1477, however, he
+had undoubtedly quitted the Low Countries and taken up his residence in
+the vicinity of Westminster Abbey, where and in which year he printed
+his "Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers." Stowe says he first
+exercised his business in an old chapel near the entrance of the abbey;
+but a very curious placard, a copy of which, in Caxton's largest type,
+is now at Oxford in the late Mr. Douce's library, shows that he printed
+in the Almonry. It is as follows: "If it plese any man spirituel or
+temporel to bye ony Pyes of two and thre comemoracions of Salisburi vse
+emprynted, after the forme of this present lettre whiche ben wel and
+truly correct, late hym come to Westmonester in to the Almonesrye at the
+reed pole and he shal have them good chepe. Supplico stet cedula."
+According to Bagford, Caxton's office was afterward removed to King
+Street.
+
+[Illustration: The First Sheet from Caxton's Press.]
+
+From the evidence of Wynkyn de Worde, in the colophon of his edition of
+"Vitę Patrum," 1495, it appears that these "Lives of the Fathers" were
+"translated out of French into English by William Caxton, of
+Westminster, lately dead," and that he finished the work "at the last
+day of his life." His death, however, seems fixed, by two or three
+entries in the parish accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, to the
+year 1491 or 1492, in which we read, "Item: atte bureyng of William
+Caxton for iiij, torches vj^s viij^d. Item: for the belle at same
+Bureyng vj^d." Wynkyn de Worde no doubt referred to this time.
+
+Caxton, Mr. Warton observes, by translating, or procuring to be
+translated, a great number of books from the French, greatly contributed
+to promote the state of literature in England. In regard to his types,
+Mr. Dibdin says he appears to have made use of five distinct sets, or
+fonts, of letters, which, in his account of Caxton's works, he has
+engraved plates in fac-simile. Edward Rowe Mores, in his "Dissertation
+upon English Typographical Founders and Foundries," says Caxton's letter
+was originally of the sort called Secretary, and of this he had two
+fonts; afterward he came nearer to the English face, and had three fonts
+of Great Primer, a rude one which he used anno 1474, another something
+better, and a third cut about 1482; one of Double Pica, good, which
+first appears 1490; and one of Long Primer, at least nearly agreeing
+with the bodies which have since been called by those names. All of
+Caxton's works were printed in what are called black letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS[9]
+
+         [Footnote 9: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By A. R. SPOFFORD, LL.D.
+
+(1436-1506)
+
+[Illustration: Christopher Columbus.]
+
+
+The discovery and the discoverer of America have furnished an almost
+inexhaustible theme for the critic, the biographer, and the historian.
+In the year 1892 there was celebrated an event which has come by common
+consent to be regarded as a world-famous epoch, worthy to be held in
+everlasting remembrance. We commemorated the man whose discovery almost
+doubled the extent of the habitable globe.
+
+The life, the voyages, the brilliant triumphs, and the mournful end of
+Columbus are already familiar to most readers. To recount them at length
+would be here a needless repetition. Let us rather attempt to glance at
+some of the historic disputes involving the character and acts of the
+great discoverer, to sketch briefly the sources of information about
+him, and to characterize some of the more important writings upon the
+subject.
+
+There is no lack of biographical material concerning the discoverer of
+America. He has left memorials of his personality and life-history more
+abundant than most of the men who have influenced their age. There are
+more than sixty authentic letters of Columbus in existence. There are
+long narratives of his expeditions and discoveries, by persons who knew
+him more or less intimately. There is an extended biography of him
+written by his own son, Ferdinand Columbus, or from materials furnished
+by him. There are numerous documents and state papers authenticating his
+acts, his privileges, and his dignities. And yet, with all the wealth of
+material, so copious upon his character and his career, it would seem,
+from recent developments, that the true discoverer of America is yet to
+be discovered.
+
+Among the many lives of Columbus that have been written, there exist
+some twenty-five in the English language. Of these two or three only
+have any historical or critical value. The mass of biographies, both
+English and American, are mere echoes or abridgments, in other forms of
+language, of the great work of Washington Irving, first published in
+1828. This book was written in Spain, and based upon collections of
+documents (manuscript and printed) not previously used by biographers.
+Hence its value as the most copious and systematic life of Columbus
+which had appeared in any language. The finished and graceful style
+which characterizes all the works of its accomplished author gave it a
+high place in literature, which it has maintained for more than half a
+century, being constantly reprinted.
+
+Next in point of time to Irving, though treating Columbus with less
+fulness of detail, came the polished historian Prescott, whose "History
+of Ferdinand and Isabella" was published in 1837. This ardent and
+laborious scholar was, like Irving, constitutionally inclined to the
+optimistic view of his leading characters. To magnify the virtues and to
+minimize the faults of their heroes has always been the besetting sin of
+biographers. The pomp and picturesque circumstance of the Spanish court,
+the splendid administrative abilities of Ferdinand, the beauty,
+amiability, and devoted piety of Isabella, are depicted in glowing
+colors, but the crimes and cruelties which they sanctioned, while
+condemned upon one page, are softly extenuated upon others. Columbus
+appears as a romantic figure in history, the glory of whose successful
+discovery atones for his many failings.
+
+Of the original sources of information about Columbus the most important
+are:
+
+1. The great collection of original documents printed in Spanish by
+Navarrete, in 1825-37, in five volumes, and partly reprinted in a French
+translation in 1828. These contain the precious letters of Columbus,
+many of which have been translated and recently published in English.
+
+2. The "Historia general de las Indias," of Oviedo, first published in
+1535.
+
+3. The "Historia de las Indias," of the Spanish Bishop Las Casas,
+composed in 1527 to 1561, which remained in manuscript until 1875, when
+it was printed from the original Spanish.
+
+4. The "Letters and the Decades of Peter Martyr," written in part
+contemporaneously with the discovery of America, and printed in Latin in
+1530, and in English in 1555.
+
+5. The "Historia de las Reyes Catolicos," of Andres Bernaldez.
+
+6. The "Life of the Discoverer," by Ferdinand Columbus, first published
+in 1571 at Venice, in Italian.
+
+The last five writers had personal knowledge or intercourse with
+Columbus, while Las Casas, Oviedo, and Ferdinand had the advantage of
+residence in America, and intimate knowledge of the aborigines, and of
+the men and events of the period.
+
+Almost every item involved in the checkered and eventful life of
+Columbus has afforded a fruitful theme for controversy. His birth, even,
+is disputed, under stress of evidence, as falling anywhere between 1435
+and 1447--a discrepancy of twelve years. His birthplace is claimed by
+more towns than that of Homer, although his own statement, that he was a
+native of Genoa, has met general concurrence. His knowledge of
+geography, astronomy, and navigation is asserted and denied with various
+degrees of pertinacity. His treatment by the sovereigns of Portugal,
+Castile, and Aragon is so far in question that irreconcilable
+differences of opinion exist. How much Columbus really owed to the aid
+of the crown, and how much to private enterprise, in fitting out his
+expeditions of discovery, cannot be definitely ascertained. How far he
+was hindered by the bigotry, or helped by the enlightenment of powerful
+ecclesiastics, as at the council of Salamanca, is a theme of perennial
+controversy.
+
+The island where he first landed is so far from being identified, that
+many books have been written to prove the claims of this, that, or the
+other gem of the sea to be the true land-fall of Columbus. His treatment
+of the natives has been made the subject of unsparing denunciation and
+of undiscriminating eulogy. His conduct toward his own, often mutinous,
+crews is alternately lauded as humane and generous, or denounced as
+arrogant and cruel, according to the sympathies or the point of view of
+the critic. His imprisonment and attempted disgrace have been made the
+theme of indignant comment and of extenuating apology. His moral
+character and marital relations are subjects of irreconcilable
+differences of judgment. His deep religious bias, so manifest in nearly
+all his writings, has been praised as a mark of exalted merit by some
+writers, and stigmatized by others as cant and superstition. The last
+resting-place of his bones, even, is in doubt, which it required an
+elaborate investigation by the Royal Academy of History of Madrid to
+solve in favor of Havana, as against the cathedral of Santo Domingo;
+though its report is still controverted, and M. A. Pinart has proved to
+the satisfaction of many that a misprision took place and that the true
+remains of Columbus still rest at Santo Domingo. The movement to
+canonize the great discoverer has been championed with more zeal than
+discretion by some over-ardent churchmen, while the too-evident human
+frailties of the proposed candidate for the honors of sainthood have
+inspired an abundant caution in the councils of the Vatican.
+
+On a subject fraught with so much inherent difficulty, contradictory
+evidence, and conflict of opinion, he is on the safest ground who
+candidly holds his judgment in reserve. In the light of the
+keenly-sifted evidence which modern critical study has brought to bear,
+the laudatory judgments of Irving and Prescott, rendered sixty years
+ago, cannot stand wholly approved.
+
+Neither can a discerning reader accept the fulsome laudations of his
+principal French biographer, Roselly de Lorgues, whose rhetorical
+panegyrics and pious eulogies place its author in the front rank of the
+canonizers.
+
+On the other hand, those who have taken the unfavorable view of
+Columbus, have done their utmost to divest him of most of the honors
+which the general voice of history has assigned him as America's
+greatest discoverer. The established fact that parts of North America
+were seen centuries before, though no permanent settlement nor
+continuity of intercourse ensued, has been used to discredit him, though
+he was undeniably the pioneer who set out with a plan to discover, and
+did discover by design, what others found only by accident. His
+geographical ideas were derived, they say, from Behaim and Toscanelli;
+his nautical skill from Pinzon; his certainty of finding new lands from
+Alonzo Sanchez; his courage and daring from some of his fellow-voyagers.
+
+We are pointed to his double reckoning on his first voyage, by which he
+deceived his sailors as to their true distance from Spain, as evidence
+of a false nature. He is charged with ambition, cupidity, and arrogance,
+in demanding titles, dignities, and money as fruits of his discoveries.
+He was, we are told, a fanatic, a visionary, a tyrant, a buccaneer, a
+liar, and a slave-trader. He was proud, cruel, and vindictive.
+
+What manner of man, then, was this Columbus, with whose name the trump
+of fame has been busy so long? As to his person, we have no verified
+portrait, while the likenesses (of all periods) claiming to represent
+his features, present irreconcilable differences. But here is the
+description of him given by Herrera: "Columbus was tall of stature,
+long-visaged, of a majestic aspect, his nose hooked, his eyes gray, of a
+clear complexion, somewhat ruddy. He was witty and pleasant, well-spoken
+and eloquent, moderately grave, affable to strangers, to his own family
+mild. His conversation was discreet, which gained him the affection of
+those he had to deal with, and his presence attracted respect, having an
+air of authority and grandeur. He was a man of undaunted courage and
+high thoughts, patient, unmoved in the many troubles and adversities
+that attended him, ever relying on the Divine Providence." Gomara
+describes him as "a man of good height, strong-limbed, with a long
+countenance, fresh and rosy in aspect, somewhat given to anger, hardy in
+exposure to fatigues."
+
+Benzoni says that Columbus was "a man of exalted intellect, of a
+pleasant and ingenuous countenance."
+
+Bernaldez, the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella, who knew him
+intimately in his later years, says "he was a man of very lofty genius,
+and of marvellously honored memory."
+
+[Illustration: Columbus ridiculed at the Council of Salamanca.]
+
+With these personal characteristics, Columbus united a restless spirit,
+a firm will, and a singularly enthusiastic temperament. The latter
+faculty gave him a consuming zeal for his undertakings, which was as
+rare as it proved ultimately successful in compassing his great
+discovery. He was discouraged by no rebuffs, would take no denials. His
+motto seemed to be never to despair, and never to let go. His spiritual
+nature was as remarkable as his intellectual. Here, his imagination was
+the predominant faculty. He firmly believed himself divinely
+commissioned to find out the Indies, and to bring their inhabitants into
+the fold of the true faith. He had early vowed to devote the profits of
+his enterprise, if successful, to rescue the tomb of Christ from the
+infidels. Himself a devout son of the Church, he fervently believed that
+he had miraculous aid on many perilous occasions of his life. Humble
+before God, he was sufficiently proud and independent before men. He
+insisted upon conditions with the haughty sovereigns of Spain which they
+deemed exacting, but the high views and tenacity of Columbus carried the
+day, and his own terms were granted at last. He never forgot, in all his
+subsequent trials and humiliations, that he was a Spanish admiral, and
+Viceroy of the Indies.
+
+Such was the character of Columbus. Let us now look at his environment,
+which in all men contributes so much to make or modify character. Born
+in Genoa, the headquarters in that day of navigation, Columbus early
+imbibed a passion for maritime affairs. His youthful days and nights
+were given to the study of astronomy and of navigation. He was a trained
+sailor and map-maker from his boyhood. He brooded over the problems
+involved in the spherical form of the earth. He caught up all the hints
+and allusions in classical and medięval writers that came in his way, of
+other lands than those already known. The Atlantis of Plato, and the
+clear prediction in Seneca of another world in the west, fired his
+imagination. He himself tells us that he voyaged to the Ultima Thule of
+his day, which was Iceland, besides various expeditions in the Atlantic
+and Mediterranean.
+
+The early fancies of isles in the western sea loomed up before his eyes,
+and repeated themselves in his dreams. These visions were heightened by
+that vague sense of wonder that is linked with the unknown. No wonder,
+then, that Columbus, with a bent almost preternatural toward the
+undiscovered regions of the globe, should dream of new lands, new men,
+new scenery, and new wealth. But to his vivid imagination dreams became
+realities, until he believed with all the force of his ardent nature
+that he was divinely commissioned to be a discoverer. Hitherto the
+Portuguese voyages familiar to Columbus had only skirted the coast of
+Africa, and discovered the Cape Verde Islands and the Azores. It was not
+till 1486, years after the idea of his western voyage took firm root in
+his mind, that the Cape of Good Hope was at last doubled by Vasco da
+Gama. All voyages prior to his had been only tentative and brief, slowly
+creeping from headland to headland, or else finding new islands by being
+drifted out of courses long familiar to mariners.
+
+It was the supreme merit of Columbus that he was the first to cut loose
+from one continent to find another, and to steer boldly across an
+unknown sea, in search of an unknown world. We need not belittle (still
+less need we deny) the finding of Greenland and of other parts of North
+America by the Norsemen in the ninth and tenth centuries. We may hail
+Eric the Red and his stout son, Leif Ericson, as pioneers in what may be
+termed coasting voyages of discovery. But the story of America gains as
+little from these shadowy and abortive voyages as civilization has
+gained from their fruitless results.
+
+On the first voyage of Columbus, he was more fortunate in the uncertain
+elements which always affect sea voyages so overpoweringly than in some
+of his later ones. His own vessel, with single deck, was about ninety
+feet long, by a breadth of twenty feet. The Pinta, a faster sailer, and
+the Nina (or "baby") were smaller caravels, and without decks, commanded
+respectively by the brothers Martin and Vicente Pinzon. The three
+vessels carried ninety persons, sailing September 6, 1492, running first
+south to the Canaries, and then stretching straight westward on the
+twenty-eighth parallel for what the admiral believed to be the coast of
+Japan. Delightful weather favored the voyagers, but when, on the tenth
+day out from Spain, the caravels struck into that wonderful stretch of
+seaweed and grass, known as the Sargasso Sea, fear lest they should run
+aground or soon be unable to sail in either direction took possession of
+the crews. In five days the caravels ran into smooth water again. But as
+their distance from Spain grew greater, the spirit of protest and mutiny
+grew louder. Columbus needed all of his invincible constancy and
+firmness of purpose to quell and to animate his despairing crews. At
+last, October 21, 1492--day ever memorable in the annals of this
+world--the unknown land rose from the bosom of the water. It was named
+by its pious discoverer San Salvador--Holy Saviour. The charm of climate
+and of landscape enchanted all, and fear and despondency gave way to
+delight and joy and the most extravagant anticipations. The subsequent
+history of this first voyage, the wreck of the admiral's flag-ship Santa
+Maria, the base desertion of Pinzon, and his baffled attempt to
+forestall Columbus in the credit of the discovery, the triumphal honors
+paid to the successful admiral, and the pope's bull conferring upon
+Spain all lands west of a meridian one hundred leagues from the
+Azores--all this is familiar to most readers. The actual discoveries of
+the first voyage included Cuba and Hispaniola (or Haiti), with some
+little islands of the Bahama group, of small importance.
+
+On his second voyage Columbus found no difficulty in collecting
+seventeen ships and 1,500 adventurers, so popular had the new way to the
+Indies become when the way was once found. He set sail six months after
+his return to Spain, or on September 15, 1493. He returned in June,
+1496, after three years of explorations, interrupted by a long illness,
+and having discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico, Santa Cruz, Antigua,
+Montserrat, Dominica, and Guadaloupe.
+
+The third voyage began May 30, 1498, and embraced six vessels and 200
+men. Columbus struck southwestward from the Cape Verde Islands and ran
+nearly to the equator, into a region of torrid heat, discovering
+Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, and the Gulf of Paria, and making his first
+landing on the continent, at the Pearl Coast, near the mouth of the
+Orinoco, in what is now Venezuela. This voyage witnessed many
+disasters--the rebellion of Roldan, the severe prostration of the
+admiral by fever, and his seizure and imprisonment in chains by the
+infamous Bobadilla.
+
+The fourth and last voyage of Columbus, with four small caravels and 150
+men, was begun May 11, 1502. On this voyage he discovered Martinique and
+the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Veragua, on the mainland,
+returning to Spain, after untold disasters and miseries, on November 7,
+1504. Then followed the weary struggle of the infirm old voyager to
+secure justice and a part of his hard-earned benefits from the crown.
+But Isabella had died, and Ferdinand, under the influence of the
+hard-hearted and cruel bigot, Fonseca, postponed all the claims of
+Columbus. He who had given a world died in poverty, a suppliant for the
+means of an honorable existence.
+
+It is easy enough for the writers of the nineteenth century to criticise
+the actors of the fifteenth; and learned scholars, sitting in luxurious
+easy-chairs in great libraries, can pass swift and severe judgment upon
+the acts and motives of Columbus. But let them go back four hundred
+years, and divest themselves of the bias which the science of to-day
+unconsciously inspires; let them quit the age of steam-engines,
+telegraphs, democratic governments, printing-presses, and
+Sunday-schools; let them orient themselves, and become Spaniards of
+1492, instead of Americans of 1892; let them take the place of
+Columbus--if they are gifted with imagination enough among their
+manifold endowments to do it; let them think his thoughts, endure his
+trials, cherish his resolves, encounter his rebuffs, overcome his
+obstacles, launch out on his voyage, govern his mutinous crew, deal with
+his savage and hostile tribes, combat the traitors in his camp, suffer
+his shipwrecks, struggle with his disappointments, bear the ignominy of
+his chains, see his visions, and pray his prayers.
+
+Behold him, launched on his uncertain voyage across the "sea of
+darkness," in three little caravels, no larger than the modern yacht,
+and far less seaworthy. Watch his devoted and anxious look, his solitary
+self-communings, his all-night vigils under the silent stars. See his
+motley crew, picked up at random in Palos streets, ignorant,
+superstitious, and full of fears, dreading every added mile of the
+voyage, and alarmed at the prevalent east winds which they thought would
+never permit them to sail back to Spain; so that Columbus, on a contrary
+head-wind springing up, thanked God with all the fervency of his pious
+soul. Pursue his career in his later expeditions, hampered by the
+mutinous vagabonds whom fate had thrust upon him as followers, many of
+them desperadoes just out of jail. See his baffled endeavors to maintain
+order and discipline among such a crew; to restrain their excesses, curb
+their lawless acts of violence, and secure some semblance of decency in
+their conduct toward the natives. Many of them, we read, were so given
+over to idleness and sloth, that they actually made the islanders beasts
+of burden, to carry them on their backs. It is a most unhappy fact that
+the missionaries of the cross were often accompanied by bands of
+miscreants, who wantonly broke every commandment in the decalogue and
+trampled upon every precept of the gospel. See him in his last voyage,
+beating about the rocks and shoals of an unknown archipelago, overtaken
+by West India hurricanes, almost engulfed in waterspouts, scudding under
+bare poles amid perilous breakers, blinded by lightning, deafened by
+incessant peals of thunder, his crazy little barks tossed about like
+cockle-shells in the raging waves, his anchors lost, his worm-eaten
+vessels as full of holes as a honey-comb, two caravels abandoned, and
+the two remaining run ashore at Jamaica, where Columbus built huts on
+their decks to shelter his forlorn crew. See him stranded here, pressed
+by hunger and want, visited by sickness and almost blindness, burning
+with fever under the wilting, fiery heat of the tropics, desolate,
+forsaken, infirm, and old. There he lay a whole year without relief,
+until the cup of his misery was full.
+
+If Columbus was sometimes harsh and cruel, we are to remember that he
+lived in an age when the most cruel and barbarous punishments were
+common. There are numerous instances of his clemency both to natives and
+to his revolted Spaniards, and he more than once jeopardized his own
+life by sparing theirs. Among a treacherous and vindictive race, many of
+whom were continually plotting for his overthrow, the admiral, endowed
+with full power over the lives and acts of his followers, was compelled
+to make examples of the worst, many of whom were criminals released from
+the prisons of Spain. Like other fighters, he met treachery with
+treachery, cruelty with cruelty. He had never learned to love his
+enemies, nor to turn his cheek for the second blow. Show us the man
+invested with absolute power, in that or in any former age, who abused
+it less. Try him by the moral standards, not of our humane and
+enlightened age, but by those of his own. Compared with the deeds of
+darkness that were done by Bobadilla and Ovando, the governors who
+replaced him, the reign of Columbus appears, even at its worst, to have
+been mild and merciful.
+
+By the side of the atrocities and cruel massacres perpetrated under
+Cortes in Mexico, and Pizarro in Peru, the few deeds of blood under
+Columbus appear slight indeed. While we have no right to extenuate his
+errors and his abuses, we have as little right to hold him to a standard
+nowhere set up in his day. He had learned his ethics in a school which
+taught that, for great and pious objects, the end justified the means.
+In the ardor of his zeal for what he deemed the Christian faith,
+Columbus committed many glaring mistakes and errors; but what
+over-zealous apostle or reformer has failed to do the same? Columbus was
+unduly eager after gold, they say; but in our advanced age, when that
+which Virgil called "the accursed hunger for gold" pervades all ranks,
+and our cities are nothing but great encampments of fortune-hunters,
+does it lie in our mouths to condemn him?
+
+The age of Columbus took him as he was--all full of human imperfections
+and frailties, but full also to overflowing with a great idea, and with
+a will, a perseverance, a constancy, and a faith so sublime, as fairly
+to conquer every obstacle, after a weary struggle of eighteen years, and
+to carry forward his arduous enterprise to triumphant success. That the
+great discoverer failed as a governor and administrator makes nothing
+against his merits as a discoverer. That his light at last went out in
+darkness--that the world he discovered brought nothing to Spain but
+disappointment and Dead Sea ashes--that he dragged out a miserable old
+age in rotten and unseaworthy ships, lying ill in the torrid heats of
+the West Indies, racked with excruciating pain, and in absolute penury
+and want--all this but adds point to a life so full of paradox that we
+may almost pardon him for believing in miracles. After so much glory and
+so much fame, his life darkened down to its dreary and pathetic close.
+His ardent soul went at last where wicked governments cease from
+troubling, and weary mariners are at rest. On May 20, 1506, worn out by
+disease, anxieties, and labors, the great discoverer launched forth on
+his last voyage of discovery, beyond the border of that unknown land
+whose boundaries are hid from mortal ken.
+
+His place among the immortals is secure. By the power of the
+unconquerable mind with which nature had endowed him, he achieved a fame
+so imperishable that neither the arrows of malice, nor the shafts of
+envy, nor the keenest pens of critics, nor the assaults of iconoclasts
+can avail to destroy it.
+
+[Signature: A. R. Spofford.]
+
+
+
+
+VASCO DA GAMA[10]
+
+         [Footnote 10: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By Judge ALBION W. TOURGÉE
+
+(1460-1525)
+
+[Illustration: Vasco Da Gama.]
+
+
+Vasco da Gama was the pet of fortune. Never did a man win immortality
+more easily. As a discoverer and a navigator he should rank not only
+below Columbus, but also below Bartolemeo Diaz and Cabral among his own
+countrymen, as well as Vespucius and Magellan, who carried the Spanish
+flag, and the Cabots, who established England's claim to the most
+important portions of the New World. As a commander, an administrator,
+and ruler of newly discovered regions, however, he ranks easily above
+them all. He not only led the way to India, but laid securely the
+foundations of Portuguese empire in the East.
+
+Even in the hour of his birth he was fortunate. Prince Henry, surnamed
+"the Navigator," to whose indefatigable exertions for more than forty
+years was due that impulse to maritime achievement of which the
+discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were the result,
+had just died, and his influence hung like an inspiration over the
+little kingdom for which he had wrought with such self-denying
+patience. This grandson of John of Gaunt has received scant credit for
+that wonderful series of discoveries by which the accessible earth was
+more than quadrupled in extent. Yet without him, there is no reason to
+believe that either the coast of Africa would have been explored, the
+Cape of Good Hope passed, or the American continents discovered for a
+century, at least, perhaps for two or three centuries afterward. He was
+the father of discovery, and it was his hand more than any or all others
+that rolled up the curtain of darkness which hid the major part of the
+habitable globe. All the navigators and discoverers of that marvellous
+age were but the agents of his genius and the creatures of his
+indefatigable exertion.
+
+The son of the most noted sovereign of Portugal, and grandson of that
+rugged Englishman from whose loins have sprung so many royal lines, he
+was fitted by descent and training for the heroic part which he
+performed. Distinguished for military achievement before he had come to
+man's estate, urged by four of the leading sovereigns of Europe to take
+command of their armies, and made Grand Master of the Order of Christ
+before he was twenty-five, there is hardly any limit to the military
+distinction he might have won or the power he might have secured, had he
+sought his own advancement.
+
+But he gave himself to Portugal, and determined to raise the little
+kingdom his father had so gallantly held against jealous and powerful
+neighbors, to the rank of a first-class power. To seek to enlarge a
+realm shut in by mountains on one side and the sea upon the other, by
+constant strife with embittered enemies, he saw at once was to invite
+annihilation. The sea afforded the only avenue of hope, the continent of
+Africa, where his father had already gained something from the Moor, in
+battling with whom he had himself won renown, the only visible
+opportunity. So he determined to explore, and finally, to circumnavigate
+Africa, and give to Portugal whatever of power or wealth the ocean or
+the dark continent might hide. He believed that India might be reached
+by sailing round its southern extremity, and he determined to pour the
+wealth of the Orient into the treasury of the kingdom his father had
+established.
+
+In 1418, therefore, he turned his back on personal ambition, laid aside
+the glory of military renown, and sat himself down to a hermit's life
+and a scholar's labors on the promontory of Sagres, in the province of
+Algarve, that point on the coast of Portugal which stretches farthest
+out into the Atlantic in the direction of his hope. Here he built an
+observatory whose light was the last his captains saw as they went
+forth, and the first to greet them on their return. Here he opened a
+school of navigation, and here were trained the discoverers who opened
+the way for all who came afterward. Here was not only nourished the
+impulse which fired the hearts of Columbus and his contemporaries, but
+here was taught the science and here were gathered the facts which
+enabled them to achieve success.
+
+Up to that time, Cape Nun had been the boundary of the modern world to
+the southward. With infinite patience, Prince Henry labored to convince
+his captains that the terrors which they thought lay at the southward of
+this point were wholly imaginary. Little by little his caravels crept
+down the coast of Africa. Every year he sent out two or three.
+Navigators and geographers flocked to his service. In two years he
+re-discovered Madeira and Porto Santo, of which latter he afterward made
+Perestrello, the father of Columbus's wife, the governor. By 1433 his
+ships had reached Cape Bojador; eight years afterward they passed Cape
+Blanco; in 1445 they were at the mouth of the Senegal. Still he urged
+them on toward that "_thesaurus Arabum et divitia Indię_," to which he
+set himself the task of opening up the way. The crown of Portugal
+assumed all the cost of these expeditions. Gold, ivory, cinnabar,
+dye-woods, spices, and slaves, added to the wealth of the kingdom only
+to furnish forth new ventures.
+
+He died before the end came, but not until many of the most important
+problems of cosmographic condition had been solved. It was known by
+actual experience that the "steaming sea" was a myth. Ships had crossed
+the equator, and their crews came back to tell of southward-stretching
+shadows. Ships were able, it was seen, to sail up the southern slope of
+the world as well as down it. Why they did not fall off into space, none
+knew, but that they did not was proved. Gravitation was a force whose
+laws and character were yet unformulated. The diurnal motion of the
+earth was hardly suspected until a hundred years later. But the facts on
+which these two fundamental truths are based were being gathered for
+Newton and Copernicus. When he died, those whom he had inspired and
+instructed continued the work to which he had devoted himself, under the
+patronage of his brother Alfonso and his nephew Joćo II.; until, in
+1486, Bartholomeo Diaz had sailed two hundred miles to the eastward of
+the Cape of Good Hope and returned to assure his sovereign that the way
+to India had at length been found.
+
+It was not, however, until Dom Manoel had succeeded to the throne, in
+1495, that any successful effort was made to follow up the success which
+Diaz had achieved. The way to India was indeed open, but no one seems to
+have had sufficient fortitude to undertake so long a voyage in order to
+reach it by that route. Dom Manoel had, however, but one idea. He was
+not a geographer like his predecessor, Joćo, "the perfect," but he was a
+man of action, and determined that the route Prince Henry's navigators
+had opened to India should not remain unused. Vasco da Gama was then in
+his thirty-fifth year, the handsomest man of his age, of ancient family,
+and it is claimed was not without royal blood in his veins. As a soldier
+he was trained in the war with Castile; as a navigator he had served
+under Prince Henry's best captains. Camoens, the historical poet of
+Portugal, declares that he was familiar not only with the recorded
+achievements of his predecessors, but with all the regions they had
+discovered. Dom Joćo, on the return of Diaz, selected him to command the
+fleet he meant to send to follow up this discovery. In the ten years
+that elapsed before he actually sailed, it is probable that he had grown
+to be not only a better geographer, but also a stronger, more
+cool-headed, and reliable man. That he was able to command, those
+mutineers who cavilled at his severity during the stormy passage of four
+months from Lisbon to Table Bay, found out when they demanded that he
+give up trying to reach India and return to Portugal as other captains
+had done, at the behest of their crews. He made short work of them, and
+in his whole career, so salutary was the lesson, no one under his
+command ever again refused to obey his orders.
+
+It was July 8, 1497, when he sailed from Lisbon, and it was not until
+December 1st that he left Delagoa Bay, the farthest eastward point which
+Diaz had reached, to pass over the actually unknown water that lay
+between him and India. Even this could hardly be called "unknown water,"
+for Corvilhan, who a dozen years before had made his way overland to
+Aden, had sent back to Dom Joćo II. this message:
+
+"Anyone who will persist, is sure to sail around the southernmost point
+of Africa, and can then easily make his way up the eastern shore and
+across the gulf to India."
+
+Literally were his words fulfilled. With favoring breezes, Gama reached
+Malinda early in January, 1498, and securing the services of an Indian
+pilot, who had not only sailed hither from Calicut, but seemed as
+familiar as Gama himself with compass and astrolabe, he set out boldly
+across the Indian Ocean, and in May arrived at Calicut. When we consider
+that this latter part of the voyage was with a pilot accustomed to make
+the trip in the far more fragile crafts of the Arabs, the boldness of
+the undertaking does not seem so apparent to one of our day. Compared
+with the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Vespucius, or Cabral over
+absolutely unknown seas, without pilots or charts of any kind, the
+passage from Aden to India hardly seems remarkable. Yet upon this the
+fame of Gama as an explorer rests, and as has been remarked, "few men
+have won fame so easily." His real merit lay in the fact that he did
+what so few of his predecessors were able to accomplish, controlled the
+mutinous crews, who had after all been the most serious obstacle in the
+path of Portugal to the coveted Indian possessions. It is probable that
+if Prince Henry had encouraged his captains to exercise greater
+severity, the darling object of his life might have been attained before
+his death and the birth of the fortunate explorer, whose cheaply-won
+fame has obscured his own, even with the king-loving Portuguese.
+
+It would seem as if the capacity to control men, which was so prominent
+a characteristic of the "Discoverer of India," was not of a conciliatory
+character, for the Zamorin of Calicut received him but coldly, and
+before his ships were loaded the difference had ripened into a quarrel,
+and he was obliged to cut his way out of the harbor to begin his
+homeward voyage. This lack of complaisance on the part of the Zamorin he
+attributed, not without reason, to the jealousy of the Arab merchants,
+whose swift-sailing dhows crowded the port. Why should they not be
+jealous of him who came to take away their immemorial privilege?
+Theretofore the treasures of the Orient had reached the western world
+only through the hands of the Arab merchants. The dhow and the camel had
+been its carriers. Gama had brought the more capacious caravel to bear
+them over a new highway to the western consumers. His success meant the
+loss of a great part of the business on which the sailors, merchants,
+and camel-drivers of Arabia depended for a livelihood. Why should they
+not conspire to kill him and destroy his fleet?
+
+His homeward passage was as fortunate as the outward one had been. That
+he did not experience the disasters which befell others, was no doubt
+largely due to the fact that he foresaw and avoided peril whenever
+possible. He was one of those men who, while shrinking from no
+unavoidable danger, take no unnecessary risks. He was received with
+unprecedented honors when, after two years and two months' absence, his
+ships were again anchored in the Tagus. Their rich cargo attested the
+rare value of the trade he had opened up. Despite the gold which the
+miners of Espańola were beginning to send to Spain, and the pearls which
+had come from Cubagua, the apparent value of the discoveries of Columbus
+were as nothing to the boundless wealth which Gama's voyage assured to
+Portugal. By the bull of Pope Alexander VI., all lands discovered east
+of the meridian of the Azores belonged to the King of Portugal. It was
+not only half the world, but that half which was of most inexhaustible
+richness, Asia and Africa. Titles and honors and wealth were conferred
+upon the fortunate explorer. In consideration perhaps of his royal
+extraction, he was permitted to affix the kingly title, "Dom," to his
+name. No wonder he was thus honored, when the cargo of one small caravel
+loaded with spices, yielded a greater sum than the whole outfit of the
+fleet Columbus commanded on his first voyage!
+
+In an incredibly short time, thirteen ships were fitted out, and under
+that prince of navigators, Cabral, set sail to secure the results of
+Gama's discovery. On him, too, fortune smiled as it rarely has on them
+that "go down to the sea in ships." Blown out of his course by
+head-winds, his very mishaps ripened into the rarest fortune, for he
+discovered Brazil, and thus added to his master's realm what was
+destined to be one of the richest kingdoms of the world. With the
+instinct of genius, and a courage as rare as it was heroic, he did not
+return to notify his king of the new continent which had risen out of
+the deep before him, but sending back a single caravel with the
+marvellous news, he turned his battered prows to that point of the
+compass where he judged the Cape of Good Hope to be, and after passing
+three thousand miles of water that had never known a keel before, he
+rounded the southern point of Africa and proceeded to carry out his
+orders. He lacked, however, the soldierly qualities and administrative
+power of the "Discoverer of India," who the year after his return was
+sent out to complete his work. This time he had a fleet of twenty sail,
+and from the outset was bent not only on taking permanent possession of
+the countries whose trade it was desirable to secure, but on avenging
+the affront that had before been offered him by the Zamorin of Calicut
+and the Arab traders who had inspired the action.
+
+On his way he founded the colonies of Mozambique and Sofala, and sailed
+to Travancore. During the passage he fell in with a ship which was
+carrying many Indian Mussulmans to Mecca, laden with rich presents for
+the shrine of the Prophet. This he pillaged and burned, with all of her
+300 passengers except twenty women and children, whom he saved more for
+his own pleasure, no doubt, than from any pity for them. He excused this
+act of savagery, so far as any excuse was necessary, on the ground that
+they were paynim Moors, and some among them had incited the attack upon
+him at Calicut on his former voyage. The truth is they were rich; he
+wanted the plunder; and there was less likelihood of trouble if he
+killed them than if they were left alive to publish and avenge their
+losses. It was merely an application of the freebooter's maxim, that
+"dead men tell no tales."
+
+Arriving at Calicut, he found that forty Portuguese who had been left to
+establish a permanent post, had been killed. With unusual deliberation,
+he investigated the matter and demanded reparation, submission, and a
+treaty acknowledging the sovereignty of Portugal over India. This being
+refused, he bombarded the city, burned the ships in the harbor, and
+compelled the Zamorin himself and all the native princes of the region
+to submit and acknowledge themselves feudatories of Portugal. So rapid
+were his movements, and so accurate his calculations, that before the
+close of 1503 he had reached Lisbon again with thirteen vessels laden to
+the gunwale with the plunder of the Orient--by all odds the richest
+argosy that had come to any European port since the days of the Romans.
+
+Da Gama was now forty-three years old, and must have been in the very
+prime of manhood. Why so skilled a navigator, so intrepid a commander,
+so shrewd a negotiator, and so successful an administrator, who had
+established the power of Portugal from Delagoa Bay to Calcutta, should,
+at that period of his life, have been laid upon the shelf for twenty
+years, is a conundrum hard to answer. Knowing the character of Dom
+Manoel, it is not difficult to guess that his sordidness lay somewhere
+at the bottom of the trouble; but it is said to Gama's credit, that he
+neither whined nor remonstrated.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that he was succeeded by one who was
+greatly his superior both as a general, a statesman, and an
+administrator. If Vasco da Gama laid the foundations of Portuguese
+empire in the East, Alfonso d'Albuquerque, "the Great," broadened and
+built upon them as he could never have done. From Aden to Cochin blood
+flowed beneath his blows, but peace followed; and though he was termed
+"the Portuguese Mars," his justice became traditional, and his sagacity
+was shown in the permanence of the settlements he made, even under the
+incompetent viceroys who followed him.
+
+It was twenty years since Vasco da Gama had commanded a ship.
+Albuquerque was dead, and his successors had brought shame and defeat
+upon the Portuguese power in the East. Dom Manoel was dead also, and
+whatever grievance he had against "the Discoverer of India," seems to
+have died with him. His successor, Dom Joćo III., casting about for
+someone to bring order out of confusion, success out of failure, and
+honor out of shame, called again into his service the courtly and
+sagacious mariner, now over sixty years of age; and conferring upon him
+the title of viceroy, sent him to retrieve the prestige his successors
+had lost. His high spirit was yet undaunted, and when he neared the
+coast of India and found the waters in a strange ferment for which no
+one could account, as there was neither wind nor tide, he said loftily:
+"The sea beholds its conqueror and trembles before him!" It sounds
+bombastic, but in the mouth of one who had first guided a civilized keel
+over its surface, such arrogance is at least pardonable.
+
+In the few months that intervened before his death he made the power of
+Portugal once more respected in the East. When he died in Cochin, in
+1525, he was mourned by the natives as a just ruler, and by his
+countrymen as one who had saved to Portugal the richest part of the
+national domain. It is not strange, therefore, that when his ashes were
+conveyed to Lisbon, they were received with a pomp almost equal to that
+which greeted him when he came as the discoverer of the Orient and its
+priceless treasures. It is rare in history that one receives two
+triumphs, the one while living and the other when dead, especially in
+connection with the same achievement; but it is rarer still that one who
+has won immortality should leave a record so singularly free from
+bickering and strife as that of the dignified and self-contained
+Portuguese rival of Columbus, Dom Vasco da Gama, the "Discoverer and
+Sixth Viceroy of India, Count of Vidigueira," where he lies entombed.
+Little is known of his private life; but there seems no doubt that it
+was free from the stains that obscure his great rival's fame, from whom
+he also differed in the fact that he neither begged nor boasted, and in
+old age was honored even more than in his prime.
+
+[Signature: Albion W. Tourgée.]
+
+
+
+
+THE CHEVALIER BAYARD
+
+By HERBERT GREENHOUGH SMITH
+
+(1476-1524)
+
+[Illustration: The Chevalier Bayard.]
+
+
+Pierre Du Terrail was born in 1476, at Castle Bayard, in Dauphiny. The
+house of Terrail belonged to the Scarlet of the ancient peers of France.
+The Lords of Bayard, during many generations, had died under the flags
+of battle. Poictiers, Agincourt, and Montlhéry had taken, in succession,
+the last three; and in 1479, when Pierre was in his nurse's arms, his
+father, Aymon du Terrail, was carried from the field of Guinegate with a
+frightful wound, from the effects of which, although he survived for
+seventeen years to limp about his castle with the help of sticks, he
+never again put on his shirt of mail.
+
+The old knight was thus debarred from bringing up his son as his own
+squire. But the Bishop of Grenoble, his wife's brother, was a close
+friend of Charles the Warrior, the great Duke of Savoy. When Pierre was
+in his fourteenth year it was proposed that he should begin his knightly
+education among the pages of the duke. The bishop promised to present
+him. A little horse was bought; a tailor was set to work to make a
+gorgeous suit of silk and velvet; and Pierre was ready to set out.
+
+During six months the palace of Charles became his home. The lovable and
+handsome boy soon won all hearts about him. The duke with delight saw
+him leap and wrestle, throw the bar, and ride a horse better than any
+page about the court. The duchess and her ladies loved to send him on
+their dainty missions. His temper was bright and joyous; his only fault,
+if fault it can be called, was an over-generosity of nature. His purse
+was always empty; and when he had no money, any trifling service of a
+lackey or a groom would be requited with a silver button, a dagger, or a
+clasp of gold. And such was to be his character through life. Time after
+time, in after years, his share of treasure, after some great victory,
+would have paid a prince's ransom; yet often he could not lay his hand
+on five gold pieces.
+
+When Pierre had lived at the palace about half a year, the duke made a
+visit to Lyons, to pay his duty to the king. That king was Charles the
+Eighth, then a boy of twenty, who was making his days fly merrily with
+tilts and hawking parties, and his nights with dances and the whispers
+of fair dames. The duke desired to carry with him to his sovereign a
+present worthy of a king's acceptance. A happy notion struck him. He
+resolved to present the king with Bayard and his horse.
+
+King Charles, delighted with his new page, placed him in the palace of
+Lord Ligny, a prince of the great house of Luxemburg, and there for
+three years he continued to reside. During that time his training was
+the usual training of a page. But the child was the father of the man.
+Thoughts of great deeds, of tilts and battle-fields, of champions going
+down before his lance, of crowns of myrtle, and the smiles of lovely
+ladies--such already were the dreams which set his soul on fire.
+
+At seventeen Pierre received the rank of gentleman. Thenceforward he was
+free to follow his own fortune; he was free to seek the glorious
+Dulcinea of his dreams--a fame as bright and sparkling as his sword. And
+thereupon begins to pass before us, brilliant as the long-drawn scenes
+of a dissolving view, the strange and splendid series of his exploits.
+He had not ceased to be a page ten days before the court was ringing
+with his name.
+
+Sir Claude de Vauldre, Lord of Burgundy, was regarded as the stoutest
+knight in France. He was then at Lyons, and was about to hold a tilt,
+with lance and battle-axe, before the ladies and the king. His shield
+was hanging in the Ainay meadows, and beside it Montjoy, the
+king-at-arms, sat all day with his book open, taking down the names of
+those who struck the shield. Among these came Bayard. Montjoy laughed as
+he wrote down his name; the king, Lord Ligny, and his own companions,
+heard with mingled trepidation and delight that Bayard had struck the
+blazon of Sir Claude. But no one had a thought of what was coming. The
+day arrived, the tilt was held, and Bayard, by the voice of all the
+ladies, bore off the prize above the head of every knight in Lyons.
+
+The glory of this exploit was extreme. It quickly spread. Three days
+later Bayard went to join the garrison at Aire. He found, as he rode
+into the little town, that the fame of his achievement had arrived
+before him. Heads were everywhere thrust out of windows, and a band of
+fifty of his future comrades issued on horseback from the garrison to
+bid him welcome. A few days after his arrival he held a tilt in his own
+person, after the example of Sir Claude. The palms were a diamond and a
+clasp of gold. Forty-eight of his companions struck his shield, and rode
+into the lists against him. Bayard overthrew the whole band, one by one,
+and was once more hailed at sunset by the notes of trumpets as the
+champion of the tourney.
+
+It is not in tournaments and tilts, however, that a knight can win his
+spurs. Bayard burned for battle. For many months he burned in vain; but
+at last the banners of the king were given to the wind, and Bayard, to
+his unspeakable delight, found himself marching under Lord Ligny against
+Naples.
+
+The two armies faced each other at Fornovo. The odds against the French
+were six to one, and the fight was long and bloody. When the great
+victory was at last decided, Bayard was among the first of those called
+up before the king. That day two horses had dropped dead beneath him;
+his cuirass and sword were hacked and battered, and a captured standard,
+blazing with the arms of Naples, was in his hand. At the king's order he
+knelt down, and received upon the spot the rank of knight. At one bound
+he had achieved the height of glory--to be knighted by his sovereign on
+the field of battle.
+
+Bayard was not yet nineteen. His figure at that age was tall and
+slender; his hair and eyes were black; his complexion was a sunny brown;
+and his countenance had something of the eagle's.
+
+He was now for some time idle. He was left in garrison in Lombardy. But
+fiercer fields were soon to call him. Ludovico Sforza took Milan. At
+Binasco, Lord Bernardino Cazache, one of Sforza's captains, had three
+hundred horse; and twenty miles from Milan was Bayard's place of
+garrison. With fifty of his comrades he rode out one morning, bent on
+assaulting Lord Bernardino's force. The latter, warned by a scout of
+their approach, armed his party, and rushed fiercely from the fort. The
+strife was fought with fury; but the Lombards, slowly driven back toward
+Milan, at length wheeled round their horses and galloped like the wind
+into the city.
+
+Bayard, darting in his spurs, waving his bare blade, and shouting out
+his battle-cry of "France," was far ahead of his companions. Before he
+knew his danger, he had dashed in with the fugitives at the city gates
+and reached the middle of the square in front of Sforza's palace. He
+found himself alone in the midst of the fierce enemy--with the white
+crosses of France emblazoned on his shield.
+
+Sforza, hearing a tremendous uproar in the square, came to a window of
+the palace and looked down. The square was swarming with the soldiers
+of Binasco, savage, hacked, and bloody; and in the centre of the yelling
+tumult, Bayard, still on horseback, was slashing at those who strove to
+pull him from his seat.
+
+Sforza, in a voice of thunder, bade the knight be brought before him.
+Bayard, seeing that resistance was mere madness, surrendered to Lord
+Bernardino, and was led, disarmed, into the palace. Sforza was a soldier
+more given to the ferocity than to the courtesies of war. But when the
+young knight stood before him, when he heard his story, when he looked
+upon his bold yet modest bearing, the fierce and moody prince was moved
+to admiration. "Lord Bayard," he said, "I will not treat you as a
+prisoner. I set you free; I will take no ransom; and I will grant you
+any favor in my power." "My Lord Prince," said Bayard, "I thank you for
+your courtesy with all my soul. I will ask you only for my horse and
+armor." The horse was brought; Bayard sprang into the saddle, and an
+hour later was received by his companions with raptures of surprise and
+joy, as one who had come alive out of the lion's den.
+
+Milan fell; Sforza was taken; and Bayard went into garrison at
+Monervino. At Andri, some miles distant, was a Spanish garrison under
+the command of Don Alonzo de Sotomayor, one of the most famous knights
+in Spain. Bayard, with fifty men, rode out one morning, in the hope of
+falling in with some adventure. It happened that he came across Alonzo,
+with an equal party, abroad on the same quest. Their forces met; both
+sides flew joyously to battle, and for an hour the victory hung in the
+balance. But at last Bayard, with his own sword, forced Alonzo to
+surrender; and his party, carrying with them a large band of prisoners,
+rode back in triumph to the garrison.
+
+Sotomayor behaved in most unknightly fashion, and after being ransomed,
+accused Bayard of ill-treating him. Bayard sent him the lie, and
+challenging him to a duel to the death, slew him. A few days later, the
+Spaniards, panting for reprisal, proposed to meet a party of the French
+in combat, for the glory of their nations. Bayard received the challenge
+with delight. On the appointed day, thirteen knights of either side,
+glittering in full harness, armed with sword and battle-axe, and
+prepared for a contest to the death, rode forth into the lists.
+
+By the laws of such a tilt a knight unhorsed, or forced across the
+boundary, became a prisoner, and could fight no longer. The Spaniards,
+with great cunning, set themselves to maim the horses; and by these
+tactics, eleven of the French were soon dismounted. Two alone were left
+to carry on the contest, Bayard and Lord Orose.
+
+Then followed such a feat of arms as struck the gazers dumb. For four
+hours these two held good their ground against the whole thirteen. The
+Spaniards, stung with rage and shame, spurred till their heels dripped
+blood. In vain. Night fell; the bugles sounded; and still the
+unconquerable pair rode round the ring.
+
+But great as this feat was, it was soon to be succeeded by a greater. A
+few weeks afterward the French and Spanish camps were posted on opposite
+sides of the river Gargliano. Between them was a bridge, in the
+possession of the French; and some way farther down the river was a
+ford, known only to the Spanish general, Pedro de Paez. He proposed to
+lure the French guards from the bridge, and then to seize it. And his
+stratagem was ready.
+
+Early in the morning the French soldiers at the bridge were startled to
+perceive a party of the enemy, each horseman bearing a foot-soldier on
+his crupper, approach the river at the ford and begin to move across it.
+Instantly, as Paez had intended, they left the bridge and rushed toward
+the spot. Bayard, attended by Le Basque, was in the act of putting on
+his armor. He sprang into the saddle, and was about to spur after his
+companions, when he perceived, across the river, a party of two hundred
+Spaniards making for the bridge. The danger was extreme; for if the
+bridge were taken the camp itself would be in the most deadly peril.
+Bayard bade Le Basque gallop for his life to bring assistance. And he
+himself rode forward to the bridge, alone.
+
+The Spaniards, on seeing a solitary knight advance against them, laughed
+loudly at his folly. Their foremost horsemen were already half-way over
+when Bayard, with his lance in rest, came flying down upon them. His
+onset swept the first three off the bridge into the river, and instantly
+the rest, with cries of vengeance, rushed furiously upon him. Bayard,
+not to be surrounded, backed his horse against the railing of the
+bridge, rose up in his stirrups, swung his falchion with both hands
+above his head, and lashed out with such fury that, with every blow a
+bloody Spaniard fell into the river, and the whole troop recoiled in
+wonder and dismay, as if before a demon. While they still stood,
+half-dazed, two hundred glaring at one man, a shout was heard, and Le
+Basque, with a band of horsemen, was seen approaching like a whirlwind.
+In two minutes the Spaniards were swept back upon the land in hopeless
+rout--and the French camp was saved.
+
+Bayard received for this great feat the blazon of a porcupine, with this
+inscription, _Unus agminis vires habet_--"One man has the might of
+armies."
+
+And still came exploit after exploit in succession--exploits of every
+kind of fiery daring. At Genoa, when the town revolted, Bayard stormed
+the fort of the insurgents, quelled the riot, forced the city to
+surrender, and hanged the leader on a pole. At Agnadello, against the
+troops of Venice, he waded with his men through fens and ditches, took
+the picked bands of Lord d'Alvicino on the flank, scattered them to the
+winds, and won the day. At Padua, during the long siege, he scoured the
+country with his band of horse, and frequently rode back to camp at
+nightfall with more prisoners than armed men. At Mirandola, where he
+faced the papal armies, he laid a scheme to take the Pope himself. A
+snowstorm kept the fiery Julius in his tent, and Bayard lost him. A few
+days afterward the pontiff's life was in his hands. A traitor offered,
+for a purse of gold, to poison the Pope's wine. But it is not the
+Bayards of the world who fight with pots of poison; and the slippery
+Judas had to fly in terror from the camp, or Bayard would infallibly
+have hanged him.
+
+So far, amid his life of perils, Bayard had escaped without a wound. But
+now his time had come.
+
+Brescia was taken by the troops of Venice. Gaston de Foix, the
+thunderbolt of Italy, marched with 12,000 men to its relief. Bayard was
+among them. At the head of the storming-party he was first across the
+ramparts, and was turning round to cheer his men to victory when a pike
+struck him in the thigh. The shaft broke off, and the iron head remained
+embedded in the wound.
+
+Two of his archers caught him as he fell, bore him out of the rush of
+battle, and partly stanched the wound by stripping up the linen of their
+shirts. They then bore him to a mansion close at hand. The master of the
+house, who seems to have been a person of more wealth than valor, had
+disappeared, and was thought to be hiding somewhere in a convent,
+leaving his wife and his two daughters to themselves. The girls had fled
+into a hay-loft, and plunged themselves beneath the hay; but, on the
+thunderous knocking of the archers, the lady of the house came trembling
+to the door. Bayard was carried in, a surgeon was luckily discovered
+close at hand, and the pike-head was extracted. The wound was pronounced
+to be not dangerous. But Bayard, to his great vexation, found he was
+doomed to lie in idleness for several weeks.
+
+According to the laws of war, the house was his, and all the inmates
+were his prisoners. And the fact was well for them. Outside the house
+existed such a scene of horror as, even in that age, was rare. Ten
+thousand men lay dead in the great square; the city was given up to
+pillage, and it is said that the conquerors gorged themselves that day
+with booty worth three million crowns. The troops were drunk with
+victory and rapine. No man's life, no woman's honor, was in safety for
+an instant.
+
+Bayard set his archers at the door-way. His name was a talisman against
+the boldest; and in the midst of the fierce tumult that raged all round
+it, the house in which he lay remained a sanctuary of peace.
+
+The ladies of the house were soon reassured. Bayard refused to regard
+them as his prisoners or to take a coin of ransom. The daughters, two
+lovely and accomplished girls, were delighted to attend the wounded
+knight. They talked and sang to him, they touched the mandolin, they
+woke the music of the virginals. In such society the hours flew lightly
+by. The wound healed, and in six weeks Bayard was himself again.
+
+On the day of his departure the lady of the house came into his
+apartment, and besought him, as their preserver, to accept a certain
+little box of steel. The box contained two thousand five hundred golden
+ducats. Bayard took it. "But five hundred ducats," he said, "I desire
+you to divide for me among the nuns whose convents have been pillaged."
+Then, turning to her daughters, "Ladies," he said, "I owe you more than
+thanks for your kind care of me. Soldiers do not carry with them pretty
+things for ladies; but I pray each of you to accept from me a thousand
+ducats, to aid your marriage portions." And with that he poured the
+coins into their aprons.
+
+[Illustration: Bayard taking Leave of the Ladies of Brescia.]
+
+His horse was brought, and he was about to mount, when the girls came
+stealing down the steps into the castle court, each with a little
+present, worked by their own hands, which they desired him to accept.
+One brought a pair of armlets, made of gold and silver thread; the
+other, a purse of crimson satin. And this was all the spoil that Bayard
+carried from the inestimable wealth of Brescia--the little keepsakes of
+two girls whom he had saved.
+
+The scenes of Bayard's life at which we have been glancing have been
+chiefly those of his great feats of arms. And so it must be still; for
+it is these of which the details have survived in history. And yet it
+was such incidents as these at Brescia which made the fame of Bayard
+what it was and what it is. To his foes, he was the flower of chivalry;
+but to his friends, he was, besides, the most adored of men. It is said
+that in his native province of Dauphiny, at his death, more than a
+hundred ancient soldiers owed to him the roof that covered their old
+age; that more than a hundred orphan girls had received their marriage
+portions from his bounty. But of such acts the vast majority are
+unrecorded; for these are not the deeds which shine in the world's eye.
+
+Gaston de Foix was now before Ravenna. Bayard rode thither with all
+speed; he was just in time. Two days after his arrival came the battle.
+Weak though he still was from his long illness, Bayard on that day was
+seen, as ever, "shining above his fellow-men." He turned the tide of
+victory; he tore two standards from the foe with his own hand; and he
+was first in the pursuit.
+
+Two months after, Bayard was at Pavia. The little troop with which he
+was then serving had there sought refuge under Louis d'Ars. The armies
+of the Swiss burst in upon them. Bayard, with a handful of soldiers in
+the market-place, held, for two hours, their whole force at bay, while
+his companions were retreating from the town across a bridge of boats.
+As he himself was crossing, last of all, a shot struck him in the
+shoulder, and stripped it to the bone. No surgeon was at hand. The
+wound, roughly stanched with moss, brought on a fever, and for some time
+he lay in danger of his life.
+
+And now Bayard was to follow a new master. Louis XII. died; Francis I.
+received the crown; and Bayard, with the young king, marched to Milan,
+which the Swiss had seized and held.
+
+On Thursday, September 13, 1515, King Francis pitched his camp at
+Marignano, before the city of the spires. No danger of attack was
+apprehended; the king sat calmly down to supper in his tent; when all at
+once the Swiss, aroused to madness by the fiery eloquence of Cardinal de
+Sion, broke like a tempest from the city, and fell upon the camp. The
+French, by the red light of sunset, flew to arms, and fought with fury
+till night fell. Both armies sat all night on horseback, waiting for the
+dawn; and with the first streaks of morning, flew again to battle. It
+was noon before the bitter contest ended, and the Swiss, still fighting
+every inch of ground, drew slowly back toward the city. It had been,
+indeed, as Trevulzio called it, a Battle of the Giants. And the greatest
+of the giants had been Bayard and the king.
+
+That evening Francis held, before his tent, the ceremony of creating
+knights of valor. But before the ceremony began, a proclamation by the
+heralds startled and delighted all the camp. Francis had determined to
+receive the rank in his own person. Bayard was to knight the king!
+
+In the days of the primeval chivalry, when even princes were compelled
+to win their spurs, such a spectacle was not uncommon. But not for ages
+had a king been knighted by a subject on a field of battle. Nor was any
+splendor wanting that could make the spectacle impressive. Nowhere in
+Ariosto is a picture of more gorgeous details than is presented by this
+scene of history; the great crimson silk pavilion, the seat spread with
+cloth of gold, the blazoned banners, the heralds with their silver
+trumpets, the multitude all hushed in wonder, the plumed and glittering
+company of knights and men-at-arms. Such were the surroundings amid
+which Francis knelt, and Bayard, with his drawn sword, gave the
+accolade.
+
+The sword with which he had performed the ceremony Bayard kept
+religiously until his death. It was then mislaid, and never
+rediscovered. The loss is a misfortune. For few relics could exist of
+more romantic interest than the sword with which the noblest of all
+knights did honor to the most magnificent of kings.
+
+Bayard's glory had long been at such a height that hardly any exploit
+could increase it. And yet an exploit was at hand at which, even when
+Bayard was the actor of it, all France and Germany were to stand in
+wonder.
+
+The German emperor, marching with a mighty army on Champagne, took
+Monson by surprise, and advanced against Mézičres. If Mézičres were
+taken, the whole province would be in the most deadly peril. And yet
+defence seemed hopeless; the place had no artillery, and the ramparts
+were in ruins. At this crisis Bayard volunteered to hold the crazy city.
+"No walls are weak," he said, in his own noble style, "which are
+defended by brave men."
+
+With a small but chosen band he hastened to Mézičres. Two days after his
+arrival the Count of Nassau, with a vast array of men and cannon,
+appeared before the walls. The siege began--a siege which seemed
+impossible to last twelve hours.
+
+But day after day went by, and still the town was standing. Every day
+the ramparts gaped with cannon-shot; but every night, as if by miracle,
+they rose again. The defenders suffered from wounds, pestilence, and
+famine; but Bayard had put every man on oath to eat his horse, and then
+his boots, before he would surrender. Three weeks passed; and when at
+last the king arrived with forces to relieve the town, he found a few
+gaunt spectres still glaring defiance from the battered ramparts against
+a hundred cannon and more than forty thousand men.
+
+Nothing can more strikingly describe the part of Bayard than the
+testimony of his enemies themselves. Some time after, Mary of Hungary
+asked the Count of Nassau in disdain how it came to pass that with a
+host of troops and guns he could not take a crazy pigeon-house.
+"Because," replied the count, "there was an eagle in it."
+
+It was Bayard's last great exploit. It had been his lifelong wish that
+he might fall upon the field of battle. And so it was to be.
+
+Early in the spring of 1524, the French camp was posted at Biagrasso.
+Lord Bonnivet, who was in command, found himself, after a prolonged
+resistance, at last compelled by famine and sickness to retire before
+the Spaniards. It was Bayard's constant custom to be first in an
+advance and last in retreat, and that day he was, as usual, in the post
+of danger. It was for the last time. Friends and enemies were to hear,
+before night fell, the thrilling tidings that Bayard was no more.
+
+On both sides of the road which the retreating army had to traverse the
+Spaniards had placed in ambush a large force of arquebusiers. It was a
+weapon which Bayard held in detestation; for while skill and courage
+were required to wield a spear or sword, any skulking wretch could pull
+a trigger from behind a stone. From one of these hated weapons he
+received his death. As he was retreating slowly with his face toward the
+foe, a stone from a cross-arquebus struck him on the side. He instantly
+sank forward on his saddle-bow, exclaiming in a faint voice, "Great God!
+I am killed."
+
+His squire helped him from his horse, and he was laid beneath a tree.
+His spine was broken in two places; and he felt within himself that he
+was dying. He took his sword, and kissed the cross-hilt, murmuring aloud
+the Latin prayer, "_Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam
+tuam_."
+
+The Spaniards were approaching. His friends made some attempt to raise
+him and to bear him from the field. But the least movement made him
+faint with agony; and he felt that all was vain. He charged his
+companions, as they loved him, to turn his face toward the enemy, and to
+retire into a place of safety; and he sent, with his last breath, his
+salutation to the king. With breaking hearts they did as he desired, and
+he was left alone.
+
+When the Spaniards reached the spot, they found him still alive, but
+sinking fast. The conduct of Lord Pescara, the Spanish general, toward
+his dying foe, was worthy of a great and noble knight. He bade his own
+pavilion to be spread above him; cushions were placed beneath his head;
+and a friar was brought, to whom he breathed his last confession. As he
+was uttering the final words, his voice faltered, and his head fell. The
+friar looked upon his face--and saw that all was over.
+
+
+
+
+GUSTAVUS VASA[11]
+
+         [Footnote 11: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By CHARLES F. HORNE
+
+(1496-1560)
+
+
+Three or four hundred years ago the little country of Denmark was of
+much greater importance than it is to-day. It had the mightiest navy in
+the world, and its rule over the seas was undisputed. Its appearance on
+the map was also very different then, for it not only extended over much
+of the German territory now surrounding it, but also held all Norway as
+a province. Sweden, too, though often rebelling, and being punished with
+terrible cruelty, was, up to the year 1523, a dependency of the Danish
+crown.
+
+Naturally the Danes rather looked down on the conquered Swedes, and made
+them the subject of many rude jests and taunts. There was in the
+beginning of the sixteenth century at the great Danish university at
+Upsala a Swedish boy, who with the rest of his countrymen must have
+suffered many such insults. His proud, brave, little heart rebelled
+against this treatment; and one day, when his teacher had driven him
+beyond endurance with his severe punishments and bitter sneers, the boy
+snatched out his little sword and plunged it straight through the
+master's book. "I will teach you something, too," he cried; "teach you
+that the Swedes are no cowards, for some day I will gather them together
+and treat every Dane in Sweden as I do your book." Then he rushed out of
+the school, never to return.
+
+[Illustration: Gustavus Vasa.]
+
+Many lads have, in some moment of passion made big boasts of what they
+would do "some day." Few ever made so tremendous a vaunt; fewer still
+ever so completely fulfilled their threats; and, perhaps, no one ever
+struggled so patiently, so nobly, nor against such tremendous obstacles
+before the goal was reached, as did this angry little Swede, known to
+history as Gustavus Vasa. He was born in 1496, and was the oldest son of
+Sir Eric Johansson, governor of a little group of islands in the Gulf of
+Bothnia. Returning home after his precipitate flight from school,
+Gustavus grew up under the eye of his stalwart father, who trained him
+to be not only a strong and a shrewd man, but also a good one.
+
+Sent at the age of eighteen to the court of Svante Sture, the regent
+governing Sweden, he threw himself eagerly into the great war for
+freedom which his countrymen had begun under that mighty leader. This
+struggle was so far successful that four years later King Christian, of
+Denmark, utterly defeated on land and with his fleet in sore danger
+anchored off Stockholm, and proposed a peace. He asked that hostages be
+sent to remain on his ships, while he was on shore arranging the treaty.
+This was readily agreed to, and the hostages went on board without a
+thought of evil, the king having guaranteed their safe return. Young
+Vasa, although only twenty-two, had already gained such prominence among
+the patriots as to be one of those selected for this duty. Just as he
+and his companions reached the ships, the wind, which had hitherto blown
+from such a direction that King Christian was unable to leave the
+harbor, suddenly changed, and the king as promptly changing his plans,
+hoisted sail and fled from Stockholm, carrying with him, as prisoners,
+the hostages whom he was bound in honor to respect. But this grim and
+cruel old king never at any time let himself be checked by his promised
+word; and now he seriously considered slaying these men as rebels and
+traitors. Finally he concluded to hold them as prisoners.
+
+Gustavus was placed for safe keeping in the castle of Eric Bauer, a
+Jutland noble, where he remained for two years. He lived on the very
+poorest food, and far worse, had to endure taunts a hundred times more
+bitter than those of his old school days, from the young nobles about
+him. Worse still, he learned from them that King Christian was gathering
+another and greater army with which to utterly crush the rebellious
+Swedes; and he could neither warn his countrymen nor raise a finger to
+give them help. But his courage and patience never failed him. Through
+all that weary time he was always planning and watching for a chance to
+escape. At last it came. Deceived by his apparent indifference his
+jailers permitted him to ride, and even to hunt with them, but always
+under a careful watch. One day, however, the hunt grew so exciting that
+everyone forgot Gustavus and rode hard and fast after the game. He saw
+his opportunity, and rode hardest and fastest of all. Soon he was first
+in the race; but he did not stop when he reached the captured deer.
+There was no one in sight and he hurried on faster than ever. When his
+horse gave out he pressed forward on foot, and nightfall found him forty
+miles from the castle. He astonished a countryman by trading clothes
+with him; and the next day, thus disguised, he hired himself to a drover
+to help him drive a herd of cattle to the great German city of Lubeck.
+Probably no cattle had ever been so driven before. Our hero knew well
+that the pursuit would be fast and furious, and he kept the herd almost
+on a steady run. The old drover was in a perpetual state of amazement;
+he did not know whether to regard his new assistant as a madman or as
+the most valuable hand he had ever hired. Gustavus never let the poor
+old fellow rest a moment; he had to eat his meals as he walked, and even
+to totter along half asleep. At last animals and men reached Lubeck, all
+badly worn out, but safe, for Lubeck was a free city and a powerful one,
+and when, an hour later, the enraged Eric Bauer galloped up to its great
+gates, he knew that his prisoner was beyond his reach, and that unless
+he could persuade the citizens to give him up there was no chance of
+recapturing him.
+
+The citizens did not give Gustavus up. He and his jailer were brought
+face to face before the City Council to argue their case. When Eric said
+his prisoner had broken his word in escaping, Gustavus related how the
+king had broken his in the capture. When Eric threatened them all with
+his master's wrath, the shrewd old burghers laughed. They knew King
+Christian had other things to keep him busy enough, and that he would
+think twice before attacking their great league of cities. Besides, this
+young man had already shown that he could do great things, and, as one
+of the Council said, "Who knows what he may win if we send him home." So
+Eric was forced to leave without his captive; and after some delay,
+during which he was treated with high honor, Gustavus was sent home by
+the kind Lubeckers with the promise to help him, if need be, with both
+men and money.
+
+Indeed Sweden needed all the help she could get just then; but it did
+not seem as though one man could do much for her. King Christian had
+carried out his threats, and landing with a great army, defeated the
+brave Sture and spread terror and destruction through all the land. The
+tale of his cruelty and treacheries belongs rather to the history of
+Sweden than of Gustavus. Enough to say that, having by promises of
+peace and pardon got all the leading Swedes into his power, he had them
+murdered, and then he and his soldiers went on slaying the common people
+right and left in mere wanton savagery. All the surviving nobles were in
+his pay; the least suspicion of an uprising was crushed with an iron
+hand, the least murmur of discontent brought death. Never had Sweden
+seemed more helpless in the power of the Danes.
+
+To this unhappy country came Gustavus Vasa, and at once he was declared
+an outlaw, and a great price was offered for his head; for the king knew
+that here survived one man whom he could neither terrify nor bribe. One
+castle still held out against the besieging Danes, and for this Gustavus
+set out. But its defenders were disheartened by their hopeless position,
+and were almost on the point of surrender. They answered angrily to his
+brave words, and he left them to try and rouse the peasantry all over
+the land.
+
+Now began for him such a period of danger, sorrow, and privation, as few
+men could have endured and lived. The land was filled with Danes eager
+for his capture. The peasants were timid and disheartened. To his
+passionate patriotic appeal they answered only, "We have salt and
+herring still. If we rebel we will lose them too." Often they drove him
+away with stones. Sometimes his own countrymen would have slain him for
+the promised reward. At length it was no longer possible for him to
+remain in Southern Sweden, and with a single servant he fled to the
+highlands of Dalecarlia, a province in the north. From this on his life
+reads like some wild romance of adventure. He had the grim courage and
+grit and perseverance of a bull-dog. Nothing could dishearten him in his
+seemingly hopeless and insane resolve to raise the Swedes once more
+against Christian.
+
+He found as much devotion in some places, as he did treachery in others.
+Having crossed a ferry in advance of his servant, this latter rode off
+with their small stock of money. Gustavus plunged his horse into the
+river, and riding back after the faithless servitor, pursued him all day
+straight back into the enemy's country, until the terrified thief,
+abandoning horse and money and all, fled into the woods. Gustavus
+recovered his property and pursued his course. The Danes swarmed into
+Dalecarlia after him. He disguised himself as a woodcutter, and lived as
+such. One day he met in the woods a giant Dalesman named Liss Lars, and,
+as they were chatting together, a great bear attacked Gustavus. After a
+fierce battle Lars slew the brute with a blow of his axe. The two
+woodcutters became friends, and Lars got his companion a place under the
+same master as himself, where Gustavus remained a whole winter
+unsuspected. Often he himself was questioned by the Danish spies,
+hunting for the now famous Vasa.
+
+[Illustration: Abdication of Gustavus Vasa.]
+
+Once there was like to have been trouble between the two friends, for
+Lars loved a maiden at the farm, who out of coquetry often smiled at
+Gustavus, until the giant Dalesman became terribly jealous. One day when
+she brought them their noon-day ale, she handed it first to Gustavus,
+who, after drinking, returned it with a pleasant word and a pat on the
+cheek. With a roar like a mad bull, Lars rushed on his comrade and
+seized him in his giant arms. As he did so he saw around his neck the
+embroidered collar worn by the Swedish nobility. The astounded Dalesman
+staggered back, pointing to it. "Either thou art a thief, or the great
+Gustavus himself." "Ay, friend Lars, I am the outlaw Gustavus, son of
+Eric. Now, wilt thou hand me over to the Danes, or smash my head against
+the floor, as just now thou seemedest minded?" "I will swear eternal
+fealty to thee," cried Lars; "and if thou raisest the standard of
+revolt, I will be the first to join."
+
+Soon, however, even this retired spot became too unsafe, and Gustavus
+fled farther north. Once an old schoolmate offered him shelter, and
+then, while Gustavus slept, rode away to get help to capture him. But
+the housewife, suspecting her husband's treachery, roused Gustavus, who
+climbed through a window twenty feet from the ground, and escaped on a
+horse the good woman had provided.
+
+At another time, by burying himself in a load of hay he was carried past
+some Danish soldiers who were searching for him. They thrust their
+spears through the hay and then rode on. One of the spears wounded the
+hidden man, and, seeing the blood trickle down, the soldiers hurried
+back. But the driver had snatched out his knife and given a slight cut
+to one of his horses; and when he pointed to this, charging one of them
+with having done it, they rode away again laughing at their own
+suspicions. In a hundred other equally dangerous situations he escaped
+either by his own courage, or by the ready wit of the brave Dalecarlian
+peasants; and at last the Danish spies gave up the hunt for him, and
+returned to Stockholm.
+
+Then he came forth again, and in ringing words urged the people to
+revolt. But though they loved Gustavus, and loved Sweden, yet they held
+back in doubt and fear from his daring plans; and so the hero left them,
+and went on through the surrounding provinces, telling everywhere of
+King Christian's cruelty, and sowing seed which was to ripen later on.
+Yet nowhere could he rouse the peasants to action, until word came that
+the cruel king had sworn to cut a hand and foot from every man in
+Sweden, that they might never revolt again. Now all felt that there was
+nothing left but fight. In great haste the Dalecarlians sent after
+Gustavus and brought him back. They held a great meeting, and to it came
+Gustavus' wood-cutter friend, Liss Lars. He made a great homely speech,
+saying, "This Gustavus, son of Eric, is a man. He has threshed with me,
+and I know him. We can trust him, and sense has he, more than all of us
+put together. He must be our leader."
+
+All swore fealty to Gustavus; and he bade them make swords and spears
+and arrows on their own anvils, while he went on again to rouse the
+other provinces. King Christian had been called home by a rumor of
+rebellion there, but his lieutenants thought to crush this little
+uprising of the Dalecarlians as easily as they had a few others, and one
+of them marched promptly there with a large force. The brave peasants,
+led by Liss Lars and another, attacked him as he was crossing a river
+and defeated him with great slaughter. Gustavus heard rumors of the
+battle, and that his little army was destroyed. In wild haste he
+galloped back to Dalecarlia to find them celebrating their victory.
+
+Now did the men he had roused in every quarter come pouring in; and he
+drilled them, and trained them, and encouraged them, became head and
+hand and heart for them all, till soon he had such an army that he might
+fairly hope to match any force the Danes could bring against him. Then
+he sent out a proclamation declaring Christian deposed for his cruel and
+bloody tyranny, and calling all true Swedes to join him in making war
+upon the oppressor.
+
+Thus did this young man at twenty-five become the leader of a great
+rebellion, which he himself had created and controlled. He led his men
+against one fortress after another. There were long sieges and terrible
+battles; but Gustavus proved himself as great a general as he was a man;
+and two years later, in 1525, Stockholm, the last town remaining to the
+Danes in Sweden, surrendered to his army. Christian himself had been
+unable to leave Denmark, but he was in constant communication with his
+lieutenants, and wild was his rage at the continued success of his young
+opponent. Gustavus's mother and sister, with many other Swedish ladies,
+had fallen into the king's hands at the time of those wholesale murders;
+and he tried to frighten the hero with threats of what he would do to
+them; but poor Gustavus had learned only too surely that most of them
+were already dead from his cruel treatment. Finally this brute was
+deposed by his own subjects, and a new king chosen. This king made some
+faint attempts to recover Sweden, but he had small chance against such a
+man as Vasa.
+
+The hero and his army entered Stockholm in triumph; and such of the old
+nobles as were left, gathered in a council and offered him the crown
+which he had wrested from Denmark. He refused it, saying he had labored
+for his country, not himself, and bade the nobles choose from among
+themselves some older man. But the whole country cried out that they
+would submit to no man but him; he had freed them, he should rule them.
+So there was, what seldom has been in history, a free choice of a king
+by a united people; and Gustavus, son of Eric, became Gustavus I., King
+of Sweden. Five years before he had been carried off a helpless, almost
+friendless prisoner, by a mighty king. Now they had, by sheer force of
+character, changed places; the king was in a dungeon, Gustavus on a
+throne.
+
+Though the remainder of our hero's life was less adventurous, it was no
+less noble. He made, as all had foreseen, a great king, showing himself
+as wise and high-minded as he had already proven brave and patient. He
+found Sweden a petty province, he left it a mighty kingdom; he found it
+a wilderness, poor, thinly peopled, and semi-barbarous, he left it
+prosperous, populous, and civilized. He himself was the head and centre
+of all this, performing an amount of work which seems almost impossible
+for one man. His letters, some of which remain, are clear, minute in
+detail, and exact. He knew just how he wanted things done, and he had
+them done his way. His own life might be summed up in his advice to his
+two sons, given when, only a few months before his death, he resigned a
+crown grown too heavy for his failing strength. "Think carefully,
+execute promptly, _never give up_, never delay. Resolves not carried out
+are like clouds without rain in times of drought."
+
+
+
+
+MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
+
+By SAMUEL L. KNAPP
+
+(1542-1587)
+
+[Illustration: Mary, Queen of Scots.]
+
+
+Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the third child of James V. and his
+wife, Mary of Guise. That lady had borne him previously, two sons, both
+of whom died in infancy. Mary was born on December 7, 1542, in the
+palace of Linlithgow. She was only seven days old when she lost her
+father, who, at the time of her birth, lay sick at the palace of
+Falkland.
+
+The young queen was crowned by Cardinal Beaton, at Stirling, on
+September 9, 1543. Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated
+commissioners, to whom they intrusted the charge of the queen's person,
+leaving all her other interests to the care of her mother. The first two
+years of her life, Mary spent at Linlithgow, where it is said she had
+the small-pox, but the disease must have been of a particularly gentle
+kind, having left behind no visible traces. During the greater part of
+the years 1545, 1546, and 1547, she resided at Stirling Castle, in the
+keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. She was afterward removed to
+Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the lake of Monteith; after
+remaining there upward of two years, it was thought expedient by those
+who had at the time the disposal of her future destiny, that she should
+be removed to France. She was accordingly, in the fifth year of her age,
+taken to Dunbarton, where she was delivered to the French admiral, whose
+vessels were waiting to receive her; and attended by Lords Erskine and
+Livingstone, her three natural brothers, and four young ladies as
+companions, she left Scotland.
+
+The thirteen happiest years of Mary's life were spent in France. She was
+received at Brest, by order of Henry II., with all the honors due to her
+rank and royal destiny. She travelled by easy stages to the palace at
+St. Germain en Laye; and to mark the respect that was paid to her, the
+prison gates of every town she came to were thrown open, and the
+prisoners set free. Shortly after her arrival she was sent, along with
+the king's own daughters, to one of the first convents in France, where
+young ladies of distinction were instructed in the elementary branches
+of education.
+
+Henry, to confirm the French authority in Scotland, was eager to marry
+Francis, his son, to Mary. Francis, the young dauphin, who was much
+about Mary's own age, was far inferior to her both in personal
+appearance and mental endowments. They had been playmates from infancy;
+they had prosecuted all their studies together; he loved her with the
+tenderest affection; it was not in Mary's nature to be indifferent to
+those who evinced affection for her; and if her fondness for Francis was
+mingled with pity, it has long been asserted that "pity is akin to
+love."
+
+On April 24, 1558, the nuptials took place in the church of Notre Dame,
+with great splendor. Every eye was fixed on the youthful Mary; and,
+inspired by those feelings which beauty seldom fails to excite, every
+heart offered up prayers for her future welfare and happiness. She was
+now at that age when feminine loveliness is perhaps most attractive. It
+is not to be supposed, indeed, that her charms, in her sixteenth year,
+had ripened into that full-blown maturity which they afterward attained;
+but they were on this account only the more fascinating. Some have
+conjectured that Mary's beauty has been extolled far above its real
+merits; and it cannot be denied that many vague and erroneous notions
+exist regarding it. But that her countenance possessed, in a pre-eminent
+degree, the something which constitutes beauty, is sufficiently attested
+by the unanimous declaration of all contemporary writers. Her person was
+finely proportioned, and her carriage exceedingly graceful and
+dignified.
+
+Shortly after the espousals, Mary and her husband retired to one of
+their princely summer residences, where she discharged the duties of a
+wife without ostentation. But the intriguing and restless ambition of
+her uncles could not allow her to remain long quiet. About this time
+Mary Tudor, who had succeeded Edward VI. on the English throne, died;
+and although the Parliament had declared that the succession rested in
+her sister Elizabeth, it was thought proper to claim for Mary Stuart a
+prior right. But it was destined that there was to be another and more
+unexpected death at the French court. Henry II. was killed at a
+tournament by Count Montgomery. Francis and Mary succeeded to the
+throne. Mary was now at the very height of European grandeur, for she
+was queen of two powerful countries, and heir presumptive of a third.
+She stood unluckily on too high a pinnacle to be able to retain her
+position long. Francis died after a short reign of seventeen months, and
+the heir to the throne Charles IX., being a minor, Catharine de Medicis
+became once more virtually queen of France; and from her Mary could
+expect no favors.
+
+In August, 1561, Mary left France with tears, and was received in
+Scotland with every mark of respect. She came, alone and unprotected, to
+assume the government of a country which had long been distinguished for
+its rebellious turbulence. Contrasted, too, with her former situation,
+that which she was now about to fill appeared particularly formidable.
+By whatever counsel she acted, the blame of all unpopular measures would
+be sure to rest with her. If she favored the Protestants, the Catholics
+were sure to renounce her, and if she assisted the Catholics, the
+Protestants would be again found assembling at Perth, listening, with
+arms in their hands, to the sermons of John Knox, pulling down the
+remaining monasteries, and subscribing additional covenants. Is it
+surprising, then, that she found it difficult to steer her course
+between the rocks of Scylla and the whirlpools of Charybdis? If
+misfortunes ultimately overtook her, the wonder unquestionably ought to
+be, not that they ever arrived, but that they should have been guarded
+against so long.
+
+To further their political views, Mary's hand was sought for by princes
+of the several European courts. The princes of the house of Austria,
+apprehensive of the ambition of France, wished a union between the
+Scottish queen and the Archduke Charles. Philip II., envying the
+Austrians so important a prize, used all his influence to procure her
+hand for his son Don Carlos, heir to the extensive domains of the
+Spanish monarchy. Catharine de Medicis, jealous of them both, offered
+the hand of the Duke of Anjou, brother to her former husband, and
+Elizabeth, the artful queen of England, recommended Lord Robert Dudley,
+afterward Earl of Leicester.
+
+Mary shunned all their intrigues, and followed the bent of her own
+inclination in marrying Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, eldest son of the
+Earl of Lennox. Darnley, at this time in the bloom of youth, was
+distinguished for the beauty and grace of his person, and accomplished
+in every elegant art; and he also professed the Catholic religion.
+Darnley's qualifications, however, were superficial, and abandoning
+himself to pleasure and the vices of youth, he became gradually careless
+and indifferent toward the queen, whose disappointments and
+mortifications were in proportion to the fervor of her former
+sentiments. Her French secretary was one David Rizzio, who was possessed
+of musical talents, and to whom she became much attached. Darnley became
+jealous of Rizzio, and he, with a number of conspirators, took
+possession of the palace on March 9, 1566, while the queen was at supper
+with the Countess of Argyle and Rizzio. The latter clung to the queen
+for protection, but he was torn from her and dragged to the next
+apartment, where the fury of his enemies put an end to his existence, by
+piercing his body with fifty-six wounds. The conspirators put Mary under
+guard, but she escaped, and by the aid of Bothwell and others, she was
+soon enabled to put her enemies at defiance. This event served to
+alienate Mary's affections from Darnley.
+
+On June 19, 1566, the queen gave birth to a son; an event more fortunate
+to the nation than to his unhappy mother, whose evil destiny received
+aggravation from a circumstance which appeared so flattering to her
+hopes.
+
+Darnley, neglected by the queen, and despised by the people, remained in
+solitude at Stirling, but alarmed by the rumor of a design to seize his
+person, he thought fit to retire to his father at Glasgow. On his way
+thither he was seized with a dangerous illness. Mary visited him, and
+it is said prevailed on him to be removed to the capital, where she
+would attend on him. Kirk of Field, a house belonging to the provost of
+a collegiate church, was prepared for his reception. The situation, on a
+rising ground and in an open field, was recommended for the salubrity of
+its air.
+
+At two o'clock on the morning of February 10, 1567, the city was alarmed
+by a sudden explosion. The house in which Darnley resided was blown up
+with gunpowder. The dead body of Henry and a servant, who slept in his
+room, were found lying in an adjacent garden, without marks of violence,
+and untouched by fire. Thus perished Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in his
+twenty-first year, a youth whom the indulgence of nature and fortune had
+combined to betray to his ruin.
+
+This execrable deed gave rise to various suspicions and conjectures,
+which, while they glanced at the queen from her new sentiments with
+regard to her husband, were, with a general consent, directed toward
+Bothwell. A proclamation was issued from the throne, offering a
+considerable reward for the murderer. Neither the power and greatness of
+Bothwell, nor his favor with the queen, secured him from the indignant
+sentiment of the nation. He had a mock trial, in which he was acquitted.
+
+The queen, on a journey from Edinburgh to Stirling, to visit her son,
+was seized by a party of Bothwell's and conducted a prisoner to his
+castle at Dunbar. Here he prevailed on her to marry him, and on her
+subsequent appearance in public she was received with a sullen and
+disrespectful silence by the people.
+
+The transactions which had passed during the last three months in
+Scotland were beheld by Europe with horror and detestation. The murder
+of the king, the impunity with which his assassins were suffered to
+escape, and the marriage of the queen with the man accused of being
+their chief, were a series of incidents, which, for their atrocity and
+rapid succession, were scarcely to be paralleled in the pages of
+history. A general infamy fell upon the Scotch nation, which was
+regarded, from these circumstances, as a people void of decency,
+humanity, and honor.
+
+[Illustration: Mary Stuart and Rizzio.]
+
+The discontented nobles confederated together and flew to arms. Bothwell
+and Mary were unable to stem the opposition; she surrendered to her
+enemies, and was conducted a captive to the castle of Lochleven. Mary
+had for some weeks suffered the terrors of a prison; of her deliverance
+there seemed to be but little prospect; no one had appeared as her
+defender or advocate. Thus solitary, deserted, and distressed, her
+persecutors reckoned on her fears and on her sex. Lord Lindsay, the
+fiercest zealot of the party, was employed to communicate their plan to
+the queen, and to obtain from her a subscription to the papers with
+which he was charged. In the execution of his commission, he spared
+neither harshness nor brutality; certain death was offered to the
+unhappy victim, as the alternative of her refusal. Thus urged, she
+yielded to the pressure of circumstances, and put her signature to the
+papers presented to her by Lindsay. By one of these papers she resigned
+the crown, renounced all share in the government, and consented to
+the coronation of the young king. By another, she appointed Murray to
+the regency, and vested him with the powers and privileges of the
+office. Pierced with grief, and bathed in indignant tears, she signed
+the deed of her own humiliation, and furnished to her adversaries the
+instrument of her abasement.
+
+The people were not generally satisfied with the conduct of Murray, the
+regent, and the scattered party of the queen began gradually to reunite.
+Such was the disposition of the nation when Mary, through the medium of
+George Douglas, a youth of eighteen, contrived to escape from prison.
+She flew on horseback, at full speed, to Hamilton, where, before a train
+of great and splendid nobles, and an army 6,000 strong, she declared
+that the deeds signed by her during her imprisonment, and the
+resignation of her crown, were extorted from her by fear. An engagement
+between her forces and those of Murray took place at Hamilton; her army
+was defeated. She stood on a hill and saw all that passed. In confusion
+and horror she began her flight, and so terrible was the trepidation of
+her spirits, that she stopped not till she reached the abbey of
+Dunrenan, in Galloway, fully sixty Scottish miles from the field of
+battle. In the space of eleven days she had beheld herself a prisoner,
+at the mercy of her greatest enemies; at the head of a powerful army,
+with a numerous train of nobles devoted to her service; and a fugitive,
+at the hazard of her life, driven, with a few attendants, to lurk in a
+corner of her kingdom. Still anxious and agitated in her retreat, she
+was impelled by her fears to an irretrievable step, fatal to all her
+future hopes. In vain her attendants, with the lords Herries and Heming,
+implored her on their knees not to confide in Elizabeth, her resolution
+was not to be shaken, and to England she fatally resolved to fly. No
+longer an object of jealousy, but compassion, Mary trusted in the
+generosity of a sister queen, that she would not take advantage of her
+calamitous situation. She got into a fisherman's boat, and with about
+twenty attendants, landed at Workington, in Cumberland, whence, with
+marks of respect, she was conducted to Carlisle.
+
+She addressed, on her arrival in England, a letter to the queen, in
+which she painted in glowing colors the injuries she had sustained, and
+implored the sympathy and assistance which her present situation so
+pressingly required. Elizabeth and her council deliberated upon the
+course which, in this extraordinary event, it would be proper to pursue;
+and at last determined, in spite of justice and humanity, to avail
+herself of the advantages given her by the confidence of her rival. Mary
+demanded a personal interview with Elizabeth, but this honor she was
+told must be denied to her. She had no intention of acknowledging
+superiority in the queen of England, who, she expected, would, as a
+friend, herself receive and examine her defences. But Elizabeth chose to
+consider herself as umpire between the Scottish queen and her subjects;
+and she prepared to appoint commissioners to hear the pleadings of both
+parties, and wrote to the Regent of Scotland to empower proper persons
+to appear in his name, and produce what could be alleged in vindication
+of his proceedings.
+
+Mary, who had hitherto relied on the professions of Elizabeth, was by
+this proposal at once undeceived, and she was, in despite of her
+remonstrances and complaints, conducted to Bolton, a castle of Lord
+Scroop, on the borders of Yorkshire. Commissioners met on both sides,
+and after protracted deliberations for four months, they left things
+just as they found them.
+
+The last eighteen years of Mary's life were spent in imprisonment, and
+are comparatively a blank in her personal history. She was transported,
+at intervals, from castle to castle, and was intrusted sometimes to the
+charge of one nobleman, and sometimes to another; but for her the active
+scenes of life were past; the splendor and dignity of a throne were to
+be enjoyed no longer; the sceptre of her native country was never more
+to grace her hands; her will ceased to influence a nation; her voice did
+not travel beyond the walls that witnessed her confinement. She came
+into England at the age of twenty-five, in the prime of womanhood, the
+full vigor of health, and the rapidly ripening strength of her
+intellectual powers. She was there destined to feel, in all its
+bitterness, that "hope deferred maketh the heart sick." Year after year
+passed slowly on, and year after year her spirits became more exhausted,
+her health feebler, and her doubts and fears confirmed, till they at
+length settled in despair. Premature old age overtook her before she was
+past the meridian of life; and for some time before her death, her hair
+was white "with other snows than those of age." Yet, during the whole of
+this long period, amid sufferings which would have broken many a
+masculine spirit, and which, even in our own times, have been seen to
+conquer those who had conquered empires, Mary retained the innate grace
+and dignity of her character, never forgetting that she had been born a
+queen, or making her calamities an excuse for the commission of any
+petty meanness, which she would have scorned in the days of her
+prosperity. Full of incident as her previous life had been, brilliant in
+many of its achievements, it may be doubted whether the forbearance,
+fortitude, and magnanimity displayed in her latter years, do not redound
+more highly to her praise than all that preceded. Elizabeth wished for
+some plausible pretext to take away the life of the unhappy Mary, whom,
+though so defenceless, she regarded as a dangerous rival. The Duke of
+Norfolk made offers of marriage to Mary, to which she consented, in case
+she should be liberated. His scheme also was to favor the Catholic
+cause, and on its being discovered he was thrown into prison, where,
+after six months' confinement, he was liberated, on condition of his
+holding no further intercourse with the queen. He was, however, arrested
+the second time, and executed.
+
+A conspiracy soon after took place, through the blind affection of the
+English Catholics for Mary, and their implacable hatred of Elizabeth;
+that, while it proved fatal to the life of one queen, has left on the
+memory of the other an indelible stain. It was a conspiracy of two
+zealous Catholics, to take the life of Elizabeth. The plot was revealed
+in confidence to Anthony Babington, a young gentleman of Derbyshire,
+possessing a large fortune and many amiable qualities, whom the
+Archbishop of Glasgow had recommended to the notice of Mary. The
+conspirators, through treachery, were arrested, and it is said two
+letters from Mary were found with Babington. This was a pretext to
+represent these fanatics as the instruments of the captive queen.
+Determined that no circumstance of solemnity suited to the dignity of
+the person arraigned might be wanting, Elizabeth appointed, by a
+commission under the great seal, forty persons, the most illustrious in
+the kingdom for their rank and birth, together with five judges, for the
+decision of the cause.
+
+On October 11, 1586, the commissioners arrived at Fotheringay, where
+Mary was confined. She solemnly protested her innocence of the crime
+laid to her charge, and having never countenanced any attempt against
+the life of Elizabeth, she refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of
+the commissioners. "I came," said she, "into the kingdom an independent
+sovereign, to implore the queen's assistance, not to subject myself to
+her authority. Nor is my spirit so broken by past misfortunes, or
+intimidated by present dangers, as to stoop to anything unbecoming the
+majesty of a crowned head, or that will disgrace the ancestors from whom
+I am descended, and the son to whom I shall leave my throne."
+
+Mary made her own defence; and her conduct before her judges displayed
+the magnanimity of a heroine, tempered by the gentleness and modesty of
+a woman. The judges were predetermined to find her guilty: the trial was
+a mere pretence to give a sanction to their proceedings; they were
+unanimous in declaring Mary "to be accessory to the conspiracy of
+Babington, and to have imagined divers matters, tending to the hurt,
+death, and destruction of Elizabeth, contrary to the express words of
+the statute made for the security of the life of the queen."
+
+On Tuesday, February 7, 1587, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent arrived
+at Fotheringay, and read in Mary's presence the warrant for her
+execution, which was appointed for the ensuing day. "That soul," said
+Mary, calmly crossing herself, "is unworthy the joys of heaven, which
+repines because the body must endure the stroke of the axe. I submit
+willingly to the lot which heaven has decreed for me; though I did not
+expect the Queen of England would set the first example of violating the
+sacred person of a sovereign prince." Then laying her hand on a Bible,
+which happened to be near her, she solemnly protested her innocence.
+
+At the scaffold she prayed for the prosperity of her son, and for a long
+and peaceable reign to Elizabeth. She hoped for mercy, she declared,
+only through the death of Christ, at the foot of whose image she
+willingly shed her blood. With intrepid calmness she laid her neck on
+the block; her hands were held by one executioner, while the other, with
+two blows, dissevered her head from her body. "So perish all the enemies
+of Elizabeth!" exclaimed the dean, as he held up the streaming head.
+"Amen," answered the Earl of Kent alone; every other eye was drowned in
+tears; every other voice was stifled in commiseration. Thus, after a
+life of forty-four years and two months, nineteen years of which had
+been passed in captivity, perished the lovely and unfortunate Mary,
+Queen of Scots.
+
+
+
+
+CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH[12]
+
+         [Footnote 12: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By MARION HARLAND
+
+(1579-1631)
+
+[Illustration: Captain John Smith.]
+
+
+Of the antecedents of John Smith, Esquire, Captain and Knight, little is
+recorded beyond the facts that he was of gentle blood and honorable
+lineage, and that he was born in Lancashire, England, in 1579.
+
+He was still under age when he enlisted as a private soldier and fought
+with "our army" in Flanders. Sigismund Bathor, Duke of Transylvania, was
+warring with the Turks, and young Smith, athirst for adventure, next
+took service under him. Before the Transylvanian town of Regall, he
+killed three Turkish officers in single combat, for which doughty deed
+he was knighted. The certificate of Sigismund's patent empowering the
+Englishman to quarter three Turks' heads upon the family coat-of-arms is
+in the Herald's Office in London.
+
+The tables were turned by his subsequent capture by the Turks. He was
+sent to Tartary as a slave, not a prisoner of war, and compelled to
+perform the most ignoble tasks, until, escaping by killing his brutal
+master, he made his way by his wits to his native country in 1604. He
+was now twenty-five years of age, and emphatically a soldier of fortune.
+The tale of his prowess and adventures had preceded him, and he was
+eagerly welcomed in London by kindred spirits who were preparing to
+emigrate to America to form the colony of Virginia under the grant and
+direct patronage of James I. By the time the enterprise was ripe for
+execution, Smith had made himself so useful in counsel and preparation
+that the king named him as one of the councillors of the prospective
+colony.
+
+The boundary lines of the royal grant were two hundred miles north, and
+the same distance south, of the mouth of the James River, and east and
+west "from sea to sea."
+
+On December 19, 1606, the band of adventurers, 100 in number, embarked
+at Gravesend in three small vessels. Christopher Newport was in command,
+but Smith, and his close allies, Bartholomew Gosnold and George Percy, a
+younger brother of the Duke of Northumberland, were the ruling spirits
+of the voyagers. Carpenters and laborers were oddly jumbled upon the
+list of emigrants with jewellers, perfumers, and gold refiners, and
+"gentlemen" held prominence in numbers and influence. The officers
+outnumbered the privates. The little fleet was hardly out of the offing
+when the struggle for power began. The voyage was not half accomplished
+when John Smith was charged with complicity in a discovered mutiny. He
+had intended, it was alleged, to murder his superiors, seize the fleet,
+and make himself king of Virginia. The "General History of Virginia"
+tells how serious an aspect the affair wore:
+
+"Such factions here we had, as commonly attend such voyages, that a
+paire of gallowes was made, but Captain Smith, for whom they were
+intended, _could not be persuaded to use them_."
+
+He was still under suspicion and arrest when the fleet anchored (May 13,
+1607) in the broad river, Powhatan, to which the English explorers gave
+the name of their king. Their first tents were pitched and first cabins
+built upon a low peninsula flanked by extensive marshes. The settlement
+received the name of Jamestown, in further demonstration of loyalty.
+
+When the king's sealed orders were opened, the name of John Smith
+appeared second upon the roll of seven councillors appointed to govern
+the infant colony. Next to him Gosnold was fittest for the responsible
+position assigned to them. His death within three months after the
+landing, left Smith the object of the envious distrust of Wingfield, who
+had been elected president, and virtually alone in the honest desire to
+found a permanent settlement in Virginia for ends he thus sets forth:
+
+"Erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming
+things unjust, teaching virtue and gain to our native Mother Country."
+
+There is a prophetic ring in this remarkable utterance of one whom his
+contemporaries persisted in regarding as a reckless adventurer,
+ambitious and unscrupulous. His frank denunciation of the feeble
+measures of Wingfield and the selfish villainy of Ratcliffe, another
+colleague, had earned the ill-will of the president and the relentless
+hatred of Ratcliffe. Smith, being under arrest, was not allowed to take
+his place among the councillors. He bided the day of justice with
+patience learned from adversity. When the supreme opportunity came he
+grasped it. An attack from hostile Indians proved Wingfield's unfitness
+for the military command, and the alarmed colonists turned instinctively
+to the bravest of their number. Wingfield anticipated the uprising by
+reiterating his intention of sending Smith to England for trial, for the
+double crime of mutiny and treason.
+
+"The restive soldier suddenly flamed out. He would be tried in Virginia
+as was his right--there was the charter! and the trial took place. The
+result was a ruinous commentary on the characters of Wingfield and the
+council. The testimony of their own witnesses convicted them of
+subornation of perjury to destroy Smith. He was acquitted by the jury of
+all the charges against him, and Kendall, who had conducted the
+prosecution, was condemned to pay him £200 damages. This sum was
+presented by Smith to the colony for the general use, and then the foes
+partook of the commission, and the soldier was admitted to his seat in
+the council." (Cooke's "History of Virginia.")
+
+By autumn the settlement was fearfully reduced in numbers and spirits.
+Fever, engendered by marshland malaria and famine, threatened utter
+extinction.
+
+"From May to September, those who escaped lived upon sturgeon and
+sea-crabs; 50 in this time were buried," writes one of the sufferers.
+"The rest, seeing the president's projects to escape these miseries in
+our pinnace by flight (who all this time had neither felt want or
+sickness), so moved our dead spirits as we deposed him and established
+Ratcliffe in his place."
+
+It was an exchange of inefficiency for deliberate wickedness, and in the
+excess of continued misery the more reasonable of the victims arose as a
+man and put Smith at the head of affairs.
+
+The "terrible summer" left hardly ten men who could wield axe or hoe.
+Smith himself was ill with malarial fever, yet nursed the sick, prayed
+with the dying, and kept up the hearts of all by brave words and braver
+action. He bought corn and meat of the Indians when they would sell, and
+when they refused, secured supplies by intimidation. Yet we find him, as
+soon as the immediate peril was over, again the subordinate of envious
+leaders, and volunteering to satisfy malcontents in America and in
+England, by heading a party in mid-December to attempt the discovery of
+the great "South Sea," for so long the _ignis fatuus_ of Western
+adventurers.
+
+The explorers sailed up the James, diverging here and there into the
+tortuous creeks of the Chickahominy. When stopped by shallows, Smith
+procured a canoe and Indian guides and pushed on with but two other
+white men (Robinson and Emry) into the unknown wilderness, teeming with
+spies jealous of the foreign intruders. Attempting to land at
+"Powhatan," one of "the emperor's" residences, he and his guide sank
+into the morass and were fired upon from the shore.
+
+"The salvages ... followed him with 300 bowmen, led by the king of
+Pamunkee, who, searching the turnings of the river, found Robinson and
+Emry by the fire-side. These they shot full of arrowes and slew."
+
+Smith bound the Indian guide to his arm and used him as a shield, thus
+saving his own life. He was, however, captured, lashed to a tree, and
+would have been killed, but for his address in presenting the King
+Opecancanough with "a round ivory double compass Dyall"--his own pocket
+compass--directing the attention of the "salvages" to the movement of
+the needle, and describing the uses of the instrument.
+
+"A month those Babarians kept him prisoner; many strange triumphes and
+conjurations they made of him, yet he so demeaned himself among them as
+he not only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his own
+libertie, and got himself and his company such estimation among them
+that these Salvages admired him as a demi-god."
+
+From the pen of a contemporary we have the account of what led to his
+"libertie." He had killed two of the attacking party, and was condemned
+by Powhatan to die for the offence.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Smith saved by Pocahontas.]
+
+"Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a long
+consultation was held; but the conclusion was, two great stones were
+brought before Powhatan, then, as many as could lay hands on him,
+dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with
+their clubs to beate out his brains, Pocahontas, the king's dearest
+daughter, when no entreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes,
+and laid her owne upon his to save him from death; whereat the emperor
+was contented he should live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads,
+and copper."
+
+From other pages we get the stage-setting for this, the most dramatic
+incident in colonial history.
+
+The emperor had heard the evidence with a "sour look," sitting in state
+upon a rude dais, covered with mats, his body wrapped in a cloak of
+raccoon skins. His dusky harem was grouped about him, watchful and
+interested. When the trial was over he bade one wife to bring water to
+wash the captive's hands, another a bunch of feathers to dry them upon.
+This was preliminary to the feast.
+
+"So fat they fed Mee," says "A True Relation of Virginia," published by
+Smith in 1608, "that I much doubted they intended to have sacrificed mee
+to the Quioughquosiche, which is a superiour power they worship."
+
+The appointment to the position of armorer in the royal household, and
+trinket-maker to the princess, was one of honor. Smith enjoyed it for a
+month only, but to his residence at Powhatan and intimacy with
+Pocahontas, he was indebted for the familiarity with Indian language and
+customs which was afterward of incalculable benefit to the Virginians.
+He describes Pocahontas in respectful admiration:
+
+"For features, countenance, and expression she much exceeded the rest."
+
+Her gala attire was a doeskin mantle lined with down from the breasts of
+wood-pigeons; bangles of coral bound her brown ankles and wrists, and in
+her hair was a white heron's feather in token of her royal blood. At the
+time of her rescue of Smith she was about thirteen years old.
+
+In January, 1608, the emperor offered Smith a forest principality if he
+would remain with the tribe, but he petitioned to be allowed to return
+to Jamestown. The request was reluctantly granted, and an escort sent
+with him to the "Fort." This returned, bearing gifts for Powhatan and
+his wives, with marvellous stories of the cannon-shot fired into the
+sleety forest at Smith's command. We cannot but wonder what toy or
+ornament went to the petted child whom he had served in glad gratitude
+while a member of her father's household.
+
+He had no time for sentimental musings. Upon the very day of his
+unlooked for return (January 8, 1608), Ratcliffe repeated Wingfield's
+attempt to escape to England in the only vessel left at Jamestown. The
+anchor was actually raised when Smith hastily collected a force and
+hurried to the landing. "With the hazzard of his life, with sakre,
+falcon, and musket shot, Smith forced" (them) "now the third time to
+stay or sinke."
+
+In their sullen rage the foiled conspirators plotted and nearly executed
+a fiendish revenge. Once more we copy from the "General History,"
+written by Smith and his friends.
+
+"Some no better than they should be, had plotted with the president"
+(Ratcliffe) "the next day to have put him" (Smith) "to death by the
+Leviticall law for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending the fault
+was his that had led them to their ends; but he quickly took such order
+with such lawyers that he layd them by the heeles till he sent some of
+them prisoners to England."
+
+The colony was almost destitute of food, and the memories of the famine
+of last year terrified the imaginations of those who had lived through
+it. "Gentlemen" having again predominated in reinforcements sent from
+England, the crops planted and gathered in Smith's absence had been
+meagre, while rats brought over in one of the vessels had wrought havoc
+with stored grain. Like an angel of mercy was the apparition of
+Pocahontas, at the head of a "wild train" of Indians laden with corn and
+game, approaching the fort. "Ever once in four or five days during the
+time of two or three years," the young princess, thus attended, visited
+the fort and succored the needy settlers. Smith declares that "next
+under God she preserved the colony from death, famine, and utter
+confusion." He might have subjoined that, but for himself, not even
+Pocahontas's bounty could have saved the settlement from the
+consequences of misconduct and misrule.
+
+His was the only voice lifted to condemn the mad folly of loading a
+homeward-bound vessel with the glittering mud of a neighboring creek.
+That he was "not enamored of their dirty skill to freight such a drunken
+ship with so much gilded dirt"--was one of the mildest of his phrases,
+as, "breathing out these and many other passions," he harangued those
+who had "no thought, no discourse, no hope, and no work but to dig gold,
+wash gold, refine gold, and load gold."
+
+Before the English assayers confirmed his judgment as to the value of
+this cargo, the intrepid adventurer had sailed, with fourteen others, up
+the Chesapeake into new and wonderful regions. Never losing heart, even
+when he believed himself to be dying from the sting of a poisonous fish,
+he discovered and entered the Potomac, the Rappahannock, and tributary
+creeks, fighting his way when not allowed to proceed peaceably. In July
+(1608) he led another party to the spot now occupied by the city of
+Baltimore, and made friends with a tribe called Susquehannocks, believed
+to be sun-worshippers. Returning from these voyages of three thousand
+miles in all, he drew in masterly style a chart of the countries
+explored, and sent it to England.
+
+Jamestown was still in a state of what he calls "combustion," under the
+tyranny of Ratcliffe. Emboldened by Smith's return, the colonists
+deposed the hated governor, and formally elected Smith Governor of
+Virginia. The winter closed in upon an "affrighted" population.
+Storehouses were nearly empty, agriculture having been neglected in the
+gold fever. As Smith could not be "persuaded to use" the gallows, so he
+now announced that "no persuasion could persuade _him_ to starve." In
+company with George Percy and fifty others, he visited his old ally
+Powhatan, and tried to buy food. A change had come to the emperor's
+heart. He addressed his quondam armorer as a "rash youth;" protested
+that he was afraid of him, and would not treat with the English unless
+they came to him unarmed. Warned by Pocahontas, who stole through the
+woods after dark to apprise Smith that treachery was intended, the
+party lay on their arms all night, and the force sent to surprise them
+retreated. Next day, Powhatan loaded the boats with corn, and Smith
+sailed up the York upon a similar errand to Opecancanough, Powhatan's
+brother. While in audience with him, the Englishmen were surrounded by a
+band of seven hundred armed savages. Seizing the wily chieftain by the
+scalp-lock, Smith held a pistol to his breast, and demanded a cargo of
+corn and safe-conduct for his party to Jamestown. The fifty men, without
+loss of a single life, took back enough food to victual the town.
+
+Early in the spring of 1609, the president thus made known his policy to
+his constituents:
+
+"Countrymen! You see now that power resteth wholly in myself. You must
+obey this now for a law--_he that will not work shall not eat_. And
+though you presume that authority here is but a shadow and that I dare
+not touch the lives of any, but my own must answer for it, yet he that
+offendeth, let him assuredly expect his due punishment.
+
+"I protest by that God that made me, since necessity hath no power to
+force you to gather for yourselves, you shall not only gather for
+yourselves, but for those that are sick. _They_ shall not starve."
+
+Fields were tilled, the fort was repaired, wise Powhatan treated the
+pale-faces kindly for Smith's sake, and the emigrants felt for the first
+time firm ground beneath their feet. They had twenty-four pieces of
+ordnance, and three hundred stand of small-arms; three ships, seven
+boats, a store of more than two months' provisions, six hundred hogs,
+with goats, fowls, and sheep, and an established trading-station with
+the natives.
+
+Like an aėrolite from the summer sky came news from England that a fleet
+was to be sent out with a new colony, a new charter, and new officers;
+Smith's old enemy, Christopher Newport, was in command of the
+expedition. Smith had been complained of at home as "dealing harshly
+with the natives and not returning the ships full-freighted." His day
+was over. The king so willed it.
+
+Smith's last official act was the establishment of a colony at Powhatan,
+renamed "Nonsuch," opposite where the city of Richmond was laid out over
+a century later. On his way back to Jamestown, he was cruelly wounded by
+the explosion of a bag of gunpowder. There was no good surgeon in the
+colony. To return forthwith to England was but anticipating by a few
+weeks what must be when the fleet arrived.
+
+He returned to London at the age of thirty. "He had broke the ice and
+beat the path, but had not there" (in Virginia) "one foot of ground, nor
+the very house he builded, nor the ground he digged with his own hands."
+
+In 1614 he returned to America, but now to the northern region assigned
+to the Plymouth Company. He gave name to Boston; explored and made a
+survey of the New England coast. On a second voyage he had a fight with
+a French squadron, was captured, and taken to Rochelle. While there he
+wrote a "Description of New England," for which service James I.
+appointed him "Admiral of New England." He died in London, in 1631, at
+the age of fifty-two, never having revisited Virginia. Upon his tomb, in
+the Church of St. Sepulchre's, London, may be still traced the outlines
+of the Three Turks' Heads and the inscription, beginning:
+
+  "_Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings._"
+
+Any sketch of his life, however brief, would be incomplete that
+contained no reference to the letter written by him to Queen Anne (the
+consort of James I.), in 1616, recommending the Lady Rebecca Rolfe to
+the royal favor.
+
+He would "be guilty of the deadly poison of ingratitude," he wrote, if
+he failed to narrate what he and the colony at Jamestown owed to
+Pocahontas. He besought the queen's kindly consideration for the
+stranger just landed upon her shores, as due to Pocahontas's "great
+spirit, her desert, birth, want, and simplicity." His one call upon the
+wife of John Rolfe, Gentleman, was marked by profound respect on his
+part to one whom he accosted as "Lady Rebecca;" by profound emotion on
+hers.
+
+John Smith's biography and epitaph are best summed up by one of his
+brothers-in-arms:
+
+     "What shall I saye, but thus we lost him that in all his
+     proceedings made justice his first guide and experience his
+     second, ever hating basenesse, sloth, pride, and indignitie more
+     than any dangers; that never allowed more for himself than for
+     his soldiers with him; that upon no danger would send them where
+     he would not lead them himselfe; that would never see us want
+     what he either had or could by any means get us; that would
+     rather want than borrow, or starve than not pay; that loved
+     action more than wordes, and hated falsehood and covetousnesse
+     worse than death; whose adventures were our lives and whose losse
+     our deaths."
+
+[Signature: Marion Harland.]
+
+
+
+
+WILLIAM HARVEY
+
+(1578-1657)
+
+
+William Harvey was born on April 1, 1578, at Folkestone, on the southern
+coast of Kent. He was the eldest of nine children; of the rest little
+more is known, than that several of the brothers were among the most
+eminent merchants in the city of London during the reigns of the two
+first Stuarts. His father, Thomas Harvey, followed no profession. He
+married Joanna Falke, at the age of twenty, and lived upon his own
+estate at Folkestone. This property devolved by inheritance upon his
+eldest son; and the greater part of it was eventually bequeathed by him
+to the college at which he was educated.
+
+At ten years of age he commenced his studies at the grammar school in
+Canterbury; and upon May 31, 1593, soon after the completion of his
+fifteenth year, was admitted as a pensioner at Caius College, Cambridge.
+
+[Illustration: William Harvey.]
+
+At that time a familiar acquaintance with logic and the learned
+languages was indispensable as a first step in the prosecution of all
+the branches of science, especially of medicine; and the skill with
+which Harvey avails himself of the scholastic form of reasoning in his
+great work on the Circulation, with the elegant Latin style of all his
+writings, particularly of his latest work on the Generation of Animals,
+affords a sufficient proof of his diligence in the prosecution of these
+preliminary studies during the next four years which he spent at
+Cambridge. The two next were occupied in visiting the principal cities
+and seminaries of the Continent. He then prepared to address himself to
+those investigations to which the rest of his life was devoted; and the
+scene of his introduction to them could not have been better chosen than
+at the University of Padua, where he became a student in his
+twenty-second year.
+
+The ancient physicians gathered what they knew of anatomy from
+inaccurate dissections of the lower animals, and the slender knowledge
+thus acquired, however inadequate to unfold the complicated functions of
+the human frame, was abundantly sufficient as a basis for conjecture, of
+which they took full advantage. With them everything became easy to
+explain, precisely because nothing was understood; and the nature and
+treatment of disease, the great object of medicine, and its subsidiary
+sciences, was hardily abandoned to the conduct of the imagination, and
+sought for literally among the stars. Nevertheless, so firmly was their
+authority established, that even down to the close of the sixteenth
+century the naturalists of Europe still continued to derive all their
+physiology, and the greater part of their anatomy and medicine, from the
+works of Aristotle and Galen, read not in the original Greek, but
+re-translated into Latin from the interpolated versions of the Arabian
+physicians. The opinions entertained by these dictators in the republic
+of letters, and consequently by their submissive followers, with regard
+to the structure and functions of the organs concerned in the
+circulation, were particularly fanciful and confused; so much so that it
+would be no easy task to give an intelligible account of them that would
+not be tedious from its length. It will be enough to say, that a
+scarcely more oppressive mass of mischievous error was cleared away from
+the science of astronomy by the discovery of Newton, than that from
+which physiology was disencumbered by the discovery of Harvey.
+
+But though the work was completed by an Englishman, it is to Italy that,
+in anatomy, as in most of the sciences, we owe the first attempts to
+cast off the thralldom of the ancients. Mundinus had published a work
+in the year 1315, which contained a few original observations of his
+own; and his essay was so well received that it remained the text-book
+of the Italian schools of anatomy for upward of two centuries. It was
+enriched from time to time by various annotators, among the chief of
+whom were Achillini, and Berengarius, the first person who published
+anatomical plates. But the great reformer of anatomy was Vesalius, who,
+born at Brussels in 1514, had attained such early celebrity during his
+studies at Paris and Louvain, that he was invited by the Republic of
+Venice, in his twenty-second year, to the chair of anatomy at Padua,
+which he filled for seven years with the highest reputation. He also
+taught at Bologna, and subsequently, by the invitation of Cosmo de'
+Medici, at Pisa. The first edition of his work, "De Corporis Humani
+Fabrica" was printed at Basle, in the year 1543; it is perhaps one of
+the most successful efforts of human industry and research, and from the
+date of its publication begins an entirely new era in the science of
+which it treats. The despotic sway hitherto maintained in the schools of
+medicine by the writings of Aristotle and Galen was now shaken to its
+foundation, and a new race of anatomists eagerly pressed forward in the
+path of discovery. Among these no one was more conspicuous than
+Fallopius, the disciple, successor, and in fame the rival, of Vesalius,
+at Padua. After him the anatomical professorship was filled by Fabricius
+ab Aquapendente, the last of the distinguished anatomists who flourished
+at Padua in the sixteenth century.
+
+Harvey became his pupil in 1599, and from this time he appears to have
+applied himself seriously to the study of anatomy. The first germ of the
+discovery which has shed immortal honor on his name and country was
+conceived in the lecture-room of Fabricius.
+
+He remained at Padua for two years; and having received the Degree of
+Doctor of Arts and Medicine, with unusual marks of distinction, returned
+to England early in the year 1602. Two years afterward he commenced
+practice in London and married the daughter of Dr. Launcelot Browne, by
+whom he had no children. He became a Fellow of the College of
+Physicians, when about thirty years of age, having in the meantime
+renewed his degree of Doctor in Medicine, at Cambridge; and was soon
+after elected Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which office he
+retained till a late period of his life.
+
+On August 4, 1615, he was appointed Reader of Anatomy and Surgery to the
+College of Physicians. From some scattered hints in his writings it
+appears that his doctrine of the circulation was first advanced in his
+lectures at the college about four years afterward; and a note-book in
+his own hand-writing is still preserved at the British Museum, in which
+the principal arguments by which it is substantiated are briefly set
+down, as if for reference in the lecture-room. Yet with the
+characteristic caution and modesty of true genius, he continued for nine
+years longer to reason and experimentalize upon what is now considered
+one of the simplest, as it is undoubtedly the most important known law
+of animal nature; and it was not till the year 1628, the fifty-first of
+his life, that he consented to publish his discovery to the world.
+
+In that year the "Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis" was
+published at Frankfort. This masterly treatise begins with a short
+outline and refutation of the opinions of former anatomists on the
+movement of the animal fluids and the function of the heart; the author
+discriminating with care, and anxiously acknowledging the glimpses of
+the truth to be met with in their writings; as if he had not only kept
+in mind the justice due to previous discoveries, and the prudence of
+softening the novelty and veiling the extent of his own, but had
+foreseen the preposterous imputation of plagiarism, which, with other
+inconsistent charges, was afterward brought forward against him. This
+short sketch is followed by a plain exposition of the anatomy of the
+circulation, and a detail of the results of numerous experiments; and
+the new theory is finally maintained in a strain of close and powerful
+reasoning, and followed into some of its most important consequences.
+The whole argument is conducted in simple and unpretending language,
+with great perspicuity, and scrupulous attention to logical form.
+
+The doctrine announced by Harvey may be briefly stated thus: The blood
+circulates through the body, thereby sustaining life. The heart is
+simply the pump which drives the blood through the arteries, from whence
+it returns impure, and is then forced through the lungs and repurified.
+
+The pulmonary circulation had been surmised by Galen, and maintained by
+his successors; but no proof even of this insulated portion of the
+truth, more than amounted to strong probability, had been given till the
+time of Harvey, and no plausible claim to the discovery, still less to
+the demonstration, of the general circulation has ever been set up in
+opposition to his. Indeed, its truth was quite inconsistent with the
+ideas everywhere entertained in the schools on the functions of the
+heart and other viscera, and was destructive of many favorite theories.
+The new doctrine, therefore, as may well be supposed, was received by
+most of the anatomists of the period with distrust, and by all with
+surprise. Some of them undertook to refute it, but their objections
+turned principally on the silence of Galen, or consisted of the most
+frivolous cavils; the controversy, too, assumed the form of personal
+abuse even more speedily than is usually the case when authority is at
+issue with reason. To such opposition Harvey for some time did not think
+it necessary to reply; but some of his friends in England, and of the
+adherents to his doctrine on the Continent, warmly took up his defence.
+At length he was induced to take a personal share in the dispute in
+answer to Riolanus, a Parisian anatomist of some celebrity, whose
+objections were distinguished by some show of philosophy, and unusual
+abstinence from abuse. The answer was conciliatory and complete, but
+ineffectual to produce conviction; and in reply to Harvey's appeal to
+direct experiment, his opponent urged nothing but conjecture and
+assertion. Harvey once more rejoined at a considerable length; taking
+occasion to give a spirited rebuke to the unworthy reception he had met
+with, in which it seems that Riolanus had now permitted himself to join;
+adducing several new and conclusive experiments in support of his
+theory; and entering at large upon its value in simplifying physiology
+and the study of diseases, with other interesting collateral topics.
+Riolanus, however, still remained unconvinced; and his second rejoinder
+was treated by Harvey with contemptuous silence. He had already
+exhausted the subject in the two excellent controversial pieces just
+mentioned, the last of which is said to have been written at Oxford
+about 1645; and he never resumed the discussion in print. Time had now
+come to the assistance of argument, and his discovery began to be
+generally admitted. To this, indeed, his opponents contributed, by a
+still more singular discovery of their own, namely, that the facts had
+been observed, and the important inference drawn, long before. This was
+the mere allegation of envy, chafed at the achievements of another,
+which, from their apparent facility, might have been its own. It is
+indeed strange that the simple mechanism thus explained should have been
+unobserved or misunderstood so long; and nothing can account for it but
+the imperceptible lightness as well as the strength of the chains which
+authority imposes on the mind.
+
+In the year 1623 Harvey became physician extraordinary to James I., and
+seven years later was appointed physician to Charles. He followed the
+fortunes of that monarch, who treated him with great distinction during
+the first years of the civil war, and he was present at the battle of
+Edgehill, in 1642. Having been incorporated doctor of physic by the
+University of Oxford, he was promoted by Charles to the wardenship of
+Merton College, in 1645; but he did not retain this office very long,
+his predecessor, Dr. Brent, being reinstated by the Parliament after the
+surrender of Oxford in the following year.
+
+Harvey then returned to London, and resided with his brother Eliat at
+Cockaine house, in the Poultry. About the time of Charles's execution he
+gave up his practice, which had never been considerable, probably in
+consequence of his devotion to the scientific, rather than the
+practical, parts of his profession. He himself, however, attributed his
+want of success to the enmity excited by his discovery. After a second
+visit to the Continent, he secluded himself in the country, sometimes at
+his own house in Lambeth, and sometimes with his brother Eliat at Combe,
+in Surrey. Here he was visited by his friend, Dr. Ent, in 1651, by whom
+he was persuaded to allow the publication of his work on the "Generation
+of Animals." It was the fruit of many years of experiment and
+meditation; and, though the vehicle of no remarkable discovery, is
+replete with interest and research, and contains passages of brilliant
+and even poetical eloquence. The object of his work is to trace the germ
+through all its changes to the period of maturity; and the illustrations
+are principally drawn from the phenomena exhibited by eggs in the
+process of incubation, which he watched with great care, and has
+described with minuteness and fidelity. The microscope had not at that
+time the perfection it has since attained; and consequently Harvey's
+account of the first appearance of the chick is somewhat inaccurate, and
+has been superseded by the observations of Malpighi, Hunter, and others.
+The experiments upon which he chiefly relied in this department of
+natural history had been repeated in the presence of Charles I., who
+appears to have taken great interest in the studies of his physician.
+
+[Illustration: Harvey demonstrating the Circulation of the Blood.]
+
+In the year 1653, the seventy-fifth of his life, Harvey presented the
+College of Physicians with the title-deed of a building erected in their
+garden, and elegantly fitted up, at his expense, with a library and
+museum, and commodious apartments for their social meetings. Upon this
+occasion he resigned the professorship of anatomy, which he had held for
+nearly forty years, and was succeeded by Dr. Glisson.
+
+In 1654 he was elected to the presidency of the college, which he
+declined on the plea of age; and the former president, Sir Francis
+Prujean, was re-elected at his request. Two years afterward he made a
+donation to the college of a part of his patrimonial estate, to the
+yearly value of £56, as a provision for the maintenance of the library,
+and the annual festival and oration in commemoration of benefactors.
+
+At length his constitution, which had long been harassed by the gout,
+yielded to the increasing infirmities of age, and he died in his
+eightieth year, on June 3, 1657. He was buried at Hempstead, in Essex,
+in a vault belonging to his brother Eliat, who was his principal heir,
+and his remains were followed to the grave by a numerous procession of
+the body of which he had been so illustrious and munificent a member.
+
+In person he was below the middle size, but well proportioned. He had a
+dark complexion, black hair, and small, lively eyes. In his youth his
+temper is said to have been very hasty. If so, he was cured of this
+defect as he grew older; for nothing can be more courteous and temperate
+than his controversial writings; and the genuine kindness and modesty
+which were conspicuous in all his dealings with others, with his
+instructive conversation, gained him many attached and excellent
+friends. He was fond of meditation and retirement; and there is much in
+his works to characterize him as a man of warm and unaffected piety.
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE CHARLES STUART[13]
+
+         [Footnote 13: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By ANDREW LANG, LL.D.
+
+(1720-1788)
+
+
+Charles Edward Stuart, called the "Young Pretender" by his enemies, the
+"Young Chevalier" by neutrals, "Prince of Wales" and "Prince Regent" by
+his partisans, "Prince Edouard" by the French, "Ned" by his intimates,
+as we read in letters of Oliphant of Gask, and "Prince Charlie" by later
+generations, was born at Rome, December 31, 1720. His father was James
+VIII., of Scotland, and III. of England, according to the Legitimist
+theory; his foes called him "The Pretender," partly on the strength of
+the old fable about the warming-pan, so useful to the Whigs. No sane
+person now doubts the genuineness of James' descent from James II., but
+the nickname of Pretender still sticks, though Boswell tells us that
+George III. particularly disliked an appellation which "may be
+parliamentary, but is not gentlemanly." James III., or the Chevalier de
+St. George, was taken up by Louis XIV. on the death of James II., in
+France. He is said to have displayed courage in several battles in
+Flanders, but his attempt to assert his rights in 1715 was a melancholy
+failure. James showed melancholy and want of confidence; he soon left
+Scotland for the Continent, and the best that can be said for his
+conduct is that he endeavored to compensate the peasants whose houses
+were destroyed in the military operations of "the Fifteen." Unable to
+reside in France, he retired to Rome, a pensioner of the Pope, and
+entertained with royal honors. In 1719 he married Clementina Sobieski, a
+granddaughter of the famous John Sobieski, who delivered Europe from the
+Turks. Their eldest son, Prince Charles, appears to have inherited the
+spirit and daring of his Polish ancestors, which animated him throughout
+his youth, and were extinguished less by Culloden than by the treatment
+which he received from the French court, by his imprisonment in
+Vincennes in 1748, and by the unrelenting animosity of the English
+Government, which made him a homeless exile living mysteriously in
+hiding on the Continent. Heart-broken by these misfortunes and by other
+disappointments, Charles developed an unreasoning and sullen obstinacy,
+which alienated his adherents, while the habit of heavy drinking,
+learned in his Highland distresses, ruined his head and heart, and
+converted the most gallant, gay, and promising of princes into a brutal
+dipsomaniac.
+
+[Illustration: Prince Charles Stuart.]
+
+The education of Charles was casual and interrupted. Now he was in the
+hands of Protestants, now of Catholic governors and tutors, as the
+advice of English adherents, or the wishes of his devout mother, chanced
+to prevail. There were frequent quarrels between James and his wife,
+turning partly on the question of education, more on the jealousy which
+the queen conceived of the Countess of Inverness. The Pope sided with
+the queen in these melancholy broils, and James's private life (which
+was not faultless) was much more subject to criticism and interference
+than that of his at least equally lax rival on the English throne. A
+second son, Henry Benedict, Duke of York, was born in 1725, and, at one
+time, was regarded as of more martial disposition than Prince Charles.
+As the elder, Charles was first under fire, and at the siege of Gaeta,
+in 1734, while a mere boy, he displayed coolness, daring, and contempt
+of danger. Young Henry, aged nine, "was so much discontented at being
+refused the partnership of that glory and that danger, that he would not
+put on his sword till his father threatened to take away his garter
+too," says Murray of Broughton, in a letter dated 1742. In later life
+the Duke of York showed no military aptitude. A kind of progress which
+Charles made through the cities of Italy, aroused his desire to be a
+prince in more than name. The English Government quarrelled with the
+Republic of Venice about the royal honors paid to the prince, and his
+ambition was awakened. His education, we have said, was very imperfect.
+Murray of Broughton, indeed, credits him with Latin, Greek, history, and
+philosophy. But his spelling in both French and English was unusually
+bad, even in an age of free spelling; he wrote _époles_ for _epaules_,
+"Gems" for "James," "sord" for "sword." He did not neglect physical
+exercise; was wont to make long marches without stockings, to harden his
+feet (as he told a follower during his Highland distresses). He was a
+good shot, fond of hunting, and, about 1742, was probably the first man
+who ever played golf in Italy. Murray describes him as "tall above the
+common stature, his limbs cast in the most exact mould, his complexion
+of an uncommon delicacy, all his features perfectly regular and well
+turned, and his eyes the finest I ever saw." Whether they were blue or
+hazel is undecided; they are hazel in at least one contemporary
+portrait. As a boy, engravings show him pretty, merry, and buoyant; an
+air of melancholy may be remarked as early as 1744. With bright
+nut-brown hair, golden in the sun, and worn long beneath his peruke, he
+certainly justified the endearing name of "Bonny Prince Charlie." The
+distinction of his air could be concealed by no disguise, as his
+followers loved fondly to declare. He certainly had the royal memory for
+faces. At the opera, in 1773, he noticed an English officer opposite,
+whom he sent for. The gentleman visited the royal box, accompanied by a
+Scotch servant. "I have seen you before," said Charles to this man. "You
+once brought me a message at Falkirk, in 1746."
+
+Such was Prince Charles when, in 1742, Murray of Broughton became
+acquainted with the royal exile in Rome, and was appointed secretary for
+Scotland. With Lochiel and others, Murray formed a Jacobite association
+in his native country. Negotiations were begun with the French court,
+which hung off and on, as did the English Jacobites. They would rise, if
+France supplied men, money, and arms. France would do this if
+sufficiently assured of support in England. The king had no enthusiasm
+for the enterprise. He was weary of promises and of leaning on that
+broken reed, Louis XV. Murray intrigued in Scotland, Lord Elcho in
+England, Kelly at the French court. Lord Semple confused all by false
+hopes; Charles was much in the hands of Irishmen--Sheridan, Sullivan,
+O'Brien, and O'Neil; already a "forward," or Prince's party was growing,
+as opposed to the waiting policy and party of the disheartened and
+unambitious James. To what extent English Jacobites were pledged is
+uncertain. There was much discontent with the Hanoverian dynasty in
+England, but the dread of popery was strong among the middle classes.
+The butchers were advised that Catholics ate no meat on Sundays, the
+official clergy preached Protestant sermons, the Jacobite gentry feared
+for their lives and estates in case of failure, and the sagacity of the
+Government has never revealed the extent to which the Duke of Beaufort
+and others were committed to King James. The universities, the sporting
+squires, and the smugglers drank to "The king over the water," but there
+enthusiasm began and ended.
+
+More was expected, and till assured of more, France held aloof, while
+making promises enough. Even the Highland chiefs said that without a
+French army nothing could be done. In 1744 Charles left Rome, under
+pretext of a hunting party, concealed his withdrawal with great skill,
+and reached Paris. He was obliged, however, to be incognito and was not
+received by the king. An invading force was crowded on board ship. The
+chance seemed excellent, England's forces being mainly abroad; but the
+old friends of England, the winds, drove the battered fleet back into
+harbor, and Charles in vain tried to persuade the Earl Marischal to
+accompany him to Scotland in a small fishing vessel.
+
+One result followed the reception of Charles by France, niggardly as
+that reception was--war with England broke out, and the French army of
+invasion was moved from Dunkirk to Flanders. The prince, not permitted
+to serve in the French army, returned to Paris, where he had been
+falsely assured by Semple and Ęneas Macdonald that England was ready to
+rise for him. Murray, who visited him in Paris, tried to dissuade him
+from a wild venture; in Scotland he found the chiefs of his own opinion,
+but the letter carrying the news never reached the prince. His Irish
+friends urged him on; "the expedition was entirely an Irish project." He
+borrowed money from his bankers, the Waters, he pawned his share of the
+Sobieski jewels, and, with a privateer man-of-war and a brig, La
+Doutelle, he left Belleisle on July 13, 1745. Neither the French court
+nor his father knew that, attended only by seven men, "The Seven Men of
+Moidart," he had set out to seek for a crown. The day before he embarked
+he wrote to James; he said that no man would buy a horse, nor trust a
+prince, that showed no spirit. "I never intend to come back," he added.
+So, dressed as a student of the Scots College, he started. He lost his
+convoy, the Elizabeth, on the way, after a drawn battle with the Lion
+(Captain Brett). Resisting all advice to turn back, as Ęneas Macdonald,
+who accompanied him, narrates, he held on in La Doutelle, and reached
+Erisca, an islet between Barra and South Uist, on August 2, 1745. An
+eagle hovered over his ship, and Tullibardine hailed the royal bird as a
+happy omen. But he found himself unwelcome. Boisdale bade him go home;
+"I _am_ at home," said the prince. He steered for Moidart, the most
+beautiful but the wildest shore of Scotland, a region of steep and
+serrated mountains, of long salt-water straits, winding beneath the
+bases of the hills, and of great fresh-water lochs. Loch Nahuagh was his
+port; here he received Clan Ranald, whose desolate keep, Castle Tirrim,
+stands yet in ruins, since "the Fifteen." Glenaladale (whose descendants
+yet hold their barren acres), Dalilea, and Kinlochmoidart (now, like
+Clan Ranald, landless men) met him with discouraging words. But, seeing
+a flash in the eyes of a young Macdonald, of Kinlochmoidart, Charles
+said, "You will not forsake me?" "I will follow you to death, were no
+other sword drawn in your cause."
+
+The chiefs caught fire, Charles landed, with the seven men of
+Moidart--Ęneas Macdonald, the Judas of the cause; the Duke of Athol
+(Tullibardine), who had been out in the fifteen; Sheridan, the prince's
+tutor; Sir John Macdonald; Kelley, a parson who had been in Atterbury's
+affair; Strickland, an Englishman; and Buchanan. Young Lochiel was
+disinclined to join, but yielded to the fascination of the prince. With
+his accession the rising was a certainty. But Duncan Forbes of Culloden,
+the lord president, had influence enough to hold back the Macleods of
+Skye, to paralyze the shifty Lovat, and to secure the Sutherland house
+for the Hanoverian cause. Charles left Boisdale for Kinlochmoidart, "the
+head of Loch Moidart," where an avenue of trees, the prince's walk, is
+still shown, though the old house was burned after Culloden. Keppoch cut
+off a small party of Scots Royal; this was first blood for the Jacobite
+cause. The wounded were hospitably treated by Lochiel; the English
+captain was released on parole. Charles now crossed the steep hills
+between Kinlochmoidart and the long narrow lake of Loch Sheil, there he
+took boat, and rowed past the lands of Glenaladale and Dalilea to
+Glenfinnan, where Tullibardine raised the standard, inscribed _Tandem
+Triumphans_. A statue of the prince, gazing southward, now marks the
+spot. The clans came in, and as Charles marched southeast, each glen
+sent down its warriors to join the stream. The clansmen, as a rule, had
+probably little knowledge of or interest in the cause. They followed
+their chiefs. The surviving Gaelic poetry speaks much of the chieftains;
+of _Tearlach, righ nan Gael_, but little is said. It was the middle of
+August before the rulers of England received the news of the landing.
+They at once set a reward of £30,000 on Charles's head, a proceeding
+"unusual among Christian princes," said Charles, who was compelled by
+his forces, and their threats of desertion, to follow the evil example.
+Sir John Cope was sent with an English army to stop the prince. It
+appeared likely that the armies would meet about Dalwhinnie, now the
+highest and bleakest part of the Highland Railway. The path then led
+over Corryarrack; Charles and his men raced for the summit, but Cope was
+not to be seen. He had marched east and north, to Inverness, and all the
+south of Scotland lay open to the prince. He passed by Killiecrankie and
+Blair Athol to Perth; Cluny came in, with the Duke of Perth, and Lord
+George Murray, Charles's most skilled general, who had been out at
+Glensheil, in 1719, and had learned the lesson of war in the Sardinian
+army. How easily he won Edinburgh, how he held court at Holyrood, how he
+routed Cope (who returned by sea) at Preston Pans or Gladsmuir, is
+familiar to all. His clemency was conspicuous; he wrote to James that he
+would give up Holyrood to the wounded, rather than see them homeless.
+Home, a Whig volunteer, and the author of a Whiggish history,
+acknowledges the nobility of his conduct, and his "foolish lenity" (he
+would not permit the execution of several persons who tried to
+assassinate him) is blamed by the fanatics who, in 1749, issued a wild
+Cameronian manifesto, "The Active Testimonies of Presbyterians." The
+contrast with the savage brutalities of Cumberland is very notable. In
+the battle the chiefs refused to let Charles lead the charge, but he was
+at the head of the second line, "a pistol shot behind" the first.
+Preston Pans was fought on September 21, 1745. That Charles dallied
+before Edinburgh Castle till October 21st was no fault of his. Some of
+his men had gone home with booty, others were to be waited for, many of
+the chiefs were in favor of holding Scotland under James as a separate
+kingdom, and it was only by constant personal appeals that the prince
+persuaded them to push south. Lord George's strategy deceived the
+English, who knew not where to look for the Highlanders. They met at
+Carlisle, took it, passed through Preston and Manchester, gave
+Cumberland the slip, and their advanced posts, six miles south of Derby,
+were within a hundred and twenty miles of London. The army of Finchley
+was unlikely to make a stand, the city was partly Jacobite, the mob were
+ready for anything, when Lord George and the chiefs insisted on retreat.
+Historians doubt which policy was the wiser; it is certain that success,
+if to be attained at all, could only be won by audacity. The chiefs,
+however, declared for a return and a junction with French forces then
+expected. Charles wept and prayed to no avail. His army, as disappointed
+as himself, found their faces set to the north, and the prince, who had
+ever walked among the first ranks, leaving his carriage to old Lord
+Pitsligo, now rode dejected and heart-broken. The retreat was rapid and
+able. At Clifton, Murray turned on the pursuing dragoons, headed a
+claymore charge, and drove them back. A hapless garrison of Lancashire
+volunteers was left to the tender mercies of Cumberland in Carlisle, and
+Charles went by way of Whiggish Dumfries (the house where he lodged is
+now an inn) to Glasgow. To all intents and purposes the end had come.
+Charles had lost faith in the advisers who dragged him back from the
+south, he listened to Murray of Broughton and to his Irishry; he
+suspected, unjustly but not unnaturally, the good faith of Lord George.
+He dallied at Stirling, besieging the castle without proper artillery,
+and Hawley was sent to attack him. On January 17, 1746, the armies met
+at Falkirk. A storm of wind and rain blew at the backs of the
+Highlanders, they charged, scattered the enemy, drove them in flight,
+and cut up the Glasgow volunteers. But, in the dark and the mist they
+scarcely knew their own advantage. The pipers had thrown their pipes to
+their boys, had gone in with the claymore, and could not sound the
+calls. Hawley wrote to Cumberland "My heart is broke ... I got off but
+three cannon of the ten." Hawley retreated to Edinburgh, the Duke of
+Cumberland came to take the command; the Highlanders began to desert
+with their booty, dissensions prevailed, and Charles went on besieging
+Stirling. Again Lord George Murray urged a retreat, Charles dashed his
+head in impotent rage against the wall of his room, but he had to
+follow. With perfect truth he said:
+
+"I cannot see anything but ruin and destruction to us all in case we
+should think of a retreat;" his forces in flight would lose heart, his
+enemies would gain confidence. All this was true, but all this was
+unavailing. Months were spent in unimportant movements. Cumberland,
+meanwhile, instructed his men in the method of meeting a Highland
+charge, and deceiving the parry of the Highland shields. It was known
+that France would lend no substantial aid, and a French subsidy of
+30,000 _Louis d'or_ came too late, after the battle of Culloden, and was
+buried at the head of Loch Arkaig. One last chance Charles had: Lord
+George proposed, and Charles eagerly seconded, a night surprise at
+Nairn. But the delays on the march, and the arrival of dawn, made Murray
+command a retreat, and Charles's faith in him was irretrievably gone for
+the time, though he later expressed in writing a more worthy opinion.
+With 10,000 well-fed men against 5,000 who were starving, Cumberland had
+every chance of victory at Culloden. The Macdonalds, placed on the left
+wing, would not charge. Keppoch's men were discontented because they
+were not allowed to have a Catholic chaplain. Crying out, "The children
+of my clan have forsaken me," Keppoch charged alone, and died the death
+of renown. Beaten and blinded by a storm of snow in their faces, the
+Highland right clove the ranks of Monro and Burrell, only to fall, in
+layers three or four deep, before the fire of Sempill's regiment in the
+second line. The whole English force advanced; Charles rode to his
+second line, and offered to charge with them. His officers told him that
+it was in vain; Highlanders once beaten would not rally. (MS. "Lyon in
+Mourning," and MS. of Stuart Threipland at Abbotsford.) Charles was
+hurried off the field by his Irish tutor, and fled to Lord Lovat's, at
+Gortuleg. A story of his lack of courage, told by Sir Walter Scott on
+the authority of Sir James Stewart Denham's recollections of Lord
+Elcho's MS., is erroneous. Lord Elcho's MS. does not contain the
+statement. What he objects to is Charles's refusal to meet the fragments
+of his army at Ruthven, in Badenoch, whence they hoped to wage a
+guerilla warfare. Lord George Murray himself admits that the project was
+impossible. Charles, however, should have gone to Ruthven, but he
+distrusted Lord George; and his hope of a speedy voyage to France, where
+he expected to receive aid in men and money, was frustrated.
+
+It is needless to repeat the tale of Cumberland's almost incredible
+butcheries, cruelties, and robberies, or to tell of the executions
+accompanied by the torture of disembowelling the living man. The story
+of Charles's wanderings and distresses is narrated best in the MS. "Lyon
+in Mourning," partly printed by Robert Chambers, in "Jacobite Memoirs."
+No words can overpraise the loyalty of the starving Highlanders; neither
+English tortures, nor the promise of £30,000, ever moved one man or
+woman from their constant faith. Only one hungry boy whom Charles had
+fed, attempted to betray him, but was not believed. As for the prince,
+he is briefly described by a companion as "the most prudent man not to
+be a coward, the most daring not to be foolhardy, whom he had ever
+known." He showed a constant gayety, singing and telling tales to
+hearten his followers. His resource was endless; he was by far the best
+cook and the least fastidious eater of his company. He could cook a dish
+of cow's brains, or swallow raw oatmeal and salt-water. Surrounded by
+English _cordons_, through which he slipped at night up the bed of a
+burn, when the sentinels had reached their furthest point apart, Charles
+led a little expedition which cut off the cattle intended for the
+provender of his enemies. (MS. "Lyon in Mourning.") He would not even
+let a companion carry his great-coat. He knew every extremity of hunger,
+thirst, and cold; and perhaps his most miserable experience was to lurk
+for many hours, devoured by midges, under a wet rock. Unshorn, unwashed,
+in a filthy shirt, his last, he was yet the courteous prince in his
+dealings with all women whom he met, notably with Flora Macdonald, the
+stainless and courageous heroine of loyalty and womanly kindness. At
+last, late in September, 1746, Charles, with Lochiel and many others,
+escaped in a French barque from Loch Nahuagh, where he had first landed.
+It has been said of him by his enemies, especially by Dr. King, a
+renegade, that he was avaricious and ungrateful. Letters and receipts in
+the muniment room of a Highland chief show him directing large sums,
+probably out of the Loch Arkaig treasure, to be paid to Lochiel, to
+"Keppoch's lady," and to many poor clansmen. The receipts, written in
+hiding, and dried with snuff or sand, attest that the money came to the
+persons for whom it was intended.
+
+Charles' expedition could only be justified by success. That it failed
+was due to no want of courage, or audacity, or resolve on his part, but
+to the very nature of a Highland army, to the jealousies of Irish and
+Scotch, to the half-heartedness of his English partisans, and to the
+English horror of his father's religion. By his own creed he held very
+loosely.
+
+[Illustration: The First Meeting of Prince Charles with Flora MacDonald.]
+
+In France Charles was a popular hero, and adored by ladies. His
+appearance at court was magnificent, and for him the Princesse de
+Tallemant made every sacrifice. But the Government was deaf to his
+appeals, a journey to Spain was fruitless; worst of all, his brother
+Henry, to whom he had been tenderly devoted, accepted a cardinal's hat,
+on July 3, 1747. This was fatal. The English would never forgive a son
+of their so-called king who became a Romish priest; and the shadow of
+the hat fell on Charles. From letters of James to the prince, it is
+plain that, for some reason, the Duke of York could not look forward to
+marriage and to continuing the Stuart family. The young man, therefore,
+having also a vocation withal, accepted ecclesiastical rank, and a
+cluster of rich benefices. A breach between Charles and James followed,
+which was never healed, despite the touching letters of the king to his
+"dearest Carluccio." Charles betook himself to adventurous and secret
+projects. In the Highlands he had learned to seek the consolation of the
+poor, and to forget hunger, cold, misery, and sorrow in drink. He drank
+"our best bowlsman," says an islander, under the table. The habit soon
+dominated him, and--with his disgraceful arrest and imprisonment, when
+he refused to acknowledge the peace of Aix la Chapelle and to withdraw
+from France--soured his character and ruined his life. Released from
+Vincennes, he hurried to the then Papal city of Avignon, where he
+introduced boxing-matches. England threatened to bombard Civita Vecchia,
+and Charles had to depart. Whither he went no man knows. There is a
+Jacobite tract of 1750, purporting to be written by his equerry, Henry
+Goring. According to this, Charles, Goring, and a mysterious Comte de la
+Luze (Marshal Keith?), went to Lyons, Dijon, Strasbourg. Here Charles
+rescued a beautiful girl from a fire, and honorably declined to take
+advantage of her manifest passion for her preserver. The party was
+attacked by assassins, Charles shot two of them, La Luze and Goring
+accounted for others. They took ship from some northern coast, were
+tempest-driven to an unfriendly port, visited, apparently, Frederick the
+Great, spent some time in Lithuania, and there are hints of a love
+affair, though Charles had already proclaimed that he would never
+marry to beget royal beggars. He certainly visited Sweden; there was
+talk of him as a candidate for the Polish crown. For many years
+(1749-1755) neither James nor the English Government knew where Charles
+really was. Grimm says that for three years he lay hidden in the house
+of a lady in Paris, a friend of the Princesse de Tallemant. A sportsman
+and a lover of the open air is not likely to have loitered so long with
+Armida in a secret chamber. There is tattle about him in D'Argenson's
+"Memoirs;" a disguised shabby prince appears now and then, none knows
+whence, and vanishes. In the papers of Charles Stuart, Comte d'Albanie,
+one finds a trace of a visit paid by the prince to Ireland. There is
+evidence, in the State Papers, that he was not far from Paris, in June,
+1749. We have it under his own hand, in the Stuart Papers at Windsor,
+that he visited London on September 5, 1750, returning to Paris on
+September 13th. Here, as we know from the document left by Archibald
+Cameron, Lochiel's brother, the last man executed for the rising, or
+rather for a later plot, Charles renounced the Catholic faith. Charles
+himself gives 1750 as the date of this conversion. It came five years
+too late, and he recanted his recantation. He was in England again later
+(1752), and held his last council in Merriworth Castle in Kent. There is
+a legend of his ghost haunting a house in Godalming, which probably
+comes from a tradition of his residence there. Since 1750 or
+thereabouts, a Miss Clementina Walkinshaw, of Barrowfield, had been his
+mistress. He is said to have met her near Glasgow, and flirted with her;
+when or where she fled to him on the continent is obscure. Mr. Ewald
+supposes her to have been with him in Paris before the affair of
+Vincennes (1748). The writer, however, has seen a letter from Paris to a
+sister of Miss Walkinshaw describing the arrest at the Opera House,
+without the most distant allusion to Clementina, about whom her sister
+would be concerned. Clementina, judging by a miniature, was a lady with
+very large black eyes; a portrait in oil gives a less favorable view of
+her charms. In 1754 Charles was again in England, and in Nottingham. He
+actually walked in Hyde Park, where someone, recognizing him, tried to
+kneel to him. He therefore returned at once to France. He is reported to
+have come back in 1755 or 1756, braving the reward of £30,000 for his
+head. The Jacobites now requested him to dismiss Clementina Walkinshaw,
+whose eldest sister was a lady housekeeper in the Hanoverian family. A
+scrap in Charles's hand at Windsor proves that he regarded some lady as
+a possible traitor, but he declined to be dictated to, in his household
+matters, by his adherents. This gave the English Jacobites an excuse for
+turning their coats, of which they availed themselves. Sir Walter Scott
+makes the romance of "Redgauntlet" hang on the incident. About this time
+jottings of Charles prove that he fancied himself a Republican. He hated
+Louis XV., and declined on one occasion to act as a bug-bear
+(_épouvantail_), at the request of France. He had already struck a medal
+in honor of the British Navy and contempt of the French. He is now lost
+sight of till 1760, when Miss Walkinshaw, with his daughter, left his
+protection for that of a convent. This lady, in some letters, now
+unluckily lost, endeavored to persuade her family that she was married
+to the prince. A later myth averred that her daughter (the Duchess of
+Albany) had been secretly married, and a General Stuart, claiming, on
+this evidence, to be a legitimate descendant of the prince, died about
+1852. As Charles, late in life, legitimatized his daughter by Clementina
+Walkinshaw (a thing needless had he been married to her mother), and
+made affirmation that he never had any other child, all these legends
+are manifestly absurd. (The affirmation is among documents in possession
+of Lord Braye, and is published by the Historical MSS. Commission.)
+
+From this point there is little historical or personal interest in the
+life of Charles. His father, James III., died in 1766, and was buried as
+a king. Charles hurried from Bouillon to Rome; his brother, the
+cardinal, tried to secure his recognition by the Papal Court, but the
+Pope dared not, and no other government chose to defy the English
+Ministry. Charles's life was spent, now in seclusion, now in society; he
+still was fond of shooting, of music, and the drama; he still retained
+his grace of demeanor when he happened to be sober. Late in 1771 he went
+in disguise to Paris, where he accepted a pension from France, and a
+beautiful bride, Louise, Princess of Stolberg, descended from the Earl
+of Ailesbury into whose arms Charles II. fell under the stroke of his
+fatal illness. The ill-matched pair were married on Good Friday, April
+17, 1772. At first Charles behaved with more sobriety and good humor
+than usual. A child of the marriage was expected, at least by the Scotch
+Jacobites, in 1773. There is a legend that a child was actually born,
+was intrusted to Captain John Carter Allen, was brought up by him as his
+own, and this infant, grown to manhood, became the father of two
+gentlemen calling themselves John Sobieski Stolberg Stuart and Charles
+Edward Stuart, Counts of Albany. They lived till late in the present
+century, were picturesque figures in society, and writers of some spirit
+and vigor. For long they were much cherished by some noble Highland
+families. Charles, the younger, has left descendants. It is needless to
+discuss here the authenticity of these claims.
+
+Charles's relations with his wife were on the pattern of his relations
+with his mistress. He was jealous, and brutal beyond description; she
+was courted by Alfieri, the poet, and, after fleeing from her husband to
+a convent, she united her fortunes with Alfieri's. On his death she
+chose a young French painter, Fabre, as his successor, and to him she
+left her rich collection of relics, spoils of the poet and the king. A
+beautiful, witty, and engaging woman, she was long a centre of society
+in Italy. She died in 1824. In 1784 Charles sent for his daughter by
+Miss Walkinshaw. Both had long been maintained by the cardinal. He made
+her Duchess of Albany, medals were designed, if never struck,
+representing her as _spes ultima et exigua_, "the last frail hope," of
+the Stuarts. For the last time, in conversation with a Mr. Greathead,
+the old spirit blazed out. His face brightened, he began the tale of his
+campaign, but, when attempting to narrate the butcheries of Cumberland,
+the cruel executions in London, he fell on the floor in convulsions. He
+used to solace himself by playing on the pipes, and at the sound of the
+martial music which he had heard on three stricken fields, he was able
+to live in the past. On January 31, 1788, the anniversary of the death
+of Charles I., Charles Edward passed away from earth. His daughter did
+not long survive him; she was killed by a fall from her horse. Henry now
+took the title of Henry IX. "by grace of God, not by the will of men."
+He died in 1806; the French had stripped him of all his property, even
+the famous Sobieski rubies were gone, and he was in receipt of a pension
+from the English Government. In 1819 George IV. erected a monument by
+Canova, in St Peters at Rome, to "James III., son of James II., King of
+Great Britain, to Charles Edward, and Henry, his sons, the last of the
+Royal Stuart line. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Sir Walter
+Scott visited this alone of Roman sights, in 1832, just before he came
+home to die.
+
+Had Charles fallen at Culloden, history could find no blot on his name,
+no stain on the white rose. Surviving, as he did, a broken-hearted
+exile, with no home, no chance of a career, "eating his own heart,
+shunning the paths of men," as Homer says of Bellerophon, he fell a
+victim to the habit which has ever the same wretched results, which
+turns a hero to a coward, a gentleman to a brute. Yet, in his one year
+of brilliance, he won immortal love. Scott had seen strong men, the
+prince's ancient comrades, weep at the mention of his name. No man, in
+any age, ever inspired such a large, such a gallant, such a tender and
+melancholy body of song. Even now as one hears the notes of
+
+  "Will ye no come back again,
+   Better lo'ed ye canna be,"
+
+sung by the lads of a Scotch village, one feels that Charles Stuart did
+not wholly fail; the song outlives the dynasty, and relics of Prince
+Charlie are fondly cherished, while no man cares a halfpenny for his
+Hanoverian rivals.
+
+The best life of Prince Charles is that by Mr. Ewald (London, 1875). Mr.
+Ewald alone has used the State Papers at the Record Office. Lord
+Stanhope's and Mr. Chambers's "Histories of the Forty-five" are also
+excellent; as are "Jacobite Memoirs," selected from Bishop Forbes's MS.
+"Lyon in Mourning." These works, with the contemporary tracts, and some
+MSS., with Lord Stanhope's "Decline of the Last Stuarts," and the Stuart
+Papers at Windsor, as given in Browne's "History of the Highland Clans,"
+have been consulted in compiling this study of Prince Charles.
+
+[Signature: Andrew Lang.]
+
+
+
+
+CAPTAIN JAMES COOK[14]
+
+         [Footnote 14: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By OLIVER OPTIC
+
+(1728-1779)
+
+[Illustration: Captain James Cook.]
+
+
+As an example of the self-made man without fortune or the prestige of a
+distinguished family to assist him, perhaps there is none better and
+more instructive than the career of Captain Cook, the great English
+navigator and discoverer. At his birth, in 1728, his father was a
+farm-laborer, and his mother belonged to the same grade of society. They
+lived in the north of England, and were people of excellent character.
+On account of his honesty, industry, and skill in farming, his father
+was promoted to the place of head servant on a farm some distance from
+where he had been working; but it does not appear that he ever made any
+further advancement. James learned to read and write, and was instructed
+in some of the simpler rules of arithmetic, which was the extent of his
+school learning, a very slender outfit for one of the distinction to
+which he attained in a lifetime of fifty years.
+
+At the age of thirteen James was bound as an apprentice to a dry-goods
+dealer in a small way in a considerable fishing town. The business did
+not suit the youth at all, for he had before cherished the idea of going
+to sea, and his surroundings in a seaport doubtless increased his
+yearnings in that direction. A disagreement between the apprentice and
+his employer enabled him to procure his discharge, and he engaged his
+services to the Messrs. Walker, a couple of Quakers, who owned two
+vessels employed in the coal trade. He passed the greater portion of his
+term, and a considerable period after its expiration, as a common sailor
+on board of the ship Free Love, where he obtained a thorough knowledge
+of seamanship. From this humble sphere he was promoted to be mate of one
+of the Walker ships. His life in this capacity was uneventful, though he
+was all the time learning navigation and storing his mind with the
+information which was to enable him to distinguish himself in later
+years.
+
+In 1755, when Cook was twenty-seven years old, war broke out between
+England and France, and there was a great demand for seamen for the navy
+of England. At that time the system of impressment was in vogue, and
+when Britain wanted sailors she took them, wherever and whenever she
+could find them. Press-gangs were sent out, under one or more officers,
+by ships of war in port needing more men. They visited the
+drinking-places and taverns of the town and captured all the seamen
+they could find, usually more or less intoxicated, and compelled them to
+go on board of the man-of-war. They were forced to do duty. Sometimes
+the unlucky tars were taken from the vessels to which they belonged,
+whether in port or at sea. This impressment was not always confined to
+British seamen, and this system was one of the causes which led to the
+war of 1812 between England and the United States. Though the law
+sanctioning this abuse was never repealed, press-gangs became obsolete
+half a century ago.
+
+Cook's ship was in the Thames at this time, and he was liable to
+impressment, for mates were not exempt, though captains were. Like all
+British seamen, he had a dread of being forced into the naval service,
+oftener because they were forced than for any other reason. He concealed
+himself, and used all the precautions he could to avoid such a calamity,
+as he then regarded it. But he faithfully reconsidered the subject, and
+concluded to enter the navy by voluntary enlistment, thus escaping
+impressment, which would be an outrage upon his manhood. He began his
+service on board the Eagle, a sixty-gun ship, which was soon after
+commanded by Captain Palliser. Cook was not only an able and skilful
+seaman, but he diligently and faithfully performed every duty, so that
+he soon attracted the attention of his officers.
+
+His friends at home had endeavored to do something for him, and his
+commander received a letter from a member of Parliament commending the
+seaman to his favor. The captain acknowledged the merit of Cook in his
+reply, but stated that he had been in the navy for so brief a period
+that he could not be made a commissioned officer, but in due time, if he
+proved worthy, a master's warrant might be obtained for him. Four years
+after he entered the service a strong interest secured this promotion
+for him. In this capacity he was assigned to the frigate Mercury, which
+was ordered to North America, where she became one of the fleet that
+operated in connection with the army of General Wolfe in the siege of
+Quebec.
+
+The navigation of this portion of the St. Lawrence River was difficult
+and dangerous then to the English; they were comparative strangers
+there, and the French had removed the channel buoys. It was necessary to
+make a survey, and Captain Palliser recommended Master Cook for the
+service. The locality was exposed to the enemy, and for several nights
+he conducted the work till he had about completed it, when his
+operations were discovered by the French. A force of Indians was sent to
+capture the surveyor, and they surrounded him in the darkness in their
+canoes, and Cook made his escape only by leaping ashore, to which his
+barge had been directed, near the English hospital, while the Indians
+were boarding the boat over the stern. But he had performed the duty
+intrusted to him, and from his measurements constructed a perfect chart
+of the channel.
+
+He was a very skilful draughtsman, though he had educated himself in the
+art, as well as an expert surveyor, and he was employed by the admiral
+in making surveys of other portions of the river. His charts of the
+locality were published, with soundings and sailing directions; and they
+were so correct that no others were needed for at least a hundred
+years. He piloted the boats of the squadron in the attack upon
+Montmorency, and superintended the landing of the troops for the assault
+on the Plains of Abraham, where both Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally
+wounded.
+
+For four years Cook had been an acting master, but in 1759 he was fully
+confirmed in his rank and appointed to the flag-ship of Lord Colvill,
+passing the following winter at Halifax. This was a season of leisure
+from active professional occupation, and the master employed it in
+studying geometry, astronomy, and mathematics generally, fitting himself
+for the highest positions in the navy. For the next ten years he was
+largely engaged in surveying in Newfoundland, and was present at its
+capture from the French. Returning to England he was married, but was
+soon sent back to the field of his recent labors, as marine surveyor of
+the coasts, by the influence of his constant friend, now Sir Hugh
+Palliser. He was busily employed in this capacity, rendering valuable
+service to his country, and especially to the king's ministers in
+arranging the terms of peace with France. During his absence he observed
+an eclipse of the sun, which was so well done that his results were
+published in the "Philosophical Transactions," adding greatly to his
+reputation as an astronomer.
+
+At this period the spirit of discovery was reanimated in England, and an
+expedition was fitted out, at the instance of the Royal Society,
+primarily to observe a transit of Venus across the disk of the sun,
+which could only be done in some parts of the Pacific Ocean. Sir Hugh
+Palliser was again his friend, and Cook, raised to the rank of
+lieutenant, was appointed to the command. He selected a ship of three
+hundred and seventy tons, called the Endeavor, for the purpose, and
+accompanied by several eminent scientists, he sailed in 1778. In
+addition to its astronomical task, the expedition was to make
+discoveries and explorations in the Pacific.
+
+It would be impossible to follow Lieutenant Cook in the details of his
+three notable voyages of discovery in anything less than a volume, so
+full are they of interesting incidents. He proceeded first to Madeira,
+and then across the Atlantic to Rio Janeiro, where he made a
+considerable stay to obtain supplies, and improve the condition of his
+crew. Passing through the Strait of Le Maire, he went around Cape Horn,
+and in April of 1769 the Endeavor arrived at Otaheite, now called
+Tahiti, in the Society Islands, where the transit was to be observed.
+The observations required a considerable stay in Matavia Bay, and as
+soon as he had made his preparations on shore for the work, the
+commander established regulations for intercourse between his people and
+the natives who crowded in multitudes around their strange visitors.
+
+No man in his day and generation ever had more extensive dealings with
+the uncivilized tribes of the earth than Captain Cook, and none ever
+treated them with more enlightened humanity, or with more even-handed
+justice. His treatment of the aborigines of the vast number of islands
+and other regions he visited, is in remarkable contrast with that of the
+early explorers of the Western Continent. By the latter the natives were
+remorselessly slain, enslaved, and even tortured. They were regarded as
+pagans, with no natural rights, whose territories, families, and persons
+were the legitimate spoils of the conquerors. On the contrary, Cook,
+with the means in his possession to overawe, subdue, and subjugate them,
+always extended to them the utmost consideration in his power. He could
+be severe when necessity required, but his forbearance was almost
+unlimited.
+
+The first of a series of rules he established and enforced was: "To
+endeavor, by every fair means, to cultivate a friendship with the
+natives, and to treat them with all imaginable humanity." He was largely
+dependent upon the resources of the islands he visited for the
+sustenance of his people; but nothing, except in dire necessity, was
+ever taken from the natives by force. Persons were appointed to trade
+with them, and no others were allowed to barter or exchange goods with
+them, and a proper equivalent was always to be given. His own men were
+put under the strictest discipline in order to control their relations
+with the natives who constantly surrounded them. Generally the most
+friendly spirit prevailed on both sides. The inhabitants of all the
+islands seemed to have a natural inclination to steal, and most of the
+trouble with them grew out of this tendency. Cook judiciously repressed
+theft from the beginning, and almost invariably compelled the
+restoration of the property.
+
+On the other hand, his own men were sometimes tempted to desert; but he
+hunted them down, secured one or more chiefs as hostages, or by some
+common-sense method recovered the absentees. At some of the islands Cook
+was extremely popular with the inhabitants, and was regarded as a
+superior being, even a demigod, in many of them. When he was compelled
+to resort to extreme severity, he did not begin with cannon, loaded with
+grape, but trusted first to the loud report, terrific to the savages,
+fired over their heads, or had the muskets loaded with small shot which
+would hurt, but did not kill. No slaughter that could possibly be
+avoided was permitted. If he erred at all it was on the side of
+humanity, and if he had been less forbearing he might have added more
+years to his length of days.
+
+The astronomical work at Otaheite was successfully accomplished, and in
+July Captain Cook departed, taking with him Tupia, a native of some
+distinction, who proved to be valuable to him as an interpreter, and for
+his general knowledge. During this voyage he visited many of the islands
+of the Pacific, including New Zealand, where he encountered no little
+hostility, so that it was often difficult and sometimes impossible to
+establish friendly relations with the natives. But he obtained what he
+needed, and proceeded on his voyage. He gave names to islands, bays,
+straits, and harbors, some of which seem strange at the present day, but
+most of them were suggested by the circumstances of the visit. Of many
+of the islands he took possession in the name of his sovereign, leaving
+memorials of his landing.
+
+Sailing to the westward, he examined the east coast of New Holland, as
+it was then called, Australia, at the present time, charted the coast,
+as he had done throughout the voyage, and took possession of the country
+in the name of England. The existence of a Southern Continent had long
+been a mooted question, and in this and subsequent voyages Captain Cook
+searched unsuccessfully for it. He passed through Torres Strait, and
+thus proved that New Guinea was not a part of Australia, as some
+claimed. Continuing his voyage, he went around the Cape of Good Hope,
+and reached England in the middle of 1771. The results of his cruise of
+nearly four years were exceedingly important to his country. His
+reputation was largely increased, and he was promoted to the rank of
+commander in the navy.
+
+So well approved was the conduct of Captain Cook on his first voyage
+around the world, that he was appointed to the command of another
+similar expedition, consisting of two ships, the Resolution and the
+Adventure, and after about a year on shore, he sailed again in 1772. He
+went around the Cape of Good Hope, and cruised in the Southern Pacific,
+discovering and taking possession of New Caledonia, visiting islands
+where he had landed before, and exploring and charting the New Hebrides.
+His instructions particularly required him to circumnavigate the earth
+in the highest practicable southern latitude in search of the unknown
+continent still supposed to be there. He used the southern summer for
+this purpose; but he found no land he was willing to call a continent.
+Though large bodies of land have since been discovered in that region,
+the question is still an open one.
+
+Adapting his operations to the varying climate of the north and the
+south, Captain Cook continued his explorations, encountering many
+hardships and perils in unknown seas, from hostile savages, and in the
+icy realms of the extreme south.
+
+He returned to England in 1775 after an absence of three years. The
+commander had always taken excellent care of the health of his men, for
+in voyages of the description he had undertaken the mortality was always
+considerable, and sometimes terrible. One of the most noticeable
+features of his second expedition was that it returned with a record of
+only one death in both ships; and the details of the means he used to
+secure a good sanitary condition among his crews are very interesting.
+
+On his return Cook was immediately raised to the rank of post-captain,
+and was also appointed a captain in Greenwich Hospital, which secured to
+him an honorable retirement, and reward for his important labors. He was
+elected a member of the Royal Society, which also bestowed upon him a
+gold medal in recognition of his contributions to the science of the
+period. The passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the north coast
+of America was exciting a great deal of attention at this time, and
+Captain Cook was sent upon an expedition to continue his explorations in
+the Pacific, and then to investigate the mystery of a northwest passage.
+He sailed in the Resolution in 1776, and was followed by Captain Clerke
+in the Discovery. He proceeded, after his arrival at the Cape of Good
+Hope, to Tasmania, visited New Zealand again, and passed the following
+year in explorations in the Pacific.
+
+[Illustration: Death of Captain Cook.]
+
+In the first month of 1778 he discovered the Sandwich Islands, to which
+he gave this name in honor of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, then
+the first Lord of the Admiralty. Obtaining the supplies he needed, the
+commander proceeded to explore the northwest coast of America, which he
+followed inside of Behring Strait, till the ice and cold compelled him
+to seek a more southern latitude, which he found in the genial airs of
+the Sandwich Islands.
+
+During his former visit he had found the natives to be friendly and
+generally well disposed, though more addicted to thieving than the
+people of any other islands the explorer had visited. For some
+unexplained reason they were in a different frame of mind on his second
+visit. A boat belonging to the expedition had been stolen by the
+savages, and Captain Cook proceeded, in his usual vigorous manner, to
+recover it. He sent a boat on shore for this purpose, and then landed
+himself with another party, intending to capture a certain chief, to be
+exchanged for the boat. An immense crowd gathered around him, and were
+hypocritically friendly at first; but it was soon observed that they
+were arming themselves. The commander asked Kariopoo, the chief he had
+selected, to go with him, and he made no objection. The captain had
+ordered the marines to be drawn up on the shore, and leading his
+prisoner by the hand he approached the boat, the natives opening a
+passage for him.
+
+The chief's family and friends interposed to save him, declaring that he
+would be killed if he went on board of the ship. The captain
+expostulated with them and the tumult increased. The lieutenant of
+marines wanted to fire, but Cook refused the pet mission. The tumult
+soon became a battle, and then he ordered his men to fire. As he was
+trying to save his party he was struck with a club, which partially
+stunned him, and then he was stabbed in the back of the neck by an iron
+dagger. He fell into shallow water, and the savages threw themselves
+upon him. A struggle ensued, and he was hauled on the beach by his foes,
+where they stabbed him in turn in their barbarous rage. His body lay on
+the beach, and it might have been recovered, but it was not. Only a
+portion of his remains were obtained, and they were buried at sea.
+
+Thus perished Captain James Cook, and all England mourned him.
+
+[Signature: William S. Adams.]
+
+
+
+
+JOHN HOWARD[15]
+
+         [Footnote 15: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By HARRIET G. WALKER
+
+(1726-1790)
+
+[Illustration: John Howard.]
+
+
+John Howard was born in Hackney, Middlesex County, England, September 2,
+1726. The only existing record of this fact is the inscription upon his
+monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. His parentage came through a
+somewhat obscure family, his father being sometimes mentioned as an
+upholsterer and sometimes as a merchant of moderate means. Of his mother
+we know only her name--Chomley--and that she died when her second child,
+and only son, was an infant. The father was a strict, sturdy, honest,
+severe Puritan, the marks of whose character ever remained on the
+character of the son.
+
+The motherless boy seems to have passed unnoticed through the weary days
+of a sickly childhood, and the usual martyrdom of the "dullest boy in
+the school," under first one tutor and then another, to his sixteenth
+year, when he left school and books, as he afterward testifies, "not
+thoroughly knowing any one thing." How much does any boy or girl
+thoroughly know of any one thing at sixteen? Surely not enough to
+warrant his removal from school.
+
+But not so reasoned the father of John Howard, for we find him at this
+age apprenticing his only son to Alderman Newham, a wholesale grocer on
+Watling Street, London.
+
+That this was not a change made from pecuniary necessity is evidenced by
+the liberal provision made for the boy. We are told that his father paid
+£700 for his fee of apprenticeship, and provided him a separate suite of
+apartments, a servant, and a pair of saddle-horses! The inference is
+that young John's progress in school was not such as to warrant his
+continuance at his books.
+
+His letters and manuscripts still in existence reveal a lamentable
+deficiency in orthography and the handling of the king's English.
+
+Some of Howard's biographers attempt to attribute his methodical
+businesslike habits in later life to the experience gained while in the
+service of this wholesale grocer. But when we consider that his stay was
+far less than one year, we may fairly be allowed to conclude that more
+was due to an inherited temperament for slow methodical action.
+
+Before reaching his seventeenth year, the death of his father released
+him from the grocery business, for which he had evidently no affection,
+and left him in possession of £7,000 in ready cash, beside land, plate,
+house, etc.
+
+This fortune was left under the management of guardians, it being his
+father's wish that he should not control it until his twenty-fourth
+year. But his course of life goes to show that he had wonderfully easy
+trustees, as he immediately bought himself off the grocery business, and
+made a long tour of the Continent for the benefit of his health.
+Returning to England, he dropped into the little village of Stoke
+Newington, a mere hamlet, where he had some possessions.
+
+That a young man of wealth and free from all ties of family or business,
+should have voluntarily chosen such a home, and been contented to remain
+there, in a state of idle inactivity, for the space of seven or eight
+years, can be accounted for only by remembering his feeble health.
+
+When twenty-five, his health entirely failed, and he was prostrated by a
+severe fit of illness, through which he was nursed by his landlady, Mrs.
+Loidore. Upon his recovery he made her his wife, in testimony of his
+gratitude, though history records that she had neither beauty, money,
+nor health, having been an invalid for twenty-two years, and was
+twenty-seven years his senior.
+
+Two or three years after this seemingly ill-suited marriage, which,
+strange to say, seems to have been a not unhappy one, Mrs. Howard died.
+Immediately Mr. Howard, then twenty-eight or nine years of age, again
+left England for a second extended tour. This being the year of the
+great earthquake of Lisbon, he naturally turned his steps thitherward.
+
+Setting sail from England for Spain, he was captured on the high seas by
+a French privateer, and for two months suffered the hardships and
+indignities of prison life in those times. Upon his release he used all
+his influence to secure the exchange of the remainder of his vessel's
+company, and was successful. This prison experience he never forgot.
+
+Three years later (1758) he married Henrietta Leeds, a lady of fine
+character, and one to whom he was sincerely attached. Indeed, so fearful
+was he that their married life might not be entirely without jars, that
+he made a bargain with her, in advance of their marriage, that on all
+disputed points the adjustment should be according to his judgment. One
+is at a loss which member of a couple the most to admire, the man who
+could make such a proposition, or the woman who would bind herself with
+such bonds! But, like his first marriage, his strange contract with his
+second wife seems to have led only to happy results.
+
+They settled in Cardington, upon the Howard estate, and for the next
+seven years led the uneventful life of landed gentry of the times. The
+husband and wife were united in their efforts to improve the morals and
+general condition of their tenantry. Rightly believing that the
+beginning of all reform was to improve the physical condition, Howard
+spared no expense in rearing new cottages upon new and improved plans,
+held his tenants removable at will, and through their improved
+conditions ruled over them with an almost despotic sway, tempered and
+made bearable in that all his restrictions and requirements were on the
+line of their temporal and spiritual advancement.
+
+How strange is the making of history! Had the gentle, loving,
+well-governed, dependent Mrs. Howard lived on, this would no doubt have
+been the continuation, the aim, and the end of John Howard's life--to
+constantly advance and improve the interests and condition of his
+tenantry, and to wisely govern and administer his estate. But it was not
+so to be. The happy home must be broken up, and the man whom God needed
+must, through the sting of his own sorrow, be sent out again upon his
+wanderings to do the work reserved for him in the broad field not of his
+own choosing. The birth of the only child, a son, preceded the death of
+its mother by but a few days, and Howard was again alone. To the end of
+his life he remained a sincere and constant mourner for the wife to whom
+he owed the happiest, if not the most useful, seven years of his life.
+It is said by some of his biographers that he always kept the
+anniversary of her death as a solemn day of fasting and prayer.
+
+Come we now to the point in his career where, all unknown to himself,
+Howard took up the work which was to startle the whole civilized world,
+and place his name in the roll of those whose memories die not.
+
+But first let us remember the son whose life began where his mother's
+ended, and ended where it was well his mother had not lived to see it.
+
+It would seem that the loss of his beloved wife and the sad recollection
+of his own motherless unloved boyhood, would have made of John Howard a
+tender and pitiful, as well as devoted father. Such was not the case, if
+we may judge from the vehemence with which some of his biographers deny
+the charges of undue severity to the infant, and forgetfulness and
+neglect of the growing-up boy, and the silence of others on the same
+subject.
+
+The real truth probably was, so far as we can judge, that the man had
+nothing in his stiff nature and puritanical education, certainly nothing
+in his own early life, to make him respond to the uninteresting
+helplessness of infancy.
+
+So we find him doing his duty by the crying infant of a few months, in a
+manner which would be amusing if it were not pathetic. He takes him from
+the nurse, lays him across his knees, and sits unmoved and unmovable
+until the tempest exhausts itself, and the child is silent from
+exhaustion, when he hands him solemnly back to the nurse, and feels
+that, by so much at least, has he cast out of the young child the spice
+of Old Adam, which is the birthright of us all! A few such experiences,
+we are told, and the child would at once cease its struggles and be
+silent. One would surely think it would!
+
+But the silent, lonely man, bereft of the loving companionship of the
+gentle wife, who would so differently have soothed and silenced the
+crying infant, could not long bear the solitude of his broken home, and
+so began the years of wanderings, which lasted as long as his life, and
+through which he seems so largely to have lost sight of his young son at
+his most impressionable age, save to provide for his material wants,
+and to some extent, also, his education. When with him in later years he
+appears to have enjoyed his society, or at least the evidences which he
+gave of implicit, unreasoning obedience, illustrated by his remark, "I
+believe if I told the boy to put his hand in the fire he would obey me."
+
+At four the boy was put into a boarding-school, and the home was broken
+up. The later glimpses which we get of his career are vague,
+unsatisfactory, or decidedly bad, until the end came, and "Jack" was
+incarcerated in a mad-house when but twenty-two, where his unfortunate
+life went out after twelve years' confinement in a darkness that
+darkened also the last years of his good, if injudicious, father, with a
+sorrow beside which all common bereavements should seem like blessings.
+
+In 1769, then, we see the Cardington home broken up, the boy placed in a
+boarding-school, and John Howard setting forth upon what to him was but
+an aimless journey, in search of consolation, amid new scenes, for the
+shattered fortunes of his home. He travelled over large portions of
+Italy, and returned again to England, where in 1773 he was elected High
+Sheriff of Bedford. No sooner had he entered upon the duties of his
+office, than he was struck with the gross injustice of the practices,
+especially as affecting those prisoners held for debt. Many heads of
+families were held for months and years, not for the original debt for
+which they were incarcerated, which in many cases had been forgiven or
+paid, but for an accumulation of fees due to jailer and divers other
+officers of the prison, who drew their salaries from this source. Much
+astounded by such a state of things in a Christian land, but supposing
+it to be a peculiarity of his own county, he made a journey into some of
+the surrounding districts, to learn from them, if possible, some better
+method. It but augmented his indignation and distress to find their
+condition and methods worse even than at home, since in some he actually
+found the fees wrung from these unhappy prisoners to amount to so much
+that the office of jailer was sold to the highest bidder, the sum paid
+for the position often amounting to as much as £40 per annum.
+
+On this tour Howard, now thoroughly awake on the subject, could not but
+observe the miseries of the prisoners from other sources, besides
+extortions. This might have been borne, but for the terrible crowding of
+herds of men and women, without regard to age, sex, character, or crime,
+into foul underground dungeons, damp, dark, unventilated, often
+unwarmed, with insufficient and unfit food and clothing, without beds,
+and many in chains. Such were the sights which met his gaze at every
+turn, and moved his soul with shame for his country, and a slow but
+deadly anger that, once kindled, died only with his life. Thoroughly and
+systematically he continued his investigation of the jails and prisons
+of England, until he had been over them all, which consumed nearly a
+year's time (travel was a different matter a hundred years ago, from
+now), and then made his report public, for which labor he was called
+before the bar of the House of Commons and received the thanks of that
+august body.
+
+More satisfactory still, he had the pleasure of seeing two bills passed,
+one making the office of jailer a salaried position, thereby abolishing
+the whole iniquitous system of special fees from prisoners, the other
+having reference to improvements in ventilation and other sanitary
+matters.
+
+The text of these bills he had printed in large bold type at his own
+expense, and sent them to every jail and prison in England. A few months
+later, being desirous of seeing whether or not the requirements of the
+new laws were being put into execution, he made personal inspection,
+riding by chaise or on horseback from city to city and from town to
+town.
+
+Toward the last of this year, 1774, Howard made his first and last
+venture into the arena of political life. Being a man of strong, stern
+political convictions, and feeling it his duty to stand by his
+principles, he listened to the advice of friends, and made a stand for
+the House of Commons. Fortunately for the world he was defeated by _four
+votes_.
+
+On such small hinges swing the doors of life. Had he been elected he
+would doubtless have sunk out of sight and been forgotten, and his great
+work would have been given to some other agent.
+
+Though greatly disappointed at his failure, Howard's mind at once
+returned to the question of prison reform, and his next journey led him
+over Ireland and Scotland. The former he found worse and the latter
+better than England.
+
+Being desirous of publishing a book upon his investigations and their
+results, he at the close of this year left England to examine the
+prisons of France, Flanders, and Holland. It surprises us much to learn
+that he found the prisons of Holland almost models, while France is
+declared far in advance of England, although these were the days of the
+Bastille! He also journeyed into Switzerland and again made a survey of
+the jails of England and Wales. Feeling at last that he had sufficient
+material he returned to England and began upon his book. For eight
+months he labored incessantly upon this work, correcting proofs,
+collating and arranging statistics, etc., although for the literary part
+he was obliged to call in the assistance of some of his learned friends,
+who, better than he understood the use of the king's English.
+
+This book made a most profound sensation throughout the civilized world.
+That it might reach a more extended circulation, it was sold at less
+than the cost of production, and large numbers were given away among the
+officials. All this expense was borne by Howard out of his own private
+purse, as were at all times his immense and constant outlay in travel.
+Not only his whole private income, but the fortune of £15,000 received
+from his only sister at her death, was expended in the same manner.
+
+Subsequently Howard published a second volume, in 1780, as an appendix
+to the first, and in 1784 a third and last, which was a compilation of
+the first two, with much added material acquired during his continuous
+travels over every part of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: Howard relieving a Prisoner.]
+
+During the earlier and idler parts of his life, Howard had been pleased
+to dabble somewhat in medicine, after the manner of the gentlemen of his
+time. This stood him in good part upon his travels, and made him
+familiar with the various forms of disease that especially afflicted
+prisons and the people at large. For jail fever and typhus he rightly
+judged that the sanitary and food conditions were sufficient cause and
+attacked them from this basis. But having in a measure finished his jail
+and prison work, to his mind, he became possessed with the idea that he
+might search out and find a remedy for the dreadful _plague_ that was
+filling all Europe with dismay. The methodical habit of the man's mind
+is evidenced by noting that he followed exactly the same method in this
+as in his former undertaking, namely, personal investigation and
+experience. He left home in July, 1789, and it is surprising that for
+six months he literally lived in the poisonous atmosphere of the
+pest-houses, pest-ships, and lazarettos of Europe, and escaped
+contagion. In January, 1790, however, in a little Russian village near
+the Crimea, he was called upon to prescribe for a young lady, ill with
+some low malignant fever, from which visit he contracted the same
+disease. Being then sixty-four years of age, naturally frail, worn down
+by sixteen years of hard, exhaustive toil, depleted by a diet that found
+no place for meats or stimulants, he had nothing upon which to rally,
+and rapidly sank into the long slumber which at last gave him what he
+had so many years denied himself--_rest_.
+
+His remains were buried there in Russia in the village of Dophinovka.
+After his death a monument was erected to his memory, being the first
+placed in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. This was appropriately inscribed
+to his memory, although it was his latest expressed wish that he should
+be left to sleep in an unmarked, unknown grave.
+
+A just estimate of the character of John Howard can only be arrived at
+by a careful consideration of the times in which he lived and the
+peculiar circumstances of his life. The natural inherited sternness of
+his character never felt the modifying influences of a mother's love or
+the companionship of brothers or sisters. His ill health added to his
+restless desire for travel and change, but unfitted him for close or
+continued application to any special line of thought or interest, while
+his early independence in the management of his fortune placed in his
+way strong temptations to extravagance and idleness.
+
+It is therefore more than an ordinary indication of an inborn principle
+of humanity when we find him, upon his first settlement upon his
+father's estates, devoting time, thought, and money to the amelioration
+of the condition of his neglected and suffering tenantry. Model
+landlords were not in fashion in those times, and a man who so
+administered his affairs must have done so in the face of much
+criticism, ridicule, and contempt among his peers.
+
+But none of these things seem to have moved him from the even tenor of
+his way. Yet there was no sentimentalism in his dealings with his
+tenants, as we find him holding them to a strict accounting for the use
+made of their improved conditions.
+
+So of his prison work. It seemed to be all and altogether for the
+masses, and not for individuals. No record is left of personal
+almsgiving, save when resorted to as a ruse to obtain entrance to the
+French prisons. That his interest was not in individuals is further
+shown by the calm and deliberate manner in which he prosecuted his
+investigations, taking years for the accumulation of materials and
+months to their careful watching through the press. It was the principle
+of justice ingrained in the man's deepest nature that forced him to
+_know_ all that could be known or said upon both sides before speaking.
+It was this thoroughness, this absolute fairness, that made of his work
+and of his inartistically constructed books the tremendous and lasting
+success which they were.
+
+Deeply religious, he naturally reflected the spirit of the religious
+teachings of the times, which savored more of the terrors of the law
+than of mercy and forgiveness to evil-doers; that found more worship in
+denying self the indulgences of soft living than in the partaking of the
+harmless pleasures and sweets of life, giving a good God thanks for His
+good gifts. Through all the life and writings of Howard one constantly
+hears the minor chord of infinite sadness wrought into his life by his
+motherless infancy, his unloved boyhood, his years of invalidism, his
+ceaseless mourning for his wife Henrietta, the bitterness of death in
+the cup held to his lips by his unfortunate son, and over and above all,
+the constant atmosphere of crime, cruelty, sin, and suffering in which
+he spent the last sixteen years of his life. Life to him came to mean
+sin, suffering, and sorrow in the world about him, and for himself work,
+work, incessant work, in the effort to do what one man could to lift or
+lighten the burden under which the whole earth groaned. Death came to
+him where he would have most wished it might, and took him directly from
+labor to reward. And throughout the coming ages the world will be the
+better because in the last half of the eighteenth century there lived,
+labored, and died in the midst of his labors one _John Howard, the
+Philanthropist_.
+
+[Signature: Harriet G. Walker.]
+
+
+
+
+ETHAN ALLEN[16]
+
+         [Footnote 16: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By GERTRUDE VAN RENSSELAER WICKHAM
+
+(1738-1789)
+
+
+Was Ethan Allen a hero or a humbug? a patriot or a pretender? Ask
+Vermont and she cries "Nulli secundus!" Ask New York and the reply is
+"Ad referendum."
+
+The differentiation antedates the American Revolution and the part Ethan
+Allen played in that historic drama. It is an inheritance of loving
+loyalty and gratitude that quivers in the answer of one State, the
+traditional antagonisms of prejudice that speak in the other.
+
+But for Ethan Allen, Vermont would have had no separate existence. But
+for Ethan Allen, New York's northeastern boundary would have been the
+Connecticut River. Therefore, on one shore of Lake Champlain the
+disputed shield is unalloyed gold, reflecting all that is strong and
+brave, all that is courageous and magnanimous, all that is patriotic and
+generous, while from the other shore its appearance is as brass engraven
+by vanity and vulgarity, by self-sufficiency and infidelity.
+
+[Illustration: Ethan Allen.]
+
+Controversy over property rights engenders such diversities of opinion,
+and when, as in this case, one side gains all and the other loses much,
+the exultation of triumph or the bitterness of defeat will color the ink
+of all literature on the subject for a century to come.
+
+Not until after the year 1761 did the dense wilderness of either
+Northern New York, or what was then considered Western New Hampshire,
+prove attractive to the Yankee or Dutch settler in search of a pioneer
+home. The cruel conflicts that for over seventy years had made these
+border lands the scene of bloody race enmities were ended by the
+conquest of Canada. These primeval forests, that had echoed only to the
+tread of skulking savages, or the revengeful tramp of opposing forces,
+became peaceful spots for the erection of hearth-stones around which
+women and children might gather in safety. Many of the Connecticut
+soldiery who had taken active part in the late French and Indian wars,
+now recalled the beautiful country through which they had marched to
+meet or pursue the foe, the grandeur of its evergreen mountain peaks,
+the limpid sheets of water nestling between, its sparkling fish-laden
+streams, and the apparent fertility of its soil.
+
+These recollections were stimulated by the conditions which confronted
+them on their return to peaceful and agricultural pursuits. The
+subdivision of farms among the many robust sons of the average New
+England household had reached its limit, and the young man who would
+found a home and family of his own, thenceforth must seek for cheaper
+and broader acres than were to be found already under cultivation. New
+Hampshire's liberal offer of grants in her western border upon easy
+terms, decided the future of many a New England lad, and for several
+years the tide of emigration rolled steadily northward.
+
+From Burlington, on Lake Champlain, for one hundred miles south to
+Bennington, the sound of the axe was heard by day and by night. The
+enthusiasms of a new country lent strength to the arm and courage to the
+heart. In every direction homes sprang up, surrounded by young orchards,
+and beyond and around these, cultivated fields.
+
+Suddenly the settlers were set to wondering and worrying at the sight of
+strange surveyors taking new measurements through the farms wrenched
+from the wilds with so much of hard labor and wearisome toil. And then
+the blow fell. New York was claiming all this tract of land as part of
+her province, and declaring New Hampshire grants to be null and void. A
+second payment for their farms was demanded, based upon their present
+value as improved property.
+
+In some cases new owners put in an appearance and attempted to take
+possession, having purchased, in good faith, of land speculators in New
+York City, to whom Governor Colden, of New York, had issued immense
+grants covering a large part of the disputed territory. These
+speculators were mostly lawyers, who were favorites or friends of the
+governor. Against these shrewd men of wealth and education, with their
+powerful backing, the puny defence of the original settlers seemed
+wellnigh hopeless. But it was to be a contest between might and right,
+and that invisible influence which seems ever to weaken the one and
+strengthen the other was surely, though silently at work.
+
+Upon this scene of trouble and uncertainty appears Ethan Allen, a
+farmer, born about thirty years before in Coventry, Conn., large of
+frame, of great personal strength, and with mental characteristics in
+harmony with his powerful physique: a tender-hearted giant whose
+standard of honor and honesty soon measured the injustice of New York's
+position in the land controversy, and at once sided with the besieged
+farmers, with whom he had many generalities of sympathy.
+
+With fiery energy of will and purpose, he immediately assumed the
+leadership of the defence, guiding its combined strength into the legal
+side of the question, thus meeting the power of alleged law with like
+weapons. Selecting the best legal talent of Connecticut as assistants,
+and armed with New Hampshire's charter and seal, he appeared in the
+Albany courts to contest New York's claim that the Connecticut River was
+the boundary between that province and New Hampshire.
+
+But the trial was a farce, stripped of all dignity and justice by the
+fact that the judge upon the bench, the prosecuting attorneys, and other
+officials were personally interested, each holding New York grants for
+many thousand acres in the disputed territory. All evidence for the
+defence, even the New Hampshire charter, was ruled out of court, and
+Ethan Allen's peaceful efforts for defence were defeated.
+
+He returned home, burning with indignation and resolving to protect his
+property and that of his neighbors, if need were, by the force of his
+own strong right arm. For six years, under his leadership, all attempts
+by New York settlers to take possession were frustrated by the alertness
+of the "Green Mountain Boys," as the defence now termed themselves, who
+drove them off quietly or with violence, according to the exigencies of
+the occasion.
+
+As a measure of punishment for these acts, Ethan Allen was outlawed by
+the Governor of New York, and a price offered for his capture. Soon
+after he rode alone into Albany one day, and alighting at a tavern in
+the heart of the city, called for refreshment. His former visit had
+marked his strong personality in the remembrance of many, and he was at
+once recognized by prominent officials, who stared at him with
+curiosity, but made no effort to arrest him. Returning their gaze, he
+lifted his glass to his lips, pledging in a loud, firm voice "The Green
+Mountain Boys," and then rode away unmolested.
+
+This act was defined by his friends as the rashness of bravery; by his
+enemies as the madness of impudence.
+
+But the cloud overhanging the shores of Lake Champlain was but a shadow
+compared with the darkness of the storm brooding over the whole region
+south and east of it, and the battle of Lexington ended this local
+strife.
+
+Thenceforth, Ethan Allen was to bid defiance, not to a State, but to a
+nation. To him and his Green Mountain Boys came urgent appeals from
+leading patriots of the American Revolution for help and support in the
+coming struggle, and the answer was more than kindly assent and promise:
+it was prompt and vigorous action--the first aggressive blow at the
+power of Great Britain, for the musket-shots that harassed the
+retreating red-coats from Concord were those of spirited defence rather
+than of deliberate attack.
+
+As the fortress of Ticonderoga had been the key of the position in the
+late French and Indian wars, the gain or loss of which meant either
+overwhelming victory or disaster, so now it was deemed of equal
+importance in the coming conflict, which inevitably would bring the
+British foe upon them from the North, along the same familiar war-path.
+The capture of this fort was a serious undertaking, for it was well
+garrisoned by a company of British soldiers, and thoroughly equipped for
+vigorous defense. Only the keenest strategy and the most complete
+surprise would avail in the accomplishment of the task.
+
+But the experience and ability of Ethan Allen--who had been unanimously
+chosen as leader--was adequate to the occasion, and his plans were made
+with the greatest secrecy and skill. One of his men was detailed to gain
+admission to the fort on some pretext, and then by skilfully acting the
+part of a greenhorn full of foolish questions, to learn many important
+facts and necessary details. In addition, a lad was found thoroughly
+familiar with the interior of the garrison, who would serve as guide,
+and on the night of May 9, 1775, 270 American patriots appeared on the
+shore opposite Fort Ticonderoga, which was on the west or New York side
+of Lake Champlain.
+
+A day or two previous a small force of men had been despatched secretly
+to points above and below this spot in quest of boats, which failing
+them, in this emergency only 83 of the 270 men could be accommodated in
+the limited number at hand. Spring lingers long in this latitude, and
+the night, clear and cold, was giving way to dawn when the brave leader
+and his little vanguard of heroes resolved to attack without further
+re-enforcement. According to military precedent, he first harangued his
+followers.
+
+"Friends and fellow-soldiers, you have for a number of years been a
+scourge and a terror to arbitrary power. Your valor has been famed
+abroad and acknowledged, as appears by the advice and orders to me from
+the General Assembly of Connecticut to surprise and take the garrison
+now before us. I now propose to advance before you and in person conduct
+you through the wicket gate; for we must this morning either quit our
+pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves of this fortress in a few
+minutes. And inasmuch as it is a desperate attempt, which none but the
+bravest men dare undertake, I do not urge it on any contrary to his
+will. You that will undertake voluntarily, poise your firelock!"
+
+Needless to state, the firelocks were all "poised"--whatever that may
+be--and, led by Allen, a rush was made, the sentry overpowered, and
+soon the gallant "83" were standing back to back on the parade-ground
+within the fort, their muskets levelled at the two barracks which,
+filled with sleeping soldiers, faced each other.
+
+The commandant was then aroused by loud rapping on his door and the
+voice of Allen bidding him come out and surrender the fort. The
+astonished officer, half dressed, made his appearance, demanding by what
+authority he was asked to do such a thing.
+
+A part of Ethan Allen's famous reply: "In the name of Jehovah and the
+Continental Congress!" was more prophetic than authentic, as the latter
+earthly tribunal at that time had no existence.
+
+The hundred cannon and quantities of ammunition found in the fort were
+sent east, where they proved of great service in the siege of Boston.
+
+Crown Point, the garrison of St. Johns, many boats, vessels, and a
+British armed schooner soon after fell into the hands of the Green
+Mountain Boys, thus giving them the full sweep of Lake Champlain, and
+holding in check any attempts at invasion from that direction.
+
+Ethan Allen's military instincts and foresight transcended any
+experience and all knowledge he possessed on the subject. He at once saw
+the importance of pushing the advantage now gained, by an immediate
+advance upon Canada before reinforcements could arrive to strengthen the
+strongholds of Montreal and Quebec; a measure which, if adopted, would
+have changed the whole history of the northern campaign that eventually
+proved so disastrous.
+
+With the splendid magnanimity of a noble soul and the abnegation of a
+true patriot, he addressed the Continental Congress of New York on the
+subject, first apologizing for his seeming neglect to consult with that
+body before his attack on Ticonderoga, which was within its province,
+and explaining the necessity for secrecy, which prompted him. Note the
+spirit of prophecy breathed in the following words:
+
+"I wish to God America would at this critical juncture exert herself
+agreeable to the indignity offered her by a tyrannical ministry. She
+might rise on eagle's wings and mount up to glory, freedom, and immortal
+honor if she did but know and exert her strength. Fame is now hovering
+over her head. A vast continent must now sink to slavery, poverty, and
+bondage, or rise to unconquerable freedom, immense wealth, inexpressible
+felicity, and immortal fame."
+
+He then offers the services of his own men for the purpose, and to raise
+a regiment of rangers in Northern New York, a proposal which he trusts
+will not be deemed impertinent.
+
+[Illustration: Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga.]
+
+But for some unexplained reason no action was taken on his suggestions
+until months later, when the conditions had materially changed, making
+such a campaign exceedingly more difficult. Generals Schuyler and
+Montgomery were then in command, and to Ethan Allen was given a task
+requiring shrewdness, tact, and great personal influence--to enlist the
+co-operation or the neutrality of the Canadians in the struggle between
+the American colonists and the mother country. For weeks he travelled in
+Canada, "preaching politics" so successfully that he was able to
+report a company of 300 Canadian recruits for the American service, and
+that 2,000 more could be enlisted when needed.
+
+In returning from this expedition he was persuaded by a brother officer
+into a step that but for an accident would have been more brilliant than
+Allen's former exploit and added fresh laurels to his name as a military
+hero. It was no less than the surprise and capture of Fort Montreal,
+then garrisoned by 500 men, 40 only of whom were regulars, the remainder
+volunteers and Indians.
+
+It seemed a feasible undertaking. The plan was similar to the seizure of
+Ticonderoga--the quiet landing of boats under the walls of the fort
+before daybreak and the quick rush of attack. The forces were divided,
+Allen taking 110 men and landing below the city. The remainder and
+larger portion were to cross the river above and then signal the others.
+Colonel Allen promptly performed his part of the programme, but no
+signal greeted his ears, and daylight found him in full view of the fort
+and unable to retreat. He and his men for two hours bravely resisted the
+enemy, who sallied out to attack them, but without avail, and they were
+taken prisoners.
+
+The story of Ethan Allen's long captivity, lasting two years and eight
+months, as told by himself, is one of the most interesting narratives
+connected with the Revolutionary war. Loaded with chains, consigned to
+the filthy hold of a vessel, with no seat nor bed save a seaman's chest,
+half starved, tortured by daily indignities, his high courage and brave
+spirit never faltered. Once, when insulted, he sprang at his
+tormentor--the captain of the ship--and with his shackled hands knocked
+him down; and again he bit off the nail that fastened his handcuffs, and
+by these feats of strength and anger awed his guards into some show of
+respect.
+
+The method by which he saved himself from a felon's death in England was
+worthy the dignity of a veteran diplomat. A letter to the Continental
+Congress, which he knew would never reach its destination, but fall into
+the hands of its bitterest enemy, Lord North, contained an account of
+his ill treatment and possible fate, and closed with the request that if
+retaliation upon the Tory and other prisoners in its power should be
+found necessary, it might be exercised not according to his own value or
+rank, but in proportion to the importance of the cause for which he
+suffered.
+
+The English ministry concluded evidently to treat him henceforth as a
+prisoner of war entitled to an honorable exchange, rather than a rebel
+deserving an ignoble death, and he was returned to America, where he was
+confined, with varieties of usage, in Halifax, and afterward in New
+York.
+
+While in the latter place, and suffering from hunger and long ill
+health, he was approached by a British officer, authorized to offer him
+the command of a royalist regiment, and the gift of thousands of acres
+of land at the close of the war, in any part of the American colonies he
+might select, providing he would forsake the patriot cause and take oath
+of allegiance to the crown. Colonel Allen rejected this overture with
+great scorn, assuring the officer that he had as little land to promise
+him as had the devil when making a similar one.
+
+"Thereupon," said Allen, "he closed the conversation and turned from me
+with an air of dislike, saying I was a bigot."
+
+An exchange of prisoners at length freed him from a situation so full of
+personal hardship and mental anguish, and he hastened home to his
+family, from whom he so long and cruelly had been separated.
+
+His only son had died in the meantime, and his wife and daughters, not
+expecting his arrival, were not at Bennington in time to receive him.
+But his neighbors and friends flocked in from miles around to give him
+greeting, and although it was the Sabbath, a day strictly observed in
+those parts, the enthusiasm of the joyful occasion could neither be
+postponed nor suppressed, and its expression found vent in the firing of
+cannon and happy huzzas.
+
+The "Hampshire Grants" in his absence had become the full-fledged "State
+of Vermont," knocking for admission at the doors of the Continental
+Congress.
+
+Ethan Allen at once was appointed General of the Vermont State Militia,
+and although he did not again join the American army, his natural gifts
+of diplomacy were of inestimable service to the country, and the number
+of men he could summon at a moment's notice to his command, served to
+hold in check any attempted raids of the enemy through Canada. He lived
+eight years after the declaration of peace, dying at the age of
+fifty-one, in Burlington, where he was engaged in farming.
+
+A little incident never before in print was recently related to the
+writer of this sketch by a lady to whom it was told in childhood by an
+old man who, as a lad, lived on Ethan Allen's farm. It was in
+illustration of the simplicity of the celebrated hero's private life.
+
+The farm hands all sat at the table with the family, much to the
+amusement or astonishment of his frequent guests, who sometimes were
+wealthy and distinguished and quite unaccustomed to such practical
+exhibitions of democracy. One of these had the poor taste to expostulate
+with the general, and remarked, "I should think your men would prefer to
+eat by themselves."
+
+General Allen feigned to misunderstand the meaning of this, and after a
+moment's reflection replied, "Thank you very much for calling my
+attention to it. I see that what has been hearty enough for my family
+may not have been for my hard-working help. I will take more notice
+hereafter to see that they are better served."
+
+"It was little use," says my informant, "to try to dictate to Ethan
+Allen."
+
+[Signature: Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8, by Various
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 5. Editor: Charles F. Horne.</title>
+
+
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8
+       A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more
+              than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Charles F. Horne
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2009 [EBook #28455]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Christine P. Travers and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<a id="img001" name="img001"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="600" height="400" alt="" title="">
+<p>Columbus before Isabella.</p></div>
+
+<h1>GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN</h1>
+
+<p class="noindent center italic">A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent">THE LIVES OF MORE THAN 200 OF
+THE MOST PROMINENT PERSONAGES IN HISTORY</p>
+
+<p class="center noindent">Vol. V.</p>
+
+<p class="p4 noindent center"><span class="smaller">Copyright, 1894, BY SELMAR HESS</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Edited by Charles F. Horne</span></p>
+
+<p class="p4 center noindent smaller"><span class="smcap">New-York: Selmar Hess Publisher</span><br>
+Copyright, 1894, by <span class="smcap">Selmar Hess</span>.</p>
+
+<a id="toc" name="toc"></a>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiii" name="pageiii"></a>(p. iii)</span> CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.</h2>
+
+<ul>
+<li>SUBJECT <span class="ralign85">AUTHOR</span> <span class="ralign95">PAGE</span></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>ĘNEAS,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Charlotte M. Yonge</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page012">12</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ETHAN ALLEN,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page200">200</a></span></li>
+
+<li>KING ARTHUR,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Rev. S. Baring-Gould</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page036">36</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE CHEVALIER BAYARD,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Herbert Greenhough Smith</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page145">145</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ST. BERNARD,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Henry G. Hewlett</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page060">60</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ROBERT BRUCE,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Sir J. Bernard Burke, LL.D.</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page105">105</a></span></li>
+
+<li>WILLIAM CAXTON,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page129">129</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE CID,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Henry G. Hewlett</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page056">56</a></span></li>
+
+<li>CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>A. R. Spofford, LL.D.</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page131">131</a></span></li>
+
+<li>CAPTAIN JAMES COOK,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Oliver Optic</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page188">188</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>George Parsons Lathrop, LL.D.</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page078">78</a></span></li>
+
+<li>FREDERICK BARBAROSSA,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Lady Lamb</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page065">65</a></span></li>
+
+<li>VASCO DA GAMA,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Judge Albion W. Tourgée</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page139">139</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THE GRACCHI,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>James Anthony Froude, LL.D.</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page020">20</a></span></li>
+
+<li>GUSTAVUS VASA,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Charles F. Horne</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page153">153</a></span></li>
+
+<li>HANS GUTENBERG,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Alphonse de Lamartine</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page121">121</a></span></li>
+
+<li>HAROLD, KING OF ENGLAND,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page054">54</a></span></li>
+
+<li>WILLIAM HARVEY,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page172">172</a></span></li>
+
+<li>HERCULES,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Charlotte M. Yonge</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page001">1</a></span></li>
+
+<li>JOHN HOWARD,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Harriet G. Walker</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page194">194</a></span></li>
+
+<li>JOAN OF ARC,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Ella Wheeler Wilcox</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page113">113</a></span></li>
+
+<li>LEIF ERICSON,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page049">49</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ST. LOUIS,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Henry G. Hewlett</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page086">86</a></span></li>
+
+<li>MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Samuel L. Knapp</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page159">159</a></span></li>
+
+<li>MARCO POLO,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Noah Brooks</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page092">92</a></span></li>
+
+<li>RICHARD C&OElig;UR DE LION,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page071">71</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ROLAND,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page039">39</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ROLLO THE GANGER,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page044">44</a></span></li>
+
+<li>SIEGFRIED,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Karl Blind</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page031">31</a></span></li>
+
+<li>CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Marion Harland</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page166">166</a></span></li>
+
+<li>PRINCE CHARLES STUART,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Andrew Lang, LL.D.</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page177">177</a></span></li>
+
+<li>THESEUS,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page005">5</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ULYSSES,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Charles F. Horne</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page007">7</a></span></li>
+
+<li>SIR WILLIAM WALLACE,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page100">100</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED,
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page111">111</a></span></li>
+
+<li>XENOPHON,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Professor J. Pentland Mahaffy</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page015">15</a></span></li>
+
+<li>ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA,
+<span class="ralign85 italic"><i>Anna Jameson</i>,</span>
+<span class="ralign95"><a href="#page026">26</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span> LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<p class="center noindent">VOLUME V.</p>
+
+<p class="p2 noindent center">PHOTOGRAVURES</p>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Illustration list">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="60%">
+    <col width="30%">
+    <col width="10%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td>ILLUSTRATION</td>
+<td class="right">ARTIST</td>
+<td class="right">To face<br>page</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>COLUMBUS BEFORE ISABELLA,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Vacslav Brozik</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img001">Frontispiece</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>ULYSSES DEFYING THE CYCLOPS,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Louis-Frederic Schutzenberger</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img008">10</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Gustave Boulanger</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img013">20</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>LEIF ERICSON OFF THE COAST OF VINELAND,</td>
+<td class="italic right">O. A. Wergeland</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img025">52</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Wilhelm Bernatzik</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img031">62</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE DEATH OF BARBAROSSA,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Wilhelm Beckmann</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img033">70</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>LOUIS IX. OPENS THE JAILS OF FRANCE,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Luc Olivier Merson</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img042">90</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>ARNOLD WINKELRIED AT SEMPACH,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Konrad Grob</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img047">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>JOAN OF ARC,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Mme. Zoe-Laure de Chatillon</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img049">118</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>MARY STUART AND RIZZIO,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Georg Conrader</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img062">162</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p class="p2 noindent center">WOOD-ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Illustration list">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="60%">
+    <col width="30%">
+    <col width="10%">
+</colgroup>
+
+<tr>
+<td>HERCULES AT THE FEET OF OMPHALE,</td>
+<td class="italic right">J. E. Dantan</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img004">4</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>TRIBUTE TO THE MINOTAUR,</td>
+<td class="italic right">A. Gendron</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img006">6</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>ZENOBIA CAPTIVE,</td>
+<td class="italic right">H. Schmalz</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img015">26</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>SIEGFRIED SLAYING THE DRAGON,</td>
+<td class="italic right">K. Dielitz</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img017">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE RUINS OF KING ARTHUR'S CASTLE,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Percy Dixon</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img019">38</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>ROLAND AT RONCESVALLES,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Alphonse de Neuville</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img021">42</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>ROLLO THE RANGER ATTACKS PARIS,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Alphonse de Neuville</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img023">46</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>EDITH SEARCHING FOR THE BODY OF HAROLD,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Alphonse de Neuville</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img027">56</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE CID ORDERING THE EXECUTION OF AHMED,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Alphonse de Neuville</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img029">58</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>RICHARD C&OElig;UR DE LION ON THE FIELD OF ARSUR,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Gustave Doré</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img035">74</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE VISION OF ST. FRANCIS,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Chartran</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img038">84</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE EDUCATION OF LOUIS IX.,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Chartran</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img040">86</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>GUTENBERG'S INVENTION,</td>
+<td class="italic right">E. Hillemacher</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img051">126</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE FIRST SHEET FROM CAXTON'S PRESS,</td>
+<td class="italic right">E. H. Wehnert</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img053">130</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>COLUMBUS RIDICULED AT THE COUNCIL OF SALAMANCA,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Nicolo Barabino</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img055">134</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>BAYARD TAKING LEAVE OF THE LADIES OF BRESCIA,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Alphonse de Neuville</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img058">150</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>ABDICATION OF GUSTAVUS VASA,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Hersent</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img060">156</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>CAPTAIN SMITH SAVED BY POCAHONTAS,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Grosch</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img064">168</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>HARVEY DEMONSTRATING THE CIRCULATION OF THE
+  BLOOD,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Robert Hannah</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img066">176</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>THE FIRST MEETING OF PRINCE CHARLES WITH FLORA
+  MACDONALD,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Alex. Johnstone</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img068">184</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK,</td>
+<td class="italic right">J. Webber</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img070">192</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>HOWARD RELIEVING A PRISONER,</td>
+<td class="italic right">F. Wheatley</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img072">198</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>ETHAN ALLEN AT TICONDEROGA,</td>
+<td class="italic right">Alonzo Chappel</td>
+<td class="right"><a href="#img074">204</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span> WORKMEN AND HEROES</h2>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  The heights by great men reached and kept<br>
+<span class="add1em">Were not attained by sudden flight,</span><br>
+  But they, while their companions slept,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Were toiling upward in the night.</span></p>
+
+<p class="poem50">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Longfellow</span>.</p>
+
+
+<h3>HERCULES<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span></h3>
+
+<a id="img003" name="img003"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="250" height="416" alt="Hercules." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>One morning Jupiter boasted among the gods in Olympus that a son would
+that day be born, in the line of Perseus, who would rule over all the
+Argives. Juno was angry and jealous at this, and, as she was the
+goddess who presided over the births of children, she contrived to
+hinder the birth of the child he intended till that day was over, and
+to hasten that of another grandson of the great Perseus. This child
+was named Eurystheus, and, as he had been born on the right day,
+Jupiter was forced to let him be King of Argos, Sparta, and Mycenę,
+and all the Dorian race; while the boy whom he had meant to be the
+chief was kept in subjection, in spite of having wonderful gifts of
+courage and strength, and a kind, generous nature, that always was
+ready to help the weak and sorrowful.</p>
+
+<p>His name was Alcides, or Hercules, and he was so strong at ten months
+old that, with his own hands, he strangled two serpents whom Juno sent
+to devour him in his cradle. He was bred up by Chiron, the chief of
+the Centaurs, a wondrous race of beings, who had horses' bodies as far
+as the forelegs, but where the neck of the horse would begin had human
+breasts and shoulders, with arms and heads. Most of them were fierce
+and savage; but Chiron was very wise and good, and, as Jupiter made
+him immortal, he was the teacher of many of the great Greek heroes.
+When Hercules was about eighteen, two maidens appeared to him&mdash;one in
+a simple white dress, grave, modest, and seemly; the other scarcely
+clothed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span> but tricked out in ornaments, with a flushed face,
+and bold, roving eyes. The first told him that she was Virtue, and
+that, if he would follow her, she would lead him through many hard
+trials, but that he would be glorious at last, and be blest among the
+gods. The other was Vice, and she tried to wile him by a smooth life
+among wine-cups and dances and flowers and sports, all to be enjoyed
+at once. But the choice of Hercules was Virtue, and it was well for
+him, for Jupiter, to make up for Juno's cheat, had sworn that, if he
+fulfilled twelve tasks which Eurystheus should put upon him, he should
+be declared worthy of being raised to the gods at his death.</p>
+
+<p>Eurystheus did not know that in giving these tasks he was making his
+cousin fulfil his course; but he was afraid of such a mighty man, and
+hoped that one of these would be the means of getting rid of him. So
+when he saw Hercules at Argos, with a club made of a forest-tree in
+his hand, and clad in the skin of a lion which he had slain,
+Eurystheus bade him go and kill a far more terrible lion, of giant
+brood, and with a skin that could not be pierced, which dwelt in the
+valley of Nemea. The fight was a terrible one; the lion could not be
+wounded, and Hercules was forced to grapple with it and strangle it in
+his arms. He lost a finger in the struggle, but at last the beast died
+in his grasp, and he carried it on his back to Argos, where Eurystheus
+was so much frightened at the grim sight that he fled away to hide
+himself, and commanded Hercules not to bring his monsters within the
+gates of the city.</p>
+
+<p>There was a second labor ready for Hercules&mdash;namely, the destroying a
+serpent with nine heads, called Hydra, whose lair was the marsh of
+Lerna. Hercules went to the battle, and managed to crush one head with
+his club, but that moment two sprang up in its place; moreover, a huge
+crab came out of the swamp and began to pinch his heels. Still he did
+not lose heart, but, calling his friend Iolaus, he bade him take a
+firebrand and burn the necks as fast as he cut off the heads; and thus
+at last they killed the creature, and Hercules dipped his arrows in
+its poisonous blood, so that their least wound became fatal.
+Eurystheus said that it had not been a fair victory, since Hercules
+had been helped, and Juno put the crab into the skies as the
+constellation Cancer; while a labor to patience was next devised for
+Hercules&mdash;namely, the chasing of the Arcadian stag, which was sacred
+to Diana, and had golden horns and brazen hoofs. Hercules hunted it up
+hill and down dale for a whole year, and when at last he caught it, he
+got into trouble with Apollo and Diana about it, and had hard work to
+appease them; but he did so at last; and for his fourth labor was sent
+to catch alive a horrid wild boar on Mount Erymanthus. He followed the
+beast through a deep swamp, caught it in a net, and brought it to
+Mycenę.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth task was a curious one. Augeas, King of Elis, had immense
+herds, and kept his stables and cowhouses in a frightful state of
+filth, and Eurystheus, hoping either to disgust Hercules or kill him
+by the unwholesomeness of the work, sent him to clean them. Hercules,
+without telling Augeas it was his appointed task, offered to do it if
+he were repaid the tenth of the herds, and received the promise on
+oath. Then he dug a canal, and turned the water of two <span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span>
+rivers into the stables, so as effectually to cleanse them; but when
+Augeas heard it was his task, he tried to cheat him of the payment,
+and on the other hand Eurystheus said, as he had been rewarded, it
+could not count as one of his labors, and ordered him off to clear the
+woods near Lake Stymphalis of some horrible birds, with brazen beaks
+and claws, and ready-made arrows for feathers, which ate human flesh.
+To get them to rise out of the forest was his first difficulty, but
+Pallas lent him a brazen clapper, which made them take to their wings;
+then he shot them with his poisoned arrows, killed many, and drove the
+rest away.</p>
+
+<p>King Minos, of Crete, had once vowed to sacrifice to the gods whatever
+should appear from the sea. A beautiful white bull came, so fine that
+it tempted him not to keep his word, and he was punished by the bull
+going mad, and doing all sorts of damage in Crete; so that Eurystheus
+thought it would serve as a labor for Hercules to bring the animal to
+Mycenę. In due time back came the hero, with the bull, quite subdued,
+upon his shoulders; and, having shown it, he let it loose again to run
+about Greece.</p>
+
+<p>He had a harder task in getting the mares of the Thracian king,
+Diomedes, which were fed on man's flesh. He overcame their grooms, and
+drove the beasts away; but he was overtaken by Diomedes, and, while
+fighting with him and his people, put the mares under the charge of a
+friend; but when the battle was over, and Diomedes killed, he found
+that they had eaten up their keeper. However, when he had fed them on
+the dead body of their late master they grew mild and manageable, and
+he brought them home.</p>
+
+<p>The next expedition was against the Amazons, a nation of women
+warriors, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Euxine, or Black
+Sea, kept their husbands in subjection, and seldom brought up a son.
+The bravest of all the Amazons was the queen, Hippolyta, to whom Mars
+had given a belt as a reward for her valor. Eurystheus's daughter
+wanted this belt, and Hercules was sent to fetch it. He was so hearty,
+honest, and good-natured, that he talked over Hippolyta, and she
+promised him her girdle; but Juno, to make mischief, took the form of
+an Amazon, and persuaded the ladies that their queen was being deluded
+and stolen away by a strange man, so they mounted their horses and
+came down to rescue her. He thought she had been treacherous, and
+there was a great fight, in which he killed her, and carried off her
+girdle.</p>
+
+<p>Far out in the west, near the ocean flowing found the world, were
+herds of purple oxen, guarded by a two-headed dog, and belonging to a
+giant with three bodies called Geryon, who lived in the isle of
+Erythria, in the outmost ocean. Passing Lybia, Hercules came to the
+end of the Mediterranean Sea, Neptune's domain, and there set up two
+pillars&mdash;namely, Mounts Calpe and Abyla&mdash;on each side of the Straits
+of Gibraltar. The rays of the sun scorched him, and in wrath he shot
+at it with his arrows, when Helios, instead of being angry, admired
+his boldness, and gave him his golden cup, wherewith to cross the
+outer ocean, which he did safely, although old Oceanus, who was king
+there, put up his hoary head, and tried to frighten him by shaking the
+bowl. It was large enough to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span> hold all the herd of oxen, when
+Hercules had killed dog, herdsman, and giant, and he returned it
+safely to Helios when he had crossed the ocean.</p>
+
+<p>Again Eurystheus sent Hercules to the utmost parts of the earth. This
+time it was to bring home the golden apples which grew in the gardens
+of the Hesperides, the daughters of old Atlas, who dwelt in the land
+of Hesperus, the Evening Star, and, together with a dragon, guarded
+the golden tree in a beautiful garden. Hercules made a long journey,
+apparently round by the north, and on his way had to wrestle with a
+dreadful giant named Antęus. Though thrown down over and over again,
+Antęus rose up twice as strong every time, till Hercules found out
+that he grew in force whenever he touched his mother earth, and
+therefore, lifting him up in those mightiest of arms, the hero
+squeezed the breath out of him. By and by he came to Mount Caucasus,
+where he found the chained Prometheus, and, aiming an arrow at the
+eagle, killed the tormentor, and set the Titan free. Atlas undertook
+to go to his daughters, and get the apples, if Hercules would hold up
+the skies for him in the meantime. Hercules agreed, and Atlas shifted
+the heavens to his shoulders, went, and presently returned with three
+apples of gold, but said he would take them to Eurystheus, and
+Hercules must continue to bear the load of the skies. Prometheus bade
+Hercules say he could not hold them without a pad for them to rest on
+upon his head. Atlas took them again to hold while the pad was put on;
+and thereupon Hercules picked up the apples, and left the old giant to
+his load.</p>
+
+<p>One more labor remained&mdash;namely, to bring up the three-headed
+watch-dog, Cerberus, from the doors of Tartarus. Mercury and Pallas
+both came to attend him, and led him alive among the shades, who all
+fled from him, except Medusa and one brave youth. He gave them the
+blood of an ox to drink, and made his way to Pluto's throne, where he
+asked leave to take Cerberus to the upper world with him. Pluto said
+he might, if he could overcome Cerberus without weapons; and this he
+did, struggling with the dog, with no protection but the lion's skin,
+and dragging him up to the light, where the foam that fell from the
+jaws of one of the three mouths produced the plant called aconite, or
+hellebore, which is dark and poisonous. After showing the beast to
+Eurystheus, Hercules safely returned him to the under world, and thus
+completed his twelve great labors.</p>
+
+<p>Hercules was subject to fits of madness, in one of which he slew a
+friend, and as a penalty he allowed himself to be sold as a slave. He
+was purchased by the Queen of Lydia, Omphale, and remained in her
+service three years. She used to make him do a woman's work, and even
+dressed him at times in female garments, while she herself wore his
+famous lion skin and laughed at him.</p>
+
+<a id="img004" name="img004"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="600" height="423" alt="" title="">
+<p>Hercules at the Feet of Omphale.</p></div>
+
+<p>But strong as he was, Hercules had in time to meet death himself. He
+had married a nymph named Deianira, and was taking her home, when he
+came to a river where a Centaur named Nessus lived, and gained his
+bread by carrying travellers over on his back. Hercules paid him the
+price for carrying Deianira over, while he himself crossed on foot;
+but as soon as the river was between them, the faithless Centaur began
+to gallop away with the lady. Hercules sent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span> an arrow after
+him, which brought him to the ground, and as he was dying he prepared
+his revenge by telling Deianira that his blood was enchanted with love
+for her, and that if ever she found her husband's affection failing
+her, she had only to make him put on a garment anointed with it, and
+his heart would return to her; he knew full well that his blood was
+full of the poison of the Hydra, but poor Deianira believed him, and
+had saved some of the blood before Hercules came up.</p>
+
+<p>Several years after, Hercules made prisoner a maiden named Iole, in
+Lydia, after gaining a great victory. Landing in the island of
+Eub&oelig;a, he was going to make a great sacrifice to Jupiter, and sent
+home to Deianira for a festal garment to wear at it. She was afraid he
+was falling in love with Iole, and steeped the garment in the
+preparation she had made from Nessus's blood. No sooner did Hercules
+put it on, than his veins were filled with agony, which nothing could
+assuage. He tried to tear off the robe, but the skin and flesh came
+with it, and his blood was poisoned beyond relief. Unable to bear the
+pain any longer, and knowing that by his twelve tasks he had earned
+the prize of endless life, he went to Mount &OElig;ta, crying aloud with
+the pain, so that the rocks rang again with the sound. He gave his
+quiver of arrows to his friend Philoctetes, charging him to collect
+his ashes and bury them, but never to make known the spot; and then he
+tore up, with his mighty strength, trees by the roots, enough to form
+a funeral pile, lay down on it, and called on his friend to set fire
+to it; but no one could bear to do so, till a shepherd consented to
+thrust in a torch. Then thunder was heard, a cloud came down, and he
+was borne away to Olympus, while Philoctetes collected and buried the
+ashes.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>THESEUS</h3>
+
+<a id="img005" name="img005"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="200" height="317" alt="Theseus." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Theseus, the great national hero of Athens, is said to have been born
+at Tr&oelig;zen, where his father, Ęgeus, King of Athens, slept one night
+with Ęthra, the daughter of Pittheus, king of the place. Ęgeus, on his
+departure, hid his sword and his shoes under a large stone, and
+charged Ęthra, if she brought forth a son, to send him to Athens with
+these tokens, as soon as he was able to roll away the stone. She
+brought forth a son, to whom she gave the name of Theseus, and when he
+was grown up informed him of his origin, and told him to take up the
+tokens and sail to Athens, for the roads were infested by robbers and
+monsters. But Theseus, who was desirous of emulating the glory of
+Hercules, refused to go by sea, and after destroying various monsters
+who had been the terror of the country, arrived in safety at Athens.
+Here he was joyfully recognized by Ęgeus, but with difficulty escaped
+destruction from Media and the Pallantids, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span> the sons and
+grandsons of Pallas, the brother of Ęgeus. These dangers, however, he
+finally surmounted, and slew the Pallantids in battle.</p>
+
+<p>His next exploit was the destruction of the great Marathonian bull,
+which ravaged the neighboring country; and shortly after he resolved
+to deliver the Athenians from the tribute that they were obliged to
+pay to Minos, King of Crete. Every ninth year the Athenians had to
+send seven young men and as many virgins to Crete, to be devoured by
+the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. Theseus volunteered to go as one of the
+victims, and through the assistance of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos,
+who became enamoured of him, he slew the Minotaur and escaped from the
+Labyrinth. He then sailed away with Ariadne, whom he deserted in the
+island of Dia or Naxos, an event which frequently forms the subject of
+ancient works of art. The sails of the ship Theseus left Athens in
+were black, but he promised his father, if he returned in safety, to
+hoist white sails. This, however, he neglected to do, and Ęgeus,
+seeing the ship draw near with black sails, supposed that his son had
+perished, and threw himself from a rock.</p>
+
+<p>Theseus now ascended the throne of Athens. But his adventures were by
+no means concluded. He marched into the country of the Amazons, who
+dwelt on the Thermodon, according to some accounts, in the company of
+Hercules, and carried away their queen, Antiope. The Amazons in
+revenge invaded Attica, and were with difficulty defeated by the
+Athenians. This battle was one of the favorite subjects of the ancient
+artists, and is commemorated in several works of art that are still
+extant. Theseus also took part in the Argonautic expedition and the
+Calydonian hunt. He assisted his friend Pirithous and the Lapithę in
+their contest with the Centaurs, and also accompanied the former in
+his descent to the lower world to carry off Proserpine, the wife of
+Pluto. When Theseus was fifty years old, according to tradition, he
+carried off Helen, the daughter of Leda, who was then only nine years
+of age. But his territory was invaded in consequence by Castor and
+Pollux, the brothers of Leda; his own people rose against him, and at
+last, finding his affairs desperate, he withdrew to the island of
+Scyros, and there perished, either by a fall from the cliffs or
+through the treachery of Lycomedes, the king of the island. For a long
+time his memory was forgotten by the Athenians, but he was
+subsequently honored by them as the greatest of their heroes. At the
+battle of Marathon they thought they saw him armed and bearing down
+upon the barbarians, and after the conclusion of the Persian war his
+bones were discovered at Scyros by Cimon, who conveyed them to Athens
+where they were received with great pomp and deposited in a temple
+built to his honor. A festival also was instituted, which was
+celebrated on the eighth day of every month, but more especially on
+the eighth of Pyanipsion.</p>
+
+<p>The above is a brief account of the legends prevailing respecting
+Theseus. But he is, moreover, represented by ancient writers as the
+founder of the Attic commonwealth, and even of its democratic
+institutions. It would be waste of time to inquire whether there was
+an historical personage of this name who actually introduced the
+political changes ascribed to him; it will be convenient to adhere to
+the ancient account in describing them as the work of Theseus.</p>
+
+<a id="img006" name="img006"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img006.jpg" width="600" height="383" alt="" title="">
+<p>Tribute to the Minotaur.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span> Before this time Attica contained many independent townships,
+which were only nominally united. Theseus incorporated the people into
+one state, removed the principal courts for the administration of
+justice to Athens, and greatly enlarged the city, which had hitherto
+covered little more than the rock which afterward formed the citadel.
+To cement their union he instituted several festivals, and especially
+changed the Athenęa into the Panathenęa, or the festivals of all the
+Atticans. He encouraged the nobles to reside at Athens, and
+surrendered a part of his kingly prerogatives to them; for which
+reason he is perhaps represented as the founder of the Athenian
+democracy, although the government which he established was, and
+continued to be long after him, strictly aristocratic.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>ULYSSES<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1" title="Go to footnote 1"><span class="small">[1]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Charles F. Horne</span></h3>
+
+<a id="img007" name="img007"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img007.jpg" width="300" height="192" alt="Ulysses." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>While courage and strength seemed to the ancient Greeks the noblest of
+virtues, they ranked wisdom and ready wit almost as high. Achilles was
+the strongest of the Grecian warriors at the siege of Troy, but there
+was another almost as strong, equally brave, and far shrewder of wit.
+This was Ulysses. It was he who ultimately brought about the capture
+of the city. Homer speaks often of him in his "Iliad;" and the bard's
+second great work, the "Odyssey," is devoted entirely to the
+wanderings of Odysseus, or, as we have learned from the Romans to call
+him, Ulysses. Whether he was a real person or only a creation of the
+poet's fancy, it is impossible to say. But as it is now generally
+agreed that there was a siege of Troy, it follows that there was
+probably a Ulysses, and his adventures, while in the main mythical,
+are of value as having perhaps some foundation in truth, and giving,
+at all events, a picture of what the old Greeks thought a hero should
+be and do.</p>
+
+<p>Ulysses was King of Ithaca when he was summoned to join the rest of
+the Grecian princes for the war with Troy. He had no wish to go, for
+he had lately married a beautiful girl, Penelope, and was happy as a
+man might be. So when the heralds came he pretended to be insane, and
+hitching a yoke of oxen to a plough he drove them along the sands of
+the sea-shore. He sang and shouted, and ploughed up the sand, and
+scattered salt as if he were sowing it, and cried out that he would
+soon have a beautiful crop of salt waves. The heralds watched him for
+a moment, and then returning to the princes told them that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span>
+there was no use delivering the summons to Ulysses, for he had lost
+his wits. Then Palamedes, who, after Ulysses, was accounted shrewdest
+of the Greeks, went, and standing there on the beach, watched the
+plough. And he took Ulysses's baby son and threw him in front of the
+team to see if the father was indeed mad. Ulysses turned the plough
+aside to avoid the child; and then the princes knew it was all a
+pretence, and he had to go with them. But he never forgave Palamedes,
+and long after brought about his death.</p>
+
+<p>He was in many ways the ablest of the Greeks. Next to Achilles, Ajax
+was accounted the strongest; but Ulysses threw him in wrestling.
+Oilemenus was regarded as the swiftest of men, but Ulysses in a race
+outran him. When Achilles was slain Ulysses alone held back all the
+Trojans, while his comrades bore the body to their ships. Many other
+great exploits he performed, and his counsels were of much value to
+the Greeks through all the long siege. A great pile of spoils was
+heaped up to be given to the man who had been of most use to the
+assailants, and the Trojan prisoners themselves being called on to
+decide, gave it to Ulysses. At the last, when Achilles was dead, and
+the Greeks were all worn out and despairing, it was his fertile brain
+which originated the snare into which the Trojans fell.</p>
+
+<p>Now, with the other Greeks, Ulysses set out to return to his home. Yet
+first he stopped with his Ithacans to attack the Trojan city of
+Ciconia. The assault was unexpected and successful. Great treasure
+fell into the hands of the conquerors; but, in spite of their leader's
+entreaties, they persisted in stopping in the captured city for a
+night's carouse. The dispersed Ciconians rallied, gathered together
+their allies, and attacking the revellers, defeated them with great
+slaughter, so that less than half of them escaped in their ships. Yet
+this was only the first of the many mishaps which befell the
+ill-starred Ulysses. So persistently did misfortune pursue him that
+the superstitious Greeks declared that he must have incurred the
+hatred of the sea-god, Neptune, who would not let him cross his
+domains.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had his flying ships escaped from Ciconia than they were
+struck by a terrific tempest which drove them far out of their course.
+For three days the storm continued; then, as it abated, they saw
+before them an unknown shore on which they landed to rest and recover
+their strength. It was the land of the lotos-eaters, and when Ulysses
+sent messengers to find out where he was, they, too, ate of the lotos
+fruit. It caused them to forget everything; their struggles and
+exhaustion, their homes, their leader, the great battles they had
+fought, all were obliterated. They only cared to lie there as the
+other lotos-eaters did, doing no work, but just dreaming all their
+lives, nibbling at the fruit, which was both food and drink, until
+they grew old and died.</p>
+
+<p>Ulysses knew that any life, no matter how wretched, was far better
+than this death in life. He forbade any other of his men to touch the
+fruit, and binding those who had already eaten it, he bore them,
+despite their pleading and weeping, back to his ships, which he at
+once led away from that clime of subtle danger. They next sighted a
+fertile island, where leaving most of his comrades <span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span> for the
+rest they needed, Ulysses sailed in his own ship, exploring. He soon
+found himself in a beautiful country, where were seen vast herds of
+sheep and goats, but no people. Landing with his men, they explored it
+and found great caves full of milk and cheese, but still no people,
+only a huge giant in the distance. So sitting down in one of the caves
+they feasted merrily and awaited the return of the inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Now these inhabitants were giants, such as the one they had seen. They
+were called Cyclops, and had only one great eye in the middle of the
+forehead. The Cyclops who owned the cave in which the adventurers were
+was a particularly large and savage one named Polyphemus. When he
+returned at night and saw the men within, he immediately seized two of
+them, cracked their heads together, and ate them for supper. Then he
+went to bed. Ulysses and his terrified men would have slain the huge
+creature as he slept; but he had rolled a great stone in front of the
+door, and they could not possibly move it to escape. In the morning
+the monster ate two more of the unfortunates and then went off with
+his flocks, fastening the door as before. In the evening he ate two
+more.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the crafty Ulysses, as Homer delights to call him, had
+perfected his plans. He offered Polyphemus some wine, which so
+delighted him that he asked the giver his name, and said he had it in
+mind to do him a kindness. The crafty one told him his name was
+No-man. Then said the ogre, "This shall be your reward, I will eat
+No-man the last of you all." Then, heavy with the wine, he fell into a
+deep sleep. The tiny weapons of the wanderers would have been of
+little effect against this man-mountain, so taking a great pole, they
+heated it red-hot in the fire, and all together plunged it into his
+one great eye, blinding him. Up he jumped, roaring and howling
+horribly, and groping in the dark to find his prisoners; but they
+easily avoided him. Then came other Cyclops running at the noise from
+their distant caves, and called to him, "Who has hurt thee,
+Polyphemus?"</p>
+
+<p>He answered them, "No-man has hurt me, No-man has blinded me."</p>
+
+<p>Then they said, "If no man has hurt thee, thy trouble is from the
+gods, and we may not interfere. Bear it patiently, and pray to them."</p>
+
+<p>In the morning Polyphemus opened the door, and sitting in it, let his
+sheep pass out, feeling each one, so that the Greeks might not escape.
+But the crafty one fastened himself and his remaining comrades under
+the breasts of the largest sheep, and so, hidden by the wool, escaped
+unnoticed. They hurried to their ship and put out to sea. And now
+feeling safe, Ulysses shouted to the blind monster and taunted him,
+whereon, rushing to the shore, Polyphemus lifted up a vast rock and
+hurled it toward the sound he heard. It almost struck the vessel, and
+its waves swept the little craft back to the land. In great haste they
+shoved off again, and when they felt safe, shouted at him once more.
+He followed them, hurling rocks, but now they were beyond his reach
+and returned safely to their companions.</p>
+
+<p>Next the wanderers reached the island of Ęolus, who controls the
+winds. He received them with royal hospitality, pointed out to them
+their proper course to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span> Ithaca, and when they left him, gave
+to Ulysses a bag in which he had tied up all the contrary winds, that
+they might have a fair one to waft them home. For nine days they
+sailed, and at last were actually in sight of their destination; but
+the seamen fancying there was treasure in Ęolus's bag opened it while
+their leader slept. At once leaped out all the wild winds, and there
+was a terrible tempest which swept the vessels back to their
+starting-point. Ęolus, however, refused to help them again, for he
+said they were plainly accursed of the gods.</p>
+
+<p>So they journeyed on as best they might, and came to the land of the
+Lęstrygonians. These people were of enormous strength and were
+cannibals; but Ulysses and his men knowing nothing of this, sailed
+into the narrow harbor. As they landed the cannibals rushed upon them
+and slew them, and hurling rocks from the top of the narrow entrance,
+sank those ships which would have escaped. Ulysses in his own ship
+managed to force his way out, but all the other ships were taken and
+their crews slain.</p>
+
+<p>Then, in deep mourning, Ulysses sailed on till he came to the home of
+Circe, a beautiful but wicked enchantress. Here he divided his crew
+into two parties, and while one half rested, the others went to find
+what place this was. Circe welcomed them in her palace, feasted them,
+and gave them a magic drink. When they had drunk this, she touched
+them with her wand, and they were turned into swine, all except one,
+who had feared to enter the palace, and now returning, told Ulysses
+that the others had disappeared. Then the hero arose and went alone to
+the palace; but on the way he sought out a little herb which might
+render the drink harmless. This he ate, and when Circe having given
+him the deadly cup, would have turned him also into a brute, he drew
+his sword as if to slay her. Terribly frightened, she besought mercy,
+and at his request restored his men to their own forms.</p>
+
+<p>Directed by her, Ulysses is said to have entered the abode of the
+dead, and conversed with the ghosts of all the great warriors who had
+been slain in the Trojan war, or who had died since. At last, when
+Circe had no more wonders to show him, the wanderer left her, once
+more directed on the road to Ithaca, and to some extent warned of the
+dangers which beset the path.</p>
+
+<p>First he had to pass the Sirens, beautiful but baleful maidens, who
+sat on a rocky shore and sang a magic song so alluring, that men
+hearing it let their ships drift on the rocks while listening, or
+threw themselves into the sea to swim to the maidens, and were
+drowned. No man had ever heard them and lived. Here the crafty one
+filled his companions' ears with wax, so they could not hear the
+Sirens' song, and he bade them bind him to the mast, so that he might
+hear it but could not go to them. This was done, and they passed in
+safety. Ulysses heard the sweet song, and raved and struggled to break
+his bonds, but they held fast. So he was the first to hear the Sirens'
+song and live. And some say he was the last as well, for in despair,
+thinking their music had lost its power, the maidens threw themselves
+into the sea.</p>
+
+<a id="img008" name="img008"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img008.jpg" width="600" height="378" alt="Ulysses." title="">
+<p>Ulysses defying the Cyclops.</p></div>
+
+<p>Next the wanderers came to a narrow strait, on one side of which was
+Charybdis, a dread whirlpool from which no ship could escape, and on
+the other <span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span> was the cave of Scylla, a monster having six
+snake-like heads, with each of which she seized a man from every
+passing ship. Choosing the lesser evil, the bold Ulysses sailed
+through the strait close to Scylla; and six poor wretches were
+snatched by the monster from the deck and devoured, but the rest
+escaped.</p>
+
+<a id="img009" name="img009"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img009.jpg" width="600" height="286" alt="Ulysses." title="">
+<p>Menelaus. <span class="add1em">Paris.</span> <span class="add1em">Diomedes.</span> <span class="add1em">Ulysses.</span> <span class="add1em">Nestor.</span> <span class="add1em">Achilles.</span>
+<span class="add1em">Agamemnon.</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Then they came to an uninhabited island, filled with herds of cattle.
+These were held sacred to the sun, and no man might slay or eat them
+without being punished by the gods. This Ulysses knew well, and warned
+his men against touching them; but great tempests now swelled up, and
+for a whole month the sailors could not leave the island. Their
+provisions gave out and they were starving. Then their leader wandered
+away looking for help, and while he was gone they slew some of the
+oxen and ate their fill. The storm died, and, Ulysses returning, they
+again set sail; but at once came a terrific hurricane, upset the ship,
+and drowned all of the guilty ones. Ulysses had not eaten the flesh of
+the oxen; and he alone was saved, clinging to a spar, and was tossed
+on the island of the nymph Calypso. After a long sojourn he escaped
+from here on a raft. But his old enemy Neptune again raised a storm,
+which broke his raft; and, naked and almost dead, he was thrown upon
+another shore, from which at last the pitying people sent him home. He
+had been away twenty years.</p>
+
+<p>His fair wife Penelope had been for four years past pestered with
+suitors, who declared that Ulysses must be dead. She put them all off,
+by saying that first she must finish a wonderful cloth she was
+weaving; and on this she undid each night what she had done in the
+day. Meanwhile they stayed in the palace, haughty and insolent,
+terrifying everybody, in defiance of the protests of Ulysses' infant
+son, now grown to be almost a man.</p>
+
+<p>The wanderer, coming alone and finding how things were, feared they
+would slay him; so, disguised as an old beggar man, he went to the
+palace. The suitors mocked him, and then in sport it was proposed to
+see who could bend the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span> great Ulysses's bow. It was brought
+out, but none could bend it. The beggar asked leave to try, and they
+hesitated, but gave him leave. Right easily he bent it, and sent then
+a broad arrow through the leader of the suitors. Ulysses's son ranged
+himself by his side. Some old servants, recognizing him, did the same;
+and soon all those parasites were slain. Then was there a royal
+welcome from wife and son, and afterward from kinsmen and friends and
+servants, for the royal wanderer, whom the gods had spared, and who at
+last was returned home.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>ĘNEAS<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Charlotte M. Yonge</span></h3>
+
+<a id="img010" name="img010"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img010.jpg" width="250" height="303" alt="Ęneas." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Among the Trojans at the fall of Troy there was a prince called Ęneas,
+whose father was Anchises, a cousin of Priam, and whose mother was
+said to be the goddess Venus. When he saw that the city was lost he
+rushed back to his house and took his old father Anchises on his back,
+giving him his penates, or little images of household gods, to take
+care of, and led by the hand his little son Iulus, or Ascanius, while
+his wife Creusa followed close behind, and all the Trojans who could
+get their arms together joined him, so that they escaped in a body to
+Mount Ida; but just as they were outside the city he missed poor
+Creusa, and though he rushed back and searched for her everywhere, he
+never could find her. Because of his care for his gods, and for his
+old father, he is always known as the pious Ęneas.</p>
+
+<p>In the forests of Mount Ida he built ships enough to set forth with
+all his followers in quest of the new home which his mother, the
+goddess Venus, gave him hopes of. He had adventures rather like those
+of Ulysses as he sailed about the Mediterranean. Once in the
+Strophades, some clusters belonging to the Ionian Islands, where he
+and his troops had landed to get food, and were eating the flesh of
+the numerous goats which they found climbing about the rocks, down on
+them came the harpies, horrible birds with women's faces and hooked
+hands, with which they snatched away the food and spoiled what they
+could not eat. The Trojans shot at them, but the arrows glanced off
+their feathers and did not hurt them. However, they all flew off
+except one, who sat on a high rock, and croaked out that the Trojans
+would be punished for thus molesting the harpies, by being tossed
+about till they should reach Italy, but there they should not build
+their city till they should have been so hungry as to eat their very
+trenchers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span> They sailed away from this dismal prophetess, and touched on
+the coast of Epirus, where Ęneas found his cousin Helenus, son to old
+Priam, reigning over a little new Troy, and married to Andromache,
+Hector's wife, whom he had gained after Pyrrhus had been killed.
+Helenus was a prophet, and he gave Ęneas much advice. In especial he
+said that when the Trojans should come to Italy they would find, under
+the holly-trees by the river-side, a large, white, old sow lying on
+the ground, with a litter of thirty little pigs round her, and this
+should be a sign to them where they were to build their city.</p>
+
+<p>By his advice the Trojans coasted round the south of Sicily, instead
+of trying to pass the strait between the dreadful Scylla and
+Charybdis, and just below Mount Etna an unfortunate man came running
+down to the beach begging to be taken in. He was a Greek, who had been
+left behind when Ulysses escaped from Polyphemus's cave, and had made
+his way to the forests, where he had lived ever since. They had just
+taken him in when they saw the Cyclop coming down, with a pine-tree
+for a staff, to wash the burning hollow of his lost eye in the sea,
+and they rowed off in great terror.</p>
+
+<p>Poor old Anchises died shortly after, and while his son was still
+sorrowing for him, Juno, who hated every Trojan, stirred up a terrible
+tempest, which drove the ships to the south, until, just as the sea
+began to calm down, they came into a beautiful bay, enclosed by tall
+cliffs with woods overhanging them. Here the tired wanderers landed,
+and, lighting a fire, Ęneas went in quest of food. Coming out of the
+forest they looked down from a hill, and beheld a multitude of people
+building a city, raising walls, houses, towers, and temples. Into one
+of these temples Ęneas entered, and to his amazement he found the
+walls sculptured with all the story of the siege of Troy, and all his
+friends so perfectly represented, that he burst into tears at the
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>Just then a beautiful queen, attended by a whole troop of nymphs, came
+into the temple. This lady was Dido; her husband, Sichęus, had been
+King of Tyre, till he was murdered by his brother, Pygmalion, who
+meant to have married her; but she fled from him with a band of
+faithful Tyrians and all her husband's treasure, and had landed on the
+north coast of Africa. There she begged of the chief of the country as
+much land as could be enclosed by a bullock's hide. He granted this
+readily; and Dido, cutting the hide into the finest possible strips,
+managed to measure off ground enough to build the splendid city which
+she had named Carthage. She received Ęneas most kindly, and took all
+his men into her city, hoping to keep them there forever, and make him
+her husband. Ęneas himself was so happy there that he forgot all his
+plans and the prophecies he had heard, until Jupiter sent Mercury to
+rouse him to fulfil his destiny. He obeyed the call; and Dido was so
+wretched at his departure that she caused a great funeral pile to be
+built, laid herself on the top, and stabbed herself with Ęneas's
+sword; the pile was burnt, and the Trojans saw the flame from their
+ships without knowing the cause.</p>
+
+<p>By and by Ęneas landed at a place in Italy named Cumę. There dwelt one
+of the Sibyls. These were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had endowed
+with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span> deep wisdom; and when Ęneas went to consult the Cumęan
+Sibyl, she told him that he must visit the under-world of Pluto to
+learn his fate. First, however, he had to go into a forest, and find
+there and gather a golden bough, which he was to bear in his hand to
+keep him safe. Long he sought it, until two doves, his mother's birds,
+came flying before him to show him the tree where gold gleamed through
+the boughs, and he found the branch growing on the tree as mistletoe
+grows on the thorn.</p>
+
+<p>Guarded with this, and guided by the Sibyl, after a great sacrifice,
+Ęneas passed into a gloomy cave, where he came to the river Styx,
+round which flitted all the shades who had never received funeral
+rites, and whom the ferryman, Charon, would not carry over. The Sibyl,
+however, made him take Ęneas across, his boat groaning under the
+weight of a human body. On the other side stood Cerberus, but the
+Sibyl threw him a cake of honey and of some opiate, and he lay asleep,
+while Ęneas passed on and found in myrtle groves all who had died for
+love&mdash;among them, to his surprise, poor forsaken Dido. A little
+farther on he found the home of the warriors, and held converse with
+his old Trojan friends. He passed by the place of doom for the wicked,
+Tartarus; and in the Elysian Fields, full of laurel groves and meads
+of asphodel, he found the spirit of his father Anchises, and with him
+was allowed to see the souls of all their descendants, as yet unborn,
+who should raise the glory of their name. They are described on to the
+very time when the poet wrote to whom we owe all the tale of the
+wanderings of Ęneas, namely, Virgil, who wrote the "Ęneid," whence all
+these stories are taken. He further tells us that Ęneas landed in
+Italy, just as his old nurse Caiėta died, at the place which still is
+called Gaėta. After they had buried her they found a grove, where they
+sat down on the grass to eat, using large round cakes or biscuits to
+put their meat on. Presently they came to eating up the cakes. Little
+Ascanius cried out, "We are eating our very tables," and Ęneas,
+remembering the harpy's words, knew that his wanderings were over.</p>
+
+<p>Virgil goes on to tell at much length how the king of the country,
+Latinus, at first made friends with Ęneas, and promised him his
+daughter Lavinia in marriage; but Turnus, an Italian chief who had
+before been a suitor to Lavinia, stirred up a great war, and was only
+conquered and killed after much hard fighting. However, the white sow
+was found in the right place with all her little pigs, and on the spot
+was founded the city of Alba Longa, where Ęneas and Lavinia reigned
+until he died, and his descendants, through his two sons, Ascanius or
+Iulus, and Ęneas Silvius, reigned after him for fifteen generations.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span> XENOPHON<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2" title="Go to footnote 2"><span class="small">[2]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Professor J. Pentland Mahaffy</span><br>
+
+(445-354 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>)</h3>
+
+<a id="img011" name="img011"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img011.jpg" width="300" height="252" alt="Xenophon." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>There is no figure in Greek history more familiar to us than this
+famous Athenian. There are passages in his life known to every
+schoolboy; we possess all the books he ever wrote; we know therefore
+his opinions upon all the important questions of life, religion,
+ethics, politics, manners, education, as well as upon finance and
+military tactics, not to speak of social intercourse and sport. And
+yet his early youth and late age are hidden from us. Like the models
+of Greek eloquence, which begin with tame obviousness, rise into
+dignity, fire, pathos, and then close softly, without sounding
+peroration, so Xenophon comes upon us, an educated young man, looking
+out for something to do; we lose him in the autumn of his life, when
+he was driven from the fair retreat which the old man had hoped would
+be his final resting-place. During seven years of his early manhood we
+find him in the middle of all the most stirring events in the Greek
+world. For thirty years later (394-62 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>), we hear him from his
+retired country-seat recording contemporary history, telling the
+adventures of his youth, from the fascinations of the ragged Socrates
+to the fascinations of the magnificent Cyrus, preaching the lessons of
+his varied life. Then came the bitter loss of his brave son, killed in
+the van at Mantinea. According to good authority he only survived this
+blow a couple of years. But even then he appears to have found
+distraction from his grief by a dry tract upon the Attic revenue. Such
+is the general outline which we shall fill up and color from allusions
+throughout his varied and manifold writings.</p>
+
+<p>He was a pure Athenian, evidently of aristocratic birth, and
+attracted, probably by his personal beauty, the attention of Socrates,
+who is said to have stopped him in the way, and asked him did he know
+where men of honor were to be found; upon his replying <i>no</i>, the sage
+said, follow me and learn. This apocryphal anecdote, at all events,
+records the fact that Xenophon attached himself to Socrates's
+teaching, and so afforded us perhaps the most remarkable instance of
+the great and various influence of that great teacher. We do not
+wonder at disciples like Plato; but here is a young man of fashion, of
+a practical turn, and loving adventure, who records in after years the
+teaching after his own <span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span> fashion, and in a perfectly
+independent way, as the noblest of training. His youth, however, was
+spent in the distressful later years of the Peloponnesian War, which
+ended in fearful gloom and disaster for his native city. Intimate,
+apparently, with the great historian Thucydides, whose unfinished work
+he seems to have edited, and subsequently to have continued in his own
+"Hellenica," he must have long foreseen the collapse of the Athenian
+empire, and then he and many other adventurous spirits found
+themselves in a society faded in prosperity, with no scope for energy
+or enterprise. Such was the somewhat tame and vulgar Athens which
+succeeded to that of Pericles and Aristophanes, and which could not
+tolerate the spiritual boldness of Socrates. He tells us himself, in
+the third book of his "Anabasis," how he was tempted to leave Athens
+for the East by his friend Proxenus, who had made the acquaintance of
+the chivalrous and ambitious Cyrus, brother of the Persian king, and
+governor of southern Asia Minor. This prince was preparing secretly to
+invade Persia and dethrone his brother, and for that purpose was
+gathering troops and courting the favor of the Greeks. His splendid
+gifts were on a scale sufficient to dazzle men of small means and
+smaller prospects, like the youth of conquered Athens. Xenophon
+thought it right to consult his spiritual guide, Socrates, on the
+propriety of abandoning his country for hireling service. The
+philosopher advised him to consult the oracle at Delphi, but the young
+man only asked what gods he might best conciliate before his
+departure, and Socrates, though noting the evasion of his advice,
+acquiesced.</p>
+
+<p>When Xenophon arrived at Sardis, Proxenus presented him to Cyrus, who
+invited him to accompany him on his pretended campaign to Pisidia, and
+then coaxed him on with the rest into his enterprise against the king
+Artaxerxes. On this expedition or <i>anabasis</i> up the country, Xenophon
+was only a volunteer, with no command, and under no man's orders, but
+accompanying the army on horseback, and enjoying the trip as a bright
+young man, well appointed by the prince, and full of intelligent
+curiosity, was sure to enjoy it. But then came the decisive day of
+Cunaxa, where Xenophon offered his services as an extra aide-de-camp
+to Cyrus, and where he witnessed the victory of his countrymen and the
+defeat of their cause by the rashness and death of Cyrus. In the
+crisis which followed he took no leading part, till the generals of
+the 10,000 Greeks were entrapped and murdered by Tissaphernes. Then,
+in the midst of the panic and despair which supervened, he tells us in
+graphic words how he came to be a leader of men. He, too, with the
+rest, was in sore distress, and could not sleep; but anon getting a
+snatch of rest he had a dream. It seemed to him that there was a
+storm, and a thunderbolt fell on his father's house and set it all in
+a blaze. He sprang up in terror, and, pondering the matter, decided
+that in part the dream was good, in that when in great danger he had
+seen a light from Zeus; but partly, too, he feared it, for it came
+from the king of heaven. But as soon as he was fully awake the first
+clear thought that came into his head was: "Why am I lying here? The
+night advances, and with the coming day the enemy will be upon us. If
+we fall into the king's hands we must face torture, slavery, and
+death, and yet here we lie, as if it were a time for rest! What am I
+waiting for? Is it a general <span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span> to lead me? and where is he? or
+till I am myself of riper age to command? Older I shall never be, if
+to-day I surrender to mine enemies." And so he rouses the officers of
+his murdered friend, Proxenos, and appeals to them all to be up and
+stirring, to organize their defence and appoint new leaders to direct
+them. Before dawn he has some kind of confidence restored, and the new
+organization in progress. Presently the Persians send to demand the
+surrender of the army whose generals they had seized, and find to
+their astonishment that their task of subduing the Greeks must begin
+afresh. Meanwhile the policy of the Greek army becomes defined. They
+threaten to settle in Mesopotamia and build a fortified city which
+shall be a great danger and a torment to the king. They really desire
+to escape to the coast, if they can but find the way.</p>
+
+<p>It was the king's policy to let them depart, but so harass them by the
+way as to produce disorder and rout, which meant absolute destruction.
+It was in conducting this retreat, as a joint general with the Spartan
+Cheirisophos, that Xenophon showed all his resource. There were no
+great pitched battles; no room for strategy or large combinations; but
+ample scope for resource in the details of tactics for meeting new and
+sudden difficulties, for maintaining order among an army of men that
+only acknowledged leaders for their ability. At first, in the plains,
+as they journeyed northward, the danger was from the Persian cavalry,
+for their own contingent had deserted to the enemy. This difficulty,
+which well-nigh ruined the 10,000, as it ruined Crassus in his retreat
+at Carrhę, he met by organizing a corps of Rhodian slingers and
+archers, whose range was longer than that of the Persians, and who
+thus kept the cavalry in check. When the plains were passed, and the
+mountains reached, there arose the new difficulties of forcing passes,
+of repelling wild mountaineers from positions commanding the road, of
+providing food, and avoiding false routes. The narrative of the
+surmounting of all these obstacles with tact and temper is the main
+subject of the famous "Anabasis." Still graver dangers awaited
+Xenophon when the retreating army had at last hailed the welcome
+sea&mdash;the Black Sea&mdash;and with returning safety returned jealousies,
+insubordinations, and the great problem what to do with this great
+army when it arrived at Greek cities. Xenophon had always dreamt of
+forming on the border of Hellenedom a new city state, which should
+honor him as its founder. The wilder spirits thought it simpler to
+loot some rich city like Byzantium, which was saved with difficulty
+from their lawlessness. The Spartan governors, who now ruled
+throughout the Greek world, saw the danger, and were determined to
+delay and worry the dangerous horde until it dissipated; and they
+succeeded so well that presently the 6,000 that remained were glad to
+be led by Xenophon to take service under the Spartan commander Thibron
+in Asia Minor (399 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>). But Xenophon was not given any independent
+command. He appears to have acted on the staff of the successive
+Spartan commanders till with King Agesilaus he attained personal
+influence, and probably planned the new expedition of that king to
+conquer Persia, which was only balked by a diversion wrought by
+Persian gold in Greece. With Agesilaus Xenophon returned therefore to
+Greece, and was present at the great shock of the rival infantries,
+the Theban and the Spartan, at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span> Coronea (394 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>). But
+either his presence in the Spartan army, or his former action against
+the King of Persia, whom shifting politics were now bringing over to
+the Athenian side, caused him to be sentenced to banishment at Athens,
+and so made his return to his native city impossible. He went,
+therefore, with his royal patron to Sparta, and sojourned there for
+some time, even sending for his sons, now growing boys, from Miletus,
+and submitting them, at Agesilaus's advice, to the famous Spartan
+education. They grew up fine and warlike young men, so that the death
+of one of them, Gryllus, in a cavalry skirmish just before the great
+battle of Mantinea (362 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>) caused universal regret. But long before
+this catastrophe the Spartans gave Xenophon possession of an estate at
+Skillus, near the famous Olympia, which combined the pleasures of
+seclusion and of field sports with those of varied society when the
+stream of visitors assembled for the Olympic games (every four years).
+He himself tells us that he and his family, in company with their
+neighbors, had excellent sport of all kinds. He was not only a careful
+farmer, but so keen at hunting hares that he declares a man at this
+delightful pursuit "will forget that he ever cared for anything else."
+He had also built a shrine to his patroness, the goddess Artemis, and
+the solemn sacrifices at her shrine were the occasion of feasts, whose
+solemnity only enhanced their enjoyments. As Mr. Dakyns writes: "The
+lovely scenery of the place, to this day lovely; the delicious
+atmosphere; the rare combination of mountain, wood, and stream; the
+opportunity for sport; the horses and the dogs; the household, the
+farmstead, and their varying occupations; the neighboring country
+gentlemen, and the local politics; the recurring festival at Olympia
+with its stream of visitors; the pleasures of hospitable
+entertainment; the constant sacrifices before the cedar image of
+Artemis in her temple&mdash;these things, and above all the serene
+satisfaction of successful literary labors, combined to form an
+enviable sum total of sober happiness during many years." There can be
+no doubt that this was the first great period of his literary
+activity, though he may have edited, in early youth, his predecessor
+Thucydides, and composed the first two books of his historical
+continuation entitled "Hellenica." In his retreat at Skillus he
+composed a series of "Dialogues," in what is termed the Socratic vein;
+"Memorials" of his great master, a tract on household "Economy,"
+another on a "Symposium," or feast, one called "Hiero," or on the
+Greek tyrant, and an account of the "Laconian Polity," which he had so
+long admired and known. The tract on "Hunting" also speaks the
+experience at Skillus. The tract "On the Athenian State," preserved
+among his writings, is not from his hand, but the work of an earlier
+writer.</p>
+
+<p>With the sudden rise of the Theban power, and consequent depression of
+Sparta, he and other settlers around Skillus were driven out by the
+Eleans, and he lost his country-seat, with all its agreeable
+diversions. But probably the ageing man did not feel the transference
+of his home to Corinth so keenly as an English gentleman would. He was
+a thorough Greek, and therefore intensely attached to city life, Elis,
+his adopted country, being the only state which consisted of a country
+gentry.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span> In the next place, a daily thoroughfare such as the Isthmus,
+must have been far more suitable for the collecting of historical
+evidence than Skillus, where the crowd came by only once in four
+years. And then his grown-up sons could find something more serious to
+do than hunting deer, boars, and hares in the glades of Elis. He may
+have known, too, that his chances of restoration to Athens were
+improving, and that he would do well to be within easy reach of
+friends in that city. Indeed we find that the rescinding of exile soon
+followed, and so he was able to send his two sons to do cavalry duty
+for Athens (and Sparta) against the Thebans. It is, indeed, likely
+that the young men were enrolled as Spartan volunteers. He himself
+must have kept very close to his literary work; for in these closing
+years of his life he brought out or re-edited the "Anabasis;" he
+discussed "Cavalry Tactics," he kept writing up contemporary history
+to the year 362 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>, when the star of Thebes set with the death of
+Epaminondas; he completed his long and perhaps tedious historical
+novel, the "Education of Cyrus" (the elder), and lastly composed a
+curious and fanciful tract on the "Revenues of Athens." There is no
+evidence that he ever changed his residence back to his native city,
+but that he often went there when no obstacle remained, from the
+neighboring Corinth, is most probable. An open sailing boat could
+carry him, with a fair wind, in a few hours. Though a very old man, he
+was, however, still active with his pen when we lose him. His
+promising remaining son disappears with him from the scene; we hear of
+no descendants. The only offspring he has left us are his immortal
+works. The names of these have already been given, with the exception
+of the speech put into Socrates's mouth as his Defence, the tract on
+"The Horse," appendant to his "Cavalry Tactics," and his "Panegyric on
+Agesilaus." It remains to estimate their general features. Without
+controversy, he excelled all his great contemporaries in breadth of
+culture and experience, and in the variety of his interests.
+Philosophy, politics, war, husbandry, sport, travel, are all
+represented in his works. And upon all he has written with a clearness
+and a grace which earned for him the title of the "Attic Bee." But
+this breadth implies (as usual) a certain lack of depth, as is
+particularly obvious in his case, owing to the almost necessary
+comparison with his two mighty rivals&mdash;Thucydides, in history, Plato,
+in philosophy. It may, indeed, be considered hard luck for him that he
+stood between two such men, for they have necessarily damaged his
+reputation by comparison. Xenophon's portrait of Socrates is quite
+independent, and probably historically truer than that of Plato; but
+the sage lives for us in Plato, not in Xenophon. The Retreat of the
+Ten Thousand, and the wars of Epaminondas were far more brilliant than
+the operations of the Peloponnesian War. Yet, to the scholar, a raid
+in Thucydides is more than a campaign in Xenophon. For neither is his
+style so pure as that of either of his rivals, nor is his enthusiasm
+the same. We feel him always a polished man of the world&mdash;never the
+rugged patriot, never the rapt seer. He seems, too, to lack
+impartiality. He lavishes praise upon Agesilaus, a second-rate man,
+while he is curt and ill-tempered concerning Epaminondas, the real
+genius of the age. It is more than likely that he has colored his own
+part in the famous "Retreat," in glowing colors. His <span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span>
+hereditary instincts lead him to approve of autocrats as against
+republics, Spartan discipline as against Attic freedom. Yet in himself
+he has shown a striking example how the latter could appreciate and
+embrace the former. As the simplest specimen of pure Attic prose he
+will ever be paramount in schools, neglected in universities&mdash;the
+recreation rather than the occupation of mature scholars. He is a
+great worthy, a man of renown; "nevertheless, he did not attain unto
+the first three"&mdash;the two masters of his own day, and the colossal
+Demosthenes.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig001" name="sig001"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig001.jpg" width="250" height="97" alt="Author signature. J. Pentland Mahaffy." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>THE GRACCHI<br>
+
+Extracts from "Cęsar, a Sketch,"<br>
+by <span class="smcap">James Anthony Froude, LL.D.</span><br>
+(164-133, 153-121 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span>)</h3>
+
+<a id="img012" name="img012"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img012.jpg" width="250" height="251" alt="The Gracchi." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Tiberius Gracchus was born about the year 164 <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> He was one of
+twelve children, nine of whom died in infancy, himself, his brother
+Caius, and his sister Cornelia being the only survivors. His family
+was plebeian, but of high antiquity, his ancestors for several
+generations having held the highest offices in the Republic. On the
+mother's side he was the grandson of Scipio Africanus. His father,
+after a distinguished career as a soldier in Spain and Sardinia, had
+attempted reforms at Rome. He had been censor, and in this capacity he
+had ejected disreputable senators from the Curia; he had degraded
+offending Equites; he had rearranged and tried to purify the Comitia.
+But his connections were aristocratic. His wife was the daughter of
+the most famous of them, Scipio Africanus the Younger. He had been
+himself in antagonism with the tribunes, and had taken no part, at any
+time, in popular agitations.</p>
+
+<a id="img013" name="img013"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img013.jpg" width="400" height="580" alt="" title="">
+<p>The Mother Of The Gracchi.</p></div>
+
+<p>The father died when Tiberius was still a boy, and the two brothers
+grew up under the care of their mother, a noble and gifted lady. They
+early displayed remarkable talents. Tiberius, when old enough, went
+into the army, and served under his brother-in-law in the last
+Carthaginian campaign. He was first on the walls of the city in the
+final storm. Ten years later he went to Spain as quęstor, when he
+carried on his father's popularity, and by taking the people's side in
+some questions, fell into disagreement with his brother-in-law. His
+political views had perhaps already inclined to change. He was still
+of an age when <span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span> indignation at oppression calls out a
+practical desire to resist it. On his journey home from Spain he
+witnessed scenes which confirmed his conviction and determined him to
+throw all his energies into the popular cause. His road lay through
+Tuscany, where he saw the large estate system in full operation&mdash;the
+fields cultivated by the slave gangs, the free citizens of the
+Republic thrust away into the towns, aliens and outcasts in their own
+country, without a foot of soil which they could call their own. In
+Tuscany, too, the vast domains of the landlords had not even been
+fairly purchased. They were parcels of the <i>ager publicus</i>, land
+belonging to the state, which, in spite of a law forbidding it, the
+great lords and commoners had appropriated and divided among
+themselves. Five hundred acres of state land was the most which by
+statute any one lessee might be allowed to occupy. But the law was
+obsolete or sleeping, and avarice and vanity were awake and active.
+Young Gracchus, in indignant pity, resolved to rescue the people's
+patrimony. He was chosen tribune in the year 133. His brave mother and
+a few patricians of the old type encouraged him, and the battle of the
+revolution began. The Senate, as has been said, though without direct
+legislative authority, had been allowed the right of reviewing any new
+schemes which were to be submitted to the Assembly. The constitutional
+means of preventing tribunes from carrying unwise or unwelcome
+measures lay in a consul's veto, or in the help of the College of
+Augurs, who could declare the auspices unfavorable and so close all
+public business. These resources were so awkward that it had been
+found convenient to secure beforehand the Senate's approbation, and
+the encroachment, being long submitted to, was passing by custom into
+a rule. But the Senate, eager as it was, had not yet succeeded in
+engrafting the practice into the constitution. On the land question
+the leaders of the aristocracy were the principal offenders.</p>
+
+<p>Disregarding usage, and conscious that the best men of all ranks were
+with him, Tiberius Gracchus appealed directly to the people to revive
+the Agrarian law. His proposals were not extravagant. That they should
+have been deemed extravagant was a proof of how much some measure of
+the kind was needed. Where lands had been enclosed and money laid out
+on them, he was willing that the occupants should have compensation.
+But they had no right to the lands themselves. Gracchus persisted that
+the <i>ager publicus</i> belonged to the people, and that the race of
+yeomen, for whose protection the law had been originally passed, must
+be re-established on their farms. No form of property gives to its
+owners so much consequence as land, and there is no point on which in
+every country an aristocracy is more sensitive. The large owners
+protested that they had purchased their interests on the faith that
+the law was obsolete. They had planted and built and watered with the
+sanction of the government, and to call their titles in question was
+to shake the foundations of society. The popular party pointed to the
+statute. The monopolists were entitled in justice to less than was
+offered them. They had no right to a compensation at all. Political
+passion awoke again after the sleep of a century. The oligarchy had
+doubtless connived at the accumulations. The suppression of the small
+holdings favored their supremacy, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span> and placed the elections
+more completely in their control. Their military successes had given
+them so long a tenure of power that they had believed it to be theirs
+in perpetuity; and the new sedition, as they called it, threatened at
+once their privileges and their fortunes. The quarrel assumed the
+familiar form of a struggle between the rich and the poor, and at such
+times the mob of voters becomes less easy to corrupt. They go with
+their order, as the prospect of larger gain makes them indifferent to
+immediate bribes. It became clear that the majority of the citizens
+would support Tiberius Gracchus, but the constitutional forms of
+opposition might still be resorted to. Octavius Cęcina, another of the
+tribunes, had himself large interests in the land question. He was the
+people's magistrate, one of the body appointed especially to defend
+their rights, but he went over to the Senate, and, using a power which
+undoubtedly belonged to him, he forbade the vote to be taken.</p>
+
+<p>There was no precedent for the removal of either consul, prętor, or
+tribune, except under circumstances very different from any which
+could as yet be said to have arisen. The magistrates held office for a
+year only, and the power of veto had been allowed them expressly to
+secure time for deliberation and to prevent passionate legislation.
+But Gracchus was young and enthusiastic. Precedent or no precedent,
+the citizens were omnipotent, he invited them to declare his colleague
+deposed. They had warmed to the fight, and complied. A more
+experienced statesman would have known that established constitutional
+bulwarks cannot be swept away by a momentary vote. He obtained his
+Agrarian law. Three commissioners were appointed, himself, his younger
+brother, and his father-in-law, Appius Claudius, to carry it into
+effect; but the very names showed that he had alienated his few
+supporters in the higher circles, and that a single family was now
+contending against the united wealth and distinction of Rome. The
+issue was only too certain. Popular enthusiasm is but a fire of straw.
+In a year Tiberius Gracchus would be out of office. Other tribunes
+would be chosen more amenable to influence, and his work could then be
+undone. He evidently knew that those who would succeed him could not
+be relied on to carry on his policy. He had taken one revolutionary
+step already; he was driven on to another, and he offered himself
+illegally to the Comitia for re-election. It was to invite them to
+abolish the constitution, and to make him virtual sovereign; and that
+a young man of thirty should have contemplated such a position for
+himself as possible, is of itself a proof of his unfitness for it. The
+election day came. The noble lords and gentlemen appeared in the
+Campus Martius with their retinues of armed servants and clients;
+hot-blooded aristocrats, full of disdain for demagogues, and meaning
+to read a lesson to sedition which it would not easily forget. Votes
+were given for Gracchus. Had the hustings been left to decide the
+matter, he would have been chosen; but as it began to appear how the
+polling would go, sticks were used and swords; a riot rose, the
+unarmed citizens were driven off, Tiberius Gracchus himself and three
+hundred of his friends were killed, and their bodies were flung into
+the Tiber.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the first sparks of the coming revolution were trampled out. But
+though <span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span> quenched and to be again quenched with fiercer
+struggles, it was to smoulder and smoke and burst out time after time,
+till its work was done. Revolution could not restore the ancient
+character of the Roman nation, but it could check the progress of
+decay by burning away the more corrupted parts of it. It could destroy
+the aristocracy and the constitution which they had depraved, and
+under other forms preserve for a few more centuries the Roman
+dominion. Scipio Africanus, when he heard in Spain of the end of his
+brother-in-law, exclaimed "May all who act as he did perish like him!"
+There were to be victims enough and to spare before the bloody drama
+was played out. Quiet lasted for ten years, and then, precisely when
+he had reached his brother's age, Caius Gracchus came forward to
+avenge him, and carry the movement through another stage. Young Caius
+had been left one of the commissioners of the land law; and it is
+particularly noticeable that, though the author of it had been killed,
+the law had survived him, being too clearly right and politic in
+itself to be openly set aside. For two years the commissioners had
+continued to work, and in that time forty thousand families were
+settled on various parts of the <i>ager publicus</i>, which the patricians
+had been compelled to resign. This was all which they could do. The
+displacement of one set of inhabitants and the introduction of another
+could not be accomplished without quarrels, complaints, and perhaps
+some injustice. Those who entered on possession were not always
+satisfied. The commissioners became unpopular. When the cries against
+them became loud enough, they were suspended, and the law was then
+quietly repealed. The Senate had regained its hold over the Assembly,
+and had a further opportunity of showing its recovered ascendency
+when, two years after the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, one of his
+friends introduced a bill to make the tribunes legally re-eligible.
+Caius Gracchus actively supported the change, but it had no success;
+and, waiting till times had altered, and till he had arrived at an age
+when he could carry weight, the young brother retired from politics,
+and spent the next few years with the army in Africa and Sardinia, he
+served with distinction; he made a name for himself, both as a soldier
+and an administrator. Had the Senate left him alone, he might have
+been satisfied with a regular career, and have risen by the ordinary
+steps to the consulship. But the Senate saw in him the possibilities
+of a second Tiberius; the higher his reputation, the more formidable
+he became to them. They vexed him with petty prosecutions, charged him
+with crimes which had no existence, and at length, by suspicion and
+injustice, drove him into open war with them. Caius Gracchus had a
+broader intellect than his brother, and a character considerably less
+noble. The land question he perceived was but one of many questions.
+The true source of the disorders of the commonwealth was the Senate
+itself. The administration of the empire was in the hands of men
+totally unfit to be trusted with it, and there he thought the reform
+must commence. He threw himself on the people, he was chosen tribune
+in 123, ten years exactly after Tiberius. He had studied the
+disposition of parties. He had seen his brother fall because the
+Equites and the senators, the great commoners and the nobles, were
+combined against him. He revived the Agrarian law as a matter of
+course, but he disarmed the opposition <span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span> to it by throwing an
+apple of discord between the two superior orders. The high judicial
+functions in the commonwealth had been hitherto a senatorial monopoly.
+All cases of importance, civil or criminal, came before courts of
+sixty or seventy jurymen, who, as the law stood, must be necessarily
+senators. The privilege had been extremely lucrative. The corruption
+of justice was already notorious, though it had not yet reached the
+level of infamy which it attained in another generation. It was no
+secret that in ordinary causes jurymen had sold their verdicts, and,
+far short of taking bribes in the direct sense of the word, there were
+many ways in which they could let themselves be approached, and their
+favor purchased. A monopoly of privileges is always invidious. A
+monopoly in the sale of justice is alike hateful to those who abhor
+iniquity on principle, and to those who would like to share the
+profits of it. But this was not the worst. The governors of the
+provinces, being chosen from those who had been consuls or prętors,
+were necessarily members of the Senate. Peculation and extortion in
+these high functions were offences, in theory, of the gravest kind;
+but the offender could only be tried before a limited number of his
+peers, and a governor who had plundered a subject state, sold justice,
+pillaged temples, and stolen all that he could lay hands on, was safe
+from punishment if he returned to Rome a millionnaire and would admit
+others to a share in his spoils. The provincials might send
+deputations to complain, but these complaints came before men who had
+themselves governed provinces, or else aspired to govern them. It had
+been proved in too many instances that the law which professed to
+protect them was a mere mockery.</p>
+
+<p>Caius Gracchus secured the affections of the knights to himself, and
+some slightly increased chance of an improvement in the provincial
+administration, by carrying a law in the Assembly disabling the
+senators from sitting on juries of any kind from that day forward, and
+transferring the judicial functions to the Equites. How bitterly must
+such a measure have been resented by the Senate, which at once robbed
+them of their protective and profitable privileges, handed them over
+to be tried by their rivals for their pleasant irregularities, and
+stamped them at the same time with the brand of dishonesty! How
+certainly must such a measure have been deserved when neither consul
+nor tribune could be found to interpose his vote! Supported by the
+grateful knights, Caius Gracchus was for the moment all-powerful. It
+was not enough to restore the Agrarian law. He passed another aimed at
+his brother's murderers, which was to bear fruit in later years, that
+no Roman citizen might be put to death by any person, however high in
+authority, without legal trial, and without appeal, if he chose to
+make it, to the sovereign people. A blow was thus struck against
+another right claimed by the Senate, of declaring the Republic in
+danger, and the temporary suspension of the constitution. These
+measures might be excused, and perhaps commended; but the younger
+Gracchus connected his name with another change less commendable,
+which was destined also to survive and bear fruit. He brought forward
+and carried through, with enthusiastic clapping of every pair of hands
+in Rome that were hardened with labor, a proposal that there should be
+public granaries <span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span> in the city, maintained and filled at the
+cost of the state, and that corn should be sold at a rate artificially
+cheap to the poor free citizens. Such a law was purely socialistic.
+The privilege was confined to Rome, because in Rome the elections were
+held, and the Roman constituency was the one depositary of power. The
+effect was to gather into the city a mob of needy unemployed voters,
+living on the charity of the state, to crowd the circus and to clamor
+at the elections, available no doubt immediately to strengthen the
+hands of the popular tribune, but certain in the long run to sell
+themselves to those who could bid highest for their voices. Excuses
+could be found, no doubt, for this miserable expedient, in the state
+of parties, in the unscrupulous violence of the aristocracy, in the
+general impoverishment of the peasantry through the land monopoly, and
+in the intrusion upon Italy of a gigantic system of slave labor. But
+none the less it was the deadliest blow which had yet been dealt to
+the constitution. Party government turns on the majorities at the
+polling places, and it was difficult afterward to recall a privilege
+which, once conceded, appeared to be a right. The utmost that could be
+ventured in later times, with any prospect of success, was to limit an
+intolerable evil, and if one side was ever strong enough to make the
+attempt, their rivals had a bribe ready in their hands to buy back the
+popular support. Caius Gracchus, however, had his way, and carried all
+before him. He escaped the rock on which his brother had been wrecked.
+He was elected tribune a second time. He might have had a third term
+if he had been contented to be a mere demagogue. But he, too, like
+Tiberius, had honorable aims. The powers which he had played into the
+hands of the mob to obtain, he desired to use for high purposes of
+statesmanship, and his instrument broke in his hands. He was too wise
+to suppose that a Roman mob, fed by bounties from the treasury, could
+permanently govern the world. He had schemes for scattering Roman
+colonies, with the Roman franchise, at various points of the empire.</p>
+
+<p>Carthage was to be one of them. He thought of abolishing the
+distinction between Romans and Italians, and enfranchising the entire
+peninsula. These measures were good in themselves&mdash;essential, indeed,
+if the Roman conquests were to form a compact and permanent dominion.
+But the object was not attainable on the road on which Gracchus had
+entered. The vagabond part of the constituency was well contented with
+what it had obtained, a life in the city, supported at the public
+expense, with politics and games for its amusements. It had not the
+least inclination to be drafted off into settlements in Spain or
+Africa, where there would be work instead of pleasant idleness.
+Carthage was still a name of terror. To restore Carthage was no better
+than treason. Still less had the Roman citizens an inclination to
+share their privileges with Samnites and Etruscans, and see the value
+of their votes watered down. Political storms are always cyclones. The
+gale from the east to-day is a gale from the west to-morrow. Who and
+what were the Gracchi, then?&mdash;the sweet voices began to ask&mdash;ambitious
+intriguers, aiming at dictatorship, or perhaps the crown. The
+aristocracy were right, after all; a few things had gone wrong, but
+these had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span> been amended. The Scipios and Metelli had
+conquered the world: the Scipios and Metelli were alone fit to govern
+it. Thus, when the election time came round, the party of reform was
+reduced to a minority of irreconcilable radicals, who were easily
+disposed of. Again, as ten years before, the noble lords armed their
+followers. Riots broke out and extended day after day. Caius Gracchus
+was at last killed, as his brother had been, and under cover of the
+disturbance three thousand of his friends were killed along with him.
+The power being again securely in their hands, the Senate proceeded at
+their leisure, and the surviving patriots who were in any way
+notorious or dangerous were hunted down in legal manner, and put to
+death or banished.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Anna Jameson</span><br>
+
+(REIGNED 267-273 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span>)</h3>
+
+<a id="img014" name="img014"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img014.jpg" width="250" height="323" alt="Zenobia." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Of the government and manners of the Arabians before the time of
+Mahomet, we have few and imperfect accounts; but from the remotest
+ages they led the same unsettled and predatory life which they do at
+this day, dispersed in hordes, and dwelling under tents. It was not to
+those wild and wandering tribes that the superb Palmyra owed its rise
+and grandeur, though situated in the midst of their deserts, where it
+is now beheld in its melancholy beauty and ruined splendor, like an
+enchanted island in the midst of an ocean of sands. The merchants who
+trafficked between India and Europe, by the only route then known,
+first colonized this singular spot, which afforded them a convenient
+resting-place; and even in the days of Solomon it was the emporium for
+the gems and gold, the ivory, gums, spices, and silks of the far
+Eastern countries, which thus found their way to the remotest parts of
+Europe. The Palmyrenes were, therefore, a mixed race&mdash;their origin,
+and many of their customs, were Egyptian; their love of luxury and
+their manners were derived from Persia; their language, literature,
+and architecture were Greek.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, like Venice and Genoa, in more modern times, Palmyra owed its
+splendor to the opulence and public spirit of its merchants; but its
+chief fame and historical interest it owes to the genius and heroism
+of a woman.</p>
+
+<a id="img015" name="img015"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img015.jpg" width="400" height="549" alt="" title="">
+<p>Zenobia Captive.</p></div>
+
+<p>Septimia Zenobia, for such is her classical appellation, was the
+daughter of an Arab chief, Amrou, the son of Dharb, the son of Hassan.
+Of her first husband <span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span> we have no account; she was left a
+widow at a very early age, and married, secondly, Odenathus, chief of
+several tribes of the desert, near Palmyra, and a prince of
+extraordinary valor and boundless ambition. Odenathus was the ally of
+the Romans in their wars against Sapor (or, more properly, Shah Poor),
+king of Persia; he gained several splendid victories over that
+powerful monarch, and twice pursued his armies even to the gates of
+Ctesiphon (or Ispahan), his capital. Odenathus was as fond of the
+chase as of war, and in all his military and hunting expeditions he
+was accompanied by his wife Zenobia&mdash;a circumstance which the Roman
+historians record with astonishment and admiration, as contrary to
+their manners, but which was the general custom of the Arab women of
+that time. Zenobia not only excelled her countrywomen in the qualities
+for which they were all remarkable&mdash;in courage, prudence, and
+fortitude, in patience of fatigue, and activity of mind and body&mdash;she
+also possessed a more enlarged understanding; her views were more
+enlightened, her habits more intellectual. The successes of Odenathus
+were partly attributed to her, and they were always considered as
+reigning jointly. She was also eminently beautiful&mdash;with the oriental
+eyes and complexion, teeth like pearls, and a voice of uncommon power
+and sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>Odenathus obtained from the Romans the title of Augustus, and General
+of the East; he revenged the fate of Valerian, who had been taken
+captive and put to death by Shah Poor: the eastern king, with a
+luxurious barbarity truly oriental, is said to have used the
+unfortunate emperor as his footstool to mount his horse. But in the
+midst of his victories and conquests Odenathus became the victim of a
+domestic conspiracy, at the head of which was his nephew Męonius. He
+was assassinated at Emessa during a hunting expedition, and with him
+his son by his first marriage. Zenobia avenged the death of her
+husband on his murderers, and as her sons were yet in their infancy,
+she first exercised the supreme power in their name; but afterward,
+apparently with the consent of the people, assumed the diadem with the
+titles of Augusta and Queen of the East.</p>
+
+<p>The Romans, and their effeminate emperor Gallienus, refused to
+acknowledge Zenobia's claim to the sovereignty of her husband's
+dominions, and Heraclianus was sent with a large army to reduce her to
+obedience; but Zenobia took the field against him, engaged and totally
+defeated him in a pitched battle. Not satisfied with this triumph over
+the haughty masters of the world, she sent her general Zabdas to
+attack them in Egypt, which she subdued and added to her territories,
+together with a part of Armenia and Asia Minor. Thus her dominions
+extended from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and over all those
+vast and fertile countries formerly governed by Ptolemy and Seleucus.
+Jerusalem, Antioch, Damascus, and other cities famed in history, were
+included in her empire, but she fixed her residence at Palmyra, and in
+an interval of peace she turned her attention to the further adornment
+of her magnificent capital. It is related by historians, that many of
+those stupendous fabrics of which the mighty ruins are still existing,
+were either erected, or at least restored and embellished, by this
+extraordinary woman. But that which we have most difficulty in
+reconciling with the manners of her age and country, was Zenobia's
+passion for study, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span> her taste for the Greek and Latin
+literature. She is said to have drawn up an epitome of history for her
+own use; the Greek historians, poets, and philosophers were familiar
+to her; she invited Longinus, one of the most elegant writers of
+antiquity, to her splendid court, and appointed him her secretary and
+minister. For her he composed his famous "Treatise on the Sublime," a
+work which is not only admirable for its intrinsic excellence, but
+most valuable as having preserved to our times many beautiful
+fragments of ancient poets whose works are now lost, particularly
+those of Sappho.</p>
+
+<p>The classical studies of Zenobia seem to have inspired her with some
+contempt for her Arab ancestry. She was fond of deriving her origin
+from the Macedonian kings of Egypt, and of reckoning Cleopatra among
+her progenitors. In imitation of the famous Egyptian queen, she
+affected great splendor in her style of living and in her attire; and
+drank her wine out of cups of gold richly carved and adorned with
+gems. It is, however, admitted that in female dignity and discretion,
+as well as in beauty, she far surpassed Cleopatra. She administered
+the government of her empire with such admirable prudence and policy,
+and in particular with such strict justice toward all classes of her
+subjects, that she was beloved by her own people, and respected and
+feared by the neighboring nations. She paid great attention to the
+education of her three sons, habited them in the Roman purple, and
+brought them up in the Roman fashion. But this predilection for the
+Greek and Roman manners appears to have displeased and alienated the
+Arab tribes; for it is remarked that after this time their fleet
+cavalry, inured to the deserts and unequalled as horsemen, no longer
+formed the strength of her army.</p>
+
+<p>While Gallienus and Claudius governed the Roman empire, Zenobia was
+allowed to pursue her conquests, rule her dominions, and enjoy her
+triumphs almost without opposition; but at length the fierce and
+active Aurelian was raised to the purple, and he was indignant that a
+woman should thus brave with impunity the offended majesty of Rome.
+Having subdued all his competitors in the West, he turned his arms
+against the Queen of the East. Zenobia, undismayed by the terrors of
+the Roman name, levied troops, placed herself at their head, and gave
+the second command to Zabdas, a brave, and hitherto successful,
+general. The first great battle took place near Antioch; Zenobia was
+totally defeated after an obstinate conflict; but, not disheartened by
+this reverse, she retired upon Emessa, rallied her armies, and once
+more defied the Roman emperor. Being again defeated with great loss,
+and her army nearly dispersed, the high-spirited queen withdrew to
+Palmyra, collected her friends around her, strengthened her
+fortifications, and declared her resolution to defend her capital and
+her freedom to the last moment of her existence.</p>
+
+<p>Zenobia was conscious of the great difficulties which would attend the
+siege of a great city, well stored with provisions and naturally
+defended by surrounding deserts; these deserts were infested by clouds
+of Arabs, who, appearing and disappearing with the swiftness and
+suddenness of a whirlwind, continually harassed her enemies. Thus
+defended without, and supported by a strong garrison <span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span> within,
+Zenobia braved her antagonist from the towers of Palmyra as boldly as
+she had defied him in the field of battle. The expectation of succors
+from the East added to her courage, and determined her to persevere to
+the last. "Those," said Aurelian in one of his letters, "who speak
+with contempt of the war I am waging against a woman, are ignorant
+both of the character and power of Zenobia. It is impossible to
+enumerate her warlike preparations of stones, of arrows, and of every
+species of missile weapons and military engines."</p>
+
+<p>Aurelian, in fact, became doubtful of the event of the siege, and he
+offered the queen the most honorable terms of capitulation if she
+would surrender to his arms; but Zenobia, who was aware that famine
+raged in the Roman camp, and daily looked for the expected relief,
+rejected his proposals in a famous Greek epistle, written with equal
+arrogance and eloquence; she defied the utmost of his power; and,
+alluding to the fate of Cleopatra, expressed her resolution to die
+like her rather than yield to the Roman arms. Aurelian was incensed by
+this haughty letter, even more than by dangers and delays attending
+the siege; he redoubled his efforts, he cut off the succors she
+expected; he found means to subsist his troops even in the midst of
+the desert; every day added to the number and strength of his army,
+every day increased the difficulties of Zenobia, and the despair of
+the Palmyrenes. The city could not hold out much longer, and the queen
+resolved to fly, not to insure her own safety, but to bring relief to
+her capital&mdash;such at least is the excuse made for a part of her
+conduct which certainly requires apology. Mounted on a fleet
+dromedary, she contrived to elude the vigilance of the besiegers, and
+took the road to the Euphrates; but she was pursued by a party of the
+Roman light cavalry, overtaken, and brought as a captive into the
+presence of Aurelian. He sternly demanded how she had dared to oppose
+the power of Rome? to which she replied, with a mixture of firmness
+and gentleness, "Because I disdained to acknowledge as my masters such
+men as Aureolus and Gallienus. To Aurelian I submit as my conqueror
+and my sovereign." Aurelian was not displeased at the artful
+compliment implied in this answer, but he had not forgotten the
+insulting arrogance of her former reply. While this conference was
+going forward in the tent of the Roman emperor, the troops, who were
+enraged by her long and obstinate resistance, and all they had
+suffered during the siege, assembled in tumultuous bands calling out
+for vengeance, and with loud and fierce cries demanding her instant
+death. The unhappy queen, surrounded by the ferocious and insolent
+soldiery, forgot all her former vaunts and intrepidity; her feminine
+terrors had perhaps been excusable if they had not rendered her base;
+but in her first panic she threw herself on the mercy of the emperor,
+accused her ministers as the cause of her determined resistance, and
+confessed that Longinus had written in her name that eloquent letter
+of defiance which had so incensed the emperor.</p>
+
+<p>Longinus, with the rest of her immediate friends and counsellors, were
+instantly sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers, and the philosopher
+met death with all the fortitude which became a wise and great man,
+employing his last moments in endeavoring to console Zenobia and
+reconcile her to her fate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span> Palmyra surrendered to the conqueror, who seized upon the
+treasures of the city, but spared the buildings and the lives of the
+inhabitants. Leaving in the place a garrison of Romans, he returned to
+Europe, carrying with him Zenobia and her family, who were destined to
+grace his triumph.</p>
+
+<p>But scarcely had Aurelian reached the Hellespont, when tidings were
+brought to him that the inhabitants of Palmyra had again revolted, and
+had put the Roman governor and garrison to the sword. Without a
+moment's deliberation the emperor turned back, reached Palmyra by
+rapid marches, and took a terrible vengeance on that miserable and
+devoted city; he commanded the indiscriminate massacre of all the
+inhabitants&mdash;men, women, and children; fired its magnificent edifices,
+and levelled its walls to the ground. He afterward repented of his
+fury, and devoted a part of the captured treasures to reinstate some
+of the glories he had destroyed; but it was too late; he could not
+reanimate the dead, nor raise from its ruins the stupendous Temple of
+the Sun. Palmyra became desolate; its very existence was forgotten,
+until about a century ago, when some English travellers discovered it
+by accident. Thus the blind fury of one man extinguished life,
+happiness, industry, art, and intelligence through a vast extent of
+country, and severed a link which had long connected the eastern and
+western continents of the old world.</p>
+
+<p>When Aurelian returned to Rome after the termination of this war, he
+celebrated his triumph with extraordinary pomp. A vast number of
+elephants and tigers, and strange beasts from the conquered countries;
+sixteen hundred gladiators, an innumerable train of captives, and a
+gorgeous display of treasures&mdash;gold, silver, gems, plate, glittering
+raiment, and Oriental luxuries and rarities, the rich plunder of
+Palmyra, were exhibited to the populace. But every eye was fixed on
+the beautiful and majestic figure of the Syrian queen, who walked in
+the procession before her own sumptuous chariot, attired in her diadem
+and royal robes, blazing with jewels, her eyes fixed on the ground,
+and her delicate form drooping under the weight of her golden fetters,
+which were so heavy that two slaves were obliged to assist in
+supporting them on either side; while the Roman populace, at that time
+the most brutal and degraded in the whole world, gaped and stared upon
+her misery, and shouted in exultation over her fall. Perhaps Zenobia
+may in that moment have thought upon Cleopatra, whose example she had
+once proposed to follow; and, according to the pagan ideas of
+greatness and fortitude, envied her destiny, and felt her own ignominy
+with all the bitterness of a vain repentance.</p>
+
+<p>The captivity of Zenobia took place in the year 273, and in the fifth
+year of her reign. There are two accounts of her subsequent fate,
+differing widely from each other. One author asserts that she starved
+herself to death, refusing to survive her own disgrace and the ruin of
+her country; but others inform us that the Emperor Aurelian bestowed
+on her a superb villa at Tivoli, where she resided in great honor; and
+that she was afterward united to a Roman senator, with whom she lived
+many years, and died at a good old age. Her daughters married into
+Roman families, and it is said that some of her descendants remained
+so late as the fifth century.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span> SIEGFRIED<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3" title="Go to footnote 3"><span class="small">[3]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Karl Blind</span><br>
+
+(ABOUT 450)</h3>
+
+<a id="img016" name="img016"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img016.jpg" width="200" height="143" alt="Siegfried." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Siegfried is the name of the mythic national hero of the Germans,
+whose tragic fate is most powerfully described in the "Nibelungen
+Lied," and in a series of lays of the Icelandic Edda. A matchless
+warrior, a Dragon-killer and overthrower of Giants, who possesses a
+magic sword, he conquers the northern Nibelungs and acquires their
+famed gold hoard. In the great German epic he is the son of Siegmund
+and Siegelinde, who rule in the Netherlands. Going Rhine-upward to
+Worms, to Gunther, the King of the Burgundians, he woos and wins
+Kriemhild, the beautiful sister of that king, after having first
+helped Gunther to gain the hand of Brünhild, a queen beyond sea, in
+Iceland. No one could obtain that valiant virgin's consent to wedlock
+unless he proved a victor over her in athletic feats, and in trials of
+battle. By means of his own colossal strength and his hiding hood,
+Siegfried, standing invisibly at the side of Gunther, overcomes
+Brünhild. Even after the marriage has been celebrated at Worms,
+Siegfried has once more to help the Burgundian king in the same hidden
+way, in order to vanquish Brünhild's resistance to the accomplishment
+of the marriage. When, in later times, Kriemhild and Brünhild fall out
+in a quarrel about their husbands' respective worth, the secret of
+such stealthy aid having been given, is let out by the former in a
+manner affecting the honor of the Burgundian queen as a wife.
+Thereupon Hagen promises her to effect a revenge. Having deftly
+ascertained from Kriemhild the single vulnerable part of the hero,
+whose skin had otherwise been made impenetrable by being dipped into
+the Dragon's blood, Hagen treacherously murders Siegfried at a chase.
+The gold hoard is then sunk in the Rhine by Hagen, lest Kriemhild
+should use it as a means of bribing men for wreaking her own revenge.
+She afterward becomes the consort of Etzel, the heathen king of the
+Hiunes (Hunns) in Hungary, who resides at Vienna. Thither she allures
+the Burgundians, Hagen alone mistrusting the invitation. In Etzel's
+eastern land all the Burgundian knights, upon whom the Nibelung name
+had been conferred, suffer a terrible death through Kriemhild's wrath.
+Hagen, who refuses to the end to reveal to her the whereabouts of the
+sunken gold hoard, has his head cut off with Siegfried's sword by the
+infuriated queen herself. At last, she, too, is hewn down by the
+indignant, doughty warrior, Hildebrand; and so the lofty Hall, into
+which fire had been thrown, is all strewn over with the dead.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span> "Here," says the poem, "has the tale an end. These were the
+sorrows of the Nibelungs."</p>
+
+<p>In this "Iliad of the Germans," which dates from the end of the
+twelfth century, the Siegfried story is given as a finished epic. But
+its originally heathen Teutonic character is overlaid there with
+admixtures of Christian chivalry. In the Edda and other Scandinavian
+sources, the tale appears in fragmentary and lyrical shape, but in a
+purer version, without additions from the new faith or from medięval
+chivalry. It is in the Sigurd-, Fafnir-, Brynhild-, Gudrun-, Oddrun-,
+Atli-, and Hamdir Lays of the Norse Scripture that the original nature
+of the older German songs, which must have preceded the epic, can best
+be guessed. Rhapsodic lays, referring to Siegfried, were, in all
+probability, part of the collection which Karl the Great, the Frankish
+Kaiser, ordered to be made. Monkish fanaticism afterward destroyed the
+valuable relics. Fortunately, Northmen travelling in Germany had
+gathered some of those tale-treasures, which then were treated by
+Scandinavian and Icelandic bards in the form of heroic lyrics. Hence
+the Eddic lays in question form now a link between our lost Siegfried
+"Lieder" and our national epic.</p>
+
+<p>Even as in the "Nibelungen Lied" so also in the "Edda," Sigurd
+(abbreviation for Siegfried) is not a Scandinavian, but a Southern, a
+Rhenish, a German hero. The whole scene of the tragic events is laid
+in the Rhinelands, where the killing of the Worm also takes place. On
+a hill in Frank-land Sigurd frees Brynhild from the magic slumber into
+which Odin had thrown her on a rock of punishment, because she, as a
+Valkyr, or shield-maiden of his, had brought about the death of a
+Gothic king to whom the god of battle had promised victory. In the
+south, on the Rhine, Sigurd is murdered. In the Rhine, Högni (Hagen)
+hides the Nibelung treasure. Many German tribes&mdash;Franks, Saxons,
+Burgundians, Goths, even a Svava-land, or Suabian land, are mentioned
+in the "Edda." The "Drama of Revenge," after Sigurd's death, though
+motives of the act somewhat different from those stated in the
+"Nibelungen Lied" are assigned, is also localized on the Lower Rhine,
+in the Hall of Atli, the King of the Hunes. In the "Nibelungen Lied,"
+that name appears as Etzel (Attila), King of the Hunns.</p>
+
+<p>In the "Edda" and in the "Vilkina Saga," Germans are referred to as
+sources for some details of the Sigurd story. So strong was, in
+Scandinavia, the tradition of the Teutonic origin of the tale, down to
+the twelfth century, that, in a geographical work written in Norse by
+the Abbot Nicolaus, the Gnita Heath, where Sigurd was said to have
+killed the Dragon, was still placed half-way between Paderborn and
+Mainz. Thus it was from Germany that this grand saga spread all over
+the North, including the Faröer. In the "Hvenic Chronicle," in Danish
+songs, we even find Siegfried as "Sigfred;" Kriemhild as "Gremild;"
+and she is married to him at Worms, as in the "Nibelungen Lied," while
+in the "Edda" Sigurd's wife is called Gudrun, and the remembrance of
+Worms is lost. The scene of the Norse poems is wholly on Rhenish
+ground.</p>
+
+<a id="img017" name="img017"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img017.jpg" width="400" height="567" alt="" title="">
+<p>Siegfried slaying the Dragon.</p></div>
+
+<p>Now, in that neighborhood, in the northwest of Germany, a Teutonic
+tribe once dwelt, called Hunes, which is also traceable in
+Scandinavia. Sigurd himself <span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span> is, in the "Edda," described
+as a Hunic king. His kith and kin dwell in Huna-land. "Hune" probably
+meant a bold and powerful warrior. The word still lingers in Germany
+in various ways; gigantic grave-monuments of prehistoric times are
+called Hunic Graves or "Hünen-Betten," and a tall, strong man a
+"Hüne." In his "Church History" the Anglo-Saxon monk Baeda, or Bede,
+when speaking of the various German tribes which had made Britain into
+an Angle-land, or England, mentions the Hunes. In the Anglo-Saxon
+"Wanderer's Tale" they also turn up, apparently in connection with a
+chieftain Aetla; that is, Atli. In Friesland, the Hunsing tribe long
+preserved the Hunic name. The word occurs in many personal and place
+names both in Germany and in England; for instance: Hunolt (a Rhenish
+hero), Hunferd, Hunlaf, Hunbrecht (champions among Frisians and
+Rhinelanders in the "Beowulf" epic); Huneboldt (bold like a Hune);
+Ethelhun (noble Hune); then there are, in German geography, the
+Hunsrück Mountain; Hunoldstein, Hunenborn, Hunnesrück, near
+Hildesheim, etc. Again, in England: Hundon, Hunworth, Hunstanton,
+Huncote, Hunslet, Hunswick, and many other places from Kent and
+Suffolk up to Lancashire and Shetland, where certainly no Mongolic
+Hunns ever penetrated. The Hunic Atli name is also to be found on
+English soil, in Attlebridge and Attleborough.</p>
+
+<p>After the Great Migrations the various tribes and races became much
+intermixed. It was by a misunderstanding which arose then between the
+German Hunes and the Hunns under Attila's leadership, that Kriemhild's
+revenge after the murder of Siegfried was poetically transferred from
+the Rhine to the Danube. The name of the Rhenish Atli, which is
+preserved in the "Edda," and which also occurs as a German chieftain's
+name on the soil of conquered Britain, easily served to facilitate the
+confusion. Even the composition of Attila's army lent itself to this
+transplantation of the second part of the Siegfried story to Danubian
+lands. For, though Attila was overthrown on the Catalaunian fields,
+mainly by Germanic hosts, to which Roman and Gallic troops were added,
+he had a great many Teutonic warriors in his own army. From this
+military intermingling of races so utterly dissimilar in blood and
+speech as the Hunns and the Germans, one of whose tribes were called
+Hunes, it is not difficult to conceive the shifting of the tragic
+issue of the Nibelung story to the East. Attila, the Hunn, slid into
+the previous Teutonic hero-figure of Atli, the Hune. This change will
+the more easily be understood when the deep impression is remembered
+which the terrible Mongolic war-leader had made on the popular mind in
+southern Germany, where the Nibelungen epic was cast into its present
+shape.</p>
+
+<p>The hold which the Siegfried story has had on the German people,
+through ages, can be gathered from the fact of its having kept its
+place, down to our days, in the workman's house and the peasant's hut,
+first by oral tradition, and then by rudely printed and illustrated
+chap-books ("Die Geschichte vom hürnenen Siegfried"). In this
+"Volksbuch" there are remarkable details concerning the hero's early
+life in a smithy and the prophecy of his assassination, which are
+lost in the "Nibelungen Lied," but preserved in the "Edda." This
+circumstance&mdash;overlooked <span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span> even by Simrock, who, like Jacob
+Grimm, has done much to show the German origin of the Norse Sigurd
+saga&mdash;is another curious bit of evidence of the undeniable Teutonic
+source of the corresponding Scandinavian and Icelandic stories and
+poems.</p>
+
+<p>Many attempts have been made to get at the historical kernel of the
+tale. Some would see in it traces of the songs which, according to
+Tacitus, were sung, of old, in honor of Armin (usually, though
+mistakenly, called Hermann), the deliverer of Germany from the Roman
+yoke. It has been assumed that the contents of these songs were
+combined with traditions of the deeds of Civilis, the leader of the
+Batavian Germans against Roman dominion, as well as of the conquest of
+Britain by Hengest. Recently, the Norse scholar, Gudbrand Vigfśsson,
+has once more started this "Armin" interpretation of the tale, under
+the impression that he was the first to do so; whereas, in Germany,
+Mone and Giesebrecht had worked out that idea already some sixty years
+ago. In order to support his theory, Vigfśsson boldly proposed to
+change the Hunic name of Sigurd, in the Eddic text, into "Cheruskian."
+He imagined the former name to be absurd, because Siegfried was not a
+Hunn; but Vigfśsson was unacquainted with the wide historical
+distribution of the Hunic name in Germany and England.</p>
+
+<p>Others saw in the Siegfried story an echo of the overthrow of the
+Burgundian king Gundahari (Gunther), by Attila, on the Rhine.
+Gundahari, who first threw himself with an army of 20,000 men against
+the Hunnic leader, gloriously fell with all his men. In the same way,
+in the "Nibelungen Lied," the Burgundian king, Gunther, is killed,
+with all his men, in the land of Etzel, the ruler of the Hiunes.
+Again, others have pointed to the feats of Theodorick, the king of the
+Eastern Goths; or to the fate of Siegbert, the king of the Austrasian
+Franks, who was murdered at the instigation of Fredegunda; or to the
+powerful Frankish family of the Pipins, from whom Karl the Great
+hailed, by way of trying to explain some parts of the Siegfried story.
+With the Pipins of "Nivella," we come upon a word in consonance with
+"Nibelung."</p>
+
+<p>Then the wars which the Frankish Kaiser Karl waged against the Saxons
+of Witukind, have been held to be indicated in the war which the
+Frankish Siegfried, in the "Nibelungen Lied," wages against the
+Saxons. To all appearance, however, the tale is a mixture of
+mythological and historical traditions. In the Middle Ages, and still
+much later, Siegfried was looked upon as an undoubtedly historical
+figure. His praise was sung through all Germany. His very tomb, one of
+his weapons, as well as his carved image, were shown under the name of
+Siegfried's grave, Siegfried's spear, and Siegfried's statue. So
+persistent was this belief that when, in the fifteenth century, Kaiser
+Frederick III. came to Worms, he had the alleged grave of "that second
+Hector and powerful giant" opened, to see whether his bones could be
+found. Only a head and a few bones were dug up, "larger than men's
+heads and bones usually are." At Worms, the Siegfried story was
+pictured, in ancient times, in the Town Hall and on the Mint. All
+round Worms, place-names connected with the Nibelung tale occur with
+remarkable <span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span> frequency. If the lost rhapsodic songs could be
+recovered, both mythological and historical allusions would, in all
+likelihood, be found in them.</p>
+
+<p>An eminently Frankish tale, the Nibelungen cycle, has arisen in that
+martial German tribe which once held sway in the greater part of
+Europe. In its origin, the tale is considered by many careful
+investigators&mdash;so also by Richard Wagner, who founded his famous
+music-drama on it&mdash;to have been a Nature myth, upon which real events
+became engrafted. From this point of view, the earliest meaning of
+Siegfried's victory over the Dragon would signify the triumph of the
+God of Light over the monster of the chaotic aboriginal Night. It
+would be, on German ground, the overthrow of Python by Apollon. In
+this connection it is to be pointed out that Sigurd appears in the
+"Edda" as the hero "with the shining eyes," and that, in one of the
+German Rose Garden tales, twelve swords are attributed to him&mdash;a
+description which might be referred to the zodiac and to sunshine; so
+that he would be a solar hero. And even as Day is, in its turn,
+vanquished by Night; as Summer must yield to Winter; so also Siegfried
+falls in the end. The god which he originally was thus becomes human;
+the sad fate of so noble a champion gives rise to feelings of revenge
+for what is held to be an evil and criminal deed; and a tragedy is
+constructed, in which generations appear as actors and victims.</p>
+
+<p>A special feature of the Frankish myth is the hoard, the fatal
+treasure which works never-ending mischief. It is said to represent
+the metal veins of the subterranean Region of Gloom. There, as is
+stated in an Eddic record, Dark Elves (Nibelungs, or nebulous Sons of
+the Night) are digging and working, melting and forging the ore in
+their smithies, producing charmful rings that remind us of the diadems
+which bind the brows of rulers; golden ornaments and sharp weapons;
+all of which confer great power upon their owner. When Siegfried slays
+the Dragon, when Light overcomes Darkness, this hoard is his booty,
+and he becomes master of the Nibelungs. But the Dragon's dark heir
+ever seeks to regain it from the victor; so Night malignantly murders
+the Day; Hagen kills Siegfried. The treasure on which Siegfried's
+power is founded becomes the cause of his death; and through Death he
+himself, albeit originally a refulgent God of Light, is turned into a
+figure of gloom; that is, a Nibelung.</p>
+
+<p>There is much in the Norse Skalds which seems to support this
+mythological aspect of the tale. The name of Siegfried's murderer,
+Hagen&mdash;who is one-eyed, even as Hödur, the God of Night, who kills
+Baldur, the God of Light, is blind&mdash;has also been adduced for this
+interpretation. Hagen is explained as the Thorn of Death, the hawthorn
+(German Hagedorn), with which men are stung into eternal sleep, or
+rather into a death-like trance. Odin stings Brynhild into her trance
+with a sleeping-thorn. Hagen, in the sense of death, still lingers in
+the German expression, "Friend Hain," as a euphemism for the figure
+which announces that one's hour has come. The hawthorn was the special
+wood used for fire-burial in Germany; hence the figurative poetical
+expression which would make Hagen a synonym for death.</p>
+
+<p>In the German and Norse poems, as we possess them now, myth and
+apparently <span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span> historical facts are inextricably welded
+together. A powerful representation of the Siegfried tale is given in
+the series of large pictures, at Munich, by the distinguished painter
+Schnorr von Karolsfeld.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig002" name="sig002"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig002.jpg" width="300" height="111" alt="Author signature. Karl Blind." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>KING ARTHUR<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Rev. S. Baring-Gould</span><br>
+
+(ABOUT 520)</h3>
+
+<a id="img018" name="img018"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img018.jpg" width="250" height="263" alt="King Arthur." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Arthur, king of the Siluri, or Dumnonii&mdash;British races driven back
+into the west of England by the Saxons&mdash;is represented as having
+united the British tribes in resisting the pagan invaders, and as
+having been the champion not only of his people but also of
+Christianity. He is said to have lived in the sixth century, and to
+have maintained a stubborn contest against the Saxon Cerdic, but the
+"Saxon Chronicle" is suspiciously silent as to his warfare and as to
+his existence. Indeed, the Welsh bards of the earliest period do not
+assert that he was a contemporary, and it is more than doubtful
+whether he is an historic personage. It is worthy of remark that the
+fame of Arthur is widely spread; he is claimed alike as a prince in
+Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Cumberland, and the lowlands of Scotland;
+that is to say, his fame is conterminous with the Brithonic race, and
+does not extend to the Goidels or Gaels. As is now well known, Great
+Britain was twice invaded by races of Celtic blood and tongue; the
+first wave was that of the Goidels, and after a lapse of some
+considerable time a second Celtic wave, that of the Brithons, or
+Britons, from the east, overran Britain, and drove the Gaels to west
+and north. Finn and Ossian belong to the mythic heroic cycle of the
+Gaels, and Arthur and Merlin to that of the Britons. These several
+shadowy forms are probably deities shorn of their divinity and given
+historic attributes and position, much as, among the Norsemen, Odin,
+when he ceased to be regarded as the All-father, or God, came to be
+reckoned as an ancestor of the kings.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span> In the lays of the Welsh bards, supposed to be as early as
+the sixth and seventh centuries (although no MS. is extant of older
+date than the twelfth century), Arthur and his brave companions are
+celebrated, but modestly and without marvels. It is possible that
+there may have existed in the sixth century a prince bearing the
+already well-known heroic name; and if so, about him the myths
+belonging to the remote ancestor or god have crystallized. The
+legendary additions begin to gather in the history of the Britons by
+Nennius, a writer supposed to have lived at the beginning of the
+seventh century; but Mr. Thomas Wright has shown ("Biographia
+Literaria," Saxon period) that his history is a forgery of a much
+later date, probably of the tenth century. Mr. Skene, however ("The
+Four Ancient Books of Wales"), makes fight to give Arthur an historic
+place, and we do not deny that there may have been a prince of that
+name. Next in order come the so-called Armoric collections of Walter,
+Archdeacon of Oxford (latter part of eleventh century), from which
+Geoffrey of Monmouth professes to translate, and in which the
+marvellous and supernatural elements largely prevail. Here for the
+first time the magician Merlin comes into association with Arthur.
+According to Geoffrey, Arthur's father, Uther, conceiving a passion
+for Igerna, wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, is changed by Merlin
+into the likeness of Gorlois, and Arthur is the result. After his
+father's death Arthur becomes paramount leader of the British, and
+makes victorious expeditions to Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway,
+and also to France, where he defeats a great Roman army. During his
+absence his nephew, Modred, revolts, and seduces Prince Arthur's wife,
+Gweniver (Gwenhwywar). Arthur returning, falls in a battle with his
+nephew, and is carried to the Isle of Avalon to be cured of his
+wounds. Geoffrey's work apparently gave birth to a multitude of
+fictions, which came to be considered as quasi-historical traditions.
+From these, exaggerated by each succeeding age, and recast by each
+narrator, sprung the famous metrical romances of the twelfth and
+thirteenth centuries, first in French and afterward in English, from
+which modern notions of Arthur are derived. In these his habitual
+residence is at Caerlon, on the Usk, in Wales, where, with his
+beautiful wife, Guinevere, he lives in splendid state, surrounded by
+hundreds of knights and beautiful ladies, who serve as patterns of
+valor, breeding, and grace to all the world. Twelve knights, the
+bravest of the throng, form the centre of this retinue, and sit with
+the king at a round table, the "Knights of the Round Table." From the
+court of King Arthur knights go forth to all countries in search of
+adventure&mdash;to protect women, chastise oppressors, liberate the
+enchanted, enchain giants and malicious dwarfs, is their knightly
+mission.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest legends of Arthur's exploits are to be found in the
+bardic lays attributed to the sixth and seventh centuries ("Myoyrian
+Archęology of Wales," 1801). A Welsh collection of stories called the
+"Mabinogion," of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and
+translated into English by Lady Charlotte Guest in 1849, gives further
+Arthurian legends. Some of the stories "have the character of
+chivalric romances," and are therefore probably of French origin;
+while others "bear the impress of a far higher antiquity, both as
+regards the manners they depict <span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span> and the style of language in
+which they are composed." These latter rarely mention Arthur, but the
+former belong, as Mr. Skene puts it, to the "full-blown Arthurian
+romance." Chrétien de Troies, the most famous of the old French
+trouvčres in the latter part of the twelfth century, made the Arthur
+legend the subject for his "Romans" and "Contes," as well as for two
+epics on Tristan; the Holy Grail, Peredur, etc., belonging to the same
+cycle. Early in the same century the Arthurian metrical romance became
+known in Germany, and there assumed a more animated and artistic form
+in the "Parzival" of Wolfram of Eschenbach, "Tristan und Isolt" of
+Gottfried of Strasburg, "Erec and Iwein" of Hartmann, and "Wigalois"
+of Wirnt. The most renowned of the heroes of the Arthurian school are
+Peredur (Parzival or Perceval), Tristan or Tristram, Iwein, Erec,
+Gawein, Wigalois, Wigamur, Gauriel, and Lancelot. From France the
+Arthurian romance spread also to Spain, Provence, Italy, and the
+Netherlands, even into Iceland, and was again transplanted into
+England. One of the publications that issued from the press of Caxton
+(1485) was a collection of stories by Sir Thomas Malory, either
+compiled by him in English, from various of the later French prose
+romances, or translated directly from an already existing French
+compendium. Copland reprinted the work in 1557, and in 1634 the last
+of the black-letter editions appeared. A reprint of Caxton's "Kynge
+Arthur," with an introduction and notes by Robert Southey, was issued
+in 1817&mdash;"The Byrth, Lyfe, and Actes of Kyng Arthur." The most
+complete edition is that by Thomas Wright, from the text of 1634.</p>
+
+<p>The name of King Arthur was given during the Middle Ages to many
+places and monuments supposed to have been in some way associated with
+his exploits, such as "Arthur's Seat," near Edinburgh, "Arthur's
+Oven," on the Carron, near Falkirk, etc. What was called the sepulchre
+of his queen was shown at Meigle, in Strathmore, in the sixteenth
+century. Near Boscastle, in Cornwall, is Pentargain, a headland called
+after him "Arthur's Head." Other localities take his name in Brittany.
+In the Middle Ages, in Germany, Arthur's Courts were buildings in
+which the patricians assembled. One such still remains at Danzig.
+There was one anciently at Thorn, about which a ballad and legend
+exist. Milton was meditating an Arthurian epic in 1639; and in our own
+day the interest of the legends about King Arthur and his knights has
+been revived by Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" and some of Wagner's
+operas. We must not omit to note the magnificent life-sized ideal
+bronze figure of Arthur, cast for the monument of Maximilian I., now
+in the Franciscan church at Innsbruck, and regarded as the finest
+among the series of heroes there represented.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="img019" name="img019"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img019.jpg" width="600" height="428" alt="" title="">
+<p>The Ruins of King Arthur's Castle.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span> ROLAND<br>
+
+(740-778)</h3>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "O, for a blast of that dread horn,<br>
+  On Fontarabian echoes borne<br>
+<span class="add2em">That to King Charles did come,</span><br>
+  When Rowland brave, and Olivier,<br>
+  And every paladin and peer<br>
+<span class="add2em">On Roncesvalles died!"&mdash;<i>Marmion.</i></span></p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "When Charlemain with all his peerage fell,<br>
+<span class="add2em">By Fontarabbia."&mdash;<i>Paradise Lost.</i></span></p>
+
+<a id="img020" name="img020"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img020.jpg" width="250" height="254" alt="Roland." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>"A Roland for an Oliver!" Saving the passing reference by Scott and
+Milton, quoted above, Roland and Olivier are almost unknown to English
+readers, and yet their once familiar names, knit together for
+centuries, have passed into a proverb, to be remembered as we remember
+the friendship of David and Jonathan, or to be classed by the scholar
+with Pylades, and Orestes of classic story, or with Amys and Amylion
+of romance.</p>
+
+<p>The "Song of Roland" might be called the national epic of France. It
+corresponds to the "Mort d'Arthur" of England, the "Cid Chronicles" of
+Spain, the "Nibelungen Lied" of Germany, and the Longobardian legends
+of North Italy. Italian medięval literature is rich in the Roland
+romances, founded on the fabulous "Chronicle of John Turpin" and the
+"Chansons de Gestes," of which the "Song of Roland" is one. Of the
+Italian romances the "Morgante Maggiore" of Pulci was published as
+early as 1488, Boyardo's "Orlando Innamorata" in 1496, and Ariosto's
+"Orlando Furioso" in 1515. English versions of Boyardo and Ariosto
+have since been translated into the rhyming couplets of Hoole, and as
+late as 1831 into the <i>ottava rima</i> stanzas of W. S. Rose. It was not,
+however, till April, 1880, that a full English translation of the
+original "Song of Roland," from MSS. written in the old <i>langue d'oil</i>
+of Northern France, was published by Kegan, Paul &amp; Co., from the pen
+of Mr. O'Hagan, Q.C., of Dublin. Most probably it was a curtailed
+version of this romance that is referred to by Wace in his "Roman le
+Rou," when he records how, as the Normans marched to Senlac Hill, in
+1066, the minstrel Taillefer sang,</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "Of Roland and the heroes all<br>
+  Who fell at fatal Roncesvall."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span> Turning to the historical data on which the romance is based,
+it will be found that in the year 778 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> Charlemagne, accompanied by
+his nephew, Count Roland of Bretagne, and the flower of Frankish
+chivalry, made a raid across the Spanish border. Abdalrahman, the
+first of the great Spanish caliphs of Cordova, was engaged in putting
+down the rebellious chiefs who had refused to own their allegiance to
+the new caliphate. The frontier was therefore comparatively
+unprotected. The Spanish Christians, who maintained a precarious
+independence among the Asturias and Pyrenees, and who found it the
+wisest policy to be at peace with the Mohammedan rulers, were not
+strong enough to resist Charlemagne. Accordingly the Franks advanced
+nearly to Saragossa. On returning to France laden with spoil through
+the winding defile of Roncesvalles (the valley of thorns or briers),
+their rear-guard was cut off by a band of Basques or Gascons and
+Spanish-Arabians, and their leader, Roland, slain. To the presence of
+these Spanish Christians in the Moorish army must be attributed the
+origin of the many Spanish ballads on the victory, in which all the
+glory is due to the prowess of the national hero, Bernardo Del Carpio,
+"the doughtiest lance in Spain." It is curious also to note, on the
+other hand, that the Arabians themselves in their chronicles,
+translated by the Spanish historian Condé, make little of this
+victory, merely mentioning the fact. The Saracen King Marsil, or
+Marsilius, of Saragossa, so often referred to in this and other
+Carlovingian romances, is identified by Condé with the Mohammedan
+Wali, or Governor of Saragossa, Abdelmelic, the son of Omar, called by
+the Christians Omarus Filius, hence the corruption Marsilius.</p>
+
+<p>With these brief outlines of the history of Roncesvalles before us it
+is interesting to observe the grandiloquent strain of the old Norman
+<i>rymours</i>, the fearless exaggerations, and the total ignorance of the
+actual state of affairs in Spain under the enlightened and
+accomplished Arabians.</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  <i>"Carles li reis nostre emperere magnes,<br>
+  Set anz tut pleins ad estet en Espaigne."</i></p>
+
+<p>Our great emperor Charles the King had been for seven full years in
+Spain, so runs the chronicle; castle and keeper alike had gone down
+except Saragossa, the mountain town, where King Marsil held his court,
+surrounded by 20,000 Mohammedan nobles. At their council it was agreed
+to accept Spain as a fief from the emperor, and ten knights set out
+with golden bridles and silver saddles,</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "And they ride with olive boughs in hand,<br>
+  To seek the lord of the Frankish land."</p>
+
+<p>Near the pass of Roncesvalles, one of the Pyrenean "gates" of Spain,
+sits the emperor upon a throne of beaten gold. His form is tall and
+majestic, and his long white beard flows over his coat of mail. 'Tis
+whispered, too, that he is already two hundred years old, and yet,
+there he is in all his pride. Beside him stand his nephew Roland, the
+Lord Marquis of the marches of Bretagne; Sir <span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span> Olivier;
+Geoffrey of Anjou, the progenitor of the Plantagenets; "and more than
+a thousand Franks of France." The Moslem knights are introduced to
+this council of war, King Marsil's offer is accepted, and Sir Ganelon
+is sent to Saragossa to represent the emperor. Jealous of Roland's
+military glory, and envious of the stores of pagan gold, the false
+Ganelon conspires with King Marsil to put the all-powerful Roland to
+death. King Marsil is assured that on receipt of the golden tribute,
+Charlemagne will be persuaded to leave Spain, while by the traitor's
+advice Roland will be appointed to remain behind and guard the rear of
+the retiring hosts. The scheme succeeded. Ganelon returned to the
+Frankish camp with the tribute-money for the emperor, and the
+traitor's gold for himself. The Franks begin their homeward march.
+They are now descending the mountains into their own fertile Gascon
+plains, and their hearts beat lightly, for</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "They think of their homes and their manors there,<br>
+  Their gentle spouses and damsels fair."</p>
+
+<p>But their great chief is silent and gloomy. Roland, the bravest of the
+brave, has been left behind with all the paladins, save Ganelon,
+beyond the gates of Spain. Last night the emperor dreamed he seemed to
+stand by Cizra's pass in Roncesvalles, when Ganelon appeared before
+him, wrenched the emperor's spear from out his hand, waved it on high,
+then dashed it in pieces. What did it mean? He remembered the ominous
+words of his peers, "Evil will come of this quest, we fear," and
+Ganelon's strange reply, "Ye shall hear."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Sir Roland was far behind in Roncesvalles. He rode his
+gallant steed Veillantif; his white pennon, fringed with gold and set
+with diamonds, sparkled in the sunshine; and by his side he wore his
+famous sword Durindana, with its hilt of gold shaped like a cross, on
+which was graven the name of "Jesus." What a glorious picture of the
+Christian hero of medięval times! With him were Olivier, the good
+Archbishop Turpin, and the remaining knights who made up the Order of
+the Paladins of Charlemagne, together with an army of 20,000 men.</p>
+
+<p>The drums beat to arms in Saragossa's town, the tambours roll, the
+tabors sound, and 400,000 men attend the call of King Marsil. From a
+neighboring height Sir Olivier observes this countless host
+approaching. He calls to Roland to blow his ivory horn and bring back
+the emperor. Roland refuses, and the Franks prepare to fight; not,
+however, before on bended knee they receive the archbishop's
+benediction and a promise of paradise to all who die in this holy war
+against the pagan foe. With the old French battle-cry, "Mont-joie!
+Mont-joie!" the Christians dash the rowels into their steeds and close
+with the enemy. Homer does not relate a bloodier fight than that which
+follows, and which takes eighty-six stanzas, or fifty of Mr. O'Hagan's
+pages, to describe. Again and again the Christians charge the
+Saracens. What deeds the great sword Durindana did that day! The slain
+lie in thousands; the Saracens flee; and in the pursuit all are killed
+save <i>one</i>, who reaches Saragossa. The triumph, however, is
+short-lived; Ganelon had decreed that Roland must die, and so a
+mightier <span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span> army than before marches forth to exterminate
+Roland's handful, now reduced to 300.</p>
+
+<p>During this battle a terrible storm passes over France,&mdash;thunder and
+whirlwinds, rain and hail, there came.</p>
+
+<p>The people thought that the end of the world had come, but this was
+only a foreshadowing of Roland's death. At last all the nobles are
+killed except Roland, Olivier, the archbishop, and sixty men. Then
+only will Roland deign to blow his horn. Charlemagne hears it thirty
+leagues away, and orders his army to return to Roncesvalles. Ganelon
+alone seeks to dissuade him, and is put in chains by the desire of the
+nobles, who suspect him. The army of Charles hurries back, but all too
+late. They will not arrive in time. Away in the Pass of Cizra, Roland
+looks around on his dead comrades and weeps. He returns to Olivier's
+side, who is engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter with King Marsil's
+uncle, the Moslem prince, Algalif, from whom he receives his
+death-wound. Olivier reels in his saddle, his eyes are dimmed with
+blood, and as he strikes madly about with his spear, he smashes
+Roland's helmet. The friend of Olivier is astonished, but soft and low
+he speaks to him thus:</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "'Hast thou done it, my comrade, wittingly?<br>
+  Roland who loves thee so dear am I.<br>
+  Thou hast no quarrel with me to seek?'<br>
+  Olivier answered, 'I hear thee speak,<br>
+  But I see thee not; God seeth thee.<br>
+  Have I struck thee, brother, forgive it me?'<br>
+  'I am not hurt, O Olivier;<br>
+  And in sight of God, I forgive thee here.'<br>
+  Then to each other his head hath laid,<br>
+  And in love like this was their parting made."</p>
+
+<p>With hands clasped Sir Olivier cries to God for admittance into
+Paradise, and for a blessing on "King Karl and France the fair," and
+above all on his brother Roland. Then his hands fall, his head sinks
+on his breast, and he passes away. Filled with grief, Roland murmurs:</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "So many days and years gone by<br>
+  We lived together.<br>
+  And thou hast never done me wrong.<br>
+  Since thou art dead, to live is pain."</p>
+
+<p>Once more Roland turns to where Count Walter of Hum and the archbishop
+alone stand at bay:</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "And the heathen cries, 'What a felon three!<br>
+  Look to it, lords, that they shall not flee.'"</p>
+
+<a id="img021" name="img021"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img021.jpg" width="400" height="586" alt="" title="">
+<p>Roland at Roncesvalles.</p></div>
+
+<p>Count Walter falls at last, just as they hear the welcome sound of
+Charlemagne's trumpets, at which the Saracens flee, leaving Roland and
+the archbishop unconquered. But their end is near. Roland swoons, and
+the good archbishop, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span> in attempting to bring water in the
+famous horn for the dying Paladin, falls from loss of blood. Roland
+recovers only in time to see him die; then, as he feels that death is
+near him also, he looks once more on his goodly sword Durindana, and
+as he looks he cries:</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "Oh fair and holy, my peerless sword,<br>
+  What relics lie in thy pommel stored&mdash;<br>
+  Tooth of St. Peter, Saint Basil's blood,<br>
+  Hair of St. Denis beside them strewed,<br>
+  Fragment of Holy Mary's vest&mdash;<br>
+  'Twere shame that thou with the heathen rest,<br>
+  Thee should the hand of a Christian serve,<br>
+  One who should never in battle swerve."</p>
+
+<p>In despair lest it fall into pagan hands he tries to break it in
+pieces, and the mighty slashes he made in the rocks are still pointed
+out as the "Brčche de Roland." You remember Wordsworth's lines:</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+<span class="add7em">"the Pyrenean breach,</span><br>
+  Which Roland clove with huge two-handed sway,<br>
+  And to the enormous labor left his name,<br>
+  Where unremitting frost the rocky crescents bleach."</p>
+
+<p>Surely Roland might now rest from his labors, amid the "flowerets of
+Paradise." But no; he had yet to smash the head of a prowling Saracen
+who thought him an easy prey. In doing so he spoiled forever the ivory
+horn, his only weapon. Not till then could he clasp his hands as he
+went to rest, and not till then did</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "God from on high send down to him<br>
+  One of His angel cherubim."</p>
+
+<p>St. Michael it was, who with St. Gabriel bore his soul to Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>It would be too long a story to tell of the vengeance of the Emperor
+Charles, how <i>the sun stood still</i> till the Franks had killed every
+one of the Saracens; how Ganelon was accused of treachery, tried by
+combat, and sentenced to be torn to pieces by wild horses. The story
+is a true tragedy, terrible as the tragedy of &OElig;dipus. From another
+source we gather the mournful sequel.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the battle of Roncesvalles Roland and Olivier had met in
+single combat on a quiet island in the Rhone. Toward even a fleecy
+cloud hovered over them, and from its midst an angel "wrapped in rosy
+light" separated the combatants, bidding them be friends, and telling
+them to turn their swords against the enemies of the Faith. The heroes
+shook hands, the angel vanished, and from that day there were no truer
+friends than Roland and Olivier. Their union was further cemented by
+the betrothal of Roland to the Lady Alda, Sir Olivier's sister, a
+maiden who had already, in Roland's presence, proved herself as bold
+in war as she was loving in peace.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span> ROLLO THE GANGER<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4" title="Go to footnote 4"><span class="small">[4]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen</span><br>
+
+(860-932)</h3>
+
+<a id="img022" name="img022"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img022.jpg" width="300" height="161" alt="Rollo the Ganger." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>When King Harold the Fair-haired, in 872 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span>, had united all the
+scattered earldoms of Norway under his own sway, he issued a stringent
+order forbidding pillaging within his kingdom under penalty of
+outlawry. The custom of sailing out into the world as a viking and
+plundering foreign lands, was held to be a most honorable one in those
+days; and every chieftain who wished to give his sons the advantages
+of "a liberal education" and foreign travel, strained his resources in
+order to equip them for such an expedition. But the Norwegians of the
+ninth century had as yet no national feeling; and they regarded King
+Harold's prohibition against plundering their own shores as absurd and
+arbitrary. Rollo or Rolf, the son of the king's best friend, Ragnvald,
+Earl of Möre, undertook to disregard the order. Coming home from a
+cruise in the Baltic and being short of provisions, he landed in the
+south of Norway and made havoc among the coast dwellers. The king,
+determined to make an end of the nefarious practice, kept his word and
+outlawed him.</p>
+
+<p>Rollo, being unequal to a struggle with the king, betook himself to
+the Hebrides, where a number of other Norse chieftains had sought a
+refuge from similar persecutions. His great strength and sagacity, no
+less than his distinguished birth, secured him a favorable reception
+and much influence. He was so tall that no Norwegian horse could carry
+him, for which reason he was compelled always to walk, and was
+surnamed Rollo the Ganger, or Walker. Though not formally recognized
+as chieftain, he seems gradually, by dint of his eminence, to have
+assumed command over the Norse exiles; and it was probably at his
+advice that they resolved to abandon the bleak and barren Hebrides,
+and seek a more congenial home in a sunnier clime. At all events a
+large expedition was fitted out and set sail for the south, early in
+the tenth century. It landed first in Holland, but finding that
+all-too-accessible country already devastated by other vikings, they
+proceeded to the coast of France and entered the mouth of the river
+Seine. Charles the Simple, a feeble, foolish, and good-natured man,
+was then king of France, but utterly unequal to the task of defending
+his territory against foreign invaders or domestic pretenders. The
+empire of Charlemagne had been broken up and divided among his
+grandsons; and the fraction which was to be France, was then confined
+between the Loire and the Meuse.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span> Here was a golden opportunity for Rollo the Ganger and his
+vikings. Meeting with no formidable opposition, they sailed up the
+Seine and cast anchor at the town of Jumičges, five leagues from
+Rouen. This ancient city, which had suffered much from recent sieges
+and invasions, was in no condition to defend itself. It was of slight
+avail that the priests chanted in the churches, with the fervor of
+despair: "Deliver us, oh God, from the fury of Norsemen!" The vikings
+continued to pillage the surrounding territory, and were daily
+expected to sack the city. In this dire dilemma the Archbishop of
+Rouen offered himself as an ambassador to the pagans, in the hope that
+perhaps he might become an instrument in the hand of God to avert the
+impending doom. But if, as seemed more probable, martyrdom was in
+store for him, he was ready to face death without flinching. Rollo,
+however, who could honor courage even in an enemy, received him
+courteously, and after a brief negotiation pledged himself, in case
+the city surrendered, to take peaceful possession of it and to molest
+no one. This pledge he kept to the letter. His ships sailed up the
+river, and the tall chieftain, at the head of his band of
+yellow-haired warriors, made his entry into Rouen, without a sword
+being drawn or a torch lighted. He inspected the fortifications, the
+water supply, and all points of strategic interest, and finding
+everything tolerably satisfactory, resolved to remain. Making Rouen
+his headquarters and base of supplies, the Norsemen made expeditions
+up the Seine and established a great fortified camp near the
+confluence of the Seine and the Eure. Hither a French army, under the
+command of Regnault, Duke of France, was sent to drive them out of the
+country. But before risking a battle Regnault chose to negotiate. He
+sent a certain Hasting, Count of Chartres, to Rollo in order to find
+out what was the aim and object of his invasion. This Hasting was
+himself a Norseman, and had, twenty years before, proved himself so
+formidable a foe, that the King of France had been compelled to buy
+his friendship by a concession of land and a noble title, in return
+for which favors Hasting had become a Christian and a vassal to the
+king. It was doubtful, perhaps, if this man, even though he may have
+acted in good faith, was the best ambassador to his countrymen. For he
+was himself a living example of what might be gained by audacity and a
+shrewd use of one's advantages.</p>
+
+<p>The following conversation is reported to have taken place between the
+Count of Chartres and the Norwegian vikings:</p>
+
+<p>"Gallant soldiers!" shouted Hasting, from afar, "what is your
+chieftain's name?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have no lord over us," they replied; "we are all equal."</p>
+
+<p>"For what purpose have you come to France?"</p>
+
+<p>"To drive out the people who are here, or make them our subjects, and
+win for ourselves a new country. But who are you? How is it that you
+speak our tongue?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know the story of Hasting," the count made answer; "Hasting, the
+great viking, who scoured the seas with his multitude of ships, and
+did so much damage in this kingdom?"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span> "Ay, we have heard of that; but Hasting has made a bad end to
+so good a beginning."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you submit to King Charles?" was the ambassador's next query.
+"Will you give your faith and service, and receive from him gifts and
+honor?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," they cried back; "we will not submit to King Charles. Go
+back and tell him so, you messenger, and say that we claim the rule
+and dominion of whatever we win by our own strength and our swords."</p>
+
+<p>Hasting lost no time in communicating this message to the French and
+in urging a compromise. But Regnault called him a traitor, and would
+have none of his advice. He promptly attacked Rollo and his Norsemen,
+but suffered an overwhelming defeat. His army was cut to pieces, and
+he himself slain by a fisherman of Rouen who had attached himself to
+the invading force. Rollo followed up his victory by sailing up the
+river and laying siege to Paris; but the capital of France proved too
+strong for him and he had to retire to Rouen, whence he continued to
+havoc the surrounding country. He conquered the city of Bayeux and
+slew its ruler, Count Berenger, whose beautiful daughter, Popa, he
+married. Instead of organizing mere plundering expeditions, Rollo
+gradually changed his tactics and took permanent possession of the
+towns that fell into his hands. The peasants, too, who lived in the
+open country, found that it was their best policy to seek his
+friendship and pay him tribute, rather than rely upon the uncertain
+protection of the King of France. They had discovered before this that
+Rollo was a man whose word could be trusted&mdash;a lord of mighty will,
+who had a ruthless way of enforcing obedience, but was open-handed and
+generous withal to those who would serve his purposes.</p>
+
+<p>It could no longer be said with truth, as the vikings had said to
+Hasting, that they had no lord over them. Rollo, whose chieftainship
+had hitherto been based upon his genius for ruling, was now formally
+chosen king&mdash;a title which he later exchanged for that of Duke of
+Normandy. In Norway, previous to the conquests of Harold the
+Fair-haired, each province had had its king, who was not always
+hereditary, but was often chosen by the peasants themselves, because
+he possessed the qualities required of a leader. It was in accordance
+with the same custom that they now conferred kingship upon Rollo,
+whose valor, sagacity, and firmness of purpose had been amply proven.
+It was the power of the man&mdash;the weight and force of his
+personality&mdash;which they respected, no less than his clear-sightedness,
+his readiness of resource, and his skill in the rude statecraft of his
+age.</p>
+
+<a id="img023" name="img023"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img023.jpg" width="400" height="588" alt="" title="">
+<p>Rollo the Ganger attacks Paris.</p></div>
+
+<p>Encouraged by his previous successes, Rollo now made larger plans, and
+with the view to carrying them out, formed an alliance with some
+Danish vikings who had managed to effect a lodgement and maintain
+themselves for some years at the mouth of the Loire. Together they
+started upon an extensive campaign, the objective point of which was
+again Paris. But the powerful fortifications baffled the Norsemen, who
+possessed no machinery of destruction fit to cope with such defences.
+The siege had therefore to be abandoned. Dijon and Chartres also made
+a successful resistance. But a long chain of smaller cities
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span> surrendered, and the country was ravaged far and wide. The
+peasants took to the woods and refused to sow their fields, knowing
+that there was small chance of their reaping them. So desperate became
+the situation that nobles and peasants alike entreated the king to
+make peace with the Norsemen on whatever terms he could procure. The
+king was not unwilling to listen to such prayers. It occurred to him
+that in making a treaty with Rollo he would be killing two birds with
+one stone. He would not only be ridding France of a dangerous foe, but
+he might secure for himself a powerful friend who might help him keep
+the unruly nobles in order, and secure him in the possession of his
+shorn and reduced kingdom. With this end in view he invested Rollo
+with the sovereignty of his northern province, named after the
+Norsemen, Normandy, and conferred upon him the title of duke (912
+<span class="smcap">a.d.</span>). Rollo was to recognize Charles as his overlord, and defend him
+against external and internal foes; and he was to become a Christian
+and marry the king's daughter, Gisla. It is told, however, that when
+Rollo was required to kneel down and kiss the royal foot in token of
+fealty, he stoutly refused.</p>
+
+<p>"I will never bend my knee before any man," he said, "nor will I kiss
+anyone's foot."</p>
+
+<p>After much persuasion however, he permitted one of his men to perform
+the act of homage in his stead. His proxy stalked sullenly forward,
+and pausing before the king, who was on horseback, seized his foot and
+raised it to his lips. By this man&oelig;uvre, the king came to make a
+somersault, at which there followed a great and disrespectful burst of
+laughter from the Norsemen.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the conclusion of this treaty Rollo was baptized, and
+his marriage to the Princess Gisla was celebrated with great pomp in
+the city of Rouen. His previous marriage to Popa does not seem to have
+caused him any scruple, though, as a matter of fact, he continued to
+regard the latter as his wife, and when Gisla died he resumed his
+marital relations with her, if indeed they had ever been interrupted.
+The princess had been to him nothing but a hostage from the king and a
+pledge of his good faith. But Popa, who was the mother of his son
+William, surnamed Longsword, he loved, and we do not hear that the
+fact that he had killed her father caused any serious trouble between
+them.</p>
+
+<p>As Duke of Normandy, Rollo exhibited a political insight and a genius
+for administration which in those turbulent days was certainly
+remarkable. He had the true welfare of his people at heart, and with a
+firm hand he maintained justice, protecting the weak, and restraining
+the strong. The laws which he made he enforced with stern
+impartiality, and no man could plead birth or privilege before him, if
+he wantonly offended. The farmers were Rollo's special care; for
+warrior though he was, he well knew that war is destructive, and that
+the prosperity of a land must be founded upon productive labor. The
+peasantry of Normandy were not slow to discover that they were better
+off under their new ruler than they ever had been under the old; and
+they rewarded Rollo with a sincere loyalty and devotion. Their
+confidence in his power to right wrong, became in the course of time
+half superstitious; and if any of them was in peril <span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span> or
+suffered at the hands of his enemy, it became the fashion to shout:
+"Ha, Rou!"&mdash;Rou being a corruption of Raoul, the French form of Rolf
+or Rollo. Then it was the duty of everyone who heard this cry, to
+hasten to the aid of the sufferer or to pursue his assailant. It has
+been asserted that our "hurrah" is derived from this Norman shout, but
+I hold this to be more than doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>That Normandy was prosperous under the reign of Rollo, and that its
+people were contented, seems, however, to be well established.
+According to the legend, so great was the public security that
+property left on the highway could be found untouched after days and
+weeks; the farmer left his implements in the field without fear of
+losing them; and theft and robbery became comparatively rare. In a
+great measure this was, no doubt, due to the strict organization which
+Rollo introduced, and his insistence upon the personal accountability
+of each one of his subjects to himself. For he had learned one most
+important lesson from his enemy, Harold the Fair-haired. This king was
+the first to establish in Europe what is called the feudal system of
+land-tenure. He declared all land to be the property of the crown, and
+merely held in fief by the nominal owners. In recognition of the
+king's proprietorship, the latter, therefore, pledged themselves to
+pay a certain tribute, and to support the king in case of war, with a
+given number of armed men, in accordance with the size and value of
+their holdings. This same system Rollo is said to have introduced into
+Normandy, whence it spread over all Europe. Though we have now no more
+use for it, it proved a great and important element in the progress of
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Rollo the Ganger must have been nearly eighty years old when he died
+in 927. His son, William Longsword, who succeeded him as Duke of
+Normandy, was a man of gentler disposition and in vigor and sagacity
+inferior to his father. Rollo's descendant in the fifth generation was
+William the Conqueror, who inherited in a larger measure the qualities
+of his great ancestor.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig003" name="sig003"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig003.jpg" width="300" height="101" alt="Author signature. Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span> LEIF ERICSON<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5" title="Go to footnote 5"><span class="small">[5]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen</span><br>
+
+(<span class="smcap">About</span> 1000)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img024" name="img024"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img024.jpg" width="300" height="174" alt="Leif Ericson." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>The story of the Finding of Wineland the Good is contained, in
+somewhat differing versions, in two parchment books, the one belonging
+to the first, and the other to the last, quarter of the fourteenth
+century. Both agree in attributing the discovery to Leif the Lucky,
+the son of Eric the Red; though the Flatey Book says that he was
+induced to undertake this voyage by a certain Bjarne Herjulfson, who,
+having been driven out of his course by storms, had seen strange
+lands, but had not explored them.</p>
+
+<p>Leif's father, Eric the Red, was, like most Norsemen of his day, an
+unruly and turbulent man, whose sword sat loosely in its sheath. He
+was born about the middle of the tenth century at Jaederen, in Norway,
+but was outlawed on account of a manslaughter, and set sail for
+Iceland, where he married a certain Thorhild, the daughter of Jorund
+and Thorbjorg the Ship-chested. But the same high temper and
+quarrelsome spirit which had compelled him to leave Norway got him
+into trouble also in his new home. He was forced by blood-feuds and
+legal acts of banishment to change his abode repeatedly, and finally
+he was declared an outlaw. Knowing that his life was forfeited, Eric,
+as a last desperate chance, equipped a ship, and sailed "in search of
+that land which Gunbjörn, the son of Ulf the Crow, had seen when he
+was driven westward across the main;" and promised, in case he found
+it, to return and apprise his friends of the discovery. Fortune
+favored him, and he found a great, inhospitable continent, which (in
+order to allure colonists) he called Greenland; "for," he said, "men
+would be more easily persuaded thither, if the country had a good
+name." He landed in three or four places, but, being dissatisfied,
+broke up and started in search of more favorable localities. At the
+end of three years he returned to Iceland fought his foes and was
+defeated, but finally succeeded, by the backing of friends, in
+effecting a reconciliation with them. He spent the winter in Iceland,
+and sailed the following spring for Greenland, where he settled at a
+place called Brattahlid (Steep Lea) in Ericsfirth. Thirty-five
+ship-loads of people followed him, but only fourteen arrived safely.
+The remainder were shipwrecked, or driven back to Iceland.</p>
+
+<p>The interest now shifts from Eric to his son, Leif the Lucky, who
+becomes <span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span> the hero of the Saga. Sixteen years after his
+father's settlement in Greenland, Leif, as behooved the son of a
+chieftain, equipped a ship and set out to see the world, and gather
+fortune and experience. He must then have been between twenty and
+twenty-five years old. He arrived in Drontheim, Norway, in the autumn,
+and met there King Olaf Tryggveson. The king, who had been baptized in
+England, was full of zeal for the Christian faith, and was employing
+every means in his power to christianize the country. But the
+peasantry, who were worshippers of Odin and Thor, refused to listen to
+him, and even compelled him to eat horse-flesh and participate in
+pagan rites. Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at
+that he took kindly to the handsome young Icelander who displayed such
+an interest in the new religion, and listened attentively while the
+king expounded the faith to him. For Leif was a courteous and
+intelligent man, of fine presence, good address, and indomitable
+spirit. The king, says the Saga, "thought him a man of great
+accomplishments." It was not long before he concluded to accept
+Christianity, whereupon he was baptized, with all his shipmates. King
+Olaf then charged him to return to Iceland and induce the people to
+abandon idolatry and accept the true faith. Leif, knowing how deeply
+attached the Icelanders were to their old gods, was very reluctant to
+undertake this mission, but finally yielded to the king's persuasions,
+"provided the king would grant him the grace of his protection."</p>
+
+<p>He accordingly put to sea; but encountered heavy weather and was
+driven out of his course. For a long while he was tossed about by the
+tempest, until he came upon "lands of which he had previously no
+knowledge. There were self-sown wheat-fields and vines growing there.
+There were also those trees which are called <i>masur</i> (maples?). And of
+all these things they took samples."</p>
+
+<p>The other version to which I have alluded is much more explicit, and
+recounts how Leif went to Greenland to visit his father, Eric the Red,
+and how there he heard the account of Bjarne Herjulfson's voyage, and
+of the unknown lands to the westward which he professed to have seen.
+The people, we read, blamed Bjarne for his lack of enterprise in
+failing to explore the territories of which he had caught glimpses,
+"so as to be able to bring some report of them." Leif, being of an
+adventurous spirit, was fired by this talk, and resolved to accomplish
+what the incurious Bjarne had left undone. He gathered together a crew
+of thirty-five men, and invited his father to command the expedition.
+Eric at first declined, saying that he was well stricken in years, and
+unable to endure the exposure of such a voyage. Leif insisted,
+however, that "he would be most apt to bring good luck," and the old
+man, yielding to his son's solicitation, mounted his horse and rode
+forth at the head of the ship-crew. But when he was nearing the beach,
+the horse stumbled and Eric was thrown and wounded his foot. This was
+held to be a bad omen, and as he was trying to rise, he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"It is not destined that I shall discover any more lands than the one
+in which we are now living; nor can we now continue longer together."</p>
+
+<p>Leif, knowing persuasion to be vain, pursued his way alone, and
+embarked with his thirty-five shipmates.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span> "When they were ready, they sailed out to sea and found first
+that land which Bjarne and his shipmates found last."</p>
+
+<p>It is not stated how long they had been at sea when this land was
+found. The account goes on as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"They sailed up to the land and cast anchor, and launched a boat and
+went ashore, and saw no grass there. Great ice mountains lay inland,
+back from the sea, and it was as a [table land of] flat rocks all the
+way from the sea to the ice mountains; and the country seemed to them
+to be entirely devoid of good qualities. Then said Leif: 'It has not
+come to pass with us in regard to this land as with Bjarne, that we
+have not gone upon it. To this country I will now give a name and call
+it Helluland' (<i>i.e.</i>, The Land of Flat Rocks).</p>
+
+<p>"They returned to the ship and put out to sea, and found a second
+land. They sailed again to the land, came to anchor, launched a boat,
+and went ashore. This was a level wooded land, and there were broad
+stretches of white sand, where they went, and the land was level by
+the sea. Then said Leif: 'This land shall have a name according to its
+nature, and we will call it Markland' (<i>i.e.</i>, Wood Land). They
+returned to the ship forthwith and sailed away upon the main, with
+northeast winds, and were out two 'doegr' before they sighted land.
+They sailed toward this land and came to an island which lay to the
+northward off the land. There they went ashore and looked about them,
+the weather being fine, and they observed that there was dew upon the
+grass; and it so happened that they touched the dew with their hands,
+and touched their hands to their mouths; and it seemed to them that
+they had never tasted anything so sweet as this. They went aboard
+their ship again, and sailed into a certain sound, which lay between
+the island and a cape which jutted out from the land on the north, and
+they stood in westering past the cape. At ebb-tide there were broad
+stretches of shallow water there, and they ran their ship aground; and
+it was a long distance from the ship to the ocean. Yet were they so
+anxious to go ashore that they could not wait until the tide should
+rise under their ship, but hastened to the land, where a certain river
+flows out from a lake. As soon as the tide rose beneath their ship,
+however, they took the boat and rowed to the ship, which they towed up
+the river, and then into the lake, where they cast anchor and carried
+their hammocks ashore, and built themselves booths there. They
+afterward determined to establish themselves there for the winter, and
+they accordingly built a large house. There was no lack of salmon
+either in the river or in the lake, and larger salmon than they had
+ever seen before. The country thereabouts seemed to be possessed of
+such good qualities that cattle would need no fodder there during the
+winter. There was no frost there during the winter, and the grass
+withered but little. The days and the nights were of more nearly equal
+length than in Greenland or Iceland."</p>
+
+<p>Now follows an account of the exploring parties which Leif sent out,
+some of which he joined, while at other times he remained behind to
+guard the house. Here occurs, with curious abruptness, this graphic
+bit of characterization: "Leif <span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span> was a large and powerful man,
+and of most imposing bearing, a man of sagacity, and a very just man
+in all things."</p>
+
+<p>A very pretty incident is now related of the German Tyrker, who had
+been one of the thralls of Eric the Red, and of whom Leif was very
+fond. It was the custom in the households of Norse chiefs to give
+children into the special charge of a trusted thrall, who was then
+styled the child's foster-father. Sometimes the thrall was presented
+to the child as a "tooth-gift," <i>i.e.</i>, in commemoration of its
+cutting its first tooth.</p>
+
+<p>"It was discovered one evening that one of their company was missing;
+and this proved to be Tyrker, the German. Leif was sorely troubled by
+this; for Tyrker had lived with Leif and his father for a long time,
+and had been very devoted to Leif when he was a child. Leif severely
+reprimanded his companions and prepared to go in search of him. They
+had proceeded but a short distance from the house when they were met
+by Tyrker, whom they received most cordially. Leif observed at once
+that his foster-father was in lively spirits.... Leif addressed him
+and asked: 'Wherefore art thou so belated, foster-father mine, and
+astray from the others?'</p>
+
+<p>"In the beginning Tyrker spoke for some time in German, rolling his
+eyes, and grinning, and they could not understand him. But after a
+time he addressed them in the Norse tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"'I did not go much farther [than you]; yet I have something novel to
+relate. I have found grapes and vines.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Is this indeed true, foster-father?' asked Leif.</p>
+
+<p>"'Of a certainty it is true' replied he; 'for I was born where there
+is no lack of either grapes or vines.'</p>
+
+<p>"They slept the night through, and on the morrow Leif said to his
+shipmates:</p>
+
+<p>"'We will now divide our labors; and each day will either gather
+grapes, or cut vines, or fell trees, so as to obtain a cargo of these
+for my ship.'</p>
+
+<p>"They acted upon this advice, and it is said that their after-boat was
+filled with grapes. A cargo sufficient for the ship was cut, and when
+the spring came they made their ship ready and sailed away. And from
+its products Leif gave the land a name and called it Wineland.</p>
+
+<p>"They sailed out to sea and had fair winds until they sighted
+Greenland, and the fells below the glacier; then one of the men spoke
+up and said: 'Why do you steer the ship so close to the wind?' Leif
+answered: 'I have my mind upon my steering and upon other matters as
+well. Do you not see anything out of the common?' They replied that
+they saw nothing unusual. 'I do not know,' says Leif, 'whether it is a
+ship or a skerry that I see.' Now they saw it, and said that it must
+be a skerry. But he was so much more sharp-sighted than they, that he
+was able to discern men upon the skerry. 'I think it best to tack,'
+says Leif, 'so that we may draw near to them and be able to render
+them assistance, if they stand in need of it. And if they should not
+be peaceably disposed, we shall have better command of the situation
+than they.'</p>
+
+<a id="img025" name="img025"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img025.jpg" width="600" height="390" alt="" title="">
+<p>Leif Ericson off the Coast of Vineland.</p></div>
+
+<p>"They approached the skerry, and lowering their sail, cast anchor and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span> launched a second small boat, which they had brought with
+them. Tyrker inquired who was the leader of the party. He replied that
+his name was Thare, and that he was a Norwegian. 'But what is thy
+name?' Leif gave his name. 'Art thou a son of Eric the Red, of
+Brattahlid?' says he. Leif replied that he was. 'It is now my wish,'
+Leif continued, 'to take you all into my ship, and likewise as much of
+your possessions as the ship will hold.'</p>
+
+<p>"This offer was accepted, and [with their ship] thus laden, they held
+their course toward Ericsfirth, and sailed until they arrived at
+Brattahlid. Having discharged his cargo, Leif invited Thare, with his
+wife, Gudrid, and three others to make their home with him, and
+procured quarters for the other members of the crew, both for his own
+and Thare's men. Leif rescued fifteen men from the skerry. He was from
+that time forth called Leif the Lucky."</p>
+
+<p>The time of Leif's voyage to Wineland has been fixed at 1000 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> For
+we learn that it took place while Olaf Tryggveson (995-1000 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span>) was
+king in Norway; and scarcely less than four or five years could have
+elapsed since Leif's first meeting with the king in Drontheim, shortly
+after the death of his predecessor, Earl Hakon.</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of the Saga of Eric the Red is occupied with an account
+of the successive Wineland voyages of Thorwald Ericson, the brother of
+Leif, Thorfinn Karlsefne, and of Leif's sister, Freydis, who was as
+quarrelsome, proud, and pugnacious as her father. The Indians (called
+by the Norsemen Skrellings), who had failed to disturb Leif, made
+demonstrations of hostility against Thorfinn Karlsefne, and after the
+loss of several of his men, compelled him to abandon the attempt at a
+permanent settlement.</p>
+
+<p>The tradition of these Wineland voyages continued, however, to be
+transmitted from generation to generation in Iceland, and in the early
+part of the fourteenth century was committed to writing.</p>
+
+<p>It will be seen that the saga to which I have referred was not written
+primarily with a view to establish Leif's claim to be the discoverer
+of Wineland. In the first place the story, in the shape in which we
+have it, is more than a century and a half older than the Columbian
+discovery, and there could, accordingly, be no great glory in having
+found a country which had since been lost. Secondly, the saga is (like
+most Icelandic sagas) a family chronicle, purporting to relate all
+matters of interest pertaining to the race of Eric the Red. The
+Wineland voyages are treated as remarkable incidents in this
+chronicle, but they hardly occupy any more space than properly belongs
+to them in a family history which is concerned with a great many other
+things besides. The importance of this as corroborating the
+authenticity of the narrative, can scarcely be over-estimated.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig003.jpg" width="300" height="101" alt="Author signature. Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span> HAROLD, KING OF ENGLAND<br>
+
+(1022-1066)</h3>
+
+<a id="img026" name="img026"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img026.jpg" width="300" height="222" alt="Harold, King of England." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Harold II., the last of the native English kings, was the second son
+of Earl Godwin by his Danish wife Gytha, the sister of Earl Ulf, and
+was born about 1022. At an early age he was made Earl of the East
+Angles and he shared his father's outlawry in 1051, finding a refuge
+in Ireland. Next year, together with his brother Leofwin, he crossed
+the Channel with nine ships, defeated the men of Somerset and Devon at
+Porlock, and ravaged the country, next joined his father at Portland,
+and shared the triumph of his return. Harold was at once restored to
+his earldom, and next year (1053) succeeded to his father's earldom of
+the West Saxons. Henceforward he was the right hand of King Edward,
+and still more after the deaths of the old Earls Leofric and Siward,
+he directed the whole affairs of the kingdom, with an unusual union of
+gentleness and vigor. His brother Tostig succeeded Siward as Earl of
+the Northumbrians in 1055, and two years later two other brothers were
+raised to earldoms: Gurth to that of the East Anglians, Leofwin to one
+formed out of Essex, Kent, and the other shires round about London.
+Meantime Harold drove back the Welsh marauders of King Griffith out of
+Herefordshire, and added that post of danger to his earldom. The death
+in 1057 of the Ętheling Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside, who had
+been brought back from Hungary as heir to the throne, opened up the
+path for Harold's ambition, and from this time men's eyes rested on
+him as their future king. And nature had equalled fortune in her
+kindness, for his handsome and stalwart figure and his gentle and
+conciliatory temper were kingly qualities that sat well upon his
+sagacity, his military skill, and his personal courage. Harold's
+policy throughout was thoroughly English, contrary to the predominant
+French influences that had governed the early part of Edward's reign.
+He was English in everything, even to his preference for secular
+priests to monks. He made his pilgrimage to Rome in 1058, and after
+his return completed his church at Waltham, known later as Waltham
+Abbey. In 1063, provoked by the fresh incursions of Griffith, he
+marched against him, and by making his men put off their heavy armor
+and weapons, and adopt the Welshmen's own tactics, he was able to
+traverse the whole country, and beat <span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span> the enemy at every
+point. Griffith was killed by his own people, whereupon Harold gave
+the government to the dead king's brothers, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, who
+swore oaths of fealty both to King Edward and to himself.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to say exactly at what date occurred that famous
+visit of Harold to the court of Duke William, in Normandy, of the
+results of which the Norman writers make so much, although with many
+contradictions, while the English writers, with the most marked and
+careful unanimity, say nothing at all. It seems most likely that
+Harold did make some kind of oath to William, most probably under
+compulsion, when he had fallen into his hands after being shipwrecked
+on the coast of Ponthieu, and imprisoned by its Count Guy. Mr. Freeman
+thinks the most probable date to be 1064. It is at least certain that
+Harold helped William in a war with the Bretons, and in the Bayeux
+tapestry we see his stalwart form lifting up two Normans at once when
+they were in danger of being swept away by the river Coesnon, which
+divides Normandy from Brittany. The Norman writers make Harold
+formally swear fealty to William, promising to marry one of his
+daughters, and we are told that additional sanctity was given to this
+oath by its being made upon a chest full of the most sacred relics.</p>
+
+<p>In 1065, the Northumbrians rebelled against the rule of Tostig, and
+Harold found himself compelled, between policy and a sense of justice,
+to side with them, and to acquiesce in their choice of Morcar and the
+banishment of Tostig. At the beginning of 1066 King Edward died, his
+last breath being to recommend that Harold should be chosen king. He
+was crowned on January 6th, and at once set himself with steadfast
+energy to consolidate his kingdom. At York he won over the reluctant
+men of Northumbria, and he next married Ealdgyth, Griffith's widow, in
+order to secure the alliance of her brothers, Morcar and Edwin. His
+short reign of forty weeks and one day was occupied with incessant
+vigilance against the attacks of two formidable enemies at once. Duke
+William lost no time in beginning his preparations for the invasion of
+England, and Tostig, after trying the Normans and the Scots, and
+filibustering along the coasts on his own account, succeeded in
+drawing to his side the famous Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. In the
+month of September the two reached the Humber, and Harold marched to
+meet them, resting neither day nor night. The Icelandic historian,
+Snorro, in his dramatic narrative of the fight, tells how Harold rode
+out accompanied with twenty of his housecarls to have speech with Earl
+Tostig, and offer him peace; and when asked what amends King Hardrada
+should have for his trouble in coming, replied, "Seven feet of the
+ground of England, or more perchance, seeing he is taller than other
+men." At Stamford Bridge Harold overtook his enemy, and after a bloody
+struggle won a complete victory (September 25, 1066), both Tostig and
+Harold Hardrada being among the slain. But four days later Duke
+William landed at Pevensey. Harold marched southward with the utmost
+haste, bringing with him the men of Wessex and East Anglia, and the
+earldoms of his brothers; but the two earls, Edwin and Morcar, held
+aloof and kept back the men of the north, although some of the men of
+Mercia, in the earldom of Edwin, followed their king to the fatal
+struggle which was fought out <span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span> from nine in the morning till
+past nightfall, on October 14, 1066. The English fought with the most
+stubborn courage, and the battle was only lost by their allowing the
+pretended flight of the Normans to draw them from their impregnable
+position on the crest of the hill, ringed with an unbroken shield
+wall. On its slope, right in front of the Norman army, waved the
+golden dragon of Wessex, as well as the king's own standard, a
+fighting man wrought upon it in gold. Here Harold stood with his
+mighty two-handed axe, and hewed down the Normans as they came. Before
+nightfall he fell, pierced through the eye with an arrow. His
+housecarls fought where they stood till they fell one by one; his
+brothers, Gurth and Leofwin, died beside him. The king's body was
+found upon the field, recognized only by a former mistress, the fair
+Eadgyth Swanneshals ("Edith of the swan's neck").</p>
+
+<p>At first, William ordered it to be buried on the rocks at Hastings,
+but seems after to have permitted it to be removed to Harold's own
+church at Waltham. Than Harold, no braver or more heroic figure ever
+filled a throne; no king ever fought more heroically for his crown. If
+he failed, it was because he had to bow his head to fate, and in his
+death he saved all the honor of his family and his race. His tragic
+story has given a subject for a romance to Lytton, and for a stately
+drama to Tennyson.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="img027" name="img027"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img027.jpg" width="400" height="585" alt="" title="">
+<p>Edith searching for the Body of Harold.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<h3>THE CID<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Henry G. Hewlett</span><br>
+
+(1026-1099)</h3>
+
+<a id="img028" name="img028"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img028.jpg" width="250" height="282" alt="The Cid." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>The narratives concerning the life and exploits of the Cid are, to a
+great extent, merely poetic. Yet it has been wisely said, that much
+which must be rejected as not fact may still be accepted as truth;
+that is, there is often to be found under the husks of legend and
+myth, a sound kernel of historical reality. This may be the case with
+respect to the Cid, who probably was a warrior so remarkable for
+genius or bravery above his fellows that he gathered up in a single
+fame the reputation of many others, with whose deeds he was credited,
+and whom, as a class, he accordingly represents in history.</p>
+
+<p>Spain, long one of the most flourishing provinces of the Roman Empire,
+was among the first to fall under the sway of the Visigoths, a warlike
+but enlightened race, which soon embraced Christianity. For three
+centuries the country <span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span> remained under Gothic rule, but
+fell, in 712, by the invasion of the Arabian conquerors of Africa&mdash;a
+remnant of Christians only preserving an independent monarchy in the
+mountains of Asturia. This little seed of freedom grew and bore fruit.
+France proved a formidable barrier against further invasion; and in
+Spain itself internal jealousies among the Arab families weakened the
+Moslem and strengthened the Christian power. In the eleventh century
+there were several states in Spain wholly unfettered by a foreign
+yoke. The enmity between the two races and creeds was bitter, and war
+raged perpetually. Yet it often happened that, at the prompting of
+private revenge or family quarrels, alliances were made between
+kingdoms thus naturally opposed to each other. A recollection of this
+fact is essential to a clear understanding of Spanish history at this
+period.</p>
+
+<p>At the commencement of the eleventh century the chief Christian states
+of Spain became, through divers marriages, united under one king,
+Sancho, who died in 1034 dividing his territories among his three
+sons: of whom Garcia took Navarre, Ferdinand, Castile, and Ramirez,
+Aragon. Leon, the remaining Christian monarchy, was ruled by Bermudez
+III., whose sister Ferdinand of Castile had married. Just as this
+apparent junction of interest occurred among the warriors of the
+Cross, the greatest confusion prevailed among those of the Crescent.
+The mighty house of the Ommiades&mdash;perhaps the most illustrious of the
+factions into which the successors of the Prophet were divided&mdash;no
+longer commanded the allegiance of the Arabs of Spain. Its last prince
+fled, and the chief cities fell into the hands of independent lords,
+who constituted themselves petty Emirs in their own dominions.
+Instead, however, of taking full advantage of this state of anarchy to
+extend their united power, the Christian kings weakened each other by
+unnatural and deadly quarrels. Ferdinand, King of Castile, seems to
+have been the principal aggressor. His great captain in his wars, both
+with Moslem and Christian states, was Rodrigo Laynez, who was called
+also by the Spaniards Ruy Diaz de Rivar, from the name of his
+birthplace, and by the Arabs <i>El Sayd</i> (Lord), which has been altered
+into Cid. He was probably born about the year 1026, or rather later,
+at the Castle of Rivar, near Burgos, in Old Castile, of a noble but
+not wealthy family. He joined the army of Ferdinand, and rose by his
+talents, strength, and courage to the highest place in that king's
+service. Among the romantic stories told of his early career is one
+concerning his marriage, which forms the subject of a popular ballad.
+The father of Rodrigo, having been injured by a Count Gomez, the young
+knight defied the latter to a duel and slew him. The count's daughter,
+Ximena, in a storm of grief and rage, flew to the king, and cried for
+vengeance on Rodrigo, who met her face to face, and awaited the result
+of her entreaties.</p>
+
+<p>No one, however, was hardy enough to offer himself as the damsel's
+champion against so doughty a warrior, and Rodrigo calmly retired. His
+manly bearing and fame won him a place in the very heart which he had
+so deeply offended; and, with truly Spanish impetuosity, Ximena gave
+him, not only pardon, but love. She again repaired to the king and
+asked leave to bestow her hand upon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span> the knight, urging the
+curious plea that she foresaw he would one day be the most powerful
+subject in the realm. Informed of this request, of which the king
+approved, Rodrigo consented to the marriage, as an act of obedience to
+his sovereign and of justice to the lady. The meeting of this
+strangely matched pair is thus described in the ballad (Lockhart's
+translation):</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  "But when the fair Ximena came forth to plight her hand,<br>
+  Rodrigo, gazing on her, his face could not command:<br>
+  He stood, and blushed before her: thus at the last said he,<br>
+  'I slew thy sire, Ximena, but not in villany:<br>
+  In no disguise I slew him; man against man I stood;<br>
+  There was some wrong between us, and I did shed his blood:<br>
+  I slew a man; I owe a man; fair lady, by God's grace,<br>
+  An honored husband shalt thou have in thy dead father's place.'"</p>
+
+<p>It is unfortunate that this charming story is supposed to have but
+little foundation in fact. Many of Rodrigo's legendary exploits are
+still less authentic; but history and fable unite in declaring him a
+warrior of no common stamp. His master, King Ferdinand, as we have
+said, invaded the territories of his brothers and friends, besides
+those of his enemies. Garcia, Ramirez, and Bermudez successively fell
+before his attacks, which Rodrigo, in the true spirit of knightly
+obedience to his lord, did not hesitate to lead. Sancho, the king's
+eldest son, was Rodrigo's most intimate friend; and on the accession
+of the prince to his father's throne on the death of Ferdinand, in
+1065, Rodrigo became Campeador (or, as the Arabs call him, <i>El
+Cambitur</i>); that is, head of the army. The new king followed in his
+father's courses of injustice, and drove his brother, Alfonso, King of
+Leon, into exile.</p>
+
+<a id="img029" name="img029"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img029.jpg" width="400" height="582" alt="" title="">
+<p>The Cid ordering the Execution of Ahmed.</p></div>
+
+<p>In 1072 Sancho besieged Zamora, which one of his sisters, whom he had
+likewise despoiled, held out against him. The king was killed during
+the siege, and, as it was suspected, by the agency of his exiled
+brother, Alfonso, who succeeded to the throne. Rodrigo felt his
+friend's death deeply, and did not scruple to avow his suspicions of
+Alfonso. Before promising allegiance, the Campeador insisted that the
+king should cleanse himself by an oath of the accusation which popular
+rumor had brought against him. To this Alfonso, whether innocent or
+guilty, not unnaturally demurred; but the powerful warrior was firm,
+and the king at last yielded. When the appointed day arrived, Alfonso
+made his appearance, surrounded by his courtiers, all obsequiously
+vying in praise of his glory and virtue, and contemptuous
+denunciations of his daring accuser. Rodrigo stood alone and gazed on
+the king sternly. Some of the nobles endeavored to dissuade him from
+holding this attitude of opposition, and to induce him to forego the
+demand which he had made; but he put them aside and repeated his
+challenge. Alfonso dared not refuse to accept, and accordingly recited
+aloud the form of oath prescribed on such occasions, affirming, in the
+presence of his maker and the saints of heaven, that he was guiltless
+of the death of his brother. He had no sooner concluded than all eyes
+were turned upon the Cid, who, in deep, solemn tones, and with the
+most impressive earnestness of manner, imprecated <span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span> on the
+head of his king every curse that heaven or hell could inflict, if, in
+taking that oath, he had committed perjury. The awed assembly then
+broke up. Rodrigo, from that hour, was hated by the king and shunned
+by the court.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, aware of the Cid's value, Alfonso seems to have concealed his
+resentment for some time, and even endeavored to win the affection of
+his great subject by allying him in marriage with one of the royal
+family. Rodrigo's wife was now dead, and he consented to marry the
+princess proposed to him, whose name was also Ximena. The marriage
+took place in 1074. It had not the effect, however, of uniting the
+king and the Cid. After having achieved a brilliant success over the
+Arabs of Granada, who were at war with two other Moslem states in
+alliance with Castile, and having signalized his humanity by releasing
+all his prisoners, the great Campeador was disgraced and banished by
+his ungrateful master. At the court of the Emir of Saragossa the exile
+found a ready welcome, and was appointed to a high post in the
+government of the kingdom. He did not bear arms against his own
+sovereign, but headed the Arabs in several battles with the Christians
+of Aragon and other states. The invasion of a Moorish host in Spain,
+under the eminent Caliph Jusef Ben Taxfin, chief of the Almoravides
+and conqueror of Morocco; the rapid subjugation of the independent
+Emirs, and the defeat of Alfonso's army at the battle of Zalaka, in
+1087, recalled the Castilians to a sense of Rodrigo's worth. He was
+invited to return by Alfonso, and with great generosity consented,
+bringing with him a large body of men raised by his own exertion and
+cost. For two years he made his name terrible to the Moors, as the
+great Christian champion.</p>
+
+<p>But even this fame was not sufficient to secure his influence at
+court, and about the year 1090 he was once more banished, and his
+estates were seized. He appears from this time to have commenced a
+life of adventurous and independent warfare with the Moors. He
+besieged Alcocer, a strong Moorish fortress on the borders of Aragon,
+and finally took it. With a band of determined warriors of his own
+stamp he ravaged, consumed, and spoiled all the Moslem territories
+which he invaded, making a castle on a rock in Ternel his chief
+stronghold, and thence sallying out in forays. The place has been ever
+since called the Rock of the Cid.</p>
+
+<p>The last and greatest achievement of this hero was the taking of
+Valencia. This city was in the hands of a Moslem prince, Alcadir by
+name, who had refused to acknowledge the authority of Jusef and the
+Almoravides over Spain, which they were attempting to subdue. The Cid,
+either as an ally of Alcadir, or from motives of policy, assisted him
+in the defence of the city; but it was taken through the treachery of
+its Cadi, Ahmed. For this service, the traitor was made governor in
+the room of Alcadir, who fell fighting bravely. A kinsman of the
+betrayed king determined to avenge his death, and asked the Cid's aid,
+which was promptly given. The Arabian historians relate that Ahmed
+yielded after a brief siege, on conditions of safety for himself and
+family. It is further related that this promise was faithlessly
+broken, and the guilty Ahmed sentenced by Rodrigo to be burned alive
+for his crimes. The Christian historians happily acquit <span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> the
+Cid's memory of this barbarity; but all unite in recording the
+successful siege of the city, which he took in 1094. While he lived,
+the Moors vainly tried to retake it; but on his death, which is
+supposed to have occurred in 1099, Valencia again fell. Romance has
+colored with glowing tints this scanty historic outline of the Cid's
+life. Spanish literature, for two or three hundred years after his
+death, is almost confined to epic or ballad poetry, of which he is the
+hero. To acquire such a fame demanded a force of character, which, if
+not accurately painted by these loving and fanciful narrators, cannot
+have fallen far short of the glory with which the world will forever
+associate the name of the Cid Campeador.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+<h3>ST. BERNARD<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Henry G. Hewlett</span><br>
+
+(1091-1153)</h3>
+
+<div class="wrap_area">
+<img src="images/img030.jpg" width="350" height="424" alt="" title="">
+
+<div class="shape_wrap">
+<div style="width:350px; height:270px;"> </div>
+<div style="width:160px; height:150px;"> </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1091, when the career of the Cid was drawing to a close in Spain, a
+yet greater Christian champion was born in France; greater, if only in
+this, that the weapons of his warfare were not carnal. That the work
+was good in itself, we think will be clear from a perusal of the life
+of the warrior-monk, St. Bernard.</p>
+
+<p>His birthplace was Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy; his father,
+Tecelin, a knight of honorable reputation, and so absorbed in his
+profession that he was compelled to leave the care of his seven sons,
+of whom Bernard was the third, to his wife Aleth. She was a pious and
+gentle woman, strictly attached to the duties of religion, and anxious
+for the spiritual rather than the temporal welfare of her children,
+whom she therefore devoted to the cloister. A dream, it is said, had
+indicated to her the future fame of her third son, before his birth.
+He rapidly displayed signs of possessing no ordinary character. His
+education was undertaken by the then celebrated school of Chantillon
+and the University of Paris, where he remained some years, actively
+pursuing his studies. His mother died soon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span> after his return
+home, and he then proceeded to fulfil her wish, which accorded with
+his own, of becoming a monk. His father and friends endeavored to
+dissuade him from this step, but instead, he persuaded five of his
+brothers and twenty-five other friends to join him in the career which
+he had chosen. His father and remaining brothers subsequently followed
+him, and the whole family took monastic vows. Bernard did not select
+for his abode one of those monasteries whose wealth and splendor had
+corrupted the intention of their founders, and softened the severity
+of the original discipline. His motive was truly religious, and took
+the superstitious form then almost inseparable from earnest piety. He
+and his comrades entered the poor convent of Citeaux, near Dijon,
+where the rules of life enjoined by St. Benedict in the sixth century
+were observed with great rigor. Frequent watchings, fasts, bleedings,
+and scourgings, for the purpose of mortifying the body; abstinence
+from conversation or laughter; habits of perpetual devotion, laborious
+exertion, and humble obedience to the abbot, were the main features of
+the system. Bernard undertook the duties of his office with such
+incessant zeal, and displayed such amazing control over his appetites,
+that he seriously weakened his health, but at the same time enlarged
+his reputation to such an extent that the convent became overcrowded
+with the number of those whom he had attracted thither. He was
+therefore appointed, after three years' residence at Citeaux, to head
+a colony of monks which was to be fixed in the valley of Clairvaux&mdash;a
+desolate though beautiful spot in the bishopric of Langres. The tears
+of their brethren accompanied the departure of Bernard and the twelve
+others who composed the band. It was in the year 1115, and at the age
+of twenty-six, that he was made Abbot of Clairvaux. His appearance at
+the consecration is described as that of a corpse rather than a man,
+so emaciated with the rigors of devotion had he become. He had
+frequent visions, perhaps from his weakness, in one of which he
+imagined that the Virgin Mary herself appeared to him. The privations
+of the members of his little colony were most severe. The season for
+sowing had been spent in building the convent, and when the winter
+came they were reduced to little better than starvation. Coarse bread
+and beech-leaves steeped in salt were their only food. This scanty
+sustenance, together with the strict adherence to the Benedictine
+rule, in which Bernard still persisted, so shattered his health, that
+the bishop of the diocese, who was his personal friend, at last
+interfered, and released him from the active duties of abbot. But as
+soon as a brief respite had restored his strength, Bernard renewed his
+self-mortifying practices. A fresh attack of illness followed, and he
+was obliged permanently to relax his habits. In after-years he
+lamented the error into which his early enthusiasm and mistaken zeal
+had led him, the effects of which greatly marred his future influence
+for good.</p></div>
+
+<p>Though debarred from laboring in his own sphere, Bernard's energetic
+mind would not let him rest, and he began from this time to exercise
+the power which his reputation for sanctity had brought him, in
+political life. He well knew the nature of the position which he was
+thus enabled to take, and did not shrink from its perils. "Bernard!
+wherefore art thou here on earth?" is said to have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span> been his
+constant self-appeal. Poor and unarmed, a priest or monk in those days
+had nothing wherewith to oppose the tyranny of the powerful nobility,
+save the weapons of religion and intellect. How righteously they could
+be used we shall see in the case of Bernard. In repeated instances he
+interposed the weight of his authority between the anger of a king or
+noble and the weakness of a subject or tenant, and scarcely ever
+failed in his object. One of the most remarkable examples of this kind
+was his conduct toward the Count of Aquitaine. This nobleman, a man of
+immense strength of will no less than body, and violent and despotic
+beyond his fellows, having espoused the cause of one rival Pope
+against another, dismissed from their sees several excellent bishops
+in his territory who were adverse to his views, and supplied their
+places without regard to fitness of character. Bernard, having twice
+remonstrated in vain, after the last interview held a solemn mass in
+the church near the count's castle, at which that nobleman, as
+excommunicated, could not be present, but stood outside. The
+consecration of the wafer was duly performed, and the blessing
+bestowed upon the people, when Bernard suddenly made his way through
+the crowd, bearing in his hand the Host on its paten (or plate), and
+confronted the astonished count as he stood at the church door amid
+his soldiery. With pale, stern face, and flashing eyes, the daring
+monk thus addressed the haughty chief: "Twice have the Lord's servants
+entreated you, and you have despised them. Lo! now the blessed Son of
+the Virgin&mdash;the Head and Lord of that Church which you
+persecute&mdash;appears to you! Behold your Judge, to whom your soul must
+be rendered! Will you reject Him like His servants?" A hush of awe and
+expectation among the bystanders followed these words, broken by a
+groan from the conscience-stricken count, whose imagination was filled
+with such lively terror of Divine wrath that he fell fainting to the
+ground. Though raised up by his men, he again fell speechless.
+Bernard, seizing the opportunity, called to his side one of the
+deposed bishops, and on the count's recovery ordered that the kiss of
+reconciliation should be bestowed, and the exile restored. The effect
+of this scene was not transient, for the proud spirit had been subdued
+in the count's heart, and he performed penance for his offences by
+going on pilgrimage.</p>
+
+<a id="img031" name="img031"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img031.jpg" width="600" height="306" alt="" title="">
+<p>The Vision of St. Bernard.</p></div>
+
+<p>Various other instances of Bernard's boldness in rebuking kings,
+nobles, and even Popes, might be adduced. His most remarkable
+appearance as a political peace-maker was in the dispute which took
+place after the death of Pope Honorius II., as to the succession to
+the popedom. Two rival factions at Rome contended for the claims of
+separate candidates: one a wealthy and worldly, the other a learned
+and pious, cardinal. Bernard, as we may suppose, supported the cause
+of the latter, who took the name of Innocent II. At the council of
+Etampes, where Louis VI. of France and his nobles were assembled, the
+monk's eloquence prevailed over all the arguments of diplomacy, and
+the influence of France was pledged to the side of Innocent. Bernard
+next engaged aid from Henry I., of England, and Lothaire, the Emperor
+of Germany. He then proceeded to Milan, where the party of the rival
+Pope, Anaclete, and his supporter, Conrad, Duke of Suabia, Lothaire's
+antagonist, was strongest. Bernard's fame <span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span> was so great,
+and the imaginations of those who beheld him so fascinated by his
+force of will, that on his way the sick were carried forth to meet
+him, and numerous miracles were said to be wrought by the touch of his
+garments. In Milan, through his eloquence, Anaclete's party was
+completely vanquished, and the Milanese so impressed that they offered
+to displace their archbishop in Bernard's favor. But on this and other
+occasions he steadily refused any such rank, content to live and die
+in a sphere where he could be more useful, if less exalted. He
+returned to France, after a lengthened absence, in 1135, meeting on
+his way with a royal reception.</p>
+
+<p>He was once more absorbed in the duties of his office, as Abbot of
+Clairvaux, when again summoned to Italy by Innocent II., to oppose the
+power of Roger, the Norman King of Sicily, whose aid Anaclete had
+obtained. Bernard first passed into Germany, and successfully mediated
+between the emperor and the Suabian princes, inducing the latter to
+relinquish their rebellion. Lothaire was then prevailed upon to aid
+Innocent by force of arms, while Bernard proceeded to employ force of
+intellect in the same service. He first won over by his arguments many
+of Anaclete's chief supporters, and then accepted a challenge which
+King Roger threw out, to dispute publicly in the Court of Salerno as
+to the claims of the rival Popes, with Anaclete's champion, Cardinal
+Pietro di Pisa. At this public contest Bernard not only confuted, but
+converted, the cardinal, and reconciled him to Innocent. With Roger,
+Bernard was not so successful, and a battle ensued between the armies
+of the contending Popes. Innocent was captured, but contrived to make
+favorable terms with Roger; and a peace was agreed to, which was
+finally ratified by the death of Anaclete, in 1138. Another anti-pope
+having been set up, Bernard used his personal influence with the
+pretender, and induced him to yield. Thus the schism in the Church was
+healed, and the good abbot returned to Clairvaux.</p>
+
+<p>In 1146 he was mainly instrumental in promoting the second crusade.
+News reached Europe that, two years before, the Christian state of
+Edessa (which, as we have already seen, was founded by Baldwin,
+brother of Godfrey de Bouillon) had, through the weakness of its
+government, fallen into the hands of the Sultan of Bagdad, and
+Jerusalem was again in peril. Inflamed with enthusiasm, Bernard
+stirred up the hearts of his countrymen to zeal in the cause of the
+Cross. Louis VII., of France, was readily persuaded to undertake the
+crusade as a penance for his crimes; but the Emperor Conrad, of
+Germany, was indisposed to exertion; and to him, therefore, Bernard
+hastened, rousing the people of France and Germany as he travelled
+through. The frozen reluctance of the monarch could not withstand the
+fiery earnestness of the monk. Conrad is said to have dissolved into
+tears at the discourse, and eagerly accepted the cross which was
+offered. While in Germany Bernard showed his liberality of
+thought&mdash;rare in those days&mdash;by sternly rebuking the ignorance of a
+monk who was denouncing the Jews as the cause of the recent
+calamities. At the council of Vezelay (in Burgundy), held in 1146,
+Bernard's eloquence was as exciting in its influence on his hearers as
+that of Pope Urban had been on a previous occasion. As the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span>
+speaker, at the end of his oration, held up the cross which was to be
+the badge of the enterprise, Louis VII. threw himself at the feet of
+his subject, and the whole assembly thronged round him, shouting the
+old war-cry, "It is God's will!" Bernard distributed to thousands of
+eager hands all the crosses which he had brought with him; and finding
+these insufficient for the demand, took off the Benedictine robe which
+he wore, and tore it into cross-shaped pieces. So impressed were the
+chiefs of the crusading army with his power over the people, that at a
+subsequent assembly they even offered the command of the expedition to
+him&mdash;an unwarlike monk.</p>
+
+<p>He declined the post on the ground of unfitness, but had he accepted
+it, the issue of the crusades might have been different from what it
+was. His authority would at least have kept in check the discords,
+perfidies, and excesses to which he, probably with justice, afterward
+attributed the failure of the enterprise. From these causes, together
+with a fatal incapacity on the part of the French and German generals,
+the second crusade resulted in nothing but the wholesale massacre of
+the Christian armies by the Turks. Bernard, who had predicted the
+success of the expedition, was deeply distressed at the unfortunate
+result; the more as, with great injustice, the weight of popular
+indignation fell upon him and seriously damaged his influence. This
+disappointment, however, did not discourage him, and only served to
+concentrate his attention for the rest of his life on the more
+immediate duties of his calling.</p>
+
+<p>These he had never neglected, even while immersed in religious
+politics. By advice and example he greatly reformed the discipline of
+monastic life. He continually preached in his own convent; and, either
+personally or through agents, is said to have founded upward of sixty
+monasteries in alliance with Clairvaux. Among them the Hospice of
+Mount St. Bernard, in Switzerland, has distinguished itself by loving
+deeds worthy of its founder. Bernard was an eminent theologian, both
+in theory and practice, and many of his works are extant. They
+disclose very forcibly his strong intellect and warm heart. Many of
+his opinions were most liberal for his age, and he rejected several
+tenets, on which the Roman Catholic Church has since insisted, with a
+decision which would have ranked him among heretics had he lived a few
+centuries later. He manifested, nevertheless, a want of freedom in his
+conduct toward the great Abelard, who in that age represented the true
+Protestant spirit of inquiry into the received doctrines of the
+Church. Against this daring thinker Bernard unjustifiably employed the
+weight of authority which he possessed, to silence what he deemed a
+dangerous boldness of opinion. Toward Abelard personally, however, he
+displayed nothing but generous and respectful courtesy, even in the
+heat of controversy; and it is satisfactory to know that a cordial
+interchange of kindly feeling passed between these two eminent men
+long before their deaths.</p>
+
+<p>Many of Bernard's wise and good deeds are recorded, which cannot be
+noticed here. We may refer to but one, which greatly influenced the
+world for centuries after his death; namely, the sanction and aid
+which he gave to the establishment of the Knight-Templars, a body of
+soldier-priests, who devoted their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span> lives to the preservation
+of the Holy Places and the protection of pilgrims. Had they faithfully
+adhered to the statutes which he drew up for their conduct, the
+exhibition of zeal which they were designed to make might have been as
+blessed to Christendom as their arrogance was cursed.</p>
+
+<p>A few years before his death, Bernard had the gratification of seeing
+one of his own disciples raised to the papal chair, as Pope Eugenius
+III. The new pontiff recognized his master's authority no less than
+before his accession, and Bernard's counsel and influence were
+repeatedly used in his behalf. But the over-activity of the good abbot
+too soon decayed the slender strength which his firm will had wrested,
+as it were, from death in a hand-to-hand struggle that lasted for more
+than forty years. Always sickly, frequently reduced to the brink of
+the grave, yet perpetually at work, his constitution gave way in 1155,
+at the age of sixty-three. His last act was worthy of his life. He was
+on a dying-bed when a discord broke out between the nobles and the
+burghers of the town of Mentz. Bernard rose, and once more entered the
+arena of strife with the olive-branch of peace in his hand. The proud
+barons and the angry citizens listened humbly to his gentle words, and
+shrank from the mild glances of those eyes which his biographers
+scarcely ever mention without calling <i>dove-like</i>. The turbulence of
+passion was hushed, and Bernard returned to die. The filial tears of
+his disciples at Clairvaux, and the regrets of all the nation,
+followed him to the grave. About twenty years after his death a decree
+of canonization awarded him the title of Saint, which, considering how
+it has been disgraced by unholy bearers, will not seem so fitly to
+recognize his merit as that name which the reverence of the Church has
+further bestowed on him&mdash;the <i>last</i> of the Fathers.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>FREDERICK BARBAROSSA<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Lady Lamb</span><br>
+
+(1121-1190)</h3>
+
+
+<p>It seems almost incredible that no history should exist of the
+childhood and early life of an emperor of such note as "Barbarossa;"
+yet, in spite of most diligent search, we have been compelled almost
+to renounce one of the most pleasing tasks of a biographer, which
+consists in making acquaintance with a hero in his infancy, and
+through childhood and youth following his career to fame and glory. So
+far as we have been able to discover, no trace, except a few dry data,
+exists of "Frederick of the Red Beard," until we find him setting out
+with his uncle, Conrad III., in the spring of 1147, to join the second
+crusade against the Saracens. The date of his birth is given as 1121,
+his father being Duke Frederick of Hohenstauffen (surnamed "le
+Borgne") and his mother Judith, daughter of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span> Henry the Black,
+Duke of Bavaria; opinions are divided on the subject of his
+birthplace, some writers mentioning the castle of Veitsberg, near
+Ravensburg, others the town of Weiblingen, in Nuremburg; but since the
+main interest of his history does not begin until his succession to
+the paternal duchy of Swabia, and his departure for the Holy Land in
+1147; his marriage with Adelaide, daughter of Theobald, Margrave of
+Vohburg, in 1149; and finally his accession to the imperial throne in
+1152, we must resign ourselves to silence on the subject of his
+earlier years, and take up his history from the death of Conrad III.,
+and that monarch's choice of him as a successor, to the exclusion of
+his own son.</p>
+
+<a id="img032" name="img032"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img032.jpg" width="500" height="308" alt="Frederick Barbarossa." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>From every possible point of view, Frederick of Hohenstauffen
+justified his uncle's choice: endowed with the most brilliant
+qualities of heart and mind, he had already earned the suffrages of a
+great portion of his new subjects by the manner in which he had
+distinguished himself during the above-mentioned campaign in the Holy
+Land; moreover, as the son of Frederick of Hohenstauffen and Judith,
+daughter of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, Ghibelline by his father
+and Guelph on his mother's side, there seemed good ground for the hope
+that in him might terminate the differences of the two contending
+factions. The election diet was accordingly assembled at Frankfort,
+and it being there decided to confirm Conrad's choice and to invest
+Frederick with the imperial insignia, he was proclaimed King of the
+Romans and of Germany, and anointed at Aix-la-Chapelle on March 5,
+1152, the ceremony being performed by Arnoul de Gueldre, Archbishop of
+Cologne. Not lightly or eagerly did the new emperor accept these
+dignities, but after mature and careful consideration of his capacity
+to undertake the responsibility of guiding Germany through shoals and
+quicksands which had little <span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span> by little enveloped the fair
+countries won three hundred years before by the valiant Charlemagne.</p>
+
+<p>Tidings of ever-recurring disturbances determined Frederick to make an
+expedition into Italy, as soon as affairs in Germany would admit of
+his absence; but there was much to be done first&mdash;many princes to be
+dealt with, who, from different motives viewing his election with
+dissatisfaction, would take immediate advantage of his departure to
+bring all the horrors of civil war into his dominions. Bavaria, for
+example, had been wrested from Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, during
+his minority, by Conrad III., and now he conjured Frederick, with
+tears and threats, to restore it to him. This, by dint of much
+diplomacy, Frederick effected, and the result was that for some years
+he gained a stanch ally, instead of a designing enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Having decided this quarrel and several others, into which we need not
+enter, Frederick prepared for that first expedition into Italy which,
+as we have seen, he had resolved on from the commencement of his
+reign.</p>
+
+<p>At the head of a numerous army he passed into Switzerland, and
+encamped near the lake of Constance; when, under the banner of Count
+von Lenzburg, the inhabitants of the three "cents" or cantons of
+Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden came to do homage and offer their feudal
+service in the field. At the same time, and while still engaged in
+assembling the forces with which to march into Italy, deputies from
+the city of Lodi arrived, and throwing themselves at his feet,
+besought his interference against the oppressions of the Milanese, who
+had declared for Adrian IV., and whose town was indeed the very
+hot-bed of the papal faction. The emperor instantly sent letters
+commanding the Milanese to make full reparation to their unfortunate
+neighbors; but on perusal of his behests they tore the missives in a
+thousand pieces, and flung them in the faces of the messengers,
+sending back by them as their sole answer an open defiance of his
+authority. Enraged at this insolence, Frederick crossed the Alps, but,
+too prudent to risk an immediate attack on Milan, strongly fortified
+and well garrisoned as it was, he sought rather to weaken it through
+the other towns with which it was in league, and accordingly besieged
+in turn Rosate, Cairo, and Asti, which all fell into his hands, and
+ended with the total demolition of the city of Tortona, which he
+reduced to ashes, afterward even levelling the ground upon which it
+had stood. This last victory proved the accuracy of Barbarossa's
+judgment, as regarded the remainder of the fifteen towns of the
+so-called "Lombard League," most of which, intimidated by his
+energetic measures, sent ambassadors to do homage on their account. He
+now seized the iron crown of Lombardy; was crowned at Pavia and again
+at Monza, after which he entered into negotiations with Adrian IV. for
+the performance of the coronation ceremony at Rome.</p>
+
+<p>We now come to the second marriage of our hero, when Beatrix, the only
+child and heiress of Reinold of Burgundy, became his bride; and an
+echo of the old romantic halo which surrounds that incident in
+Barbarossa's life reaches us, even in this prosaic age, as we picture
+to ourselves the gallant, handsome Frederick riding off with his
+trusty knights to deliver the fair heiress of Count Reinold <span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span>
+from the gloomy prison in which her uncle, Count William, had confined
+her in order to appropriate the rich domains of "Franche-Comté." Over
+hill and dale sped the chivalrous band till the grim castle was
+reached; a halt was ordered, and an envoy sent to summon Count William
+to yield both his fortress and the fair prisoner. At first the count
+meditated resistance, but on looking out and investigating the number
+of Frederick's followers, he decided to submit, and congratulated
+himself on his determination when Frederick's messenger said, on
+behalf of his master, that if the castle were not given freely it
+would be taken by force, the fair Beatrix released, and her gloomy
+prison walls be prevented from hiding any other like iniquity by being
+razed to the ground. Prudence, we hear, is the better part of valor,
+and evidently Count William shared in the opinion, for we learn that
+he promptly let down the drawbridge, over which Frederick and his
+followers passed, and whence they presently issued, bearing in their
+midst the quondam prisoner, the lovely Beatrix, whose eyes, moist with
+tears of gratitude, looked trustingly in the handsome face of her
+deliverer. So now, away, away to the old church at Wurtzburg! deck the
+streets, ring the bells, bid priests don their vestments and burghers
+their best, and fall in merrily with the gay procession that comes to
+do honor to Barbarossa and his fair bride!</p>
+
+<p>Thus far the little romance of our emperor and Beatrix; now to return
+to the sober and solemn statement of facts. During 1157 and the next
+year, Frederick busied himself with a campaign against Poland, and
+compelled Boleslaw, the king, to acknowledge the supremacy of the head
+of the German Empire, and to take the oath of fealty, barefoot and
+with his naked sword hung round his neck; after which he bestowed the
+kingdom upon Wladislaw of Bohemia, whom he had appointed regent of the
+German states during his absence, and whom he now took this
+opportunity to reward. New disputes began to arise between Pope Adrian
+and Frederick; and when at Besanēon some indiscreet remarks of His
+Holiness as to having "conferred the imperial crown" on, and "accorded
+it by favor" to Frederick, were mentioned, that monarch waited no
+longer, but collected a fresh army, and marched into Italy to chastise
+the pontiff, who, on hearing of his approach, and scared at the
+prospect of such a calamity, hastened to explain away his words as
+best he might. The emperor accepted his excuses, but as he was so far
+on the road, determined to attack Milan, whose inhabitants had
+increased the anger he already felt for them by rebuilding Tortona
+(which, as we know, he had totally destroyed), and expelling the
+inhabitants of Lodi from their dwellings for having called him to
+mediate on the subject of their wrongs. With 100,000 men (for almost
+all of the Lombard cities had, either willingly or by force,
+contributed their militia) and 15,000 cavalry, he advanced toward
+Milan and laid siege to it. The inhabitants made a most obstinate
+resistance, and were at length only vanquished by the impossibility of
+finding food for the vast population within the walls. A capitulation
+was effected, by which the emperor contented himself with very
+moderate conditions, the most severe being that which condemned the
+city to the loss of her privileges; but when the chief nobles came to
+deliver the keys, barefooted and with every token of humility, he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span> forgot their former insolence, and only required, in return
+for his clemency, a renewal of the oath of fealty and their promise to
+rebuild the town of Lodi.</p>
+
+<p>To put an end to these ever-recurring disputes Frederick called
+together a diet at Roncaglia, to which each of the Italian towns was
+commanded to send its representative; the four most learned jurists
+from the university of Bologna being also requested to attend, for the
+purpose of drawing up a document which should conclusively define the
+relations between himself, as head of the empire, and the vassals and
+imperial cities of Italy. But when the learned quartet had heard all
+the points of dispute, and were in possession of the facts, their
+decision gave such almost limitless power to Frederick that several of
+the towns, and more especially Milan, refused to abide by it and
+prepared for further resistance.</p>
+
+<p>Frederick had not been idle all the time these schisms were raging; on
+the contrary, he had made a third expedition to Italy, from which he
+had been compelled to return, leaving the flower of his army lying
+dead, stricken down with pestilence. The next six years were spent in
+settling various disputes and complications which had arisen in
+Germany during his absence; in causing his son Henry, a child of only
+five years of age, to be crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle; and in keeping
+some sort of check on his vassal, Henry the Lion, who, now that he had
+increased his power by a marriage with Matilda, daughter of Henry II.
+of England, was no unimportant person in the empire, and moreover one
+extremely liable to become sulky and unmanageable if he had a chance,
+or the smallest grievance to complain of.</p>
+
+<p>The news now spread through Europe of the reconquest of Jerusalem by
+Saladin. These tidings effaced every other thought; the new Pope,
+Urban, forgot the thunders of the Church which he had been keeping,
+like a second sword of Damocles, suspended over Frederick's head; the
+emperor buried his resentment; a general peace was concluded, and
+Barbarossa, then in his seventieth year, gave the regency of his
+dominions to his son Henry, and joyfully taking up the
+cross&mdash;accompanied by his son Frederick, the flower of German
+chivalry, and an army of 100,000 men&mdash;marched by way of Vienna to
+Presburg, and thence through Hungary, Servia, and Roumelia.</p>
+
+<p>Isaac Angelus, the Greek emperor, who had promised to furnish the
+German troops with provisions and assist Frederick in all ways, with
+the proverbial duplicity of his nation, broke his word, harassed him
+on his march, and threw Count von Diez, his ambassador, into prison;
+which treachery greatly incensed the emperor, and caused him to give
+permission to his soldiers to plunder; the results being that the
+country soon bore sad traces of their passage, and that the two
+important towns of Manioava and Philippopolis were completely
+destroyed. This reduced Isaac, professedly, to a state of contrition;
+and when Barbarossa advanced toward Constantinople, the Greek emperor,
+anxious to conciliate him, placed his entire fleet at his disposal for
+the transport of the German army. Scarcely had they entered Asia Minor
+before Isaac's good resolutions abandoned him, and leaguing himself
+with another faithless ally of Frederick, the Sultan of Iconium, they
+beset the German troops, and did everything they possibly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span>
+could to make the march more difficult; however, though they tried
+both fair means and foul, their evil practices resulted in their own
+defeat, and the Oriental Christians soon found they had every reason
+to congratulate themselves upon the arrival of such a champion.</p>
+
+<p>The fanaticism of a Turkish prisoner, who, acting as guide, wilfully
+sacrificed his life in order to mislead Frederick's army, involved the
+Germans in almost endless troubles by taking them amidst pathless
+mountains, where the horrors of starvation and the entire lack of
+water added yet more miseries to their condition. Brave where all were
+despairing, encouraging his men with cheering words and hopeful looks,
+their gallant old leader rode on, and footsore, half-starved, thirsty,
+and wretched as they were, the men tried, though tears of agony filled
+their eyes, to raise the notes of their Swabian war-song to please
+him. Frederick, Duke of Swabia, hastened forward with half the
+remaining army, and gaining a victory over a body of Turks, pushed on
+till he came to the town of Iconium; when, scattering the enemy before
+him, he put the inhabitants to the sword, gained a great booty, and,
+more than all, food, drink, and rest for his weary men.</p>
+
+<p>A body of Turks had meanwhile crept round the town, and surrounded the
+columns which were advancing under Barbarossa; worn out with sorrow,
+hunger, and thirst, even his courage gave way for one moment, as he
+thought that this band of Turks had only, in all probability, reached
+him by passing over the dead bodies of his brave son and the gallant
+Swabians; the aged monarch bowed his head, and the scorching tears of
+rage ran down his cheeks; then dashing his hand across his eyes, he
+cried: "Christ still lives! Christ conquers!" and shouting to his
+followers, they fell on the Turks like lions; Barbarossa with his own
+hand sending many a one to his last sleep. Then they marched forward
+to Iconium, where rest and plenty awaited them, and where the old
+emperor doubtless found much cause for thankfulness when he threw
+himself into the arms of his brave son.</p>
+
+<p>At Iconium the army stayed for some time, the soldiers being in sad
+need of repose; and then starting afresh, continued as far as the
+little river Saleph; when, the road being encumbered with cattle, and
+the emperor impatient of delay, he commanded his men to cross the
+stream and plunged into the water. Here this hero of many combats,
+this brave and wise king, was destined to end his long life in an
+obscure river, of which he had probably never heard; the current was
+too strong for his horse, and, nobly as the animal battled against it,
+both rider and steed were drowned.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans, almost frantic with grief and dismay, made frenzied
+efforts to regain the body of their leader; and, when at last they
+succeeded, they conveyed it with much loving care to Antioch, where it
+was buried in St. Peter's Church.</p>
+
+<p>With the history of the crusade after the death of our hero, we have
+nothing to do further than to say that his son, Frederick, took the
+chief command and led the brave followers of his gallant father until
+a pestilence occasioned his death at Acre, in the following year, when
+the remnant of the once formidable army returned to Germany.</p>
+
+<a id="img033" name="img033"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img033.jpg" width="600" height="453" alt="" title="">
+<p>The Death of Barbarossa.</p></div>
+
+<p>How Barbarossa still lingers in the hearts of his people even now,
+when all <span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span> these hundreds of years divide his time from
+theirs, is shown by a dozen legends. Most of these profess an utter
+disbelief in the death of their loved emperor; one of them tells how,
+in a rocky cleft of the Klyfhaüser Mountains, Barbarossa still sleeps
+calmly and peacefully; he sits before a marble table into which and
+through which his red beard has grown; his head is bowed on his folded
+hands, and though he from time to time lifts it and opens his eyes, it
+is but to shut them again quickly, for the right time of his awakening
+is not come; he has seen the ravens flying round the mountain, and his
+long sleep will only end when their black forms are no longer visible,
+when he will step forth and avenge the wrongs of the oppressed.</p>
+
+<p>Another story says that he is lying in the Untersberg near Salzburg,
+and that when the dead pear-tree which, thrice cut down, plants itself
+afresh, shall bud forth and blossom, the gallant "Rothbart" will come
+out into the bright daylight, hang his shield on the pink-flowered
+bough, throw down his gauntlet as a gage to all evil-doers, and, aided
+by the good and chivalrous few who will still be inhabitants of this
+bad world, will vanquish cruelty and wickedness, and realize the dream
+of a golden age they have for so long anticipated.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>RICHARD C&OElig;UR DE LION<br>
+
+(1157-1199)</h3>
+
+<a id="img034" name="img034"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img034.jpg" width="250" height="372" alt="Richard C&oelig;ur De Lion." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Richard I., King of England, surnamed C&oelig;ur de Lion, was the third
+son of Henry II. and his queen, Eleanor, and was born at Oxford, in
+the king's manor house there, afterward the monastery of the White
+Friars, in September, 1157. By the treaty of Montmirail, concluded on
+January 6, 1169, between Henry and Louis VII. of France, it was
+stipulated that the duchy of Aquitaine should be made over to Richard,
+who should do homage and fealty for it to Louis, and should espouse
+Adelais, or Alice, that king's youngest daughter; and in 1170 King
+Henry, being taken ill at Domfront, in Maine, made a will, by which he
+confirmed this arrangement. In 1173 Richard, with his younger brother,
+Geoffrey, and their mother, joined their eldest brother, Henry, in his
+first rebellion against their father. On the submission of the rebels,
+in September, 1174, Richard received two castles in Poitou, with half
+the revenue of that earldom, and, along with Geoffrey, did <span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span>
+homage and swore fealty to their father. Nevertheless Richard
+continued from this time to hold the government of the whole of
+Aquitaine, and to be usually styled, as before, Duke of Aquitaine, or
+Duke of Poitou (which were considered as the same title), although it
+appears that King Henry now looked upon the arrangements made at the
+treaty of Montmirail as annulled, and that dukedom to have actually
+reverted to himself. In 1183 Richard refused, when commanded by his
+father, to do homage for Aquitaine to his elder brother, Henry; on
+which his brothers Henry and Geoffrey invaded the duchy, and a new war
+ensued between them and their father, who was assisted by Richard,
+which, however, was terminated by the death of the eldest of the three
+brothers in June of that same year, when Richard became his father's
+heir-apparent. But at an interview between King Henry and Philip
+Augustus, now King of France, in November, 1188, Richard, apparently
+impelled by a suspicion that his father intended to leave his crown to
+his younger brother, John, and also professing to resent his father's
+conduct in withholding from him his affianced bride, the French king's
+sister, suddenly declared himself the liegeman of Philip for all his
+father's dominions in France; whence arose a new war, in which Philip
+and Richard speedily compelled King Henry to yield to all their
+demands, and a treaty to that effect was about to be signed when King
+Henry died, on July 6, 1189. Richard was present at the burial of his
+father in the choir of the convent of Fontevrault.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his apprehensions, real or affected, of his brother
+John, Richard made no particular haste to come over to England, but,
+contenting himself with ordering his mother, Queen Eleanor, to be
+liberated from confinement, and to be invested with the regency of
+that kingdom, he first proceeded to Rouen, where he was formally
+acknowledged as Duke of Normandy on July 20th, and it was August 13th
+before he arrived at Portsmouth (or, as others say, at Southampton).
+His coronation, from which the commencement of his reign is dated,
+took place in Westminster Abbey on September 3d. It was on occasion of
+that ceremony that a furious riot broke out among the Jews in London,
+which was in the course of the next six months renewed in most of the
+great towns throughout the kingdom. At York, in March, 1190, a body of
+500 Jews, with their wives and children, having taken refuge in the
+castle, found no other way of saving themselves from their assailants
+than by first cutting the throats of the women and children and then
+stabbing one another.</p>
+
+<p>A short time before his father's death Richard, and his then friend,
+Philip Augustus, had, as it was expressed, taken the cross, that is to
+say, had publicly vowed to proceed to the Holy Land, to assist in
+recovering from the infidels the city and kingdom of Jerusalem, which
+had recently (1187) fallen into the hands of the great Saladin. The
+mighty expedition, in which all the principal nations of Western
+Christendom now joined, for the accomplishment of this object is known
+by the name of the Third Crusade. Leaving the government of his
+kingdom during his absence in the hands of William Longchamp, Bishop
+of Ely and chancellor, and Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham and
+justiciary, Richard took his departure from England on December 11th
+of this same year, 1189, and proceeding <span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span> to Normandy, united
+his forces with those of Philip Augustus in the plain of Vezelay on
+July 1, 1190. The two friends proceeded together at the head of an
+army of more than 100,000 men as far as Lyons, where they separated on
+the 31st; Philip taking the road to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles,
+where he was to meet his fleet. The fleet, however, not arriving so
+soon as was expected, Richard in his impatience hired thirty small
+vessels for the conveyance of himself and his suite, and, sailing for
+Naples, arrived there on August 28th. On September 8th he proceeded by
+sea to Salerno, where he remained till the 23d, and then sailed for
+Messina, which port his fleet had reached about a week before, with
+the army, which it had taken on board at Marseilles. The French king
+had also arrived at Messina a few days before his brother of England.</p>
+
+<p>The two kings remained together at Messina till the end of March,
+1191. During their stay Richard compelled Tancred, who had usurped the
+crown of Sicily, to relinquish the dower of his sister Joan, the widow
+of William, the late sovereign, and to pay him besides forty thousand
+ounces of gold. In return he betrothed his nephew, Arthur, the son of
+his next brother, Geoffrey, to Tancred's infant daughter, and formed a
+league offensive and defensive with the Sicilian king&mdash;a connection
+which afterward cost him dear, for it was the source of the enmity of
+the Emperor Henry VI., who had married Constantia, the aunt of
+William, and claimed the throne of Sicily in right of his wife. After
+the dispute with Tancred had been settled, the latent rivalry of
+Richard and Philip broke out in a quarrel about the Princess Adelais,
+whom her brother Philip insisted that Richard should espouse, in
+conformity with their betrothment, now that his father no longer lived
+to oppose their union. But if Richard had ever cared anything for the
+French princess, that attachment had now been obliterated by another,
+which he had some years before formed for Berengaria, the beautiful
+daughter of Sancho VI. (styled the Wise), King of Navarre; in fact he
+had by this time sent his mother Eleanor to her father's court to
+solicit that lady in marriage, and, his proposals having been
+accepted, the two were now actually on their way to join him. In these
+circumstances Philip found himself obliged to recede from his demand;
+and the matter was arranged by an agreement that Richard should pay a
+sum of ten thousand marks, in five yearly instalments, and restore
+Adelais, who had previously been conducted into England, and the
+places of strength that had been given along with her as her marriage
+portion, when he should have returned from Palestine.</p>
+
+<p>Richard, having sent his mother home to England, sailed from Messina
+on April 7th, at the head of a fleet of about two hundred ships, of
+which fifty-three were large vessels of the sort styled galleys; his
+sister, the queen dowager of Sicily, and the Princess Berengaria
+accompanying him. The King of France had set sail about a week before.
+Several months, however, elapsed before Richard reached the Holy Land,
+having been detained by an attack which he made upon the island of
+Cyprus; Isaac, the king, or emperor, of which had ill used the crews
+of some of the English ships that had been driven upon his coasts in a
+storm. Richard took Limasol, the capital, by assault; and that blow
+was soon followed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span> by the complete submission of Isaac and
+the surrender of the whole island. Isaac was put into confinement, and
+remained a captive till his death in 1195. Meanwhile the island of
+Cyprus was made over by Richard, in 1192, to Guy of Lusignan, upon his
+resignation of the now merely titular royalty of Jerusalem to his
+rival Henry of Champagne and Guy's posterity reigned in that island
+till the year 1458.</p>
+
+<p>Having married Berengaria at Limasol, Richard set sail from Cyprus, on
+June 4th (1191), with a fleet now described as consisting of thirteen
+large ships called busses, fifty galleys, and a hundred transports;
+and on the 10th he reached the camp of the crusaders assembled before
+the fortress of Acre, the siege of which had already occupied them not
+much less than two years, and had cost the lives, it is said of nearly
+two hundred thousand of the assailants. But the presence of the
+English king, although he was suffering from severe illness, and had
+to be carried to the trenches on a litter, immediately inspired so
+much new vigor into the operations of the Christian army that, on July
+12th, the place surrendered, and Saladin, who had been harassing the
+besiegers from the neighboring mountains, withdrew, in conformity with
+the terms of capitulation. This great event, however, was immediately
+followed by an open rupture between Richard and King Philip, whose
+rivalry had already exhibited itself in a variety of ways, and more
+particularly in the support given by Richard to the claim of Guy of
+Lusignan, and by Philip to that of Conrad of Montferrat to the vacant
+crown of Jerusalem. Philip, in fact, took his departure from Palestine
+on the last day of July, leaving only ten thousand men, under the
+command of the Duke of Burgundy.</p>
+
+<a id="img035" name="img035"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img035.jpg" width="400" height="492" alt="" title="">
+<p>Richard at the Battle of Arsur.</p></div>
+
+<p>Richard performed prodigies of valor in the Holy Land, but, although a
+signal defeat of Saladin on September 7th at Arsur was followed by the
+capture of Jaffa and some other places of less importance, Jerusalem,
+which was the main object of the crusade, so far from being taken was
+not even attacked. Jaffa, however, after it had again fallen into the
+hands of Saladin, was recovered by the impetuous valor of the English
+king. At last, on October 9, 1192, Richard set sail from Acre in a
+single vessel, his fleet, having on board his wife, his sister, and
+the daughter of the captive King of Cyprus, having put to sea a few
+days before. The three ladies got safe to Sicily; but the first land
+the king made was the island of Corfu, which he took about a month to
+reach. He left Corfu about the middle of November with three
+coasting-vessels which he hired there; but after being a few days at
+sea he was compelled by a storm to land on the coast of Istria, at a
+spot between the towns of Aquileia and Venice. After narrowly escaping
+first from falling at Goritz into the hands of Maynard, a nephew of
+Conrad of Montferrat (to whose murder in Palestine Richard, upon very
+insufficient evidence, was suspected to be an accessory), and then at
+Friesach from Maynard's brother, Frederick of Batesow, he was taken on
+December 21st, at Erperg, near Vienna, by Leopold, Duke of Austria (a
+brother-in-law of Isaac of Cyprus), and was by him consigned to close
+confinement in the castle of Tyernsteign, under the care of his
+vassal, Baron Haldmar. In the course of a few <span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span> days,
+however, by an arrangement between Leopold and the Emperor Henry VI.,
+the captive king was transferred to the custody of the latter, who
+shut him up in a castle in the Tyrol, where he was bound with chains,
+and guarded by a band of men who surrounded him day and night with
+drawn swords. In this state he remained about three months. Meanwhile,
+intelligence of his having fallen into the hands of the emperor had
+reached England, and excited the strongest sensation among all ranks
+of the people. It is sufficient to mention that during his absence a
+struggle for supremacy had for some time been carried on with varying
+success between the king's brother, John, and Longchamp, the
+chancellor, who had acquired the entire regency, and had also been
+appointed papal legate for England and Scotland; and that this had
+resulted, in October, 1191, in the deposition of Longchamp, by a
+council of the nobility held in St Paul's Churchyard, London; after
+which he left the country, and although he soon ventured to return,
+ultimately deemed it most prudent to retire to Normandy. The supreme
+authority was thus left for a time in the hands of John, who, as soon
+as he learned the news of his brother's captivity, openly repaired to
+Paris, and did homage to the French king for the English dominions on
+the Continent.</p>
+
+<a id="img036" name="img036"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img036.jpg" width="250" height="315" alt="Richard C&oelig;ur De Lion" title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>On returning to England, John raised an army to support his
+pretensions, while his confederate, Philip, took up arms in his behalf
+in France, and, entering Normandy, overran a great part of that duchy,
+although Rouen, the capital, was preserved principally by the
+exertions of the Earl of Essex, lately one of Richard's companions in
+the Holy Land. In England, also, John met with a general opposition to
+his usurpation of the regal authority, which soon compelled him to
+conclude an armistice with a council of regency that had been
+appointed by the prelates and barons. This was the position of affairs
+when Longchamp, having discovered Richard's place of confinement,
+after much solicitation prevailed upon the emperor to allow the royal
+prisoner to be brought before the diet at Hagenau, where, accordingly,
+he made his appearance on April 13, 1193, and defended himself with so
+much eloquence against the several charges made against him in regard
+to Tancred and the kingdom of Sicily, to his conquest of Cyprus, and
+to the murder of Conrad of Montferrat, that Henry found himself
+compelled by the general sentiment of the diet to order his chains to
+be immediately struck off, and to agree to enter upon negotiations for
+his ransom. Longchamp was immediately despatched to England with a
+letter to the council of regency, and the result was, that,
+notwithstanding the insidious efforts both of John and his friend,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span> Philip of France, to prevent the conclusion of the treaty,
+Richard was at last liberated, on February 4, 1194, after seventy
+thousand marks had been actually paid to the emperor, and hostages
+given for the payment of thirty thousand more. The English king had
+also engaged to release both Isaac of Cyprus and his daughter, and he
+had besides, at the persuasion, it is said, of his mother, Eleanor,
+the more effectually to conciliate Henry, formally resigned his crown
+into the hand of the emperor, who immediately restored it to him to be
+held as a fief of the empire, and burdened with a yearly feudal
+payment to his superior lord of five thousand pounds. This strange
+transaction rests on the authority of the contemporary annalist
+Hoveden. Richard, descending the Rhine as far as Cologne, proceeded
+thence across the country to Antwerp, and, embarking there on board
+his own fleet, landed at Sandwich on March 13th.</p>
+
+<p>Most of John's strongholds had been wrested from his hands before his
+brother's return, and now the rest immediately surrendered and he
+himself fled the country, and with his principal adviser, Hugh, Bishop
+of Coventry, having been charged with high treason, and not appearing
+to plead after forty days, was outlawed and divested of all his
+possessions.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile it was thought necessary that Richard should be crowned
+again, and that ceremony was accordingly performed at Winchester by
+Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, on April 17th. Then, leaving Hubert
+guardian of England and grand justiciary, on May 2d, following,
+having, with his characteristic activity employed almost every moment
+since his arrival in raising an army and procuring funds for its
+maintenance by all sorts of exactions and the most unscrupulous use of
+every means in his power, he again set sail from Portsmouth, his whole
+soul bent on chastising the King of France. Owing to adverse winds he
+was a fortnight in reaching Barfleur, in Normandy, where, as soon as
+he landed, he was met by his brother John, who professed contrition
+and implored his pardon, which, on the intercession of his mother,
+Eleanor, was granted. Richard now marched against Philip, and several
+engagements took place between them, in most of which the English king
+was successful. But the war, though it lasted for some years, was
+distinguished by few remarkable events. A truce for one year was
+agreed to on July 23d, and although hostilities were resumed some time
+before the expiration of that term, a peace was again concluded in the
+end of the following year, which lasted till the beginning of 1197.</p>
+
+<p>All this time Hubert, assisted by Longchamp, who had been restored to
+his office of chancellor, is said to have presided over the government
+at home with great ability. Hubert had been educated under the famous
+Glanvil, and he seems, in the spirit of his master, to have exerted
+himself in re-establishing and maintaining the authority of the law,
+by which alone, even if he did no more, he must have materially
+contributed to the revival of industry. The large sums, however, which
+he was obliged to raise by taxation to meet the expenses of the war,
+in the exhausted state to which the country had been reduced provoked
+much popular dissatisfaction; and the third year of the king's absence
+in particular was distinguished by the remarkable commotion excited by
+William Fitz-Osbert, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span> styled Longbeard, a citizen of London,
+who is admitted to have possessed both eloquence and learning, and
+whose whole character and proceedings might not improbably, if he had
+had his own historian, have assumed a very different complexion from
+what has been given to him. Longbeard, who acquired the names of the
+Advocate and King of the Poor, is affirmed to have had above fifty
+thousand of the lower orders associated with him by oaths which bound
+them to follow whithersoever he led. When an attempt was made to
+apprehend him by two of the wealthier citizens, he drew his knife and
+stabbed one of them, named Geoffrey, to the heart, and then took
+refuge in the church of St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, the tower of
+which he and his followers fortified, and held for three days, when
+they were at last (April 7, 1196), dislodged by fire being set to the
+building. Fitz-Osbert was first dragged at a horse's tail to the
+Tower, and then to the Elms in West Smithfield, where he was hanged,
+with nine of his followers. The people, however, long continued to
+regard him as a martyr.</p>
+
+<p>The war between Richard and Philip broke out again in 1197, and in the
+course of this campaign Richard had the gratification of capturing the
+Bishop of Beauvais, a personage whom he had reason to regard as a main
+instigator of the severities and indignities which he had sustained at
+the hands of the emperor. The bishop was taken armed cap-ą-pie and
+fighting, and when Pope Celestine recommended him to the clemency of
+Richard as his son, the English king sent his holiness the bishop's
+coat of mail, with the following verse of Scripture attached to it:
+"This have we found; know now whether it be thy son's coat, or no."
+This same year, too, finished the career of the Emperor Henry, who, in
+his last moments, is said to have expressed the extremest remorse for
+the manner in which he had treated the great champion of the Cross.
+Richard's other enemy, Leopold, Duke of Austria, had been killed by a
+fall from his horse two years before.</p>
+
+<p>A truce, as usual, at the end of the year, again suspended hostilities
+for a space. The war was renewed on its termination, and in this
+campaign (of the year 1198) Richard gained one of his greatest
+victories near Gisors, when Philip in his flight fell into the river
+Epte, and was nearly drowned. After this, by the intercession of the
+Pope's legate, a truce was concluded between the two kings for five
+years, and they never met again in fight; although they probably
+would, notwithstanding the truce, if both had lived. But on March 26th
+in the following year, 1199, as Richard was engaged in reducing the
+castle of Chaluz, the stronghold of one of his Aquitanian vassals,
+Vidomar, Viscount of Limoges, who it seems had refused to surrender a
+treasure found on his estate, to which the king laid claim in right of
+his feudal superiority, C&oelig;ur de Lion was struck in the left
+shoulder by an arrow, aimed from the rampart of the castle by a youth
+named Bertrand de Gurdun. The wound would not have been dangerous but
+for the mismanagement of the surgeon in his attempts to extract the
+arrow-head, which had broken off in the flesh. As it was, Richard
+lived only till Tuesday, April 16th. The shot was a fatal one in every
+way; in the fury into which the wound of the king threw the besieging
+army the castle was taken by storm, and all the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span> persons
+found in it were immediately hanged, as some authorities say, by the
+king's orders, with the exception only of Gurdun. He was brought into
+the presence of his dying victim, when Richard, under the impulse of
+generosity or compunction, gave him his liberty, with a hundred
+shillings to take him home; but after the king's death he was flayed
+alive, and then hanged, by order of Marchadee, the leader of the
+Brabantine mercenaries serving in Richard's army.</p>
+
+<p>The character of Richard is, of course, not to be judged without
+reference to the general manners of the age in which he lived. It is
+probable enough that there was hardly an excess, either of violence or
+licentiousness, into which his impetuous temperament did not
+occasionally precipitate him; but he seems to have had nothing base or
+malignant in his composition; and that he was as capable of acts of
+extraordinary generosity and disinterestedness as of excesses of
+brutal fury or profligacy. Of the courage and strength of will proper
+to his race, he had his full share, with more than his share of their
+strength of thew and sinew; and his intellectual powers, both natural
+and acquired, were also of a high order. He was renowned in his own
+day not only as beyond all dispute the stoutest and most gallant of
+living heroes, but as likewise occupying a place in the foremost rank
+of those who excelled in wit, in eloquence, and in song.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3>ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6" title="Go to footnote 6"><span class="small">[6]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">George Parsons Lathrop, LL.D.</span><br>
+
+(1182-1226)</h3>
+
+<a id="img037" name="img037"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img037.jpg" width="300" height="234" alt="St. Francis of Assisi." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>One reason why those beings who are known to us as saints are so
+little understood is, that their lives are usually written in one of
+two ways, both equally unsuited to popular appreciation. Either they
+are presented in a dry, bare, matter-of-fact manner, which requires
+all the knowledge and sympathy of the initiated to give it vital
+meaning; or else they are surrounded with an appanage of portents,
+visions, miracles, legends&mdash;spread before the reader without
+discrimination or explanation&mdash;which confuse the mind and soul, and
+absolutely repel all who do not share the faith of the subject and the
+biographer.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, no Catholic is obliged to accept these legends
+and traditions <span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span> literally, except in those cases where the
+authorities of the Church, after a scrutiny, which is always
+deliberate and searching, declare that a miracle was wrought. But
+every Catholic, by the very nature of his belief in the actual
+presence of the Divinity among men, must acknowledge and maintain that
+miracles have been wrought by that supernatural power constantly, ever
+since apostolic times; that they may and do occur, through the same
+power, at any moment to-day; and always will occur. In the ordinary
+gossip of the world, men hold to the maxim that if reports are
+current, all pointing to one particular fact, there must be truth in
+them. "Where there is so much smoke there is sure to be some fire." We
+should at least accord the same, if not a greater, degree of
+probability and of credence to stories of the saints which have been
+carefully, competently examined. "The love of the marvellous," says
+Chavin de Malin, in his book on St. Francis, "is but a remnant of our
+original greatness. Man was created to contemplate the wonders of the
+Divinity; and, until he clearly beholds them, he is borne onward by an
+interior desire to love and admire everything which bears the
+slightest resemblance to them.... <i>A person utterly ignorant of the
+practices of a spiritual life can no more do justice to the life of a
+saint, than a blind man could adjudicate on the merits or demerits of
+a painting.</i>" He adds that, with regard to the religious occupations
+of the Middle Ages, "the positive bounds of history could not be kept,
+digressions were made on all sides, and thus around the true history
+of saints, like a poetic wreath, wonder and amazement were both
+entwined. Christianity has had its denominated legendary tales, which
+invariably are based on truth, and should not be rejected by the
+historian without serious reflection and profound study."</p>
+
+<p>There is still another way of regarding the saints; the purely
+material view, which denies the immediate action of supernatural power
+upon the details of natural daily life, mental or physical. This
+view&mdash;or rather, this abstention from seeing&mdash;is futile; because,
+without a particle of actual proof to sustain its negative, it refuses
+to admit possibilities of truth to which the really comprehensive and
+perceptive mind must always hold itself open.</p>
+
+<p>Saint Francis was born at Assisi, in Umbria, in 1182; near the close
+of the twelfth century, which has been called a "century of mud and
+blood, when darkness prevailed over light, evil over good, the flesh
+over the spirit." Umbria was then, as it is now, a beautiful and
+fertile valley, rich in citron, almond, aloe, with forest trees of oak
+and pine and fir, to which long cultivation has added grapevines,
+engarlanding the elms, and orchards of the pale-leaved olive-tree,
+that give the landscape a somewhat transparent, aėrial effect. The
+province is encircled on one hand by the yellow Tiber; on the other,
+by the bluish foot-hills of the Apennines; and it is full of ancient
+little towns, nestled in the vales, or perched upon the airy
+hill-crests, with crenelated towers and terraces which command
+far-reaching and inspiring views. Old Perugia guards the northern
+entrance to this exquisite region; and five leagues to the northeast
+of that town is the saint's birthplace, Assisi.</p>
+
+<p>His father was Peter Bernard of Moriconi, better known as
+"Bernardone," a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span> rich merchant who carried on extensive
+business with France. In those days Italian merchants maintained a
+lavish mode of life, resembling that of the nobles; and as the
+disorders of the period and the perils attending travel compelled them
+to send armed escorts with their convoys of merchandise, there was
+something of military daring and display mingled with their business
+and their surroundings. The wife of Bernardone, however, whose name
+was Pica (of the noble Bourlemont family of Provence), was remarkable
+for her piety; the son&mdash;in this, as in so many historic instances of
+genius or distinction&mdash;inheriting his rare quality from the mother's
+side. She had but one other child, a younger son, Angelo, who,
+notwithstanding his heavenly name, seems to have been a boy after
+Bernardone's own pattern; since he, later on, reviled Francis and
+called him a fool for his piety and self-renunciation. Angelo's
+descendants were still living in Assisi in the latter half of the
+sixteenth century. Whether they shared their ancestor's contemptuous
+opinion of the Saint has not been recorded; but it seems probable that
+the homage of the world, rendered to the poor ascetic for several
+centuries, may have made some impression on their minds, if not their
+souls.</p>
+
+<p>Just before the birth of Francis, his mother suffered greatly. A
+pilgrim, coming to the house for alms, told the servants: "The mother
+will be delivered only in a stable, and the child see the light upon
+straw." This appeared strange and unreasonable enough. Nevertheless
+his advice was followed. Pica was carried to the stable, and there she
+gave birth to her first son, whom she caused to be baptized John,
+after the beloved apostle of Jesus. Her husband, Bernardone, was
+absent at the time on a business tour in France. Upon his return, he
+was delighted at finding that he had a boy; and he insisted on giving
+him the surname Francis, in commemoration of that country with which
+he drove such a flourishing trade. Possibly he was also moved by the
+thought&mdash;albeit the chroniclers do not say so&mdash;that his wife's family
+came from Southern France. At all events, Francis was the name by
+which the son came to be known throughout his life and in history.</p>
+
+<p>Under priestly teachers he received an education which, for that time,
+was a fairly good one, in Latin, French, and literature. At the age of
+fourteen his father took him into partnership; and for ten years the
+young man bought and sold with him, or travelled for him. But while
+Bernardone was a hard, avaricious man, the son differed from him
+greatly in disposition; being fond of dress, of song, and feasting,
+gayety, and gaming. He was generous even to prodigality, full of wit
+and imagination, very sympathetic withal, and compassionate. Thomas of
+Celano thus describes him: "His figure was above the middle height and
+well set. He was thin, and of a very delicate constitution. He had an
+oval face, broad brow, white, close-set teeth, dark complexion, black
+hair, regular features, expressive countenance, rosy lips, and a
+charming smile." With all his roystering, dissipation, and
+extravagance, however, he was a foe to immorality, always rebuked
+impurity in severe terms, and kept his own purity intact. This lavish
+and somewhat reckless pursuit of other pleasures gave his parents much
+anxiety; although his mother, Pica, said in his defence, "I see in
+him, even in his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span> amusements, a nobility of character which
+gives me the highest hopes of his future." But up to his twenty-fourth
+year nothing seemed more unlikely than that he should have any
+vocation to a holy life. He was called the "flower of the youth" of
+Assisi, rejoiced in his gay leadership of the rich young men of the
+place, and dreamed of winning military glory.</p>
+
+<p>In this capacity of taking the lead, and in the confident belief he
+often expressed that he would one day receive honor from the world, we
+see one natural germ of his later spiritual eminence. Another and more
+potent germ was the love of the poor, and his pity for them, which he
+manifested from childhood. In 1201, taking part as a soldier in a
+brief war between Assisi and Perugia, he was captured, with several of
+his companions, and imprisoned for a year. This experience, his first
+touch of adversity, sobered him a little; opening his eyes to the
+contrast between prosperity, with idle amusement and flattery, on the
+one hand, and on the other, suffering. Soon after his return home,
+also, he was stricken down by a long and painful illness. When he rose
+from it and, as a convalescent, took his first walk into the country,
+he was astonished to find that the beautiful Umbrian landscape which
+he had always so enjoyed, seemed to him cold, discolored, and sombre.
+A natural effect of illness, one may say. Yet it more often happens
+that when a convalescent returns to fresh air and the beauty of the
+earth, his pleasure in them is heightened. At all events Francis was
+vividly impressed with the nothingness of nature, as compared with the
+eternal splendor of God. But presently the passion for warlike renown
+took possession of him again. In 1206 he volunteered to join the Count
+of Brienne, a Guelph champion of Italian national independence, who
+was defending the Two Sicilies against the attacks of the German
+emperor, Frederick II. Announcing to his friends that he was about to
+become a great captain, Francis set out for the field of war, richly
+apparelled and with a brilliant retinue.</p>
+
+<p>In truth he was shortly to become a great captain, though not as he
+expected, in war, but in peace. On the way to Spoleto, southward, a
+voice that seemed to come from heaven sounded in his ears; just as
+Saul was appealed to while on his way to Damascus and was converted by
+it into <i>St. Paul</i>. To the young Umbrian, half asleep, the voice said:
+"Francis, which can do thee most good; the master or the servant, the
+rich one or the pauper?" He replied: "The master and the rich one."
+And the voice resumed: "Why, then, leavest thou God, who is both rich
+and the Master, to run after man, who is only the servant and the
+pauper?" Then Francis cried: "Ah, Lord; what willest Thou I should
+do?" "Go," said the voice, "return to thy native city, for the vision
+thou hast had has a spiritual meaning. It is from God, not men, thou
+shalt receive its accomplishment."</p>
+
+<p>Heedless of whatever taunts might be flung at him, he turned back. But
+the youth of Assisi, though surprised, were rejoiced to see him, and
+begged him to preside once more at their revels. He gave them a final
+magnificent banquet, at which they noticed that he was silent and
+preoccupied. Immediately afterward he retired to a grotto, where he
+passed his days alone, entreating God to pardon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span> the misspent
+years of youth and to direct him in the right way. Here he had a
+vision of Jesus Christ nailed to the cross. It is probably impossible
+to prove a vision; but that this one was real to Francis, at least, we
+may judge by its effects. Thenceforth he devoted himself to a pious
+life of marvellous self-abnegation. Seeing the change that had come
+upon him, his former friends fell away; but he, undisturbed, went on
+performing works of charity; making gifts of money, food, and even his
+own clothes to the poor. Again a voice spoke to him, from the crucifix
+of the dilapidated old church of St. Damien: "Francis, go and repair
+my house, which you see falling into ruins!" The young ascetic obeyed
+literally, and, passing through the streets, begged from all whom he
+met a stone or two to help rebuild the old church. Bernardone had been
+absent several months on one of his business trips; but his
+home-coming, this time, was not so pleasing to him as when his boy had
+been born. For, seeing the young man's complete transformation, all
+his selfish love of him turned into rage. He imprisoned him for a
+while in his own house; but Pica, recognizing that it was useless to
+oppose her son's religious vocation, finally set him free, and Francis
+took refuge in St. Damien's church. His father pursued him there, and
+brought before the Bishop of Assisi a complaint against him, demanding
+that he should give up all the money in his hands. Francis not only
+surrendered his money, but stripped off his clothing and gave it to
+his father, saying: "Until now I have called Peter Bernardone my
+father. Henceforth I can boldly say, 'Our Father, who art in heaven,'
+in whom I have placed all my treasures and my hopes."</p>
+
+<p>The bishop covered him with his mantle and held him clasped in his
+arms, until the by-standers brought Francis the cloak of a poor
+peasant. "Oh, what a grand bankrupt this merchant becomes to-day!"
+Bossuet wrote of him, long afterward. "Oh man worthy of being written
+in the book of the evangelical poor, and henceforward living on the
+capital of Providence!" From that time Francis wore mendicant's garb
+and begged his food in the streets.</p>
+
+<p>What did he accomplish by all this? To begin with, he succeeded in
+rebuilding three churches. But his influence was destined to be much
+more far-reaching than that, and of a very different nature. One day,
+while he was supplicating in church, his brother Angelo passed near
+him, and said to a friend, scoffingly: "Go, ask him to sell you some
+drops of his sweat." "No," said Francis; "I shall not sell my sweat to
+men. I shall sell it at a higher price, to God." He gave his sweat,
+his toil, his sufferings, and his renunciation to God, in exchange for
+the regeneration of men in a corrupt age.</p>
+
+<p>All Europe, at that time the whole civilized world, was suffering. The
+mass of the people were the poor, who were in deep distress, ground
+down by the pride and oppressions of the barons and the rich. The
+country was devastated by wars, large and small. The emperors of
+Germany were trying to establish their dominion over Italy and to
+control the Pope. The Church itself, after emerging from an heroic
+struggle with centuries of barbarism, had been obliged to accept and
+use the feudal system as a means of self-defence; and now the wrongs,
+the injustices, the selfishness of feudal society were beginning to
+exercise <span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span> a corrupting influence on the exterior of the
+Church itself. Unselfish and holy men in ecclesiastical places, both
+high and humble, preserved the spirit and sanctity of Christian faith,
+but were not able wholly to counteract the evils of pride, wealth, and
+luxury that invaded the Church from the worldly side, and infected its
+unworthy servants. Francis perceived that the only hope or relief
+possible to that age lay in a decisive spiritual revolution, to be
+effected without violence, which would recall people to the primitive
+simplicity, unselfishness, and absolute devotion of the time of Christ
+and the apostolic period. This revolution could be accomplished, he
+saw, only by a personal example so strong, so undeviating, so entirely
+free from self-seeking, that all men would be compelled to pause and
+consider it, and then to act upon it. He therefore sacrificed his
+whole life for the good of the race. In the end he achieved his aim,
+single-handed, single-souled. No one who believes in God and in
+Christianity throughout, can maintain that Francis of Assisi brought
+about these results by mere unaided human power. The human element
+relies upon will, coercion, man&oelig;uvre, and even intrigue. Francis
+gave up all these means. He first served the lepers for a month,
+living with them and taking care of them. This should especially
+interest us to-day; since Father Damien's self-immolating life among
+the lepers of the Hawaiian Islands in recent years is so well known to
+us, and since the first refuge of Saint Francis from the world was St.
+Damien's church, in Assisi. Portiuncula, "The Little Portion," was one
+of the churches which he had rebuilt, and was his favorite. While he
+was listening to the Gospel there, one day in February, 1209, these
+words were read from the altar: "Do not possess gold nor silver, nor
+money in your purses; nor scrip for your journey, nor two coats, nor
+shoes, nor a staff."</p>
+
+<p>That precept decided him. He saw his vocation as a devotee of holy
+poverty. Straightway he began preaching everywhere the duty of poverty
+and love of the poor; and gradually he drew to himself disciples,
+until they numbered twelve; sometimes accosting his old friends,
+sometimes strangers, who immediately joined him and consented to give
+up all worldly things, for the love of God. Most of them were men of
+rank and wealth, who had never known privation; yet they gave up
+social positions where they had been accustomed to command, accepted
+dire penury with him in a hut at Rivotorto, and submitted themselves
+to him in entire obedience. "Bread begged from door to door is the
+bread of angels," said Francis. They went barefoot, wore a coarse gray
+tunic with a cincture of cord, prayed much, helped the sick and needy,
+discoursed to and exhorted the people, and lived on bread and water
+chiefly. Amid all these austerities they thanked God that they had
+been chosen to give an example of perfect happiness! Their leader
+insisted upon incessant industry and unfailing cheerfulness. "Think of
+your errors in your cells," he commanded. "Weep, kneeling before God.
+But before others be gay, and maintain an air of ease." At first they
+called themselves simply "penitents from Assisi," and for a time they
+were treated with ridicule, scorn, and even violence. But their
+mission was to suffer everything, to rejoice at insults and injuries
+and, by patience, compel recognition of the dignity <span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span> of every
+human creature under whatsoever guise he might present himself. In
+this they succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>To a novice he said one day, "Brother, let us go out and preach."
+Taking him along, he went up into Assisi and they walked through the
+streets without saying a word; then returned to the convent. "And our
+preaching, father?" asked the novice. "It is done," replied the Saint;
+implying that a modest, thoughtful exterior and the force of example
+are often the most eloquent kind of preaching. But in 1209 it became
+clear to him by an inward vision in which the Christ came to him as a
+shepherd, that great numbers would flock to follow him; and, though he
+had not thought of founding an Order, he now saw that it would be
+necessary. He therefore drew up a simple Rule in twenty-three
+chapters; the gist of which was that they were to possess no money, no
+property whatever; that they were neither to blame nor to judge any
+one; were to hold themselves profoundly respectful toward all members
+of the clergy; to say not a word against the rich or against luxury;
+to preach, everywhere, concord and the love of God and one's neighbor;
+to bind themselves to obedience and chastity, as well as poverty; to
+do penance and persist in the perfect faith of Christ. Not until
+sixteen years later did the Lateran Council ordain that all religious
+orders must receive the approval of the Holy Father. But Francis did
+not wait for decrees. His humility, obedience, and loyalty to the
+Vicar of Christ led him to repair to Rome with his companions and
+there ask the permission of Pope Innocent III., which he quickly
+obtained. The Rule was rewritten in 1619. Some of the brethren
+suggested that he take the advice of a cardinal in formulating his
+rules; but the Saint declared that God had willed that he should
+"appear as a new sort of madman in the world," arresting the attention
+of the people and bringing them to reflect, without qualification,
+upon "the folly of the cross," and that he alone must direct the
+manner in which this was to be done.</p>
+
+<a id="img038" name="img038"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img038.jpg" width="600" height="366" alt="" title="">
+<p>The Vision of St Francis.</p></div>
+
+<p>His order multiplied rapidly, and convents were established in all
+parts of Europe; although he was inclined to object to costly
+buildings, and was prevailed upon to let them stand on the plea that
+they were needed to shelter travellers and pilgrims. He established
+also the order of Poor Clares, so called from a noble maiden, Clare,
+who became its first superior. This was, for women, what his order of
+the Friars Minor was for men; though the Clares remained strictly
+enclosed, while the Friars went abroad preaching, and established
+missions in various quarters of the globe. Finally, he formed his
+Third Order, which included laymen and laywomen living in the world,
+who bound themselves by simple vows of virtue and charity, while
+continuing in their accustomed phase of life. Thousands joined the
+Friars; and probably millions were enrolled in the Third Order. It has
+been said that Francis first made known to the Middle Ages the power
+of association among the weak and humble, and that from the pages on
+which he inscribed his institutes sprang modern democracy in Italy.
+Certain it is that the Emperor Frederick II. received a letter from
+some of his Italian feudal supporters, saying: "The Friars Minor ...
+have raised themselves against us. They have publicly condemned both
+our mode of life and our principles, they have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span> shattered
+our rights, and have brought us to nothingness." Yet the Franciscan
+Friars and the Third Order had done this only by the contrast of
+example, of poverty, fasting, prayer, self-denial, and charity of the
+heart as well as of the hands.</p>
+
+<p>The work of Saint Francis did much to undermine feudalism; and it
+almost regenerated the spirit of Christianity in the thirteenth
+century. "Man of the people," writes R. F. O'Connor, "he did more for
+the people than ever yet had been done by any one; whose vocation was
+to revive in the midst of a corrupting opulence the esteem and
+practice of poverty, which he ennobled, ... and, without setting class
+against class, <i>or violating the least point of the divine or human
+law</i>, levelled every social barrier and united princes and peasants in
+a bond of union which neither time nor eternity was to sever."</p>
+
+<p>This phase of his influence should interest us of to-day, when the
+same problems of wealth and poverty and of superficiality in religion
+confront our arrogant modern "civilization." That St. Francis was not
+a madman is evident from the orderliness of his work, his clear
+legislative and administrative capacity, his calm, powerful, amiable
+sway over all sorts of people. Yet he was possessed by an absolute
+passion and ecstasy of charity and universal love, which raised him
+above the apprehension of the gross, material mind. It was this
+supremacy of the spiritual in him which enabled him to accomplish
+marvels of practical result. Toward the end of his life, this
+exaltation of the spirit produced upon his body a singular phenomenon.
+His hands and feet appeared to be transpierced by large nails, and a
+wound opened in his side, from which blood frequently flowed. In a
+word, he bore the wounds, or "stigmata" of Christ, on his own body.
+The nails were distinct from the wound, but were apparently blackened
+flesh; being inseparable from the hands and feet. This phenomenon was
+well attested at the time. Within the present century several similar
+cases have occurred, under the observation of modern and approved
+sceptical men of science, who find that they occur when there has been
+much fasting, loss of sleep, and constant meditation upon the Passion
+of Christ. Their testimony states the conditions and verifies the
+fact, but does not explain it.</p>
+
+<p>He died at his convent of St. Mary of the Angels (Portiuncula),
+October 4, 1226, in perfect lucidity of mind, with patience and simple
+resignation, while giving good counsel to his brethren. Of death he
+spoke gently as "our sister death;" and when, during his illness, his
+physician was obliged to cauterize him with a red-hot iron, he blessed
+the iron, speaking of it as "our brother fire," and submitted to the
+cauterization, or moxa, without a murmur or sign of pain. One
+remarkable thing about him was his extraordinary recognition of all
+the powers and elements of nature as related to man in one family
+under God. This was the origin of his famous short "sermon to the
+birds," which has been preserved. He talked to them and to all other
+animals as though he firmly believed that they could understand him,
+and could adore their Creator as well as he; though it is not probable
+that he supposed they would understand him precisely as men would, or
+adore in the same way. It is clear that St. Francis had a great
+influence over animals, even over wolves.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span> Nowadays we have many lion-tamers and tiger-tamers, who rely
+simply upon human will and craft. Therefore it is not astonishing that
+St. Francis, who relied upon Divine power, should have been able to
+tame beasts. What is surprising is, that he should have been able to
+control men, who are so much harder to tame.</p>
+
+<p>The poems of St. Francis&mdash;his "Canticle of the Sun," "Canticle of
+Love," and "Canticle of Charity"&mdash;exemplify the immense and tender
+scope of his exquisite love and good-will. His Order continues, and
+has given rise to subsidiary organizations such as the Recollects and
+the Capuchins. Thousands of people in common life belong to his Third
+Order, now, and continue his work unostentatiously. His spirit is
+alive and operative in the world to-day, nearly six hundred and
+seventy years since he left this earth.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig004" name="sig004"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig004.jpg" width="300" height="61" alt="Author signature. George Parsons Lathrop." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>ST. LOUIS<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Henry G. Hewlett</span><br>
+
+(1215-1270)</h3>
+
+<a id="img039" name="img039"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img039.jpg" width="250" height="327" alt="St. Louis." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>The most striking features of the political history of France during
+the tenth and eleventh centuries are the conflict of the feudal
+aristocracy on the one hand, with monarchical and democratical power
+on the other, and the influence exerted by the Crusades on both.</p>
+
+<p>The Crusades aided much in the accomplishment of the final result, the
+destruction of the power of the nobility. In the first place, they
+glorified the character of feudalism by enforcing the principles of
+chivalry. To be a "true knight," a man must be devout, just, merciful,
+and pure. Many Crusaders, indeed, fell far short of this high ideal;
+but there can be no doubt that, on the whole, it elevated the standard
+of morality, and checked the rampant tyranny which had previously
+prevailed. Founded on a principle of sincere though mistaken piety,
+the Crusaders recognized all who took the cross as brethren; hence the
+meanest serf became, in some measure, free; and the same benign
+sentiment extended its effect to all classes. The attraction of a
+common cause in foreign lands further contributed to wean the
+Crusaders from the class quarrels and domestic feuds which occupied
+them at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span> home. During their absence the crown was enabled
+to acquire a strength which had previously been spent in the
+repression of constant rebellions. And the need of money for the
+expedition obliged many feudal lords to contract with the communes for
+the sale of lands or liberties.</p>
+
+<a id="img040" name="img040"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img040.jpg" width="400" height="584" alt="" title="">
+<p>The Education of Louis IX.</p></div>
+
+<p>Such was the condition of France at the commencement of the thirteenth
+century. The balance of power, however, was only sustained by the
+activity of all the parties concerned. The slightest wavering on the
+part of the crown would be fatal, the least opportunity seized. A
+wise, sincere, and humane ruler was needed to confirm and enlarge the
+vantage ground which law and order had already obtained; and such a
+ruler rose in the person of Louis IX., who ascended the throne in
+1226.</p>
+
+<p>His father, Louis VIII., was a man of weak character, whose reign was
+chiefly signalized by the horrible persecution of the Protestant
+Albigenses of Provence, which, under the sanction of Innocent III.,
+and later Popes, had been carried on by Simon de Montfort and other
+fanatics, since 1209. Louis himself had died of fever when about to
+commence the siege of Toulouse.</p>
+
+<p>The Queen Dowager, Blanche, of Castile, was a woman of great energy,
+and during the minority of her son she bravely contested her claims to
+the regency of the kingdom against those of Philip, her husband's
+brother, whom Henry III., of England, supported. She appealed, not in
+vain, to the gratitude of the metropolis, which the Capetian kings had
+befriended; and at her call a large force of citizens joined her. With
+their aid she defeated Philip and other nobles, who opposed her son's
+coronation, and by two treaties, in 1229 and 1231, she both extended
+the limits of her kingdom and put an end to civil war. Over Louis, who
+was but eleven years old when his father died, she exercised a
+somewhat rigorous, but a holy and prudent discipline, to which he was
+much indebted for strengthening his moral and mental constitution. He
+was educated at the Abbey of Royaumont by Vincent de Beauvais, and
+though not remarkable for talents, possessed considerable decision of
+character, and a large share of personal courage. It is, however, by
+the piety, purity, and benevolence of his soul that he stands forth so
+prominently in the history of Europe. The year of his coronation all
+the jails of the kingdom were thrown open by the royal command. A
+nature more truly loving and lovable has rarely been bestowed on any
+member of the human family. Yet, with all these paramount excellences,
+his life presents a tragedy&mdash;the fatal consequences of unreasoning
+faith. All his errors&mdash;we cannot justly call them faults&mdash;proceeded
+from this prolific source. Before recording these, it will be
+gratifying to point out the happier results of those noble and wise
+qualities which have consecrated his name.</p>
+
+<p>After the treaty of 1231, France remained at peace for some years,
+during which time Louis married Margaret of Provence, a princess only
+inferior in worth to himself. Soon after attaining his majority he was
+called upon to contend with the Count of Brittany and other nobles who
+resisted his authority. At the head of his vassals Louis marched
+against the rebels, and was so prompt and energetic in his measures
+that the count was forced to yield and sue for pardon <span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span> in the
+attitude of a criminal, with a rope round his neck. Henry III. crossed
+the channel with an army to support the rebellion, and recover, if
+possible, the possessions which King John had surrendered to King
+Philip. The armies met at Saintes, in 1242, where the French were
+victorious, the rebels subsequently submitting, and Henry returning
+home.</p>
+
+<p>In 1244 Louis had a severe illness, which was attended with danger to
+his life. During the progress of it, he vowed to undertake a new
+crusade should he recover. The fulfilment of this vow was opposed by
+Blanche of Castile (who still had great influence over her son) and
+many of his best counsellors; but Louis was inflexible where religion
+and honor demanded a sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>In 1248 he collected a large army, and prepared to start by way of
+Sicily, the nearest route to Palestine, when he remembered that the
+island belonged to Frederick II., of Germany, who was under
+excommunication by the Pope. All attempts to shake the decision of
+Innocent IV. failed; and yielding to the pious weakness of fearing to
+rest in an excommunicant's territory, Louis changed his plans, and
+determined to pass by way of Cyprus and Egypt&mdash;a route which proved
+the ruin of the expedition. He committed the regency of France to his
+mother, assumed the staff of pilgrimage, and accompanied by his wife
+and brothers, left Paris on June 12, 1248. He stayed for several
+months in Cyprus, until his armament amounted to 50,000 men, and then
+sailed for Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the port of Damietta, he caused the oriflamme (the national
+standard of France) to be waved above his head; and, arrayed in
+complete armor, he unsheathed his sword, and leaped into the sea,
+followed by the knights. The inhabitants fled, and the French took
+possession of the city. The inundation of the Nile prevented their
+further movements for several months. Licentiousness and disease were
+fostered by this delay, in spite of the king's remonstrances; and
+their unopposed success made the Crusaders careless as to the tactics
+of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>On the subsidence of the Nile, Louis fortified Damietta, and left his
+queen and her ladies there, while he, with the main army, advanced on
+Cairo, the metropolis of Egypt, where the sultan resided. Near
+Mansourah, the Crusaders became perplexed by the intricacy of the
+canals, and a hasty dash across one of these, made by the king's
+brother, the Count of Artois, with 2,000 men, led to a calamitous
+result. Mansourah was apparently deserted, and the count's troops, who
+preceded their comrades at some distance, commenced pillaging the
+houses. The inhabitants, who were only concealed, showered down stones
+from the roofs; and at the same moment, a large body of the sultan's
+army made an attack in front. Louis reached Mansourah in time to save
+a few of his men, but found his brother and several others slain. The
+Moslem camp was captured, but proved a doubtful prize. The plains were
+barren and scorching, and the harassing assaults of the Egyptians, who
+poured "Greek fire" (missiles filled with combustible materials) on
+their foes, rendered the situation more intolerable still. Pestilence
+broke out, and the king himself fell dangerously ill. He then ordered
+a retreat to Damietta, whither the sick were to be conveyed in
+galleys. These were intercepted, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span> and the sick murdered by
+the Egyptians; while, at the same time an attack was made on the
+Christian camp.</p>
+
+<a id="img041" name="img041"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img041.jpg" width="250" height="329" alt="St. Louis." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Louis was so weak that he could scarcely ride, but nevertheless would
+not desert his post. He rode between the ranks, encouraging his men,
+till he fainted and was obliged to withdraw from the field. His quaint
+and affectionate biographer, the Lord of Joinville, who was with him
+in this expedition, thus describes the scenes which ensued: "Of all
+his men-at-arms there was only one with him, the good knight, Sir
+Geoffrey de Sargines; and who, I heard say, did defend him like as a
+faithful servant doth guard his master's cup from flies&mdash;for every
+time that the Saracens did approach the king he defended him with
+vigorous strokes of the blade and point of his sword, and his strength
+seemed doubled. At last he brought the king to a house where there was
+a woman from Paris; and laying him on the ground, placed his head on
+the woman's lap, expecting every moment that he would breathe his
+last." In this half-dying condition a body of Egyptians found him, and
+bore him to the tent of the sultan. The defeat of the Christians, who
+were weakened by the climate, disease, and want of food, was general;
+many fell by the sword, and the rest were taken prisoners with their
+king.</p>
+
+<p>In captivity Louis showed a noble resignation and courage amid the
+apostasy of many. He won the respect of the sultan, who treated him
+with generosity, and listened to the terms of ransom which he
+proposed. The queen remained at Damietta, which was strongly
+garrisoned. Fearful, nevertheless, of falling into the hands of the
+Moslems, who would have carried her into the sultan's harem, she
+prayed an old knight in her suite to slay her with his sword, should
+there be any danger of that event. "I had determined on so doing,
+madam," was the answer. Margaret's heroism was not put to this severe
+test, for the surrender of Damietta was one of the conditions of her
+husband's release; and after paying in addition a sum of 400,000
+livres, Louis was on the point of being set free. An insurrection,
+however, suddenly arose among the Mamelukes, or Tartarian troops, in
+whose hands the real power of the state was placed, and the sultan was
+murdered. A party of the assassins, it is said, entered the chamber of
+Louis with their scimitars drawn, but his calm dignity saved him, and
+the treaty was carried out by the new sultan.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the French nobles returned home, but the king, faithful to his
+vow, proceeded to Syria, and spent four years in strengthening the
+fortresses of Tyre <span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span> and other Christian towns, redeeming many
+Crusaders from slavery, and reducing to order the disturbed condition
+of the country.</p>
+
+<p>The death of the Queen Dowager Blanche, who had governed France wisely
+during her regency, recalled him in 1254, after an absence of six
+years. He still wore the cross upon his shoulder, as a token that his
+oath as a Crusader was not yet fulfilled; but he never once neglected
+the more pressing and necessary duties which devolved on him as a
+monarch. His immediate work was to supersede the arbitrary legislation
+which the nobles exercised in their manorial courts over their
+tenants. He accordingly introduced into general use the famous code of
+Roman laws known as the Pandects of Justinian, and constituted the
+chief civil lawyers, who had studied its contents and were best
+acquainted with its principles, into a Parliament, or Court of
+Justice. The nobles and the clergy were duly represented in this
+assembly; but its clerks, or lawyers, were especially favored by the
+king, who seconded their own efforts to absorb the business of the
+court as much as possible. Louis further mediated between the tyranny
+of the nobles and the weakness of their tenants, by encouraging the
+practice of appealing to the crown in case of injustice. This he even
+extended to ecclesiastical matters; a bold step for one so devoted to
+the Church. The prohibition of the barbarous custom of duelling to
+decide personal quarrels was another of his humane laws. These, and
+divers other ordinances, founded in a like spirit of equity, are known
+in a collected shape as the <i>Institutes of St. Louis</i>. His enactment
+touching appeals from the Church to the Crown, and the prohibition
+which he likewise issued against the levying of money in France for
+the use of the Pope without the king's license, are known as a
+<i>Pragmatic Sanction</i>&mdash;a term applied to any especially important
+national decree. Louis set the example of enforcing the laws
+personally, and none was fitter to administer them than he. Under an
+oak in the forest of Vincennes, near Paris, often sat the good king to
+hear appeals and petitions from his poor subjects. His social and
+foreign relations were as fully attended to as his political reforms.
+He first placed the French navy on a substantial footing. To him Paris
+owed a public library, a hospital for the blind, and the establishment
+of a body of police. Under his sanction, also, his confessor, Robert
+de Sorbon, founded the famous theological college called by his name.
+So scrupulously just and honorable was Louis, that he appointed a
+commission to ascertain what restitution of territory should be made
+to nations which had been mulcted by the conquests of his
+predecessors, and he thus more than once sacrificed extensive
+possessions for the sake of a principle. By a treaty in 1255, made
+with Henry III., Louis restored to the English crown the provinces of
+which Philip Augustus had deprived it, and obtained in return the
+surrender of Henry's rights in Normandy and other fiefs. The
+reputation which Louis thus acquired among his fellow-monarchs led to
+his being asked to act as mediator in several quarrels, and gave him
+many opportunities of exhibiting his peaceful and loving policy.</p>
+
+<a id="img042" name="img042"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img042.jpg" width="600" height="444" alt="" title="">
+<p>Louis IX. opens the Jails of France.</p></div>
+
+<p>The mental blindness of which we have spoken led him to commit errors,
+which, if his misled conscience had not sanctioned them, would deserve
+the name <span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span> of crimes. Toward Jews and heretics he showed no
+mercy, issuing severe and unjust laws against them "for the good of
+his soul." The duty of the historian is to record these failings of a
+noble nature as impartially as its beauties; but the evil must, in all
+fairness, be credited to the Church and system which taught, and not
+to the believer who practised.</p>
+
+<p>In 1270 the affairs of the East again attracted the attention of
+Europe, and recalled Louis to the fulfilment of his vow, which he had
+only postponed. The Greeks had retaken the city of Constantinople from
+the French and Venetian Crusaders some years previously, yet the
+reconstitution of the Christian Empire of the East had not availed to
+check the aggressions of the Moslem in Palestine. Benocdar, the Sultan
+of Egypt, had already taken Cęsarea and Jaffa; and news now came that
+Antioch had fallen, 100,000 Christians having been massacred in the
+siege. The seventh and last Crusade was at once set on foot by
+outraged Europe, and Louis led the expedition, in which France was, as
+usual, foremost. He raised an army of 6,000 horse and 30,000 foot, and
+was accompanied by his three sons, the King of Navarre, and several
+nobles of high rank. His brother, Charles of Anjou (the new King of
+Naples), and Edward I., of England, (then prince), were to join the
+French in the course of the year. Some romantic intelligence that the
+Moslem King of Tunis was desirous of being baptized, induced the pious
+Louis again to try the African, instead of the Asiatic, route to
+Palestine. He narrowly escaped with his life, in a tempest which
+overtook the fleet in the Mediterranean, but landed in Sardinia, and
+after recruiting here again set sail, and anchored off Carthage. He
+met with opposition, instead of welcome, from the inhabitants of the
+coast, and was obliged to besiege Tunis. The excessive heat of the
+climate and the unhealthiness of the soil proved a second time fatal
+to the army. Plague at last broke out, and Louis was himself seized.
+Finding himself dying, he sent for Philip, his eldest son and
+successor. Placing in his hand a written paper, the good king prayed
+his son to follow the directions which it contained&mdash;directions for
+the conduct of his life, as king and individual; enforcing those
+principles of love to God and man which had guided his own career.
+Then, requesting to be lifted from his bed, Louis instructed his
+attendants to strew the floor of his tent with ashes and place him
+thereon, that he might die as he had lived, in an attitude of
+humiliation and penitence toward his creator. This was done, and
+shortly afterward, as though in vision fulfilling the vow which he was
+not permitted to realize, he uttered, "I will enter thy house&mdash;I will
+worship in thy sanctuary!" and expired. His age was but fifty-four.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours elapsed, and the sound of a trumpet echoed through the
+plague-stricken and half-deserted camp. It was the note of Charles of
+Naples, whose fleet had just arrived off the coast. Meeting with no
+response, he rode rapidly toward the tent of the king, and on entering
+saw his body lying still warm upon the ashes. The rites of burial were
+not performed with the usual formalities, his remains being
+distributed among his relatives. The flesh was kept by Charles, who
+buried it, on his return to Sicily, in the great Abbey of Monreale, at
+Palermo. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span> The bones and other parts were conveyed back to
+France. Those who have visited Paris will not forget the exquisite
+Gothic structure known as the "Sainte Chapelle," which is attached to
+the Palais de Justice, containing the courts of law. It was erected by
+Louis as a receptacle for certain supposed relics of Christ. The
+windows of the chapel are entirely composed of stained glass, and as
+the sunbeams strike upon them, their tints of crimson, blue, and
+orange blend into a rainbow-like harmony of glowing and lustrous
+color, which recalls the heart of Louis IX., enshrined within those
+walls, as its fitting human antitype. He was canonized about thirty
+years afterward, under the title of St. Louis.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>MARCO POLO<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7" title="Go to footnote 7"><span class="small">[7]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Noah Brooks</span><br>
+
+(1256-1324)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img043" name="img043"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img043.jpg" width="200" height="285" alt="Marco Polo." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>In the month of November, in the year 1295, there appeared in the
+beautiful city of Venice three strangers, who were clothed in an
+outlandish and shabby garb of a Tartar cut. They claimed to be of
+Venice, but, according to one of their biographers, one Ramusio,
+"through the many worries and anxieties they had undergone, they were
+quite changed in aspect, and had got a certain indescribable smack of
+the Tartar both in air and accent, having, indeed, all but forgotten
+their Venetian tongue." They went to the house of the Polo family,
+demanding entrance and claiming to be Nicolo Polo, Maffeo, his
+brother, and Marco, son of the elder of the two brothers, Nicolo. They
+were laughed to scorn as pretenders and impostors; for the three
+missing members of the Polo family had been gone away from Venice some
+twenty-odd years; it was in 1271 that the Polos were last heard from,
+then at Acre, journeying into the Far East.</p>
+
+<p>But the three somehow gained access to their own house, then in the
+possession of one of their relations. And the news of their
+home-coming was presently noised abroad throughout the city of Venice;
+so much so that the people for days talked of little else save the
+reappearance in the land of the living of the long-lost travellers.
+Many, however, doubted if these really were the brothers Polo and
+young Marco; this last was a mere lad of seventeen when he went away,
+and now was grown to be a portly man of forty-odd years. So
+incredulous were the townsfolk that the brothers hit upon a scheme to
+convince the doubting ones. They made a grand feast to which all the
+gentry were invited, for the Polo family were of noble birth and had
+held station in the state. The entertainment <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span> was served in
+great splendor with gold and silver dishes, and the three travellers,
+when they sat down, were dressed in robes of the richest crimson satin
+flowing down to the ground. After some of the courses had been eaten,
+they retired to their chamber and came forth again dressed in other
+robes of crimson silk damask, very rich, and the satin garments were
+cut up and divided among the servants. Again, later on in the repast,
+they retired, and when they came again to the table they wore other
+robes, of the richest crimson velvet, and the second garments were cut
+up and divided as the others had been. When the dinner was over they
+took off the velvet robes, and these were disposed of in like manner.
+"These proceedings," says the honest Ramusio, "caused much wonder and
+amazement among the guests," which we can well imagine.</p>
+
+<p>Next, dismissing all the servants, the younger one of the three, Marco
+Polo, went to an inner chamber and brought forth to the table the
+coarse and shabby dresses in which the three had arrived in Venice.
+Then, taking sharp knives, the travellers ripped open the seams and
+welts of the garments, and shook from them a vast profusion of
+diamonds, rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, emeralds, and other precious
+stones. The guests were dumfounded and amazed. "And now," says
+Ramusio, "they recognized that in spite of all former doubts, these
+were in truth those honored and worthy gentlemen of the Casa Polo that
+they claimed to be; and so all paid them the greatest honor and
+reverence." Furthermore, we are told that when the story got wind in
+Venice, straightway the whole city, gentle and simple, flocked to the
+house to embrace the three travellers, and to make much of them with
+every conceivable demonstration of affection and respect.</p>
+
+<p>This was the wonderful home-coming of the three Polos, who for
+twenty-four years had been wandering in the East, and who, when they
+set out on their homeward journey, a journey beset with untold
+difficulties and dangers, took the precaution to conceal in their
+garments, as above told, the wealth which they had accumulated while
+they were at the court of the Great Khan of Tartary. It reads like a
+romance, a story out of "The Arabian Nights' Entertainments." But it
+is all true, and the archives of Venice corroborate pretty nearly all
+the details herein set forth. Indeed, as a prophet is not without
+honor save in his own country and among his own kindred, it must be
+said that the later generation of Venetians found less difficulty in
+believing the tales of the three travellers than did those who first
+heard them. In telling these tales, they had frequent occasion to use
+the word "millions," a word not then common among the Venetians, as to
+say that the Great Khan had revenues amounting to ten or fifteen
+<i>millions</i> of gold, and so on. And the people gave Marco, who seems to
+have been the story-teller of the party, the nickname of Messer Marco
+Millioni. Curiously enough, this name appears in the public records of
+old Venice.</p>
+
+<p>Of the final exit of the elders of the Polo family, Nicolo and Maffeo,
+we have no trustworthy account. As they were well stricken in years
+when they returned from their long sojourn in Cathay, we may suppose
+that they did not <span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span> live long after their return to Venice.
+But the younger Marco had a busy and stirring life. At that time the
+republics of Venice and Genoa were rivals for the ruling of the seas
+and the monopoly of maritime trade everywhere. A Venetian galley could
+not meet one from Genoa without a fight, and the fleets of the two
+states were continually at war.</p>
+
+<p>Marco, being one of the representatives of the noble Venetian families
+who were required to come to the support of the state with at least
+one galley, entered the naval service of Venice in command of a war
+galley, and was engaged in the great battle between Venice and Genoa
+near Curzola, off the Dalmatian coast, in 1298, three years after his
+return from Cathay. The Venetians were beaten ignominiously, and 7,000
+of them were taken prisoners and carried to Genoa. It was a lucky
+thing for the world that Marco Polo was thus put into enforced
+idleness, and that he had for a companion in confinement an educated
+gentleman, one Rusticiano, of Pisa. Otherwise, most likely we never
+would have heard of the travels of Marco Polo, whom some of the later
+chroniclers have likened to Columbus, the discoverer of America.</p>
+
+<p>To beguile the tedium of their imprisonment, Marco was wont to tell
+his traveller's tales to his companion, Rusticiano, and this worthy
+gentleman conceived the notion of writing out the marvellous
+adventures and observations of his fellow-prisoner. We must bear in
+mind that the Italian gentry of that time did not hold in high esteem
+the art of writing, and although Marco was not inferior to any man in
+daring or adventurousness, he was willing to leave to the scriveners
+the task of writing about such matters. But, in the end, the advice of
+Rusticiano prevailed, and the Pisan gentleman set down from the
+dictation of Marco "The Book of Ser Marco Polo Concerning the Kingdoms
+and Marvels of the East." This was, up to that time, the most
+important book of travels and voyages ever written. Indeed, it was the
+most important book of any kind written during the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>The book contributed more new facts toward a knowledge of the earth's
+surface, says one skilled authority, than any book that had been
+written before. The writer was the first to describe China, or Cathay,
+in its vastness of territory, its wonderfully rich and populous
+cities, and the first to tell of Tartary, Thibet, Burmah, Siam,
+Cochin-China, the Indian Archipelago, the Andaman Islands, of Java and
+Sumatra, of the fabled island of Cipangu, or Japan, of Hindustan, and
+that marvellous region which the world learned to know as Farther
+India. From far-voyaging sailors he brought home accounts of Zanzibar
+and Madagascar, and the semi-Christian country of Abyssinia, where
+some accounts located that mysterious potentate called Prester John.
+He had traversed Persia and had picked up a vast amount of information
+concerning the country of Siberia, with its polar snows and bears, its
+dog-sledges, and its almost everlasting winter. He traversed the
+entire length of Asia.</p>
+
+<p>Surely, Europe might well be dazed when this account of regions, until
+then unknown, was unrolled before the scholars and explorers who could
+read the few precious books then in circulation. For it should be
+remembered that the art of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span> printing was then unknown, and
+only in manuscript did any book make its appearance. Rusticiano wrote
+in a very poor sort of French; for then, as now, that language was
+commonest in all the cities of Europe. How much of the language of the
+book of Marco Polo's travels was Marco's, and how much was the worthy
+Rusticiano's, we are unable to decide. The facts in that famous book
+were duly vouched for by Marco. The opening chapter, or prologue,
+inflated and wordy, after the fashion of the times, was undoubtedly
+Rusticiano's. He began thus: "Great Princes, Emperors, and Kings,
+Dukes and Marquises, Counts, Knights, and Burgesses! and People of all
+degree who desire to get knowledge of the various races of mankind and
+of the diversities of the sundry regions of the World, take this Book
+and cause it to be read to you. For ye shall find therein all kinds of
+wonderful things, and the divers histories of the Great Hermenia, and
+of Persia, and of the Land of the Tartars, and of India, and of many
+another country of which our Book doth speak, particularly and in
+regular succession, according to the description of Messer Marco Polo,
+a wise and noble citizen of Venice, as he saw them with his own eyes."</p>
+
+<p>This portentous prologue ends with these great swelling words: "And I
+may tell you that in acquiring this knowledge he spent in those
+various parts of the World good six-and-twenty years. Now, being
+thereafter an inmate of the Prison at Genoa, he caused Messer
+Rusticiano, of Pisa, who was in the same Prison likewise, to reduce
+the whole to writing; and this befell in the year 1298 from the birth
+of Jesus."</p>
+
+<p>One year later, in the summer of 1299, Marco Polo was set at liberty
+and returned to Venice, where he died peacefully in 1324. His last
+will and testament, dated January 9, 1323, is preserved among the
+archives of Venice, and a marble statue in his honor was set up by the
+Venetians, in the seventeenth century, and may be seen unto this day
+in the Palazzo Morosini-Gattemburg, in the Campo S. Stefano of that
+city.</p>
+
+<p>How came Marco Polo to be drawn so far into the vague and shadowy
+East? Somewhere about the middle of the thirteenth century, certain
+members of the Polo family had established a trading-house in
+Constantinople, then pretty near the end of the world from Europe.
+These adventurous Venetians, in 1260, sent the two brothers, Nicolo
+and Maffeo, still further to the eastward on a trading journey to the
+Crimea. Led on by one adventure and another, and lured by the hope of
+new and greater gains, they ascended the Volga northward and eastward,
+crossed Bokhara, and finally broke into one of the northwestern
+provinces of China, or Cathay, then faintly known in Europe by various
+names, the most classic of which was Seres.</p>
+
+<p>Here they made their way to the capital city of the Great Mongol
+Empire, the seat of government where ruled the Great Khan, a very
+mighty potentate, Kublai Khan, grandson of the famous conqueror,
+Ghenghis Khan. Kublai Khan resided at the wonderful city of Cambuluc,
+which we now know as Pekin. North of the Great Wall, and some one
+hundred and eighty miles from Cambuluc, was the Great Khan's summer
+palace, one of the wonders of the world, reading of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span> which in
+Purchas' account of Marco Polo's travels, it is said that Coleridge
+fell asleep and dreamed the famous poem beginning:</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan<br>
+<span class="add1em">A stately pleasure dome decree,</span><br>
+  Where Alph, the sacred river, ran,<br>
+  Through caverns measureless to man,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Down to a sunless sea."</span></p>
+
+<p>These Polo brothers were the first Europeans that the Great Khan had
+ever seen; but before this time, Friar Plano Carpini, in 1246, and
+Friar William Rubruquis, in 1253, had penetrated into Mongolia on some
+errand not now distinctly understood, but far enough to learn that a
+great and civilized country existed somewhere in the eastern extremity
+of Asia. They also learned that beyond this extremity of the continent
+there was a sea; people had until then believed that the eastern end
+of Asia disappeared in a vast and reedy bog, beyond which was deep and
+impenetrable darkness. More exact knowledge of that far eastern sea
+was subsequently acquired by the Venetian travellers. From these
+wandering friars the Great Khan had heard, at second-hand, doubtless,
+of European princes, potentates, and powers, and of the Pope of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>He was mightily taken with the noble Venetians, and we are told that
+he treated them with every courtesy and consideration. He was anxious
+to secure through them the aid of the Sovereign Pontiff, of whose
+functions he entertained high respect, in the civilizing of the hordes
+that had lately been added to the Mongol Empire by wars of conquest.
+And he entreated the good offices of the polished and cultivated
+Venetians in securing for him the good offices of the Pope for that
+end. Accordingly, the two brothers, after satisfying to some degree
+their curiosity, set out for home, full of tales of their strange
+adventure, we doubt not; and they reached Venice in 1269, only to find
+that the Pope Clement IV. was dead, and that no successor had been
+chosen in his place.</p>
+
+<p>There was a long interregnum, and the brothers, taking with them the
+son of Nicolo, the young Marco, then a stout lad, began to retrace
+their steps to Cathay, despairing of being able to enlist the one
+hundred priests which the Great Khan had asked them to borrow for
+missionary purposes from the Pope.</p>
+
+<p>At Acre, then held by European powers that had been engaged in the
+crusades for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, they took counsel
+with one Tebaldo Visconti, an eminent prelate, who was Archdeacon of
+Liége and a person of great consequence in the Eastern church. At
+their request, he wrote letters to the Great Khan, authenticating the
+causes of their failure to fulfil the wishes of the Khan in the matter
+of obtaining the missionaries whom he desired. Then they pushed on
+toward the farther East, and while waiting for a vessel to sail from
+the port of Ayas, on the Gulf of Scanderoon, then the starting-point
+for the Asiatic trade, they were overtaken by the news that their
+friend the Archdeacon Tebaldo had been chosen Pope, under the title of
+Gregory X. They at once returned to Acre, and were able to present to
+the newly elected <span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span> pontiff the request of the Great Khan and
+get a reply. But instead of one hundred teachers and preachers, they
+were furnished with only two Dominican friars; and these lost heart
+and drew back before the journey was fairly begun. It may be said here
+that the Great Khan, being disappointed by the Roman Church,
+subsequently applied to the Grand Llama of Thibet, and from that
+source secured the teachers whom he so greatly desired. The Great Khan
+appears to have been an enlightened and liberal sovereign, and,
+according to his lights, was willing to furnish to his people the best
+form of religion that was to be had. He preferred the religion of the
+elegant and polished Italians, but, failing to get this, he naturally
+turned his eyes in the direction of Thibet, then an unknown land to
+all Europeans, but regarded in Mongolia as a region of some
+considerable civilization.</p>
+
+<p>The three members of the Polo family finally set out on their return
+to Cathay, leaving Acre in November, 1271. They proceeded by the way
+of Ayas and Sivas to Mardin, Mosul, and Bagdad to Hormuz, at the mouth
+of the Persian Gulf. Here they met with some obstacle and turned from
+Hormuz, and traversed successively Kerman and Khorassan, Balkh, and
+Badakhshan, by the way of the upper Oxus, to the plateau of Pamir;
+thence crossing the steppes of Pamir, the three travellers descended
+upon Kashgar, whence they proceeded by Yarkand and Khotan to the
+vicinity of Lake Lob; and, crossing the desert of Gobi, they reached
+the province of Tangut in the extreme northwestern corner of China, or
+Cathay. Skirting the northern frontier, they finally reached the
+actual presence of the Great Khan, who was then at his summer palace
+of Kaipingfu, before spoken of, situated at the base of the Khingan
+Mountains, fifty miles north of the Great Wall. One may form some idea
+of the difficulties of Asiatic travel in those days, as well as the
+leisurely habits of the time, by considering that this journey
+occupied the three Venetians three years and a half. They arrived at
+the palace of the Khan about May, 1275.</p>
+
+<p>The Polos were very cordially and gladly received by the potentate,
+then ruling over a territory so vast that it has been well said that,
+"In Asia and Eastern Europe scarcely a dog might bark without Mongol
+leave, from the borders of Poland and the coast of Cilicia to the
+Amoor and the Yellow Sea." Kublai Khan regarded the young Marco with
+especial favor, and soon began to employ him in errands and
+commissions of importance. "The Young Bachelor," as he is called in
+his book, took pains to acquire at once an acquaintance with the
+Chinese alphabet, and to learn the languages and dialects of the
+countries in which he found profitable and interesting employment.</p>
+
+<p>It appears that the Khan had been greatly annoyed by the stupidity of
+his own officials and agents. They attended only to the errands on
+which they were sent, and brought back absolutely no knowledge of the
+distant countries that they visited, except that which they were
+specially directed to fetch. Very different was the conduct of the
+young Venetian. He was shrewdly observant, of a lively disposition,
+and given to inquiring into the strange and wonderful things which he
+beheld in those remote parts of the world, hitherto secluded from the
+observation <span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span> of Europeans. He made copious and minute notes
+of all that he saw and heard, for the benefit of his imperial master.
+These notes afterward served him a good purpose, as we shall see; for
+they were the basis of the book that has made the name of Marco Polo
+famous throughout the world. When he returned to the imperial court,
+we can imagine the satisfaction with which the picturesque and
+intelligent narrations of what he had seen and heard were received by
+the Great Khan.</p>
+
+<p>In the records of the Mongol dynasty has been found a minute setting
+forth the fact that a certain Polo, undoubtedly young Marco, was
+nominated a second-class commissioner attached to the privy council of
+the Empire, in the year 1277. His first mission appears to have taken
+him on public business to the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, Sechuen and
+Yunnan, in the southern and southwestern part of China, and east of
+Thibet. Even now, those regions are comparatively unknown to the rest
+of the world; and one must needs admire the intrepidity of the young
+Venetian who penetrated their wild mountain fastnesses, traced their
+mighty rivers, and carried away for the delight of the Great Khan,
+much novel information concerning the peoples that so numerously
+flourished in that cradle of the human race.</p>
+
+<p>In his book Marco Polo does not greatly magnify himself and his
+office, and it is only incidentally, as it were, that we know that he
+was for three years governor of the great city of Yangchau. Following
+the details laid down in his book, the accuracy of which we have no
+reason to doubt, we find him visiting the old capital of the Khans, in
+Mongolia, employed in Southern Cochin-China, and on a mission to the
+Indian Seas, when he visited some of the states of India, of which
+Europeans at that time had only dimly heard the most fabulous and
+vague accounts. That the Polos were all favorites of the Great Khan is
+sufficiently evident; but it does not appear that any but Marco was in
+the employment of the Khan. All three of them doubtless made hay while
+the sun shone, and gathered wealth as they could, trading with the
+people and making use of their Venetian shrewdness in dealing with the
+natives, who were no match for the cunning traders from the Rialto.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, they longed to carry their wealth and their aged heads&mdash;for
+the two elders were now well stricken in years&mdash;safely back to their
+beloved Venice on the Adriatic, so far away. But Kublai Khan would not
+listen to any of their suggestions, and turned a deaf ear to their
+hints. A happy chance intervened to bring them out of the wild,
+mysterious realm of the Great Khan. Arghun, Khan of Persia, a
+great-nephew of Kublai, had lost by death his favorite wife, who was
+of one of the Mongol tribes, and who, dying in 1286, laid a parting
+injunction on the Khan that he should wed none but a Mongol princess.
+Sorely mourning her, the Persian Khan sent an embassy to the court of
+Kublai Khan to solicit a suitable bride for him. The Lady Kuchachin, a
+damsel of seventeen, beautiful and virtuous, was selected by the Court
+and was made ready to be sent to Tabriz, then the capital of the
+Persian Empire. The overland journey was highly dangerous, as it lay
+through regions tenanted by hostile and warlike tribes, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span>
+besides being portentously long to be undertaken by a delicate young
+princess. The Persian envoys, accordingly, entreated the Great Khan to
+send with them by sea the three foreigners, of whose seamanship they
+undoubtedly held high opinion, especially as the young Marco had just
+returned from his distant and venturous voyage to the Indian Seas.
+With much reluctance the Khan consented, and the argosy set forth.</p>
+
+<p>Having given leave for the three Venetians to sail, the Great Khan
+fitted them out nobly and endowed them with handsome presents at
+parting. They sailed, so far as we can now make out, from the port of
+Zayton, better known as Chinchau, in Fokien, at the beginning of the
+year 1292, two hundred years before Columbus set forth upon his voyage
+across the Ocean Sea.</p>
+
+<p>It was an ill-starred and unfortunate voyage for the three Polos and
+their precious charge, although all escaped with their lives and
+treasure. They were detained five months on the coast of Sumatra, and
+there were even longer detentions off the southern coast of India, so
+that more than two years had passed since their departure from Fokien,
+when they arrived at the camp of the then reigning prince of Persia.
+The Khan of Persia, they found, had died before they set sail from
+China, and his son, Ghazan Khan, reigned in his stead.</p>
+
+<p>After the custom of the times and the people, however, the princess
+was married without ado to the successor of the royal person to whom
+she had been betrothed before leaving far-off Cathay. It is related
+that she took her leave of the three noble Venetians, to whom she had
+become like a daughter and sister, with many tears and protestations
+of affection; for they had been very choice in their care of her, and
+she lamented their departure with sincere sorrow and many tears.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the princess at the camp of the Khan (for he was now at war),
+the Venetians pushed on to Tabriz, where they made a long halt,
+resting and refreshing themselves after their long and wearisome
+journey. Then they again took up their line of march westward, and
+reached Venice, as we have seen, in November, 1295, only to find their
+identity denied and their stories disbelieved, until, by an artifice,
+they made themselves truly known to their fellow-townsmen, who had
+long since given them up for dead.</p>
+
+<p>Marco Polo's book, dictated by him in prison, is remarkable for its
+reserve and its scantiness of all semblance of ornament in its
+literary style. Messer Marco evidently did not greatly affect the arts
+and graces of fine writing. Like most of the Italian gentlefolk of his
+day and generation, he held the business of writing in low esteem.
+Some of his chapters are very brief indeed, the text being no greater
+in bulk than the headings which his amanuensis put over them of his
+own motion. Of the original manuscript, written in French, copies were
+made for the use of the learned, the art of printing being as yet not
+invented. There are now in existence no less than eighty of these
+manuscripts, in various languages, more or less differing from each
+other in unimportant details; but all substantially verifying the
+facts of the wonderful history of Messer Marco Polo as here set forth.
+The most precious of these is known as the Geographical text,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span> and is preserved in the great Paris Library; from it was
+printed, in 1824, one of the most valued of the texts now in
+existence. But the most useful and satisfactory of all the printed
+editions is that edited and annotated by Colonel Henry Yule, and
+printed in London in 1871. The first printed edition of Marco Polo's
+book was in the German text, and was published in 1477.</p>
+
+<p>Many writers have dwelt long on the question, Did Columbus gather any
+information from the book of Marco Polo that aided him in forming his
+theory, that one could reach India and Cathay by sailing westward from
+Spain out into the Sea of Darkness? We cannot satisfactorily answer
+that question. But we do know that all Europe, at the time of Marco
+Polo's adventurous journey eastward, resolutely turned its back upon
+the Atlantic, and looked toward Cathay and the Far Orient for a road
+to the fabulous diamond mines and spice islands that were believed to
+exist somewhere in the vague and mysterious East. Many philosophers,
+among whom was Columbus himself, thought the globe much smaller than
+it really is; but it was Columbus who was apparently charged with a
+divine mission to teach the world that sailing due westward from the
+Pillars of Hercules would bring the voyager to the dominions of
+Prester John, the Indies, and Cipangu.</p>
+
+<p>When Columbus set sail for his hazardous venture into the Sea of
+Darkness, he was armed with letters to Prester John, the traditional
+Christian prince of the Far East; and his first landfall, as we know
+now, was by him supposed to be an outlying portion of that vast region
+vaguely known to the explorers who followed Marco Polo, as Farther
+India. But centuries rolled away before the world saw the facts of
+geography as we know them, or learned to accept as true the marvellous
+stories of Marco Polo, whose priceless legacy was first dimly known to
+the few, and was dubbed the Romance of the Great Khan.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig005" name="sig005"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig005.jpg" width="300" height="74" alt="Author signature. Noah Brooks." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>SIR WILLIAM WALLACE<br>
+
+(1270-1305)</h3>
+
+
+<p>The life and exploits of this most popular national hero of the Scots
+have been principally preserved in a legendary form by poetry and
+tradition, and are only to a very small extent matter of contemporary
+record, or illustrated by authentic documents. There is no extant
+Scottish chronicler of the age of Wallace. Fordun, the earliest of his
+countrymen from whom we have any account of him, is his junior by
+nearly a century. Wyntoun, the next authority, is still half a century
+later. His <span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span> chief celebrator is the metrical writer Blind
+Harry, or Harry the Minstrel, whose work confesses itself by its very
+form to be quite as much of a fiction as a history, and whose era, at
+any rate, is supposed to be nearly two centuries subsequent to that of
+his hero. Some few facts, however, may be got out of the English
+annalists Trivet and Hemingford, who were the contemporaries of
+Wallace.</p>
+
+<a id="img044" name="img044"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img044.jpg" width="250" height="349" alt="Sir William Wallace." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>There are contradictory statements of the year of his birth, but it is
+probable he was born about 1270. His family was one of some
+distinction, and he is said to have been the younger of the two sons
+of Sir Malcolm Wallace, of Elderslie and Auchinbothie, in the
+neighborhood of Paisley. His mother, who according to one account was
+Sir Malcolm's second wife, is stated by the genealogists to have been
+Margaret, daughter of Sir Raynald or Reginald (other authorities say
+Sir Hugh) Crawford, who held the office of Sheriff of Ayr.</p>
+
+<p>The history of Wallace down to the year 1297 is entirely legendary,
+and only to be found in the rhymes of Harry the Minstrel; though many
+of the facts which Harry relates still live as popular traditions in
+the localities where the scenes of them are laid, whether handed down
+in that way from the time when they happened, or only derived from his
+poem, which long continued to be the literary favorite of the Scottish
+peasantry. Harry, who, it may be observed, professes to translate from
+a Latin account written by Wallace's intimate friend and chaplain,
+John Blair, makes him to have been carefully educated by his uncle, a
+wealthy churchman who resided at Dunipace, in Stirlingshire, and to
+have been afterward sent to the grammar-school of Dundee. Here his
+first memorable act is said to have been performed; his slaughter of
+the son of Selby, the English governor of the castle of Dundee, in
+chastisement of an insult offered him by the unwary young man; Wallace
+with his dagger struck him dead on the spot. This must have happened,
+if at all, in the year 1291, after Edward I. of England had obtained
+possession of all the places of strength throughout Scotland on his
+recognition as Lord Paramount by the various competitors for the
+crown, which had become vacant by the death of the infant Margaret,
+the Maiden of Norway, in September, 1290.</p>
+
+<p>This bold deed committed by Wallace, who in making his escape is
+asserted to have laid several of young Selby's attendants as low as
+their master, was immediately followed by his outlawry. He now took to
+the woods, and gifted as he was with eloquence, sagacity, and other
+high mental powers and accomplishments (to this the testimony of
+Fordun is as express and explicit as that of his poetical biographer),
+not less than with strength and height of frame and all other personal
+advantages, he soon found himself at the head of a band of attached as
+well as determined followers, who under his guidance often harassed
+the English soldiery, both on their marches and at their stations,
+plundering and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span> slaying, as it might chance, with equally
+little remorse. Particular spots in nearly every part of Scotland are
+still famous for some deed of Wallace and his fellow-outlaws,
+performed at this period of his life; but for these we must refer to
+the Blind Minstrel. The woods in the neighborhood of Ayr would seem to
+have been his chief haunt; and some of his most remarkable feats of
+valor were exhibited in that town, in the face and in defiance of the
+foreign garrison by which it was occupied. Both his father and his
+elder brother are said to have fallen in <i>rencontres</i> with the English
+during this interval. It was now also that he fell in love with the
+orphan daughter of Sir Hew de Bradfute, the heiress of Lamington,
+having, it is said, first seen her at a church in the neighborhood of
+Lanark. The Scotch writers affirm that this lady, whom he appears to
+have married, and who at any rate bore him a daughter, a year or two
+after forming her connection with Wallace fell into the hands of his
+enemies, and was barbarously executed by order of Hazelrig, the
+English Sheriff or Governor of Lanark, while her husband, or lover,
+was doomed to witness the spectacle from a place where he lay in
+concealment. Such private injuries were well fitted to raise his
+hatred to an unextinguishable flame.</p>
+
+<p>How far the guerilla warfare maintained by Wallace and his associates
+contributed to excite and spread the spirit of resistance to the
+English government, we have scarcely the means of judging; but it
+seems probable that it aided materially in producing the general
+insurrection which broke out in the spring of 1297. The accounts we
+have of the commencement of that movement represent Wallace at its
+head, in command of a considerable force, and in association with some
+of the most distinguished persons in the kingdom, such as the Steward
+of Scotland and his brother, Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, Sir William
+Douglas, etc. Soon after this he was joined by the younger Robert
+Bruce (afterward King Robert I.) who had hitherto, as well as his
+father, who was still alive (the son of the original competitor for
+the crown), professed to adhere to the English king.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, appears to have been but an ill-cemented confederacy.
+When the force despatched by Edward to quell the revolt presented
+itself before the Scottish army posted near Irvine, in Ayrshire, the
+leaders of the latter, throwing off the authority of their nominal
+chief, could no more agree what to do than whom to obey: and the
+result was that Bruce, the Steward, Douglas, and others of them,
+availing themselves of the diplomatic talents of the Bishop of
+Glasgow, concluded a treaty on July 9th, by which they agreed to
+acknowledge Edward as their sovereign lord. All the rest ultimately
+acceded to this arrangement, except only Wallace and his friend, Sir
+Andrew Moray, of Bothwell. The treaty of Irvine, which is printed by
+Rymer, is, we believe, the first of the few public documents in which
+mention is made of Wallace; to the instrument (which is in French) are
+subjoined the words, "Escrit ą Sir Willaume," the meaning of which
+Lord Hailes conceives to be, "that the barons had notified Wallace
+that they had made terms of accommodation for themselves and their
+party." The words, moreover, on the supposition that they refer to
+Wallace, of which there seems to be little doubt, show that he had
+before this date obtained the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span> honor of knighthood. It had
+probably been bestowed upon him (as was then customary) by some other
+knight, one of his companions in arms, since his elevation from being
+the captain of a band of outlaws to be the commander-in-chief of the
+national forces.</p>
+
+<p>Wallace now retired to the north, carrying with him, however, a
+considerable body of adherents, to whom additional numbers rapidly
+gathered, so that he soon found himself in a condition to recommence
+aggressive operations. Directing his force to the northeastern coast,
+he surprised the castle of Dunottar, cleared Aberdeen, Forfar,
+Brechin, and other towns of their English garrisons, and then laid
+siege to the castle of Dundee. While he was engaged in this last
+attempt, news was brought that the English army was approaching
+Stirling; upon which, leaving the siege to be carried on by the
+citizens of Dundee, he hastened to meet the enemy in the field. The
+result was the complete defeat and rout of the English, at the battle
+of Stirling Bridge, fought on September 11, 1297&mdash;a battle which once
+more, for the moment, liberated Scotland. The English were immediately
+driven or fled from every place of strength in the country, including
+Berwick itself.</p>
+
+<p>Availing himself of this panic and of the exhilaration of his
+countrymen, Wallace pursued the fugitives across the border; and
+putting himself at the head of a numerous force, he entered England on
+October 18th, and, remaining till November 11th, wasted the country
+with fire and sword from sea to sea, and as far south as to the walls
+of Newcastle. It was during this visitation that the prior and convent
+of Hexham obtained from him the protection preserved by Hemingford. It
+is dated at Hexildesham (Hexham), November 7th, and runs in the names
+of "Andreas de Moravia, et Wilhelmus Wallensis, duces exercitus
+Scotię, nomine pręclari principis Joannis, Dei gratia, Regis Scotia
+illustris, de consensu communitatis regni ejusdem," that is, "Andrew
+Moray and William Wallace, commanders-in-chief of the army of
+Scotland, in the name of King John, and by consent of the community of
+the said kingdom." The John here acknowledged as King of Scotland was
+Baliol, now in the hands of Edward, and living in a sort of free
+custody in the Tower of London. Wallace's associate in the command was
+the young Sir Andrew Moray, son of his faithful friend of that name,
+who had retired with him from the capitulation of Irvine, and who had
+fallen at the battle of Stirling Bridge.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most curious of the few public papers in which the name of
+Wallace occurs was a few years since discovered by Dr. Lappenburg, of
+Hamburg, in the archives of the ancient Hanseatic city of Lübeck. It
+is a letter, in Latin, addressed to the authorities of Lübeck and
+Hamburg, informing them that their merchants should now have free
+access to all ports of the kingdom of Scotland, seeing that the said
+kingdom, by the favor of God, had been recovered by war from the power
+of the English. The letter is dated "apud Badsing tonam" (the true
+word, it has been suggested, is probably Haddingtonam), October 11,
+1297, that is, a few days before the invasion of Cumberland and
+Northumberland. It is in the name of "Andreas de Moravia et Willelmus
+Wallensis, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span> duces exercitis regni Scotię, et communitas,
+eiusdem regni"&mdash;like the Hexham protection&mdash;but without any mention of
+King John.</p>
+
+<p>After his triumphal return from his incursion into England, Wallace
+assumed the title of Guardian of the Kingdom in the name of King John,
+whether formally invested with that dignity or only hailed as such by
+the gratitude of his countrymen. In a charter, printed in Anderson's
+"Diplomata," conferring the constabulary of Dundee on Alexander
+Skirmischur (Scrimgeour) and his heirs, and dated at Torphichen (in
+the county of Linlithgow) March 29, 1298, he styles himself,
+"Willelmus Walays miles, Custos Regni Scotię, et ductor exercituum
+ejusdem, nomine pręclari principis Domini Johannis, Dei gratia Regis
+Scotię illustris, de consensu communitatis ejusdem." The grant is
+stated to have been made with the consent and approbation of the
+nobility ("per consensum et assensum magnatum dicti regni.")</p>
+
+<p>But this supreme elevation did not last long. Supported only by his
+own merits and the admiration and attachment of his humbler
+fellow-countrymen, Wallace, a new man, and without family connection,
+would probably have found it difficult or impossible to retain his
+high place, even if he had had nothing more to contend with than
+domestic jealousy and dissatisfaction. Fordun relates that many of the
+nobility were in the habit of saying, "We will not have this man to
+rule over us." Meanwhile the energetic English king, who had been
+abroad when the defeat of Stirling Bridge lost him Scotland, had now
+returned home, and was already on his march toward the borders at the
+head of a powerful army. A body of English, which had landed in the
+north of Fife, led by Aymer de Vallois, Earl of Pembroke, is said by
+the Scottish authorities to have been attacked and routed by Wallace
+on June 12, 1298, in the forest of Blackironside, in that county; but
+when the two main armies met on July 22d, in the neighborhood of
+Falkirk&mdash;the Scots commanded by Wallace, the English by their king in
+person&mdash;the former, after a gallant and obstinate resistance, were at
+last forced to give way, and the battle ended in a universal rout
+accompanied with immense slaughter.</p>
+
+<p>This defeat did not put an end to the war; but it was taken advantage
+of by the Scottish nobility to deprive Wallace of his office of
+guardian or chief governor of the kingdom. The Scottish accounts say
+that he voluntarily resigned the supreme power; it is certain, at any
+rate, that Bruce, his rival Comyn, and Lamberton, Bishop of St.
+Andrew's, were now appointed joint guardians of Scotland, still in the
+name of Baliol. For some years after this our accounts of Wallace are
+slight and obscure; but he appears to have returned with a chosen band
+of followers to the practice of the desultory warfare in which he had
+originally distinguished himself. The legendary histories continue to
+detail his deeds of prowess performed in harassing the enemy both on
+their marches and in their camps and strongholds. And to fill up the
+story, they also make him to have paid two visits to France&mdash;the first
+in 1300, the second in 1302. The next well-ascertained fact regarding
+him is that when the Scottish leaders were at last obliged to submit
+to Edward at Strathorde, on February 9, 1304, Wallace was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span>
+not included in the capitulation, one of the clauses of which (printed
+in the original French in Ryley's "Placeta Parliamentaria") is to the
+effect that as for Wallace (Monsieur Guillaume de Galeys), he might,
+if he pleased, give himself up to the king's mercy ("quil se mette en
+la voluntč et en la grace nostre seigneur le Roy, si lui semble, que
+bon soit"). He was soon after summoned to appear before a parliament
+or convention of Scotch and English nobility, held at St. Andrew's;
+and upon their not presenting themselves, he and Sir Simon Frisel, or
+Fraser, were pronounced outlaws. For some time his retreat remained
+undiscovered, although his active hostility still continued
+occasionally to make itself felt. A principal person employed in the
+attempts to capture him appears to have been Ralph de Haliburton; but
+how he was actually taken is not known. Sir John Menteith (a son of
+Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith), to whose treachery his delivery to
+the English king is attributed by Blind Harry and popular tradition,
+appears to have really done nothing more than forward him to England
+after he was brought a prisoner to Dumbarton Castle, of which Menteith
+was governor under a commission from Edward.</p>
+
+<p>On being brought to London, Wallace was lodged in the house of William
+Delect, a citizen, in Fenchurch Street; and on the next day, being the
+eve of St. Bartholomew, he was brought on horseback to Westminster,
+and in the hall there, "being placed on the south bench," says Stow,
+"crowned with laurel for that he had said in times past that he ought
+to bear a crown in that all," he was arraigned as a traitor, and on
+that charge found guilty, and condemned to death. After being dragged
+to the usual place of execution&mdash;the Elms, in West Smithfield&mdash;at the
+tails of his horses, he was there hanged on a high gallows, on August
+23, 1305, after which he was "drawn and quartered." His right arm was
+set up at Newcastle, his left at Berwick; his right leg at Perth, his
+left at Aberdeen; his head on London Bridge. Wallace's daughter, by
+the heiress of Lamington, married Sir William Bailie, of Hoprig, whose
+descendants through her inherited the estate of Lamington.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+<h3>ROBERT BRUCE<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Sir J. Bernard Burke, LL.D.</span><br>
+
+(1274-1329)</h3>
+
+
+<p>Robert Bruce was born in the year 1274, on the Feast of the
+translation of St. Benedict, being March 21st, and was undoubtedly of
+Norman origin. In an annual roll containing the names of those knights
+and barons who came over with William the Conqueror, we find that of
+Brueys; and from the Domesday Book it appears that a family of the
+same name were possessed of lands in Yorkshire. Coming down to a later
+period, 1138, when David I. of Scotland made his fatal attack
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span> upon England&mdash;fatal, that is, to himself and his people&mdash;the
+English barons, previous to the battle of Cutton Moor, near
+Northallerton, sent a message to the Scottish king, by Robert Bruce,
+of Cleveland, a Norman knight, who possessed estates in either
+country. Upon his death, this knight bequeathed his English lands to
+his eldest son, and those in Annandale to his younger, who received a
+confirmation of his title by a charter of William the Lion. From this
+root sprung Robert Bruce, the competitor for the crown with Baliol,
+whose grandson was the more celebrated Robert Bruce, the younger, Earl
+of Carrick in virtue of his mother's title, and afterward King of
+Scotland. He was the eldest of three brothers and seven sisters, whose
+marriages with some of the leading families of Scotland proved an
+important element of success to the future hero. His earliest years
+were passed at the castle of Turnberry, where his mother resided; but
+as he grew older, his father, who considered himself an English baron,
+thought proper that he should be removed to the English court. The
+friendship subsisting between Edward the First and the Earl of Carrick
+induced the former to adopt the earl's son; so that the confiding
+monarch trained up his mortal enemy in the use of those arts and
+weapons which were one day to be turned against himself.</p>
+
+<a id="img045" name="img045"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img045.jpg" width="250" height="304" alt="Robert Bruce." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>The family of Bruce, as we have already noticed, were competitors for
+the Scottish throne with Baliol, in whose favor an award was
+pronounced by Edward, when called upon to arbitrate between them. At
+this time the elder Bruce was far advanced in years; his son, the Earl
+of Carrick, was still in the prime of life, and his grandson, Robert
+Bruce was eighteen years of age. Upon the old man being required to do
+homage for his lands in Scotland to the new monarch of that country,
+he indignantly refused, exclaiming, "I am Baliol's sovereign, not
+Baliol mine; and rather than consent to such a homage, I resign my
+lands in Annandale to my son, the Earl of Carrick." But Carrick was
+not less proud, or averse to anything that might call in question his
+claim to the crown of Scotland, and in like manner refused to hold any
+lands of Baliol. As, however, according to the feudal law, he must
+either divest himself of his estate, or do homage for it, he adopted
+the former alternative, and resigned the lands of Annandale in favor
+of his son, Robert. The young baron, less scrupulous than his
+relatives, did not hesitate to accept his father's gift, which, upon
+feudal principles, carried with it the title of Earl of Carrick, and
+did homage for the same to Baliol. By his father's death, in 1304, he
+became possessed of the family estates in England.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span> From this time Bruce played his part with skill, though in
+justice it must be allowed that his patriotism was not altogether
+without the alloy of a selfish ambition; and perhaps it would be
+expecting too much from human nature, even in its best and highest
+forms, to look for anything else. Neither can we free him from the
+charge of dissimulation in that he swore a fealty to Baliol, which it
+is plain he never intended to observe, and affected gratitude and
+attachment for the English monarch, while in secret he was preparing
+to undermine him. An excuse for this has been sought by his more
+partial admirers in the necessity of the case, arising from the
+well-known sagacity of Edward, who would otherwise have penetrated his
+purposes and crushed them in the bud without scruple. Nor was this the
+only obstacle in his path to empire. Upon the failure of Baliol and
+his only son, Edward, the ancient and powerful family of the Comyns
+were ready to dispute his title to the crown, which they claimed for
+themselves. John, commonly called the Red Comyn, who had been the
+determined opponent of Wallace, possessed, in the event of the monarch
+dying without issue, the same right to the throne which was vested in
+Bruce himself. He, too, had connected himself by marriage with the
+royal family of England, and was at this time one of the most powerful
+subjects in Scotland. When Baliol leagued with Comyn to throw off the
+supremacy of Edward, whose hand, whether justly or not, had raised him
+to the Scottish throne, the Bruces and their party, tempted by the
+promise of a crown, lent their best aid to the English monarch. Upon
+the termination of the campaign the elder Bruce demanded the
+fulfilment of Edward's promise, to which the latter indignantly
+replied that he had not come into Scotland to conquer a kingdom for
+him; so that Bruce reaped nothing else at the time from his service,
+than the satisfaction of seeing his rival, Baliol, dethroned, and the
+influence of the Comyns effectually diminished.</p>
+
+<p>In 1296 Edward held a parliament at Berwick, compelling the Scotch
+barons to do him homage, and the young lord of Carrick concurred in
+the national submission. But notwithstanding this outward show of
+fealty, he became, in the time of Wallace's success, suspected of
+entertaining designs upon the crown. At first, indeed, he had joined
+against Wallace, and wasted the lands of his adherent, Douglas, with
+fire and sword; yet, soon after his return home, he summoned the
+Annandale men, who were the vassals of his father, then in the service
+of Edward, and thus addressed them: "You have already heard, without
+doubt, of that solemn oath, which I lately took at Carlisle, and I
+cannot deny the fact; but the oath was a foolish one, and exacted by
+fear; it was my body that took the oath, and not my mind; but its
+having been taken at all is now to me the cause of much remorse and
+sorrow; yet erelong I hope to be absolved from it by our Holy Father.
+In the meanwhile, I am resolved to go and join my fellow-countrymen,
+and assist them in their efforts to restore to its liberty the land of
+my nativity, for none, as you know, is an enemy of his own flesh, and
+as for me, I love my people. Let me beseech you, then, to adopt the
+same resolution, and you shall ever be esteemed my most dear friends
+and approved counsellors."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span> To this request the men of Annandale deferred giving any
+answer till the morning, and took advantage of the night to retire, so
+that Bruce could only join the insurgents with his own vassals of
+Carrick.</p>
+
+<p>The first disappointment might have taught Bruce to desist from his
+design, for which the time was not yet ripe; but blinded by ambition,
+he entered into a strict alliance with Wishart, the Bishop of Glasgow,
+and the Steward of Scotland, the principal leaders of the
+insurrection. Upon joining his new associates, he found their purposes
+utterly incompatible with his views upon the crown. Wallace, the soul
+of the party, had ever supported the claims of Baliol, and his great
+supporter, Sir Andrew Moray, a near connection of the Comyns, had the
+same object. During the campaign, therefore, of 1298, which concluded
+with the battle of Falkirk, Bruce shut himself up in his castle of
+Ayr, maintaining a cautious neutrality, while his father continued to
+reside in England and to serve Edward in his wars. The king, however,
+did not admire this cold system of neutrality. He in consequence
+determined to attack the castle of Ayr, and Bruce, dreading the
+consequences, razed it to the ground, and sought an asylum in the
+mountain fastnesses of Carrick.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year, when Wallace had resigned the regency, John
+Comyn, of Badenoch, and Sir John de Soulis, were chosen governors of
+the kingdom, and the party of Bruce availed themselves of the
+opportunity to advance his influence by opposition to those in power,
+and by defeating every measure taken for the public benefit. An
+attempt was made by those who really wished well to the national
+cause, or who dreaded that their disunion might be fatal to all alike,
+to reconcile the contending factions; with this view they elected
+Bruce, and Lamberton, Bishop of Glasgow, joint regents in the name of
+Baliol; but this ill-assorted coalition soon fell to pieces, as might
+have been expected, where the views which one party entertained in
+secret were so utterly opposed to the avowed purposes of all.</p>
+
+<p>The policy which actuated Bruce on this occasion may be easily
+explained. It was clear that Edward would never consent to the
+restoration of Baliol, then in exile, and the Comyns had taken so
+decided a part against him, that it seemed most improbable he would
+ever consent to raise one of that family to the throne. Continuing,
+therefore, the same line of duplicity with which he had commenced, and
+which he had only abandoned for a single instant in the vain hope of
+persuading the party of Wallace to openly adopt his claims, he now
+endeavored by submission and affected attachment to win the favor of
+the English monarch. Edward, he well knew, had the power, could he be
+brought to entertain the inclination, to place him on the Scottish
+throne, and if this point were once attained, Bruce trusted that means
+would afterward occur of shaking off all dependence upon his
+benefactor. In these designs he to a certain extent succeeded, but not
+in his main object. If he was crafty, Edward was yet craftier. He had
+fallen into the same error that his father had, in 1296, and was
+outwitted by the superior political ability of him whom he had
+intended to deceive, and who, it must be confessed, was equally
+insincere. Edward cheated both father and son, by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span> holding
+out to them the hope of a crown he never meant them to attain, his
+object being to unite the two countries; an excellent purpose in
+itself, if we could only bring ourselves to overlook the fraud and
+violence by which it was to be accomplished. When, therefore, the
+Comyns submitted, in 1304, and he proceeded to the settlement of his
+new dominions, the Earl of Carrick found that his only gain was the
+being employed among the commissioners in organizing a system of
+government. He had, however, reaped no little advantage from his
+dissimulation. While Baliol was an exile and Comyn in disgrace, he had
+preserved his estates, and won the king's confidence without losing,
+but rather augmenting, his influence with the Scotch. At the same time
+he saw that Comyn was still powerful; his claims to the throne were
+more generally admitted by the people, and without his concurrence
+nothing could be effected. Thus situated, Bruce submitted to his rival
+this alternative: "Give me your land, and I shall bind myself to
+support your title to the kingdom, and, when we have expelled our
+enemies, to place the crown upon your head; or, if thou dost not
+choose to assume the state of the kingdom, here am I ready to resign
+to you my estates, on condition that you second me in my efforts to
+regain the throne of my fathers." Comyn accepted the latter
+alternative, but immediately betrayed the design to Edward, and sent
+him the letter, or indenture, by which Bruce had bound himself. But
+the latter, when suddenly charged with it, denied his hand and seal
+with a coolness that could only belong to one long practised in the
+arts of dissimulation, and demanded time to prove his innocence.
+Arch-deceiver as the English king himself was, he yet allowed himself
+to be duped by this specious effrontery, and Bruce escaping into
+Scotland, murdered Comyn in the church of the Grey Friars, at
+Dumfries. Soon afterward he was crowned at Scone, and the revolution
+spread far and wide; upon hearing which, Edward sent an invading army
+into Scotland. Superiority of force and military skill soon compelled
+Bruce to retreat to the mountain fastnesses, that offered a better
+place of security than the strongest castle, for castles might be
+stormed; but here, if danger threatened him at one point, he had only
+to retreat to one more remote and more rugged, and thus at any time
+was enabled to baffle his pursuers when he found them too powerful to
+be resisted. A series of fights&mdash;battles they could hardly be
+called&mdash;and adventures now ensued which have all the coloring of
+romance, but which entailed so much of hardness and privation upon his
+followers, that after a while it became evident he would not be able
+much longer to keep them from abandoning a cause so desperate. Then,
+again, a spark of hope was kindled by the disaffection growing out of
+the severity which Edward exercised upon all who had been in arms to
+resist him. Numbers in consequence flocked to Bruce, and fresh
+adventures succeeded of a yet more romantic nature than those already
+mentioned; the fortunes of the wanderer seeming now to be at the
+lowest ebb, and then again rising into a prosperous flood, which as
+rapidly subsided, making it a matter of some difficulty for him to
+escape being stranded by the falling waters. It was during this season
+that Douglas disgraced himself and the Scottish name by barbarities
+that have never been surpassed, and rarely even equalled.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span> The death of the great Edward&mdash;for great he was, in spite of
+all his faults&mdash;and the accession of his son, the feeble Edward II.,
+left an open field to Bruce, who was as much superior to those that
+now opposed him, as he had been overcrowned by the genius of his late
+adversary. He marched from victory to victory, and would, no doubt,
+have brought the contest to a happy termination, had he not been
+seized by an alarming sickness. At first, it threatened to be fatal;
+things were again beginning to look gloomy for Scotland; but in the
+moment of extreme peril, he shook off his disease by a strong effort,
+and once more led his followers through a series of triumphs, which
+were crowned by the great battle of Bannockburn. Though we cannot
+allow the ambition which seeks a crown to pass for patriotism, it is
+impossible to deny the highest praise to the courage, firmness, and
+ability displayed by Bruce through the whole of this trying period.
+None may deny that he deserved a crown, and when once obtained, it
+acquired a lustre from the talents of him who wore it.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce soon found himself in a condition to assist his brother Edward
+in the attempt to drive the English out of Ireland. But here the usual
+good fortune of the Scotch abandoned them. After a hard-fought
+campaign, attended by many vicissitudes, his sagacity saw that the
+attempt was hopeless, and he returned to Scotland. Shortly afterward,
+the turbulent and aspiring Edward Bruce was slain in battle.</p>
+
+<p>His wonted success attended Bruce in the field, in the midst of which,
+however, a plot was formed against his life and government.
+Fortunately it was revealed in time by the Countess of Strathearn, to
+whom the conspirators had the weakness to confide their intentions;
+and soon afterward, to crown his prosperity, Edward II. was compelled
+by a series of defeats to conclude a peace. But Bruce's health began
+to be impaired, and when war again broke out between the countries,
+upon the deposition of Edward II. and the succession of his son,
+Edward III., he was unable to lead his projected expedition against
+England. It ended in failure, if not in defeat.</p>
+
+<p>A short interval of health and hope gleamed upon him after this
+attack, and peace was concluded between the two countries, greatly to
+the dissatisfaction of the English, who, justly enough, considered
+themselves sacrificed to the ambition of the queen-mother, Isabella,
+and of her favorite, Mortimer. But this momentary promise of health
+and vigor soon passed away, and it became plain to all that the life
+of this brave and sagacious monarch was drawing rapidly to a close. In
+expectation of the final event he had given orders to have a
+magnificent tomb made at Paris; which was brought to Bruges, thence
+through England into Scotland, and on its arrival erected in the
+church of the Benedictines at Dunfermline.</p>
+
+<p>Bruce died in his fifty-fifth year, and was buried in the abbey-church
+of Dunfermline, as he had desired.</p>
+
+<p>In the prime of his life Bruce was upward of six feet high; his
+shoulders were broad, his chest full and open; the cheek-bones strong
+and prominent, and the muscles of the back and neck of great size and
+thickness; his hair curled short over a broad forehead, and the
+general expression of his face was calm and cheerful; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span> yet,
+when he pleased, he could assume a character of stern command. Such,
+at least, Bruce has been described by the old historian, and we may
+easily believe it, since the outward semblance agrees so well with
+what is recorded of his life and actions.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED<br>
+
+(DIED, 1386)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img046" name="img046"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img046.jpg" width="300" height="218" alt="Arnold von Winkelried." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>The incident with which this name is connected is, after the purely
+legendary feat of Tell, the best known and most popular in the early
+history of the Swiss Confederation. We are told how, at a critical
+moment in the great battle of Sempach, when the Swiss had failed to
+break the serried ranks of the Austrian knights, a man of Unterwalden,
+Arnold von Winkelried by name, came to the rescue. Commending his wife
+and children to the care of his comrades, he rushed toward the
+Austrians, gathered a number of their spears together against his
+breast, and fell pierced through, having opened a way into the hostile
+ranks for his fellow-countrymen, though at the price of his own life.
+But the Tell and Winkelried stories stand in a very different position
+when looked at in the dry light of history; for, while in the former
+imaginary and impossible men (bearing now and then a real historical
+name) do imaginary and impossible deeds at a very uncertain period, in
+the latter we have some solid ground to rest on, and Winkelried's act
+might very well have been performed, though, as yet, the amount of
+genuine and early evidence in support of it is very far from being
+sufficient.</p>
+
+<p>The Winkelrieds of Stanz were a knightly family when we first hear of
+them, though toward the end of the fourteenth century they seem to
+have been but simple men without the honors of knighthood, and not
+always using their prefix "von." Among its members we find an Erni
+Winkelried acting as a witness to a contract of sale on May 1, 1367;
+while the same man, or perhaps another member of the family, Erni von
+Winkelried, is plaintiff in a suit at Stanz, on September 29, 1389,
+and in 1417 is the landamman (or head-man) of Unterwalden, being then
+called Arnold Winkelriet. We have, therefore, a real man named Arnold
+Winkelried living at Stanz, about the time of the battle of Sempach.
+The question is thus narrowed to the points, was he present at the
+battle, and did he then perform the deed commonly attributed to him?
+The determination of this question requires a minute investigation of
+the history of that battle, to ascertain if <span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span> there are any
+authentic traces of this incident, or any opportunity for it to have
+taken place.</p>
+
+<p>1. <span class="smcap">Evidence of Chronicles.</span>&mdash;The earliest known mention of the incident
+is found in a Zurich chronicle (discovered in 1862 by Herr G. von
+Wyss), which is a copy, made in 1476, of a chronicle written in, or at
+any rate not earlier than, 1438, though it is wanting in the sixteenth
+century transcript of another chronicle written in 1466, which up to
+1389 closely agrees with the former. It appears in the well-known
+form, but the hero is stated to be "ein getrüwer man under den
+Eidgenozen," no name being given, and it seems clear that his death
+did not take place at that time. No other mention has been found in
+any of the numerous Swiss or Austrian chronicles, till we come to the
+book "De Helvetię Origine," written in 1538 by Rudolph Gwalther
+(Zwingli's son-in-law), when the hero is still nameless, being
+compared to Decius or Codrus, but is said to have been killed by his
+brave act. Finally we read the full story in the original draft of
+Giles Tschudi's chronicle, where the hero is described "as a man of
+Unterwalden, of the Winkelried family," this being expanded in the
+first rescension of the chronicle (1564) into "a man of Unterwalden,
+Arnold von Winkelried by name, a brave knight;" while he is entered
+(in the same book, on the authority of the "Anniversary Book" of
+Stanz, now lost) on the list of those who fell at Sempach, at the head
+of the Nidwald (or Stanz) men, as "Herr Arnold von Winkelried,
+ritter," this being in the first draft "Arnold Winckelriet."</p>
+
+<p>2. <span class="smcap">Ballads.</span>&mdash;There are several war songs on the battle of Sempach
+which have come down to us, but in one only is there mention of
+Winkelried and his deed. This is a long ballad of sixty-seven
+four-line stanzas, part of which (including the Winkelried section) is
+found in the additions made between 1531 and 1545 to Etterlin's
+chronicle by H. Berlinger of Basel, and the whole in Werner Steiner's
+chronicle (written 1532). It is agreed on all sides that the last
+stanza, attributing the authorship to Halbsuter, of Lucerne, "as he
+came back from the battle," is a very late addition. Many authorities
+regard it as made up of three distinct songs (one of which refers to
+the battle and Winkelried), possibly put together by the younger
+Halbsuter (citizen of Lucerne in 1435, died between 1470 and 1480);
+though others contend that the Sempach-Winkelried section bears clear
+traces of having been composed after the Reformation began, that is,
+about 1520 or 1530. Some recent discoveries have proved that certain
+statements in the song, usually regarded as anachronisms, are quite
+accurate; but no nearer approach has been made toward fixing its exact
+date, or that of any of the three bits into which it has been cut up.
+In this song the story appears in its full-blown shape, the name of
+Winckelriet being given.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="img047" name="img047"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img047.jpg" width="600" height="377" alt="" title="">
+<p>Arnold Winkelried at Sempach.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span> JOAN OF ARC<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8" title="Go to footnote 8"><span class="small">[8]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Ella Wheeler Wilcox</span><br>
+
+(1412-1431)</h3>
+
+<a id="img048" name="img048"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img048.jpg" width="250" height="251" alt="Joan of Arc." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>In the history of the world since the dawn of time, there is no other
+character so remarkable to me as that of Joan of Arc.</p>
+
+<p>You have but to think of any young girl of your acquaintance,
+seventeen years old, and try to imagine her leading an army to battle,
+storming a fort, or planning a campaign, in order to realize in a
+measure the astounding qualities possessed by this wonderful being.</p>
+
+<p>Not only did she do all this as wisely as the most astute general who
+ever lived, but she succeeded in liberating France from the hands of
+the English, where we have very good reason to think it might have
+otherwise remained to this day; for the English were gaining ground
+steadily, and the French dauphin was utterly discouraged, and had
+ceased to make an effort to maintain his rights, when Joan of Arc came
+to his rescue.</p>
+
+<p>The English king, Henry V., had died in the midst of his triumphs. Two
+months later, imbecile Charles VI., of France, passed away also, and
+Henry VI., of England, was proclaimed king of both nations; while at
+the same time the dauphin was hailed King of France by his few
+followers. But his fortunes were at the lowest ebb, his small army,
+stationed at Orleans, was in need of food. Four thousand of his men
+went out to search for provisions, and encountered half that number of
+English soldiers. A battle ensued, and five hundred of the bravest
+French soldiers were left dead on the field of strife. Despite their
+bravery, hunger and fatigue had unfitted them to combat with their
+well-fed adversaries.</p>
+
+<p>The dauphin had shut himself in the castle of Chinon, with fair women
+and gay comrades, while the siege was raging before the walls of
+Orleans. He was at that time a weak and vacillant youth, given over to
+the same pleasures and vices which drove his father mad and caused his
+brother's death. He had no pride in rescuing his crown from the
+English, and it must be confessed that the treatment he had received
+from his own mother and his own countrymen, who sold him to the enemy,
+was sufficient to dishearten a stronger nature than his. Added to
+this, he was doubtful of his legitimate right to the throne, owing to
+his mother's depraved career. But when, in the midst of his orgies,
+the news was brought to him, in the castle of Chinon, that his army
+was defeated before the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span> walls of Orleans, what little hope
+or courage he had left seemed to desert him and he sank into a state
+of despair.</p>
+
+<p>And far away on the frontier, in the little village of Domremy, a
+young girl watched her flocks, and wept over the fate of her beloved
+country; and weeping, prayed that God would save France from the
+oppressor. How earnestly she prayed, and how well God listened,
+history has recorded in a tale more wonderful than any story ever
+conceived by the imagination of man, and sadder than any other save
+the story of the Nazarene upon the Cross of Calvary.</p>
+
+<p>The end of France as a nation seemed at hand. The nobility had been
+led into captivity and sold to an invading enemy; the clergy had seen
+its altars defamed by arrogant strangers. Industry had been ruined by
+civil wars during the long imbecility of Charles VI., and the
+succeeding ravages made by the English. Villages were depopulated,
+homes desolated, and look where they might, the people of France saw
+no hope of aid, save from on high.</p>
+
+<p>Of this epoch Henry Martin says, "The people expected nothing from
+human sources; but a sentiment of indestructible nationality stirred
+in their hearts and told them that France could not die. Hoping
+nothing from earth, they lifted their souls to heaven; an ardent
+religious fervor seized upon them, which had no part with clergy or
+creed. It rose from the extremity of their need, and fixed its root in
+an old oracle of the Middle Ages, which had predicted that France
+should be 'lost through a woman and saved by a virgin.'"</p>
+
+<p>France had certainly been lost through its wicked queen; that part of
+the old prophecy had been fearfully fulfilled; the remaining clause
+was yet to be verified. The people, excited to a religious frenzy by
+their desperate straits and their faith in the old superstition,
+prayed more fervently with each day; and their prayers rose like great
+white eagles and settled upon the heart of that strange divine child,
+who was weeping over the fate of France while she watched her sheep on
+the plains of Domremy.</p>
+
+<p>A humbly born girl was Joan of Arc, unable to read or write; women who
+could do more than that were rare in those days, so she was not
+despised on account of her ignorance, but highly respected for her
+industry and piety. An enthusiastic Catholic, she added to her church
+duties by active benevolence and kindness to the sick and poor in her
+native town. Often she was seen to kneel in the fields and pray; and
+there was a chapel some miles from Domremy to which she used to make a
+pilgrimage every Sunday and offer prayers to the Virgin. There was,
+too, in the forest of Bois Chemin a famous beech-tree under which a
+stream of clear water flowed; and a superstition prevailed among the
+people of Domremy that fairies had blessed this tree and bestowed
+healing properties upon the waters of the stream. The priest and the
+villagers marched about the sacred tree once each year singing solemn
+chants, and the young people hung its boughs with garlands, and danced
+under its shading branches. Joan dearly loved this spot, and it became
+her favorite haunt. The echoes of war reverberated even to this quiet
+frontier hamlet, and in her hours of reverie she dwelt sadly upon the
+stories of bloodshed and suffering which she heard her elders repeat.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span> She was twelve years old when the dauphin was proclaimed king
+by his few followers; and in all his flight from province to province,
+fleeing before the usurpers of his throne, no heart in all France
+suffered more keenly than the heart beating in the breast of this
+humble shepherd girl. The misfortunes of the dauphin, the woes of her
+country, took complete possession of her expanding mind. Her pure
+young soul yearned toward the Infinite in one ceaseless prayer; and
+when any soul is so lifted up above all thought of self, praying for
+the good of others, a response never fails to come. It is only selfish
+prayers which remain unanswered. Joan's beautiful nature was like the
+sensitive plate prepared to receive the impression; and while she
+prayed the angels to save France, the angels prepared her to become
+the saviour.</p>
+
+<p>One summer day, when she was in her fourteenth year, she was running
+in the fields with her companions, when, as she afterward declared,
+"she felt herself lifted as by an invisible force and carried along as
+if she possessed wings." Her companions gazed upon her with
+astonishment, seeing her fly beyond their reach. Then she heard a
+voice, which proceeded from a great light above her; and the voice
+said, "Joan, put your trust in God, and go and save France."</p>
+
+<p>This strange experience filled her with terror; but ere many days she
+heard the voice again, and this time she saw the figure of a winged
+angel. "I am the Archangel Michael," the voice said, "and the
+messenger of God, who bids you to go to the aid of the dauphin and
+restore him to his throne."</p>
+
+<p>Overcome with fear, she fell on her knees in tears; but the angel
+continued to appear to her, accompanied with two female forms, and
+always urging her to go to the aid of her country. Fear gave place to
+ecstacy, and in the heart of this divine child awoke the audacious
+idea whose climax astounded the whole world.</p>
+
+<p>At first she reasoned with the voices, telling them "she was but a
+poor girl, who knew nothing of men or war." But the voices replied,
+"Go and save France; God will be with you, and you have nothing to
+fear."</p>
+
+<p>During three years she listened to these voices, which made themselves
+heard by her two or three times each week. She seemed consumed by an
+inward fever, and strange words escaped her. One day she said to a
+laborer, that "midway between Coussi and Vaucouleurs there lived a
+maid who should bring the dauphin to his throne."</p>
+
+<p>These words were repeated to her father and they alarmed him; and we
+cannot wonder that they did. How could he think otherwise than that
+his little girl was losing her senses? How could he dream of the
+divine and superhuman powers that had descended upon her from a higher
+world? He told her brother that if Joan should attempt to follow the
+army, as he feared she might, "he would rather drown her with his own
+hands." Her parents set a watch upon her movements, and decided to
+marry her to a young man who was secretly enamored of her. They
+connived with this admirer to swear before an officer of the law that
+Joan had promised him her heart; but she so strenuously denied the
+assertion before the judge that she gained her case.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span> Just at this epoch the people of Domremy were obliged to fly
+before an invading troop of soldiers. When they returned to their
+village they found their church burned and their homes pillaged. Joan
+regarded this as a direct punishment for her hesitation in heeding the
+"voices." She would hesitate no longer, and after repeated delays and
+disheartening rebuffs, she succeeded in winning her way, with a few
+believers in her mission, to the king's castle.</p>
+
+<p>When Charles finally consented to an interview, he disguised one of
+his courtiers as king, and he was disguised as a courtier; but Joan
+was not deceived by clothing; she fell at his feet, clasped his knees,
+and exclaimed, "Gentle king, God has taken pity on you and your
+people; the angels are on their knees praying for you and them."</p>
+
+<p>The king was impressed with her lofty enthusiasm, and plied her with
+questions. Her responses astonished him. One reliable authority tells
+us that she revealed to him something known only to himself&mdash;and
+answered a question which he had that day demanded of God in the
+privacy of prayer&mdash;the question of his legitimate right to the throne.
+Joan told him that he had asked this question of God, and that she was
+able to reply to it in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>The king was so astonished and overjoyed at this proof of the maiden's
+powers, that he expressed belief in her divine mission; but he quickly
+relapsed into doubt again, and Joan was obliged to endure a very
+critical examination before a parliament, where she confused and
+confounded the learned doctors by her simple words: "I know not A or
+B, but I am commanded by my voices to raise the siege of Orleans and
+crown the dauphin at Rheims." When one aggressive doctor, with a bad
+accent, asked sarcastically; "what language her voices spoke," she
+replied, "Better than yours, sir," which brought the laughter of the
+whole parliament upon him. A messenger sent to Domremy, to ascertain
+the early conduct of the maid, returned with accounts of her piety and
+benevolence. All this worked in her favor, together with the strong
+faith which the masses reposed in her; for the people remembered the
+old prophecy and believed that the maiden had come to deliver France.</p>
+
+<p>Even the doctors of theology were affected by this prophecy, and the
+result was the final equipment of Joan for battle. When arrayed in a
+knight's armor she refused to accept a sword. "The voices told me,"
+she said, "that in the church vault at Fierbois there lies a sword
+marked with five crosses which I must carry, and no other."</p>
+
+<p>A messenger was sent, who found the sword exactly as she had described
+it. This naturally swelled the faith of the people in her divine
+mission. She ordered a white banner made, covered with the lilies of
+France, and with the inscription, "Jesus Maria," emblazoned upon it.
+At the end of two months she entered the town of Blois, where the army
+was stationed, seated upon a fine horse, her head bare, her dark curls
+streaming in the wind, an air of triumph and joy on her face. Six
+thousand soldiers were drawn up to receive her. But the
+pleasure-loving young dauphin, be it said to his shame, was enjoying
+himself in his castle and was not there to meet her. Nothing had yet
+been decided about the position <span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span> Joan was to occupy, but the
+wild enthusiasm of the army at once made her its leader.</p>
+
+<p>The very first act of this pure being was an attempt to uplift the
+moral status of the army. Women of evil repute were sent away with
+good advice, and the men were called to battle by prayer and
+confession. Coarse soldiers followed her to mass, fascinated by her
+peculiar spell, and rough language was silenced in her presence.
+Remarkable as has seemed Joan's career up to this point, it was simple
+compared to the miracles which ensued. Modest as the simplest maiden
+in private life, gentle as a child in all matters pertaining to
+herself, utterly devoid of self-seeking interests, she was yet enabled
+to plan campaigns, direct attacks and lead armies with all the skill
+of any world-renowned general. In the dead of night, with a band of
+200 men, she entered the beleaguered city of Orleans in the face of
+the English enemy. The inhabitants crowded about her, regarding her
+rightly with wonder and awe. Her first act was to hasten to a
+cathedral where the Te Deum was being chanted by torch-light. She then
+selected her home with a lady of spotless reputation, in order that
+all her hours of repose might be guarded from suspicions of evil. The
+following day she directed a letter of warning to be sent to the
+English, urging them to retreat before compelled to do so by the "fire
+of Heaven." She then reconnoitred the city, determining in her mind
+where to begin the attack; and as she saw no signs that the English
+had taken heed of her letter, she finally mounted the walls of the
+town, and in a loud voice warned the English to depart before
+overtaken with the shame and disaster in store for them. To this the
+English responded with insults and ribald words, and told her to "Go
+home and keep her cows." Joan wept at their insults to her modesty,
+and would have at once opened an attack, had she not been dissuaded by
+her generals, who begged her to await the arrival of her army.</p>
+
+<p>Despite their bold words, the English were so influenced by Joan's
+peculiar power, that they allowed her army to enter Orleans with a
+convoy of provisions, and made no resistance. They seemed to be
+paralyzed with fear, and many of them expressed a belief that she was
+aided by the devil. Although the maid was immensely popular with the
+army, a lurking secret jealousy of her was already at work in the
+breasts of some of her officers; and these men chose an hour when she
+was taking a brief repose, to open an attack upon the English, hoping
+to take the glory of a conquest to themselves. But Joan's Voices awoke
+her, and told her the blood of France was being spilled; and seizing
+her white banner, she mounted her horse, and rushed into the strife,
+turning the tide of battle at once in favor of the French army, which
+had already suffered loss. Wherever the white flag was seen, a
+superhuman strength seemed to take possession of the men; and after a
+fierce battle of three hours, the bastile of St. Loup was won by the
+French.</p>
+
+<p>The bastile des Augustins fell next, and here Joan was slightly
+wounded in the foot; but she resolved to attack the only remaining
+hold of the English the following day. Her officers counselled
+together and reported themselves unfavorable to this project, as the
+bastile des Tournelles was very strong, and filled <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span> with the
+bravest of the English army. But Joan replied, "I, too, have been at
+council with God, and we shall fight to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>They did fight, the English with fury, the French "as if they believed
+themselves immortal." After three hours of warfare Joan saw her men
+hesitate under the fierce attack of the enemy. She seized a ladder,
+planted it against a wall, and began to ascend it. At that moment an
+English arrow struck her between the neck and shoulder, and she fell
+to the ground. The disheartened soldiers bore her from the field, and
+dressed her wound, from which she extracted the arrow with her own
+hand, shedding womanly tears meanwhile. After the wound was dressed, a
+vision came to her, and with sudden strength she remounted her horse
+and rode back to battle.</p>
+
+<p>The English, believing her nearly dead from her wound, were terrified
+to see her return, and lost courage from that moment; while the
+French, electrified by her unexpected presence, fought with such zeal
+that before nightfall the maid led her army into Orleans crowned with
+triumph. It was only seven days since she had entered the city, and
+Joan had already verified her assertion that she could and would
+"raise the siege of Orleans."</p>
+
+<p>The indolent and unworthy dauphin, however, refused to go to Rheims
+and be crowned and so fulfil the second part of Joan's mission. He
+said there were ports along the Loire which needed to be taken first
+so the girl general laid out her campaign and added Beaugency and
+Jargeau to her other conquests. The English had become filled with
+superstitious fear of her power, attributing it to the devil. But the
+Dauphin of France still dallied with light women in his castle, and
+treated Joan with coldness and suspicion. The army now became so
+unanimous in the desire that the king should go to Rheims, that he
+finally, with reluctance, consented. On July 16th, after having taken
+Troyes and Chalons on the way, the French army entered Rheims; and
+there, on the following day, the dauphin was anointed with holy oil
+and received the crown of France.</p>
+
+<p>Happy, but modest and humble in her happiness, rejoicing only in the
+prosperity of the king and the country, the sublime saviour of her
+land knelt before her sovereign after the ceremonies were concluded
+and said, "Gentle king, I wish now that I might return toward my
+father and my mother, to keep my flocks and my herds as heretofore."
+Alas for the happiness of the poor girl and the honor of two
+countries, that her request was not granted!</p>
+
+<p>Joan's father was present on this occasion, and the inn where he
+lodged at the king's expense, and the cathedral where the dauphin was
+crowned, still exist in Rheims.</p>
+
+<a id="img049" name="img049"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img049.jpg" width="400" height="603" alt="" title="">
+<p>Joan of Arc.</p></div>
+
+<p>During all Joan's life as a soldier and general, she exhibited a most
+touching humanity toward the conquered enemy. She would spring from
+her horse to sooth the wounds of a suffering English soldier, and it
+is recorded of her that she carried a dying enemy in her arms to a
+confessor, and remained with him till his soul took flight. The people
+adored her, the soldiers of her army idolized her, and the king
+realized that she was of too great value to him to permit her to go in
+peace to her old humble home. So Joan remained, asking that the king
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span> would remove all impost from the village of Domremy, in
+place of bestowing a title upon her family as he offered to do. For
+three hundred years her request was obeyed. From this time to the
+tragic end, the story of Joan's life is a hard one to relate. Although
+we are nearing the fifth centennial of her birth, the recital of her
+sufferings and death must still wring tears from every heart which is
+not made of stone. The feeling of jealousy which great success, of
+even the most worthy and noble souls, arouses in meaner natures, had
+already sprung up against Joan. This feeling increased as the days
+passed by and she added more and more to her glory by the conquest of
+Laon, Soissons, Compičgne, and Beauvais. Paris was next besieged, and
+here Joan was seriously wounded, an event which depressed the king and
+the army.</p>
+
+<p>Her wound disabled her from action, and she was left lying on the
+field until evening, neglected, and seemingly forgotten. Already
+conscious of the growing sentiment of jealousy among her officers,
+this final proof of their indifference to her fate must have been more
+painful to her pure and lofty mind than the physical agony she was
+enduring. But even lying there, wounded, she cheered on the men as
+they passed her in the combat, and revived their failing courage.</p>
+
+<p>She was enabled to resume action the next day; her plans were all
+perfected, and judging from her past triumphs we can but suppose
+victory would have attended her, had not that most remarkable mandate
+arrived from the king, commanding the French army to retreat to
+Saint-Denis.</p>
+
+<p>To the undying shame of his memory be it said that Charles VII.
+entered into a plot, with jealous enemies of Joan, to force failure
+upon her. The people and the soldiers had grown to believe her
+infallible; the king and his favorites determined that she should be
+proven fallible. They deemed the country sufficiently safe, the army
+sufficiently strong, to enable them to go on now and claim victories
+of their own, without having their divine deliverer share the glory.</p>
+
+<p>Next to the crime of Isabel, who sold her son and her country to the
+enemy, this base act of Charles VII. stands unparalleled in infamy. So
+discouraged and heart-broken was Joan over the conduct of the king,
+although she did not understand the deep-laid plot against her, that
+she resolved to abandon the life of a soldier and enter the church of
+Saint-Denis. She hung up her armor and her sword, but when the king
+heard of this he sent for her to return to the army. He was not yet
+sure of himself, and he wanted her where he could call upon her if
+need be.</p>
+
+<p>Joan returned with reluctance; "her Voices" counselled her to keep to
+her resolution; but she was so accustomed to obey the king, that for
+the first time she allowed an earthly voice to overrule the counsels
+of her heavenly guides. And from this hour her star set; from this
+hour her path led into darkness. Soon after her return to the army she
+broke the magic sword with which she had achieved so many conquests;
+the Voices, too, were silent, and all this troubled her. The king kept
+her away from all active warfare, and she grew restive and impatient
+with her life of inaction. The army, which under her influence had
+been reformed of half its vices, now separated from her by the king's
+orders and fell <span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> into the most wild excesses. Joan prayed and
+pleaded to be allowed to go again into combat, and finally the king
+allowed her to do so; but such success attended her, and such
+enthusiasm seized upon her soldiers, that the jealous favorites of the
+king were alarmed. They resolved to prevent any further triumphs for
+her, but to pretend great friendship and admiration meanwhile.</p>
+
+<p>The king was influenced to bestow honors and titles upon her family,
+and to present her two brothers, who had fought in the army, with
+swords of silver; all of which Joan received coldly and with
+indifference, for meantime she was suffering such agony as only so
+brave and valiant a soul could suffer in being kept from her duty.</p>
+
+<p>After four months of this galling life, Joan could not fail to see
+that she was the victim of a jealous plot. What suffering to a nature
+so honest and self-sacrificing as hers, to discover that the king for
+whom she had achieved such miracles, was a coward and a hypocrite,
+unworthy of her respect and faith.</p>
+
+<p>But it was surely this knowledge which actuated Joan to take a few
+brave men, and without orders from the king, to go in aid of William
+de Flavy, commander of the fortress of Compičgne, who was in distress.
+She set out, and on the evening of May 24th, headed an attack upon the
+English. She fought nobly and well, but before the close of the
+combat, she was obliged to sound a retreat, and as she was attempting
+to escape through the half-closed city gate, an English archer came up
+behind and pulled her to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Joan of Arc was a prisoner. The joy of the English was
+overwhelming&mdash;the despair of the French correspondingly great; and
+that despair gave place to anger when it was learned that William de
+Flavy, the man whom she had tried to defend, had betrayed her into the
+hands of the English because he was jealous of her. This man's wife
+slew him when she learned of his base act, and was pardoned for the
+crime when she told its cause. In all the cities which Joan had
+delivered from English control, public prayers and processions were
+ordered; people walked barefooted and bareheaded, chanting the
+<i>Miserere</i>, in the streets of Tours. She was imprisoned first at
+Beaurevoir, then in the prison of Arras, and from there she was taken
+to Le Crotoy.</p>
+
+<p>It was customary in those days to exchange prisoners taken in arms, or
+to ransom them; but the English had suffered such loss and defeat
+through Joan that they determined she should die.</p>
+
+<p>Their only way to do this without publicly dishonoring themselves, was
+to accuse her of being a witch, and to compel the "religious" tribunal
+of her own land to become her murderer.</p>
+
+<p>During the first six months of her captivity Joan was treated
+humanely; but the defeat of the English at Compičgne awoke anew the
+superstitions of the English, who believed that, though a prisoner,
+she exercised her spell upon the army; and she was taken to Le Crotoy,
+and cast into an iron cage with chains upon her wrists and ankles.
+After being starved, insulted, and treated with the most hellish
+brutality in prison for nearly ten months, the saviour of France was
+brought before a tribunal of men, all of them her enemies. There were
+three days of this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span> shameful pretence of a trial, and the
+holy maid, deserted by those whom she had crowned with glory and
+benefits, was trapped into signing a paper which she supposed only a
+form of abjuration, but which proved to be a confession of all the
+crimes with which she was charged; and after she was returned to her
+dungeon this was exhibited to the people to convince them of her guilt
+and turn the tide of public sympathy. The Bishop of Beauvais then
+sentenced her to prison for the rest of her life, on condition that
+she resume woman's apparel; yet one morning she woke to find no dress
+in her prison but the clothes she had worn in battle. No sooner had
+she donned these than the bishop appeared, and accused her of
+disobedience to the orders of the Church, and he fixed her execution
+for the next day.</p>
+
+<p>When the horrible fact was made known to her that she was to be burned
+at the stake in the market-place of Rouen, before a multitude of
+people, she burst into piercing cries of agony. Her physical strength,
+courage, and brain-power were all impaired by the months of abuse she
+had endured, and her very soul was torn by the neglect and
+indifference which the base king manifested toward her. Up to the very
+last hour she had believed deliverance would come, but it came only
+through death. Never since that spectacle of the bleeding Nazarene
+upon the Cross of Calvary, has the world beheld so terrible a picture
+of crucified innocence and purity as that of Joan of Arc, the saviour
+of France, burning in the market-place of Rouen. With her dying breath
+she cried out that the Voices were real, and that she had obeyed God
+in listening to their counsels.</p>
+
+<p>Her last word was the name of&mdash;Jesus.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig006" name="sig006"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig006.jpg" width="300" height="57" alt="Author signature. Ella Wheeler Wilcox." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>HANS GUTENBERG<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Alphonse de Lamartine</span><br>
+
+(1400-1468)</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hans Gensfleisch Gutenberg von Sorgeloch was a young patrician&mdash;born
+at Mainz, a free and wealthy city on the banks of the Rhine, in the
+year 1400. His father, Friel Gensfleisch, married Else von Gutenberg,
+who gave her name to her second son John.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that if Mainz, his country, had not been a free city,
+this young gentleman would have been unable to conceive or to carry
+into execution his invention. Despotism and superstition equally
+insist upon silence; they would have stifled the universal and
+resistless echo which genius <span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span> was about to create for written
+words. Printing and liberty were both to spring from the same soil and
+the same climate.</p>
+
+<a id="img050" name="img050"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="250" height="308" alt="Hans Gutenberg." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Mainz, Strasburg, Worms, and other municipal towns on the Rhine, then
+governed themselves, under the suzerainty of the empire, as small
+federal republics, like Florence, Genoa, Venice, and the other states
+of Italy. The nobility warlike, the burgesses increasing in
+importance, and the laboring population vacillating between these two
+classes, who alternately oppressed and courted it, from time to time,
+here as everywhere, fought for supremacy. Outbursts of civil war,
+excited by vanity or interest, and in which the victory remained
+sometimes with the patricians, sometimes with the burgesses, and at
+others with the artisans, made them alternately victors, conquered,
+and proscribed. This is the history of all cities, of all republics,
+and of all empires. Mainz, was a miniature of Rome or Athens, only the
+proscribed party had not the sea to cross to escape from their
+country; they went outside the walls, and crossed the Rhine; those of
+Strasburg going to Mainz, and those of Mainz to Strasburg, to wait
+until their party recovered power, or until they were recalled by
+their fellow-citizens.</p>
+
+<p>In these intestine struggles of Mainz, the young Gutenberg, himself a
+gentleman, and naturally fighting for the cause most holy in a son's
+eyes&mdash;that of his father&mdash;was defeated by the burgesses, and banished,
+with all the knights of his family, from the territory of Mainz. His
+mother and sisters alone remained there in possession of their
+property, as innocent victims on whom the faults of the nobility
+should not be visited. His first banishment was short, and peace was
+ratified by the return of the refugees. A vain quarrel about
+precedence in the public ceremonies on the occasion of the solemn
+entry of the Emperor Robert, accompanied by the Archbishop Conrad,
+into Mainz, refreshed the animosity of the two classes in 1420, and
+young Gutenberg, at the age of nineteen, under went his second exile.</p>
+
+<p>The free city of Frankfort now offered itself as a mediator between
+the nobles and plebeians of Mainz, and procured their recall on
+condition of the governing magistracy being equally shared between the
+high classes and the burgesses. But Gutenberg, whether his valor in
+the civil war had rendered him more obnoxious and more hostile to the
+burgesses; whether his pride, fostered by the traditions of his race,
+could not submit patiently to an equality with plebeians; or whether,
+more probably, ten years of exile and study at Strasburg had already
+turned the bent of his thoughts to a nobler subject than the vain
+honors of a free city, refused <span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span> to return to his country. His
+mother, who watched over her son's interest at Mainz, petitioned the
+republic to allow him to receive as a pension a small portion of the
+revenues of his confiscated possessions. The republic replied that the
+young patrician's refusal to return to his country was a declaration
+of war, and that the republic did not pay its enemies. Gutenberg,
+persisting in his voluntary exile and in his disdain, lived on the
+secret remittances of his mother.</p>
+
+<p>But at Strasburg he already enjoyed so great a popularity for his
+disposition and his acquirements, that one day, when the chief
+magistrate of Mainz was passing the territory of Strasburg, he was
+arrested by the friends of Gutenberg, shut up in a castle, and did not
+recover his liberty until the city of Mainz had signed a treaty which
+restored the exile his patrimony. Thus this youth, the great tribune
+of the human mind, whose invention was destined to destroy forever the
+prejudices of race, and to restore, in after-times, liberty and civil
+equality to all the plebeians of the world, began his life, as yet
+unrecognized, at the head of the patrician party of his country, in
+these struggles between the privileged castes and the people. Fortune
+seemed to delight in the contrast. But Gutenberg's wisdom, increasing
+with his age, was afterward destined to reunite the people and
+nobility, who looked on each other as enemies.</p>
+
+<p>The restoration of his goods allowed young Gutenberg to satisfy his
+literary, religious, and artistic tastes, by travelling from town to
+town to study monuments, and visit men of all conditions celebrated
+for their science, their art, or even their trade. The artisans of
+Germany then held nearly the same rank as the artists. It was at the
+time when the trades, scarcely known, were confused with the arts, and
+when the most humble professions produced their earliest masterpieces,
+which, on account of their novelty, were looked upon as prodigies.
+Gutenberg travelled alone, on foot, carrying a knapsack containing
+books and clothes, like a mere student visiting the schools, or a
+journeyman looking for a master. He thus went through the Rhenish
+provinces, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and lastly, Holland, not
+without an object, like a man who lets his imagination wander at the
+caprice of his footsteps, but carrying everywhere with him a fixed
+idea, an unchanging will led by a presentiment. This guiding star was
+the thought of spreading the word of God and the Bible among a vaster
+number of souls.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was religion which, in this young wandering apostle, was
+seeking the soil wherein to sow a single seed, of which the fruit
+hereafter was to be a thousand various grains. It is the glory of
+printing that it was given to the world by religion, not by industry.
+Religious enthusiasm was alone worthy to give birth to the instrument
+of truth.</p>
+
+<p>What mechanical processes Gutenberg may until then have revolved in
+his mind, remains unknown. Whatever they were, chance effaced them
+all, and brought him at once upon his great discovery. One day, at
+Haarlem, in Holland, the verger of the cathedral, named Lawrence
+Koster, with whom he had established friendly relations, showed him in
+the sacristy a Latin grammar, curiously wrought in engraved letters on
+a wooden board, for the instruction of the seminarists. Chance, that
+gratuitous teacher, had produced this approach to printing.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span> The poor and youthful sacristan of Haarlem was in love. He
+used to walk on holydays to the spring outside the town, and sit under
+the willows by the canals, to indulge in his day-dreams. His heart
+full of the image of his bride, he used to amuse himself, in true
+lover's fashion, by engraving with his knife the initials of his
+mistress and himself, interlaced, as an emblem of the union of their
+hearts and of their interwoven destinies. But, instead of cutting
+these ciphers on the bark, and leaving them to grow with the tree,
+like the mysterious ciphers so often seen on the trees in the forests
+and by the brooks, he engraved them on little blocks of willow
+stripped of their bark, and still reeking with the moisture of their
+sap; and he used to carry them, as a remembrance of his dreams and a
+pledge of affection, to his lady-love.</p>
+
+<p>One day, having thus cut some letters on the green wood, probably with
+more care and perfection than usual, he wrapped up his little work in
+a piece of parchment, and brought it with him to Haarlem. On opening
+it next day to look at his letters, he was astonished to see the
+cipher perfectly reproduced in brown on the parchment by the relieved
+portion of the letters, the sap having oozed out during the night and
+imprinted its image on the envelope. This was a discovery. He engraved
+other letters on a large platter, replaced the sap by a black liquid,
+and thus obtained the first proof ever printed. But it would only
+print a single page. The movable variety and endless combinations of
+characters infinitely multiplied, to meet the vast requirements of
+literature, were wanting. The invention of the poor sacristan would
+have covered the surface of the earth with plates engraved or
+sculptured in relief, but would not have been a substitute for a
+single case of movable type. Nevertheless, the principle of the art
+was developed in the sacristy of Haarlem, and we might hesitate
+whether to attribute the honor of it to Koster or Gutenberg, if its
+invention had not been with one the mere accidental discovery of love
+and chance, and, in the other, the well-earned victory of patience and
+genius.</p>
+
+<p>At the sight of this coarse plank, the lightning from heaven flashed
+before the eyes of Gutenberg. He looked at the plank, and, in his
+imagination, analyzed it, decomposed it, put it together again,
+changed it, divided it, readjusted it, reversed it, smeared it with
+ink, placed the parchment on it, and pressed it with a screw. The
+sacristan, wondering at his long silence, was unwittingly present at
+this development of an idea over which his visitor had brooded in vain
+for the last ten years. When Gutenberg retired, he carried a new art
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>On the morrow, like a man who possesses a treasure, and knows neither
+rest nor sleep until he has hidden it safely, Gutenberg left Haarlem,
+hastened up the Rhine until he reached Strasburg, shut himself up in
+his work-room, fashioned his own tools, tried, broke, planned,
+rejected, returned to his plans, and again rejected them, only to
+return to them again; and ended by secretly executing a fortunate
+proof upon parchment with movable wooden types, bored through the side
+with a small hole, strung together and kept close by a thread, like
+square beads on a chaplet, each with a letter of the alphabet cut in
+relief on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span> one side&mdash;the first printer's alphabet, coarse,
+but wonderful&mdash;the first company of twenty-four letters, which
+multiplied like the herds of the patriarchs, until at last they
+covered the whole earth with written characters, in which a new and
+immaterial element&mdash;human thought&mdash;became incarnate.</p>
+
+<p>Gutenberg, perceiving at the first glance the immense social and
+industrial bearing of his invention, felt that his weak hand, short
+life, and moderate property would be spent in vain on such a work. He
+experienced two opposite wants&mdash;the necessity of associating with
+himself persons to assist in meeting the expenses and in executing the
+mechanical labor, and the necessity of concealing from his assistants
+the secret and real object of their labors, for fear lest his
+invention might be divulged and pirated, and the glory and merit of
+his discovery taken from him. He cast his eyes on the nobility and
+rich gentry of his acquaintance at Strasburg and Mainz. He probably
+met with rebuffs from all quarters, on account of the prejudice then
+prevailing that handicrafts were derogatory to a gentleman. He was,
+therefore, obliged to sink his rank, become a workman, associate with
+artisans, and mix with the people, in order to raise the people to the
+high level of morality and intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Under the pretence of working together at <i>a new and marvellous
+craft</i>, such as jewelry, clock-making, and grinding and setting
+precious stones, he entered into a deed of partnership with two
+wealthy inhabitants of Strasburg, Andrew Dritzchen and Hans Riffe,
+bailiff of Lichtenau; and afterward with Faust, a goldsmith and banker
+of Mainz, whose name, confounded with that of Faustus, the wondrous
+sorcerer of German fable, the master of mystery, and the friend of the
+Evil One, caused the invention of printing to be attributed to magic;
+and, lastly, with Hulmann, whose brother had just established the
+first paper-mill at Strasburg.</p>
+
+<p>In order the more effectually to conceal from his partners the real
+object of his pursuit, Gutenberg joined them in several artistic and
+secondary enterprises. Continuing in secret his mechanical researches
+on printing, he employed himself publicly in these other occupations.
+He taught Dritzchen the art of cutting precious stones. He himself
+polished Venetian glass for mirrors, or cut pieces of it into facets,
+setting them in copper frames ornamented with wooden figurines
+representing personages from history or fable, from the Bible or the
+Testament. These articles, which found sale at the fair of
+Aix-la-Chapelle, kept up the funds of the association, and assisted
+Gutenberg in the secret expenses reserved for accomplishing and
+perfecting his design.</p>
+
+<p>To conceal it the better also from the restless curiosity of the
+public, who began to circulate a suspicion of witchcraft against him,
+Gutenberg left the town, and established his workshop in the ruins of
+an old deserted monastery, called the Convent of St. Arbogast. The
+solitude of the place, only inhabited by the houseless poor of the
+suburbs, covered his first attempts.</p>
+
+<p>In a corner of one of the vast cloisters of the monastery, occupied by
+his partners for their less secret labors, Gutenberg had reserved for
+himself a cell, always closed with lock and bolt, and to which none
+but himself ever had access. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span> He was supposed to go there to
+draw the designs, arabesques, and figurines for his jewelry and the
+frames of his glasses; but he passed his days and sleepless nights
+there, wearing himself out in the pursuit of his invention. There it
+was that he engraved his movable types in wood, and projected casting
+them in metal, and studied hard to find the means of inclosing them in
+<i>forms</i>, whether of wood or of iron, to make the types into words,
+phrases, and lines, and to leave spaces on the paper. There it was
+that he invented colored mediums, oleaginous and yet drying, to
+reproduce these characters, brushes and dabbers to spread the ink on
+the letters, boards to hold them, and screws and weights to compress
+them. Months and years were spent, as well as his own fortune and the
+funds of the firm, in these persevering experiments, with alternate
+success and disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>At length, having made a model of a press, which seemed to him to
+combine all the requirements of printing, according to his ideas at
+that time, he concealed it under his cloak, and walking to the town,
+went to a skilful turner in wood and metal, named Conrad Saspach, who
+lived in the Mercer's Lane, asking him to make the machine of full
+size. He requested the workman to keep it secret, merely telling him
+that it was a machine by the help of which he proposed to produce some
+masterpieces of art and mechanism, of which the marvels should be
+known in due time.</p>
+
+<p>The turner, taking the model in his hands, and turning it backward and
+forward with the smile of contempt that a skilful artist usually puts
+on when looking at a rough specimen, said, somewhat scornfully, "But
+it is just simply a press that you are asking me for, Master Hans!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Gutenberg, with a grave and enthusiastic tone, "it is a
+press, certainly, but a press from which shall soon flow in
+inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvellous liquor
+that has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of man! Through it God will
+spread his Word. A spring of pure truth shall flow from it; like a new
+star, it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light
+heretofore unknown to shine among men." He retired. The turner, who
+understood not these words, made the machine, and delivered it at the
+monastery of Arbogast.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first printing-press.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he was in possession of his press, Gutenberg began
+printing. Little is known of the first works which he sent out; but
+the strongly religious disposition of the inventor leaves no doubt
+concerning the nature of the labors to which he devoted the
+first-fruits of his art. They were, to a certainty, religious books.
+The art invented for the sake of God, and by his inspiration, began
+with his worship. His later publications at Mainz are a proof of it;
+the divine songs of the Psalmist, and the celebrated Latin Bible, were
+the first works issued at Mainz from the machine invented by
+Gutenberg, and applied to the use of the most sacred powers of man,
+lyrical praise of his Maker, and lamentation for the woes of earth.
+Under the hands of this pious and unfortunate man, praise and prayer
+were the first voices of the press. The press ought ever to be proud
+of it.</p>
+
+<a id="img051" name="img051"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img051.jpg" width="600" height="453" alt="" title="">
+<p>Gutenberg's Invention.</p></div>
+
+<p>But great tribulation awaited him after his triumph. We have seen that
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span> necessity of procuring funds obliged him to take
+partners. The necessity that subsequently arose of getting assistance
+for the multifarious labor of a great printing establishment obliged
+him to confide his occupation, and even the secret of his process, to
+his partners and to a number of workmen. His partners, tired of
+supplying funds to an enterprise which, for want of perfection, was
+not then remunerative, refused to persevere in the ungrateful
+occupation. Gutenberg begged them not to abandon him at the very
+moment that fortune and glory were within his grasp. They consented to
+make fresh advances, but only on condition of sharing completely his
+secret, his profits, his property, and his fame.</p>
+
+<p>He sold his fame to procure success to his work. The name of Gutenberg
+disappeared. The firm absorbed the inventor, who soon became a mere
+workman in his own workshop. It was a parallel to the case of
+Christopher Columbus brought back in irons on board his own vessel, by
+a crew to whom he had opened a new world.</p>
+
+<p>This was not all. The heirs of one of the partners brought an action
+against him to contest his invention, his property, and his right of
+carrying on the work. They compelled him to appear before the judges
+at Strasburg, to make him submit to some more complete and more legal
+spoliation than the voluntary abandonment he had himself acknowledged.
+His perplexity before the court was extreme. To justify himself, it
+was necessary to enter into all the technical details of his art,
+which he did not as yet wish to make completely public, reserving to
+himself, at least, the secret of his hopes. The judges, being
+inquisitive, pressed him with insidious questions, the answers to
+which would have exposed the secret of all his processes. He evaded
+them, preferring an adverse decision to the publication of his art. To
+succeed in penetrating the secret of the discovery which filled
+people's imaginations, the judges summoned his most confidential
+workmen, and required them to give evidence of what they knew. These
+men, simple-minded, yet faithful and strongly attached to Gutenberg,
+refused to reveal anything. Their master's secret was safer in their
+hearts than in the breasts of his more grasping associates. None of
+the great mysteries of the art transpired. Gutenberg, ruined,
+condemned, perhaps banished, retired alone and in poverty to Mainz,
+his native place, to recommence his labors and begin his life and fame
+anew.</p>
+
+<p>He was still young, and the report of his lawsuit at Strasburg had
+made his fame known all over Germany, but he returned a workman to a
+city which he had quitted as a knight. Humiliation, poverty, and glory
+contended with each other in his fate and in the behavior of his
+fellow-citizens. Love alone recognized him for what he had been, and
+for what he was one day to become.</p>
+
+<p>On his return to Mainz, having been relieved from degradation and ruin
+by the woman he loved, as Mohammed was by his first wife, Gutenberg
+gave himself entirely up to his art, entered into partnership with
+Faust and Sch&oelig;ffer, Faust's son-in-law; established offices at
+Mainz, and published, still under the name of the firm, Bibles and
+Psalters, of remarkable perfection of type.</p>
+
+<p>Sch&oelig;ffer had for a long time carried on the business of a
+scrivener, and a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> trade in manuscripts in Paris. His travels,
+and his intimacy with the artists of that town, had made him
+acquainted with mechanical processes for working in metals, which he
+adapted, on his return to Mainz, to the art of printing. These new
+means enabled him to cast movable leaden types in a copper matrix,
+with greater precision than before, and thus to give great neatness to
+the letters. It was by this new process that the Psalter, the first
+book bearing a date, was printed in 1457. Soon afterward the Mainz
+Bible, recognized as a masterpiece of art, was produced under the
+direction of Gutenberg, from types founded by Peter Sch&oelig;ffer's
+process.</p>
+
+<p>The tendency of the new art, which began by cheapening sacred books
+under the auspices of the Church alone, escaped, during the first
+years of its existence, the notice of the Roman court, which saw an
+auxiliary in what it afterward considered as an opponent.</p>
+
+<p>"Among the number of blessings which we ought to praise God for having
+vouchsafed during your pontificate," says a dedication in the time of
+Paul II., "is this invention, which enables the poorest to procure
+libraries at a low price. Is it not a great glory to your Holiness,
+that volumes which used to cost <i>one hundred pieces of gold</i> are now
+to be bought for four, or even less, and that the fruits of genius,
+heretofore the prey of the worms and buried in dust, begin under your
+reign to arise from the dead, and to multiply profusely over all the
+earth?"</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Faust the banker, and Sch&oelig;ffer the workman, Gutenberg's
+new partners, were not long in giving way, like his former partner,
+one Mentel or Metelin at Strasburg, to the temptation of absorbing by
+degrees Gutenberg's glory, the most tempting of all possessions,
+because of its immortality. Like many others, they hoped to deceive
+posterity, if not their own contemporaries. After recognizing, in the
+Epistle Dedicatory prefixed to the German translation of Livy, printed
+by Hans Sch&oelig;ffer, and addressed to the Emperor Maximilian, "that
+the art of printing was invented at Mainz by that sublime mechanician
+Hans von Gutenberg," they forgot this confession, and seven years
+later assumed to themselves all the merit and honor of the discovery.</p>
+
+<p>A short time afterward, the Emperor Maximilian, erecting the printers
+and compositors into a species of intellectual priesthood, relieved
+them by the nobility of their occupation from all degradation of rank.
+He ennobled the art and the artists together; he authorized them to
+wear robes embroidered with gold and silver, which nobles only had a
+right to wear, and gave them for armorial bearings an eagle with his
+wings spread over a globe, a symbol of the flight of written thoughts,
+and of its conquest of the world.</p>
+
+<p>But Gutenberg was no longer upon earth to enjoy the possession of that
+intellectual world, religious and political, of which he had only had
+a glimpse, like Moses, in the vision of his dream in the monastery of
+St. Arbogast. Despoiled by his partners of his property and of his
+fame; expelled again, and for the last time, from his country by
+poverty, his only consolation being that he was followed by his wife,
+who remained faithful through all his troubles; deprived by death of
+all his children; advanced in years, without bread, and soon
+afterward, by his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span> wife's decease, a widower, he was received
+by the Elector of Nassau, the generous Adolphus. The elector created
+him his counsellor of state and chamberlain, in order to enjoy in an
+honorable familiarity the conversation of this surpassing genius, who
+was afterward to hold converse with all times and all places. This
+shelter afforded to Gutenberg sheds everlasting lustre on Nassau and
+its prince. We meet in history with instances where a generous
+hospitality has given happiness and immortal fame to the most
+insignificant potentates and to the smallest of states.</p>
+
+<p>Gutenberg continued printing with his own hands, at Nassau, under the
+eyes of his Męcenas, the elector, during several years of peace and
+quiet. He died at the age of sixty-eight, leaving his sister no
+inheritance, but bequeathing to the world the empire of the human
+mind, discovered and achieved by a workman.</p>
+
+<p>"I bequeath," he says in his will, "to my sister all the books which I
+printed at the monastery of St. Arbogast." The poor inventor's only
+legacy to his surviving relative was the common property of almost all
+inventors like himself&mdash;wasted youth, a persecuted life, a name
+aspersed, toil, watchings, and the oblivion of his contemporaries.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>WILLIAM CAXTON<br>
+
+(1412-1491)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img052" name="img052"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img052.jpg" width="250" height="350" alt="William Caxton." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>William Caxton, to whom England owes the introduction of printing, was
+born, according to his own statement, in the Weald of Kent. Of the
+date of his birth nothing is known with certainty, though Oldys places
+it in 1412. Lewis and Oldys suppose that between his fifteenth and
+eighteenth years he was put apprentice to one Robert Large, a mercer
+or merchant of considerable eminence, who was afterward, successively,
+sheriff and lord mayor of London, and who upon his death, in 1441,
+remembered Caxton in his will by a legacy of 20 marks. Caxton at this
+time had become a freeman of the Company of Mercers. His knowledge of
+business, however, induced him, either upon his own account or as
+agent of some merchant, to travel to the Low Countries for a short
+time. In 1464 we find him joined in a commission with one Robert
+Whitehill, to continue and confirm a treaty of trade and commerce
+between Edward IV. and Philip, Duke of Burgundy; or if they find it
+necessary, to make a new one. They are styled in it ambassadors
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span> and special deputies. This commission at least affords a
+proof that Caxton had acquired a reputation for knowledge of business.
+Seven years afterward Caxton describes himself as leading a life of
+ease, when, "having no great charge or occupation," he set about
+finishing the translation of Raoul le Fevre's "Recueil des Histoires
+de Troye," which he had commenced two years before, in 1469. The
+original was the first book he printed, and this translation the
+third. Of Caxton's pursuits and travels abroad, we know little more
+than that in his peregrinations he confined himself, for the most
+part, to the countries of Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, and
+finally entered into the service, or at least the household, of
+Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, who encouraged him to finish his
+translation of Le Fevre's "History of Troy," assisted him with her
+criticisms upon his English, and amply rewarded him upon the
+completion of his labor. From the prologues and epilogues of this work
+we discover that he was now somewhat advanced in years, and that he
+had learnt to exercise the art of printing, but by what step he had
+acquired this knowledge cannot be discovered; his types only show that
+he acquired it in the Low Countries. He does not appear to have seen
+any of the beautiful productions of the Roman, Venetian, and Parisian
+presses before he had caused his own font of letters to be cut.</p>
+
+<p>The original of Raoul's "History," the "Oration of John Russell on
+Charles, Duke of Burgundy, being created a Knight of the Garter," and
+the "Translation" of Raoul, were, as far as we know, Caxton's first
+three works; the last finished in 1471. A "Stanza," by Wynkyn de
+Worde, notices an edition of "Bartholom&oelig;us, de Proprietatibus
+Rerum," as printed by Caxton at Cologne (about 1470), but the actual
+existence of this edition is unknown. Nor has more certain information
+yet been obtained of the exact period of Caxton's return to his native
+country. The usual supposition has been that he brought the art of
+printing into England in 1474, and this date is indicated by the
+figures which are united in the centre of his device as a printer. In
+1477, however, he had undoubtedly quitted the Low Countries and taken
+up his residence in the vicinity of Westminster Abbey, where and in
+which year he printed his "Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers."
+Stowe says he first exercised his business in an old chapel near the
+entrance of the abbey; but a very curious placard, a copy of which, in
+Caxton's largest type, is now at Oxford in the late Mr. Douce's
+library, shows that he printed in the Almonry. It is as follows: "If
+it plese any man spirituel or temporel to bye ony Pyes of two and thre
+comemoracions of Salisburi vse emprynted, after the forme of this
+present lettre whiche ben wel and truly correct, late hym come to
+Westmonester in to the Almonesrye at the reed pole and he shal have
+them good chepe. Supplico stet cedula." According to Bagford, Caxton's
+office was afterward removed to King Street.</p>
+
+<a id="img053" name="img053"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img053.jpg" width="600" height="467" alt="" title="">
+<p>The First Sheet from Caxton's Press.</p></div>
+
+<p>From the evidence of Wynkyn de Worde, in the colophon of his edition
+of "Vitę Patrum," 1495, it appears that these "Lives of the Fathers"
+were "translated out of French into English by William Caxton, of
+Westminster, lately dead," and that he finished the work "at the last
+day of his life." His death, however, seems fixed, by two or three
+entries in the parish accounts of St. Margaret, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span>
+Westminster, to the year 1491 or 1492, in which we read, "Item: atte
+bureyng of William Caxton for iiij, torches vj<sup>s</sup> viij<sup>d</sup>. Item: for the
+belle at same Bureyng vj<sup>d</sup>." Wynkyn de Worde no doubt referred to this
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Caxton, Mr. Warton observes, by translating, or procuring to be
+translated, a great number of books from the French, greatly
+contributed to promote the state of literature in England. In regard
+to his types, Mr. Dibdin says he appears to have made use of five
+distinct sets, or fonts, of letters, which, in his account of Caxton's
+works, he has engraved plates in fac-simile. Edward Rowe Mores, in his
+"Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Foundries," says
+Caxton's letter was originally of the sort called Secretary, and of
+this he had two fonts; afterward he came nearer to the English face,
+and had three fonts of Great Primer, a rude one which he used anno
+1474, another something better, and a third cut about 1482; one of
+Double Pica, good, which first appears 1490; and one of Long Primer,
+at least nearly agreeing with the bodies which have since been called
+by those names. All of Caxton's works were printed in what are called
+black letter.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9" title="Go to footnote 9"><span class="small">[9]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">A. R. Spofford, LL.D.</span><br>
+
+(1436-1506)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img054" name="img054"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img054.jpg" width="250" height="271" alt="Christopher Columbus." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>The discovery and the discoverer of America have furnished an almost
+inexhaustible theme for the critic, the biographer, and the historian.
+In the year 1892 there was celebrated an event which has come by
+common consent to be regarded as a world-famous epoch, worthy to be
+held in everlasting remembrance. We commemorated the man whose
+discovery almost doubled the extent of the habitable globe.</p>
+
+<p>The life, the voyages, the brilliant triumphs, and the mournful end of
+Columbus are already familiar to most readers. To recount them at
+length would be here a needless repetition. Let us rather attempt to
+glance at some of the historic disputes involving the character and
+acts of the great discoverer, to sketch briefly the sources of
+information about him, and to characterize some of the more important
+writings upon the subject.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span> There is no lack of biographical material concerning the
+discoverer of America. He has left memorials of his personality and
+life-history more abundant than most of the men who have influenced
+their age. There are more than sixty authentic letters of Columbus in
+existence. There are long narratives of his expeditions and
+discoveries, by persons who knew him more or less intimately. There is
+an extended biography of him written by his own son, Ferdinand
+Columbus, or from materials furnished by him. There are numerous
+documents and state papers authenticating his acts, his privileges,
+and his dignities. And yet, with all the wealth of material, so
+copious upon his character and his career, it would seem, from recent
+developments, that the true discoverer of America is yet to be
+discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many lives of Columbus that have been written, there exist
+some twenty-five in the English language. Of these two or three only
+have any historical or critical value. The mass of biographies, both
+English and American, are mere echoes or abridgments, in other forms
+of language, of the great work of Washington Irving, first published
+in 1828. This book was written in Spain, and based upon collections of
+documents (manuscript and printed) not previously used by biographers.
+Hence its value as the most copious and systematic life of Columbus
+which had appeared in any language. The finished and graceful style
+which characterizes all the works of its accomplished author gave it a
+high place in literature, which it has maintained for more than half a
+century, being constantly reprinted.</p>
+
+<p>Next in point of time to Irving, though treating Columbus with less
+fulness of detail, came the polished historian Prescott, whose
+"History of Ferdinand and Isabella" was published in 1837. This ardent
+and laborious scholar was, like Irving, constitutionally inclined to
+the optimistic view of his leading characters. To magnify the virtues
+and to minimize the faults of their heroes has always been the
+besetting sin of biographers. The pomp and picturesque circumstance of
+the Spanish court, the splendid administrative abilities of Ferdinand,
+the beauty, amiability, and devoted piety of Isabella, are depicted in
+glowing colors, but the crimes and cruelties which they sanctioned,
+while condemned upon one page, are softly extenuated upon others.
+Columbus appears as a romantic figure in history, the glory of whose
+successful discovery atones for his many failings.</p>
+
+<p>Of the original sources of information about Columbus the most
+important are:</p>
+
+<p>1. The great collection of original documents printed in Spanish by
+Navarrete, in 1825-37, in five volumes, and partly reprinted in a
+French translation in 1828. These contain the precious letters of
+Columbus, many of which have been translated and recently published in
+English.</p>
+
+<p>2. The "Historia general de las Indias," of Oviedo, first published in
+1535.</p>
+
+<p>3. The "Historia de las Indias," of the Spanish Bishop Las Casas,
+composed in 1527 to 1561, which remained in manuscript until 1875,
+when it was printed from the original Spanish.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span> 4. The "Letters and the Decades of Peter Martyr," written in
+part contemporaneously with the discovery of America, and printed in
+Latin in 1530, and in English in 1555.</p>
+
+<p>5. The "Historia de las Reyes Catolicos," of Andres Bernaldez.</p>
+
+<p>6. The "Life of the Discoverer," by Ferdinand Columbus, first
+published in 1571 at Venice, in Italian.</p>
+
+<p>The last five writers had personal knowledge or intercourse with
+Columbus, while Las Casas, Oviedo, and Ferdinand had the advantage of
+residence in America, and intimate knowledge of the aborigines, and of
+the men and events of the period.</p>
+
+<p>Almost every item involved in the checkered and eventful life of
+Columbus has afforded a fruitful theme for controversy. His birth,
+even, is disputed, under stress of evidence, as falling anywhere
+between 1435 and 1447&mdash;a discrepancy of twelve years. His birthplace
+is claimed by more towns than that of Homer, although his own
+statement, that he was a native of Genoa, has met general concurrence.
+His knowledge of geography, astronomy, and navigation is asserted and
+denied with various degrees of pertinacity. His treatment by the
+sovereigns of Portugal, Castile, and Aragon is so far in question that
+irreconcilable differences of opinion exist. How much Columbus really
+owed to the aid of the crown, and how much to private enterprise, in
+fitting out his expeditions of discovery, cannot be definitely
+ascertained. How far he was hindered by the bigotry, or helped by the
+enlightenment of powerful ecclesiastics, as at the council of
+Salamanca, is a theme of perennial controversy.</p>
+
+<p>The island where he first landed is so far from being identified, that
+many books have been written to prove the claims of this, that, or the
+other gem of the sea to be the true land-fall of Columbus. His
+treatment of the natives has been made the subject of unsparing
+denunciation and of undiscriminating eulogy. His conduct toward his
+own, often mutinous, crews is alternately lauded as humane and
+generous, or denounced as arrogant and cruel, according to the
+sympathies or the point of view of the critic. His imprisonment and
+attempted disgrace have been made the theme of indignant comment and
+of extenuating apology. His moral character and marital relations are
+subjects of irreconcilable differences of judgment. His deep religious
+bias, so manifest in nearly all his writings, has been praised as a
+mark of exalted merit by some writers, and stigmatized by others as
+cant and superstition. The last resting-place of his bones, even, is
+in doubt, which it required an elaborate investigation by the Royal
+Academy of History of Madrid to solve in favor of Havana, as against
+the cathedral of Santo Domingo; though its report is still
+controverted, and M. A. Pinart has proved to the satisfaction of many
+that a misprision took place and that the true remains of Columbus
+still rest at Santo Domingo. The movement to canonize the great
+discoverer has been championed with more zeal than discretion by some
+over-ardent churchmen, while the too-evident human frailties of the
+proposed candidate for the honors of sainthood have inspired an
+abundant caution in the councils of the Vatican.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span> On a subject fraught with so much inherent difficulty,
+contradictory evidence, and conflict of opinion, he is on the safest
+ground who candidly holds his judgment in reserve. In the light of the
+keenly-sifted evidence which modern critical study has brought to
+bear, the laudatory judgments of Irving and Prescott, rendered sixty
+years ago, cannot stand wholly approved.</p>
+
+<p>Neither can a discerning reader accept the fulsome laudations of his
+principal French biographer, Roselly de Lorgues, whose rhetorical
+panegyrics and pious eulogies place its author in the front rank of
+the canonizers.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, those who have taken the unfavorable view of
+Columbus, have done their utmost to divest him of most of the honors
+which the general voice of history has assigned him as America's
+greatest discoverer. The established fact that parts of North America
+were seen centuries before, though no permanent settlement nor
+continuity of intercourse ensued, has been used to discredit him,
+though he was undeniably the pioneer who set out with a plan to
+discover, and did discover by design, what others found only by
+accident. His geographical ideas were derived, they say, from Behaim
+and Toscanelli; his nautical skill from Pinzon; his certainty of
+finding new lands from Alonzo Sanchez; his courage and daring from
+some of his fellow-voyagers.</p>
+
+<p>We are pointed to his double reckoning on his first voyage, by which
+he deceived his sailors as to their true distance from Spain, as
+evidence of a false nature. He is charged with ambition, cupidity, and
+arrogance, in demanding titles, dignities, and money as fruits of his
+discoveries. He was, we are told, a fanatic, a visionary, a tyrant, a
+buccaneer, a liar, and a slave-trader. He was proud, cruel, and
+vindictive.</p>
+
+<p>What manner of man, then, was this Columbus, with whose name the trump
+of fame has been busy so long? As to his person, we have no verified
+portrait, while the likenesses (of all periods) claiming to represent
+his features, present irreconcilable differences. But here is the
+description of him given by Herrera: "Columbus was tall of stature,
+long-visaged, of a majestic aspect, his nose hooked, his eyes gray, of
+a clear complexion, somewhat ruddy. He was witty and pleasant,
+well-spoken and eloquent, moderately grave, affable to strangers, to
+his own family mild. His conversation was discreet, which gained him
+the affection of those he had to deal with, and his presence attracted
+respect, having an air of authority and grandeur. He was a man of
+undaunted courage and high thoughts, patient, unmoved in the many
+troubles and adversities that attended him, ever relying on the Divine
+Providence." Gomara describes him as "a man of good height,
+strong-limbed, with a long countenance, fresh and rosy in aspect,
+somewhat given to anger, hardy in exposure to fatigues."</p>
+
+<p>Benzoni says that Columbus was "a man of exalted intellect, of a
+pleasant and ingenuous countenance."</p>
+
+<p>Bernaldez, the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella, who knew him
+intimately in his later years, says "he was a man of very lofty
+genius, and of marvellously honored memory."</p>
+
+<a id="img055" name="img055"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img055.jpg" width="600" height="418" alt="" title="">
+<p>Columbus ridiculed at the Council of Salamanca.</p></div>
+
+<p>With these personal characteristics, Columbus united a restless
+spirit, a firm <span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span> will, and a singularly enthusiastic
+temperament. The latter faculty gave him a consuming zeal for his
+undertakings, which was as rare as it proved ultimately successful in
+compassing his great discovery. He was discouraged by no rebuffs,
+would take no denials. His motto seemed to be never to despair, and
+never to let go. His spiritual nature was as remarkable as his
+intellectual. Here, his imagination was the predominant faculty. He
+firmly believed himself divinely commissioned to find out the Indies,
+and to bring their inhabitants into the fold of the true faith. He had
+early vowed to devote the profits of his enterprise, if successful, to
+rescue the tomb of Christ from the infidels. Himself a devout son of
+the Church, he fervently believed that he had miraculous aid on many
+perilous occasions of his life. Humble before God, he was sufficiently
+proud and independent before men. He insisted upon conditions with the
+haughty sovereigns of Spain which they deemed exacting, but the high
+views and tenacity of Columbus carried the day, and his own terms were
+granted at last. He never forgot, in all his subsequent trials and
+humiliations, that he was a Spanish admiral, and Viceroy of the
+Indies.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the character of Columbus. Let us now look at his
+environment, which in all men contributes so much to make or modify
+character. Born in Genoa, the headquarters in that day of navigation,
+Columbus early imbibed a passion for maritime affairs. His youthful
+days and nights were given to the study of astronomy and of
+navigation. He was a trained sailor and map-maker from his boyhood. He
+brooded over the problems involved in the spherical form of the earth.
+He caught up all the hints and allusions in classical and medięval
+writers that came in his way, of other lands than those already known.
+The Atlantis of Plato, and the clear prediction in Seneca of another
+world in the west, fired his imagination. He himself tells us that he
+voyaged to the Ultima Thule of his day, which was Iceland, besides
+various expeditions in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.</p>
+
+<p>The early fancies of isles in the western sea loomed up before his
+eyes, and repeated themselves in his dreams. These visions were
+heightened by that vague sense of wonder that is linked with the
+unknown. No wonder, then, that Columbus, with a bent almost
+preternatural toward the undiscovered regions of the globe, should
+dream of new lands, new men, new scenery, and new wealth. But to his
+vivid imagination dreams became realities, until he believed with all
+the force of his ardent nature that he was divinely commissioned to be
+a discoverer. Hitherto the Portuguese voyages familiar to Columbus had
+only skirted the coast of Africa, and discovered the Cape Verde
+Islands and the Azores. It was not till 1486, years after the idea of
+his western voyage took firm root in his mind, that the Cape of Good
+Hope was at last doubled by Vasco da Gama. All voyages prior to his
+had been only tentative and brief, slowly creeping from headland to
+headland, or else finding new islands by being drifted out of courses
+long familiar to mariners.</p>
+
+<p>It was the supreme merit of Columbus that he was the first to cut
+loose from one continent to find another, and to steer boldly across
+an unknown sea, in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span> search of an unknown world. We need not
+belittle (still less need we deny) the finding of Greenland and of
+other parts of North America by the Norsemen in the ninth and tenth
+centuries. We may hail Eric the Red and his stout son, Leif Ericson,
+as pioneers in what may be termed coasting voyages of discovery. But
+the story of America gains as little from these shadowy and abortive
+voyages as civilization has gained from their fruitless results.</p>
+
+<p>On the first voyage of Columbus, he was more fortunate in the
+uncertain elements which always affect sea voyages so overpoweringly
+than in some of his later ones. His own vessel, with single deck, was
+about ninety feet long, by a breadth of twenty feet. The Pinta, a
+faster sailer, and the Nina (or "baby") were smaller caravels, and
+without decks, commanded respectively by the brothers Martin and
+Vicente Pinzon. The three vessels carried ninety persons, sailing
+September 6, 1492, running first south to the Canaries, and then
+stretching straight westward on the twenty-eighth parallel for what
+the admiral believed to be the coast of Japan. Delightful weather
+favored the voyagers, but when, on the tenth day out from Spain, the
+caravels struck into that wonderful stretch of seaweed and grass,
+known as the Sargasso Sea, fear lest they should run aground or soon
+be unable to sail in either direction took possession of the crews. In
+five days the caravels ran into smooth water again. But as their
+distance from Spain grew greater, the spirit of protest and mutiny
+grew louder. Columbus needed all of his invincible constancy and
+firmness of purpose to quell and to animate his despairing crews. At
+last, October 21, 1492&mdash;day ever memorable in the annals of this
+world&mdash;the unknown land rose from the bosom of the water. It was named
+by its pious discoverer San Salvador&mdash;Holy Saviour. The charm of
+climate and of landscape enchanted all, and fear and despondency gave
+way to delight and joy and the most extravagant anticipations. The
+subsequent history of this first voyage, the wreck of the admiral's
+flag-ship Santa Maria, the base desertion of Pinzon, and his baffled
+attempt to forestall Columbus in the credit of the discovery, the
+triumphal honors paid to the successful admiral, and the pope's bull
+conferring upon Spain all lands west of a meridian one hundred leagues
+from the Azores&mdash;all this is familiar to most readers. The actual
+discoveries of the first voyage included Cuba and Hispaniola (or
+Haiti), with some little islands of the Bahama group, of small
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>On his second voyage Columbus found no difficulty in collecting
+seventeen ships and 1,500 adventurers, so popular had the new way to
+the Indies become when the way was once found. He set sail six months
+after his return to Spain, or on September 15, 1493. He returned in
+June, 1496, after three years of explorations, interrupted by a long
+illness, and having discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico, Santa Cruz,
+Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, and Guadaloupe.</p>
+
+<p>The third voyage began May 30, 1498, and embraced six vessels and 200
+men. Columbus struck southwestward from the Cape Verde Islands and ran
+nearly to the equator, into a region of torrid heat, discovering
+Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, and the Gulf of Paria, and making his first
+landing on the continent, at the Pearl Coast, near the mouth of the
+Orinoco, in what is now Venezuela. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span> This voyage witnessed
+many disasters&mdash;the rebellion of Roldan, the severe prostration of the
+admiral by fever, and his seizure and imprisonment in chains by the
+infamous Bobadilla.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth and last voyage of Columbus, with four small caravels and
+150 men, was begun May 11, 1502. On this voyage he discovered
+Martinique and the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Veragua, on the
+mainland, returning to Spain, after untold disasters and miseries, on
+November 7, 1504. Then followed the weary struggle of the infirm old
+voyager to secure justice and a part of his hard-earned benefits from
+the crown. But Isabella had died, and Ferdinand, under the influence
+of the hard-hearted and cruel bigot, Fonseca, postponed all the claims
+of Columbus. He who had given a world died in poverty, a suppliant for
+the means of an honorable existence.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy enough for the writers of the nineteenth century to
+criticise the actors of the fifteenth; and learned scholars, sitting
+in luxurious easy-chairs in great libraries, can pass swift and severe
+judgment upon the acts and motives of Columbus. But let them go back
+four hundred years, and divest themselves of the bias which the
+science of to-day unconsciously inspires; let them quit the age of
+steam-engines, telegraphs, democratic governments, printing-presses,
+and Sunday-schools; let them orient themselves, and become Spaniards
+of 1492, instead of Americans of 1892; let them take the place of
+Columbus&mdash;if they are gifted with imagination enough among their
+manifold endowments to do it; let them think his thoughts, endure his
+trials, cherish his resolves, encounter his rebuffs, overcome his
+obstacles, launch out on his voyage, govern his mutinous crew, deal
+with his savage and hostile tribes, combat the traitors in his camp,
+suffer his shipwrecks, struggle with his disappointments, bear the
+ignominy of his chains, see his visions, and pray his prayers.</p>
+
+<p>Behold him, launched on his uncertain voyage across the "sea of
+darkness," in three little caravels, no larger than the modern yacht,
+and far less seaworthy. Watch his devoted and anxious look, his
+solitary self-communings, his all-night vigils under the silent stars.
+See his motley crew, picked up at random in Palos streets, ignorant,
+superstitious, and full of fears, dreading every added mile of the
+voyage, and alarmed at the prevalent east winds which they thought
+would never permit them to sail back to Spain; so that Columbus, on a
+contrary head-wind springing up, thanked God with all the fervency of
+his pious soul. Pursue his career in his later expeditions, hampered
+by the mutinous vagabonds whom fate had thrust upon him as followers,
+many of them desperadoes just out of jail. See his baffled endeavors
+to maintain order and discipline among such a crew; to restrain their
+excesses, curb their lawless acts of violence, and secure some
+semblance of decency in their conduct toward the natives. Many of
+them, we read, were so given over to idleness and sloth, that they
+actually made the islanders beasts of burden, to carry them on their
+backs. It is a most unhappy fact that the missionaries of the cross
+were often accompanied by bands of miscreants, who wantonly broke
+every commandment in the decalogue and trampled upon every precept of
+the gospel. See him in his last voyage, beating about <span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span> the
+rocks and shoals of an unknown archipelago, overtaken by West India
+hurricanes, almost engulfed in waterspouts, scudding under bare poles
+amid perilous breakers, blinded by lightning, deafened by incessant
+peals of thunder, his crazy little barks tossed about like
+cockle-shells in the raging waves, his anchors lost, his worm-eaten
+vessels as full of holes as a honey-comb, two caravels abandoned, and
+the two remaining run ashore at Jamaica, where Columbus built huts on
+their decks to shelter his forlorn crew. See him stranded here,
+pressed by hunger and want, visited by sickness and almost blindness,
+burning with fever under the wilting, fiery heat of the tropics,
+desolate, forsaken, infirm, and old. There he lay a whole year without
+relief, until the cup of his misery was full.</p>
+
+<p>If Columbus was sometimes harsh and cruel, we are to remember that he
+lived in an age when the most cruel and barbarous punishments were
+common. There are numerous instances of his clemency both to natives
+and to his revolted Spaniards, and he more than once jeopardized his
+own life by sparing theirs. Among a treacherous and vindictive race,
+many of whom were continually plotting for his overthrow, the admiral,
+endowed with full power over the lives and acts of his followers, was
+compelled to make examples of the worst, many of whom were criminals
+released from the prisons of Spain. Like other fighters, he met
+treachery with treachery, cruelty with cruelty. He had never learned
+to love his enemies, nor to turn his cheek for the second blow. Show
+us the man invested with absolute power, in that or in any former age,
+who abused it less. Try him by the moral standards, not of our humane
+and enlightened age, but by those of his own. Compared with the deeds
+of darkness that were done by Bobadilla and Ovando, the governors who
+replaced him, the reign of Columbus appears, even at its worst, to
+have been mild and merciful.</p>
+
+<p>By the side of the atrocities and cruel massacres perpetrated under
+Cortes in Mexico, and Pizarro in Peru, the few deeds of blood under
+Columbus appear slight indeed. While we have no right to extenuate his
+errors and his abuses, we have as little right to hold him to a
+standard nowhere set up in his day. He had learned his ethics in a
+school which taught that, for great and pious objects, the end
+justified the means. In the ardor of his zeal for what he deemed the
+Christian faith, Columbus committed many glaring mistakes and errors;
+but what over-zealous apostle or reformer has failed to do the same?
+Columbus was unduly eager after gold, they say; but in our advanced
+age, when that which Virgil called "the accursed hunger for gold"
+pervades all ranks, and our cities are nothing but great encampments
+of fortune-hunters, does it lie in our mouths to condemn him?</p>
+
+<p>The age of Columbus took him as he was&mdash;all full of human
+imperfections and frailties, but full also to overflowing with a great
+idea, and with a will, a perseverance, a constancy, and a faith so
+sublime, as fairly to conquer every obstacle, after a weary struggle
+of eighteen years, and to carry forward his arduous enterprise to
+triumphant success. That the great discoverer failed as a governor and
+administrator makes nothing against his merits as a discoverer. That
+his light at last went out in darkness&mdash;that the world he discovered
+brought nothing to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span> Spain but disappointment and Dead Sea
+ashes&mdash;that he dragged out a miserable old age in rotten and
+unseaworthy ships, lying ill in the torrid heats of the West Indies,
+racked with excruciating pain, and in absolute penury and want&mdash;all
+this but adds point to a life so full of paradox that we may almost
+pardon him for believing in miracles. After so much glory and so much
+fame, his life darkened down to its dreary and pathetic close. His
+ardent soul went at last where wicked governments cease from
+troubling, and weary mariners are at rest. On May 20, 1506, worn out
+by disease, anxieties, and labors, the great discoverer launched forth
+on his last voyage of discovery, beyond the border of that unknown
+land whose boundaries are hid from mortal ken.</p>
+
+<p>His place among the immortals is secure. By the power of the
+unconquerable mind with which nature had endowed him, he achieved a
+fame so imperishable that neither the arrows of malice, nor the shafts
+of envy, nor the keenest pens of critics, nor the assaults of
+iconoclasts can avail to destroy it.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig007" name="sig007"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig007.jpg" width="300" height="77" alt="Author signature. A. R. Spofford." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h3>VASCO DA GAMA<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10" title="Go to footnote 10"><span class="small">[10]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Judge Albion W. Tourgée</span><br>
+
+(1460-1525)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img056" name="img056"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img056.jpg" width="200" height="254" alt="Vasco da Gama." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Vasco da Gama was the pet of fortune. Never did a man win immortality
+more easily. As a discoverer and a navigator he should rank not only
+below Columbus, but also below Bartolemeo Diaz and Cabral among his
+own countrymen, as well as Vespucius and Magellan, who carried the
+Spanish flag, and the Cabots, who established England's claim to the
+most important portions of the New World. As a commander, an
+administrator, and ruler of newly discovered regions, however, he
+ranks easily above them all. He not only led the way to India, but
+laid securely the foundations of Portuguese empire in the East.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the hour of his birth he was fortunate. Prince Henry, surnamed
+"the Navigator," to whose indefatigable exertions for more than forty
+years was due that impulse to maritime achievement of which the
+discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were the result,
+had just died, and his influence hung like an inspiration over the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span> little kingdom for which he had wrought with such
+self-denying patience. This grandson of John of Gaunt has received
+scant credit for that wonderful series of discoveries by which the
+accessible earth was more than quadrupled in extent. Yet without him,
+there is no reason to believe that either the coast of Africa would
+have been explored, the Cape of Good Hope passed, or the American
+continents discovered for a century, at least, perhaps for two or
+three centuries afterward. He was the father of discovery, and it was
+his hand more than any or all others that rolled up the curtain of
+darkness which hid the major part of the habitable globe. All the
+navigators and discoverers of that marvellous age were but the agents
+of his genius and the creatures of his indefatigable exertion.</p>
+
+<p>The son of the most noted sovereign of Portugal, and grandson of that
+rugged Englishman from whose loins have sprung so many royal lines, he
+was fitted by descent and training for the heroic part which he
+performed. Distinguished for military achievement before he had come
+to man's estate, urged by four of the leading sovereigns of Europe to
+take command of their armies, and made Grand Master of the Order of
+Christ before he was twenty-five, there is hardly any limit to the
+military distinction he might have won or the power he might have
+secured, had he sought his own advancement.</p>
+
+<p>But he gave himself to Portugal, and determined to raise the little
+kingdom his father had so gallantly held against jealous and powerful
+neighbors, to the rank of a first-class power. To seek to enlarge a
+realm shut in by mountains on one side and the sea upon the other, by
+constant strife with embittered enemies, he saw at once was to invite
+annihilation. The sea afforded the only avenue of hope, the continent
+of Africa, where his father had already gained something from the
+Moor, in battling with whom he had himself won renown, the only
+visible opportunity. So he determined to explore, and finally, to
+circumnavigate Africa, and give to Portugal whatever of power or
+wealth the ocean or the dark continent might hide. He believed that
+India might be reached by sailing round its southern extremity, and he
+determined to pour the wealth of the Orient into the treasury of the
+kingdom his father had established.</p>
+
+<p>In 1418, therefore, he turned his back on personal ambition, laid
+aside the glory of military renown, and sat himself down to a hermit's
+life and a scholar's labors on the promontory of Sagres, in the
+province of Algarve, that point on the coast of Portugal which
+stretches farthest out into the Atlantic in the direction of his hope.
+Here he built an observatory whose light was the last his captains saw
+as they went forth, and the first to greet them on their return. Here
+he opened a school of navigation, and here were trained the
+discoverers who opened the way for all who came afterward. Here was
+not only nourished the impulse which fired the hearts of Columbus and
+his contemporaries, but here was taught the science and here were
+gathered the facts which enabled them to achieve success.</p>
+
+<p>Up to that time, Cape Nun had been the boundary of the modern world to
+the southward. With infinite patience, Prince Henry labored to
+convince his captains that the terrors which they thought lay at the
+southward of this point were wholly imaginary. Little by little his
+caravels crept down the coast of Africa. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span> Every year he sent
+out two or three. Navigators and geographers flocked to his service.
+In two years he re-discovered Madeira and Porto Santo, of which latter
+he afterward made Perestrello, the father of Columbus's wife, the
+governor. By 1433 his ships had reached Cape Bojador; eight years
+afterward they passed Cape Blanco; in 1445 they were at the mouth of
+the Senegal. Still he urged them on toward that "<i>thesaurus Arabum et
+divitia Indię</i>," to which he set himself the task of opening up the
+way. The crown of Portugal assumed all the cost of these expeditions.
+Gold, ivory, cinnabar, dye-woods, spices, and slaves, added to the
+wealth of the kingdom only to furnish forth new ventures.</p>
+
+<p>He died before the end came, but not until many of the most important
+problems of cosmographic condition had been solved. It was known by
+actual experience that the "steaming sea" was a myth. Ships had
+crossed the equator, and their crews came back to tell of
+southward-stretching shadows. Ships were able, it was seen, to sail up
+the southern slope of the world as well as down it. Why they did not
+fall off into space, none knew, but that they did not was proved.
+Gravitation was a force whose laws and character were yet
+unformulated. The diurnal motion of the earth was hardly suspected
+until a hundred years later. But the facts on which these two
+fundamental truths are based were being gathered for Newton and
+Copernicus. When he died, those whom he had inspired and instructed
+continued the work to which he had devoted himself, under the
+patronage of his brother Alfonso and his nephew Joćo II.; until, in
+1486, Bartholomeo Diaz had sailed two hundred miles to the eastward of
+the Cape of Good Hope and returned to assure his sovereign that the
+way to India had at length been found.</p>
+
+<p>It was not, however, until Dom Manoel had succeeded to the throne, in
+1495, that any successful effort was made to follow up the success
+which Diaz had achieved. The way to India was indeed open, but no one
+seems to have had sufficient fortitude to undertake so long a voyage
+in order to reach it by that route. Dom Manoel had, however, but one
+idea. He was not a geographer like his predecessor, Joćo, "the
+perfect," but he was a man of action, and determined that the route
+Prince Henry's navigators had opened to India should not remain
+unused. Vasco da Gama was then in his thirty-fifth year, the
+handsomest man of his age, of ancient family, and it is claimed was
+not without royal blood in his veins. As a soldier he was trained in
+the war with Castile; as a navigator he had served under Prince
+Henry's best captains. Camoens, the historical poet of Portugal,
+declares that he was familiar not only with the recorded achievements
+of his predecessors, but with all the regions they had discovered. Dom
+Joćo, on the return of Diaz, selected him to command the fleet he
+meant to send to follow up this discovery. In the ten years that
+elapsed before he actually sailed, it is probable that he had grown to
+be not only a better geographer, but also a stronger, more
+cool-headed, and reliable man. That he was able to command, those
+mutineers who cavilled at his severity during the stormy passage of
+four months from Lisbon to Table Bay, found out when they demanded
+that he give up trying to reach India and return to Portugal as other
+captains had done, at the behest of their crews. He made short work
+of them, and in his whole career, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span> so salutary was the lesson,
+no one under his command ever again refused to obey his orders.</p>
+
+<p>It was July 8, 1497, when he sailed from Lisbon, and it was not until
+December 1st that he left Delagoa Bay, the farthest eastward point
+which Diaz had reached, to pass over the actually unknown water that
+lay between him and India. Even this could hardly be called "unknown
+water," for Corvilhan, who a dozen years before had made his way
+overland to Aden, had sent back to Dom Joćo II. this message:</p>
+
+<p>"Anyone who will persist, is sure to sail around the southernmost
+point of Africa, and can then easily make his way up the eastern shore
+and across the gulf to India."</p>
+
+<p>Literally were his words fulfilled. With favoring breezes, Gama
+reached Malinda early in January, 1498, and securing the services of
+an Indian pilot, who had not only sailed hither from Calicut, but
+seemed as familiar as Gama himself with compass and astrolabe, he set
+out boldly across the Indian Ocean, and in May arrived at Calicut.
+When we consider that this latter part of the voyage was with a pilot
+accustomed to make the trip in the far more fragile crafts of the
+Arabs, the boldness of the undertaking does not seem so apparent to
+one of our day. Compared with the voyages of Columbus, Magellan,
+Vespucius, or Cabral over absolutely unknown seas, without pilots or
+charts of any kind, the passage from Aden to India hardly seems
+remarkable. Yet upon this the fame of Gama as an explorer rests, and
+as has been remarked, "few men have won fame so easily." His real
+merit lay in the fact that he did what so few of his predecessors were
+able to accomplish, controlled the mutinous crews, who had after all
+been the most serious obstacle in the path of Portugal to the coveted
+Indian possessions. It is probable that if Prince Henry had encouraged
+his captains to exercise greater severity, the darling object of his
+life might have been attained before his death and the birth of the
+fortunate explorer, whose cheaply-won fame has obscured his own, even
+with the king-loving Portuguese.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem as if the capacity to control men, which was so
+prominent a characteristic of the "Discoverer of India," was not of a
+conciliatory character, for the Zamorin of Calicut received him but
+coldly, and before his ships were loaded the difference had ripened
+into a quarrel, and he was obliged to cut his way out of the harbor to
+begin his homeward voyage. This lack of complaisance on the part of
+the Zamorin he attributed, not without reason, to the jealousy of the
+Arab merchants, whose swift-sailing dhows crowded the port. Why should
+they not be jealous of him who came to take away their immemorial
+privilege? Theretofore the treasures of the Orient had reached the
+western world only through the hands of the Arab merchants. The dhow
+and the camel had been its carriers. Gama had brought the more
+capacious caravel to bear them over a new highway to the western
+consumers. His success meant the loss of a great part of the business
+on which the sailors, merchants, and camel-drivers of Arabia depended
+for a livelihood. Why should they not conspire to kill him and destroy
+his fleet?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span> His homeward passage was as fortunate as the outward one had
+been. That he did not experience the disasters which befell others,
+was no doubt largely due to the fact that he foresaw and avoided peril
+whenever possible. He was one of those men who, while shrinking from
+no unavoidable danger, take no unnecessary risks. He was received with
+unprecedented honors when, after two years and two months' absence,
+his ships were again anchored in the Tagus. Their rich cargo attested
+the rare value of the trade he had opened up. Despite the gold which
+the miners of Espańola were beginning to send to Spain, and the pearls
+which had come from Cubagua, the apparent value of the discoveries of
+Columbus were as nothing to the boundless wealth which Gama's voyage
+assured to Portugal. By the bull of Pope Alexander VI., all lands
+discovered east of the meridian of the Azores belonged to the King of
+Portugal. It was not only half the world, but that half which was of
+most inexhaustible richness, Asia and Africa. Titles and honors and
+wealth were conferred upon the fortunate explorer. In consideration
+perhaps of his royal extraction, he was permitted to affix the kingly
+title, "Dom," to his name. No wonder he was thus honored, when the
+cargo of one small caravel loaded with spices, yielded a greater sum
+than the whole outfit of the fleet Columbus commanded on his first
+voyage!</p>
+
+<p>In an incredibly short time, thirteen ships were fitted out, and under
+that prince of navigators, Cabral, set sail to secure the results of
+Gama's discovery. On him, too, fortune smiled as it rarely has on them
+that "go down to the sea in ships." Blown out of his course by
+head-winds, his very mishaps ripened into the rarest fortune, for he
+discovered Brazil, and thus added to his master's realm what was
+destined to be one of the richest kingdoms of the world. With the
+instinct of genius, and a courage as rare as it was heroic, he did not
+return to notify his king of the new continent which had risen out of
+the deep before him, but sending back a single caravel with the
+marvellous news, he turned his battered prows to that point of the
+compass where he judged the Cape of Good Hope to be, and after passing
+three thousand miles of water that had never known a keel before, he
+rounded the southern point of Africa and proceeded to carry out his
+orders. He lacked, however, the soldierly qualities and administrative
+power of the "Discoverer of India," who the year after his return was
+sent out to complete his work. This time he had a fleet of twenty
+sail, and from the outset was bent not only on taking permanent
+possession of the countries whose trade it was desirable to secure,
+but on avenging the affront that had before been offered him by the
+Zamorin of Calicut and the Arab traders who had inspired the action.</p>
+
+<p>On his way he founded the colonies of Mozambique and Sofala, and
+sailed to Travancore. During the passage he fell in with a ship which
+was carrying many Indian Mussulmans to Mecca, laden with rich presents
+for the shrine of the Prophet. This he pillaged and burned, with all
+of her 300 passengers except twenty women and children, whom he saved
+more for his own pleasure, no doubt, than from any pity for them. He
+excused this act of savagery, so far as any excuse was necessary, on
+the ground that they were paynim Moors, and some <span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span> among them
+had incited the attack upon him at Calicut on his former voyage. The
+truth is they were rich; he wanted the plunder; and there was less
+likelihood of trouble if he killed them than if they were left alive
+to publish and avenge their losses. It was merely an application of
+the freebooter's maxim, that "dead men tell no tales."</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at Calicut, he found that forty Portuguese who had been left
+to establish a permanent post, had been killed. With unusual
+deliberation, he investigated the matter and demanded reparation,
+submission, and a treaty acknowledging the sovereignty of Portugal
+over India. This being refused, he bombarded the city, burned the
+ships in the harbor, and compelled the Zamorin himself and all the
+native princes of the region to submit and acknowledge themselves
+feudatories of Portugal. So rapid were his movements, and so accurate
+his calculations, that before the close of 1503 he had reached Lisbon
+again with thirteen vessels laden to the gunwale with the plunder of
+the Orient&mdash;by all odds the richest argosy that had come to any
+European port since the days of the Romans.</p>
+
+<p>Da Gama was now forty-three years old, and must have been in the very
+prime of manhood. Why so skilled a navigator, so intrepid a commander,
+so shrewd a negotiator, and so successful an administrator, who had
+established the power of Portugal from Delagoa Bay to Calcutta,
+should, at that period of his life, have been laid upon the shelf for
+twenty years, is a conundrum hard to answer. Knowing the character of
+Dom Manoel, it is not difficult to guess that his sordidness lay
+somewhere at the bottom of the trouble; but it is said to Gama's
+credit, that he neither whined nor remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p>It must be admitted, however, that he was succeeded by one who was
+greatly his superior both as a general, a statesman, and an
+administrator. If Vasco da Gama laid the foundations of Portuguese
+empire in the East, Alfonso d'Albuquerque, "the Great," broadened and
+built upon them as he could never have done. From Aden to Cochin blood
+flowed beneath his blows, but peace followed; and though he was termed
+"the Portuguese Mars," his justice became traditional, and his
+sagacity was shown in the permanence of the settlements he made, even
+under the incompetent viceroys who followed him.</p>
+
+<p>It was twenty years since Vasco da Gama had commanded a ship.
+Albuquerque was dead, and his successors had brought shame and defeat
+upon the Portuguese power in the East. Dom Manoel was dead also, and
+whatever grievance he had against "the Discoverer of India," seems to
+have died with him. His successor, Dom Joćo III., casting about for
+someone to bring order out of confusion, success out of failure, and
+honor out of shame, called again into his service the courtly and
+sagacious mariner, now over sixty years of age; and conferring upon
+him the title of viceroy, sent him to retrieve the prestige his
+successors had lost. His high spirit was yet undaunted, and when he
+neared the coast of India and found the waters in a strange ferment
+for which no one could account, as there was neither wind nor tide, he
+said loftily: "The sea beholds its conqueror and trembles before him!"
+It sounds bombastic, but in the mouth of one who had first guided a
+civilized keel over its surface, such arrogance is at least
+pardonable.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span> In the few months that intervened before his death he made
+the power of Portugal once more respected in the East. When he died in
+Cochin, in 1525, he was mourned by the natives as a just ruler, and by
+his countrymen as one who had saved to Portugal the richest part of
+the national domain. It is not strange, therefore, that when his ashes
+were conveyed to Lisbon, they were received with a pomp almost equal
+to that which greeted him when he came as the discoverer of the Orient
+and its priceless treasures. It is rare in history that one receives
+two triumphs, the one while living and the other when dead, especially
+in connection with the same achievement; but it is rarer still that
+one who has won immortality should leave a record so singularly free
+from bickering and strife as that of the dignified and self-contained
+Portuguese rival of Columbus, Dom Vasco da Gama, the "Discoverer and
+Sixth Viceroy of India, Count of Vidigueira," where he lies entombed.
+Little is known of his private life; but there seems no doubt that it
+was free from the stains that obscure his great rival's fame, from
+whom he also differed in the fact that he neither begged nor boasted,
+and in old age was honored even more than in his prime.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig008" name="sig008"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig008.jpg" width="300" height="83" alt="Author signature. Albion W. Tourgée." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h3>THE CHEVALIER BAYARD<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Herbert Greenhough Smith</span><br>
+
+(1476-1524)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img057" name="img057"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img057.jpg" width="300" height="170" alt="The Chevalier Bayard." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Pierre Du Terrail was born in 1476, at Castle Bayard, in Dauphiny. The
+house of Terrail belonged to the Scarlet of the ancient peers of
+France. The Lords of Bayard, during many generations, had died under
+the flags of battle. Poictiers, Agincourt, and Montlhéry had taken, in
+succession, the last three; and in 1479, when Pierre was in his
+nurse's arms, his father, Aymon du Terrail, was carried from the field
+of Guinegate with a frightful wound, from the effects of which,
+although he survived for seventeen years to limp about his castle with
+the help of sticks, he never again put on his shirt of mail.</p>
+
+<p>The old knight was thus debarred from bringing up his son as his own
+squire. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span> But the Bishop of Grenoble, his wife's brother, was a
+close friend of Charles the Warrior, the great Duke of Savoy. When
+Pierre was in his fourteenth year it was proposed that he should begin
+his knightly education among the pages of the duke. The bishop
+promised to present him. A little horse was bought; a tailor was set
+to work to make a gorgeous suit of silk and velvet; and Pierre was
+ready to set out.</p>
+
+<p>During six months the palace of Charles became his home. The lovable
+and handsome boy soon won all hearts about him. The duke with delight
+saw him leap and wrestle, throw the bar, and ride a horse better than
+any page about the court. The duchess and her ladies loved to send him
+on their dainty missions. His temper was bright and joyous; his only
+fault, if fault it can be called, was an over-generosity of nature.
+His purse was always empty; and when he had no money, any trifling
+service of a lackey or a groom would be requited with a silver button,
+a dagger, or a clasp of gold. And such was to be his character through
+life. Time after time, in after years, his share of treasure, after
+some great victory, would have paid a prince's ransom; yet often he
+could not lay his hand on five gold pieces.</p>
+
+<p>When Pierre had lived at the palace about half a year, the duke made a
+visit to Lyons, to pay his duty to the king. That king was Charles the
+Eighth, then a boy of twenty, who was making his days fly merrily with
+tilts and hawking parties, and his nights with dances and the whispers
+of fair dames. The duke desired to carry with him to his sovereign a
+present worthy of a king's acceptance. A happy notion struck him. He
+resolved to present the king with Bayard and his horse.</p>
+
+<p>King Charles, delighted with his new page, placed him in the palace of
+Lord Ligny, a prince of the great house of Luxemburg, and there for
+three years he continued to reside. During that time his training was
+the usual training of a page. But the child was the father of the man.
+Thoughts of great deeds, of tilts and battle-fields, of champions
+going down before his lance, of crowns of myrtle, and the smiles of
+lovely ladies&mdash;such already were the dreams which set his soul on
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>At seventeen Pierre received the rank of gentleman. Thenceforward he
+was free to follow his own fortune; he was free to seek the glorious
+Dulcinea of his dreams&mdash;a fame as bright and sparkling as his sword.
+And thereupon begins to pass before us, brilliant as the long-drawn
+scenes of a dissolving view, the strange and splendid series of his
+exploits. He had not ceased to be a page ten days before the court was
+ringing with his name.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Claude de Vauldre, Lord of Burgundy, was regarded as the stoutest
+knight in France. He was then at Lyons, and was about to hold a tilt,
+with lance and battle-axe, before the ladies and the king. His shield
+was hanging in the Ainay meadows, and beside it Montjoy, the
+king-at-arms, sat all day with his book open, taking down the names of
+those who struck the shield. Among these came Bayard. Montjoy laughed
+as he wrote down his name; the king, Lord Ligny, and his own
+companions, heard with mingled trepidation and delight <span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span> that
+Bayard had struck the blazon of Sir Claude. But no one had a thought
+of what was coming. The day arrived, the tilt was held, and Bayard, by
+the voice of all the ladies, bore off the prize above the head of
+every knight in Lyons.</p>
+
+<p>The glory of this exploit was extreme. It quickly spread. Three days
+later Bayard went to join the garrison at Aire. He found, as he rode
+into the little town, that the fame of his achievement had arrived
+before him. Heads were everywhere thrust out of windows, and a band of
+fifty of his future comrades issued on horseback from the garrison to
+bid him welcome. A few days after his arrival he held a tilt in his
+own person, after the example of Sir Claude. The palms were a diamond
+and a clasp of gold. Forty-eight of his companions struck his shield,
+and rode into the lists against him. Bayard overthrew the whole band,
+one by one, and was once more hailed at sunset by the notes of
+trumpets as the champion of the tourney.</p>
+
+<p>It is not in tournaments and tilts, however, that a knight can win his
+spurs. Bayard burned for battle. For many months he burned in vain;
+but at last the banners of the king were given to the wind, and
+Bayard, to his unspeakable delight, found himself marching under Lord
+Ligny against Naples.</p>
+
+<p>The two armies faced each other at Fornovo. The odds against the
+French were six to one, and the fight was long and bloody. When the
+great victory was at last decided, Bayard was among the first of those
+called up before the king. That day two horses had dropped dead
+beneath him; his cuirass and sword were hacked and battered, and a
+captured standard, blazing with the arms of Naples, was in his hand.
+At the king's order he knelt down, and received upon the spot the rank
+of knight. At one bound he had achieved the height of glory&mdash;to be
+knighted by his sovereign on the field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>Bayard was not yet nineteen. His figure at that age was tall and
+slender; his hair and eyes were black; his complexion was a sunny
+brown; and his countenance had something of the eagle's.</p>
+
+<p>He was now for some time idle. He was left in garrison in Lombardy.
+But fiercer fields were soon to call him. Ludovico Sforza took Milan.
+At Binasco, Lord Bernardino Cazache, one of Sforza's captains, had
+three hundred horse; and twenty miles from Milan was Bayard's place of
+garrison. With fifty of his comrades he rode out one morning, bent on
+assaulting Lord Bernardino's force. The latter, warned by a scout of
+their approach, armed his party, and rushed fiercely from the fort.
+The strife was fought with fury; but the Lombards, slowly driven back
+toward Milan, at length wheeled round their horses and galloped like
+the wind into the city.</p>
+
+<p>Bayard, darting in his spurs, waving his bare blade, and shouting out
+his battle-cry of "France," was far ahead of his companions. Before he
+knew his danger, he had dashed in with the fugitives at the city gates
+and reached the middle of the square in front of Sforza's palace. He
+found himself alone in the midst of the fierce enemy&mdash;with the white
+crosses of France emblazoned on his shield.</p>
+
+<p>Sforza, hearing a tremendous uproar in the square, came to a window of
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span> palace and looked down. The square was swarming with the
+soldiers of Binasco, savage, hacked, and bloody; and in the centre of
+the yelling tumult, Bayard, still on horseback, was slashing at those
+who strove to pull him from his seat.</p>
+
+<p>Sforza, in a voice of thunder, bade the knight be brought before him.
+Bayard, seeing that resistance was mere madness, surrendered to Lord
+Bernardino, and was led, disarmed, into the palace. Sforza was a
+soldier more given to the ferocity than to the courtesies of war. But
+when the young knight stood before him, when he heard his story, when
+he looked upon his bold yet modest bearing, the fierce and moody
+prince was moved to admiration. "Lord Bayard," he said, "I will not
+treat you as a prisoner. I set you free; I will take no ransom; and I
+will grant you any favor in my power." "My Lord Prince," said Bayard,
+"I thank you for your courtesy with all my soul. I will ask you only
+for my horse and armor." The horse was brought; Bayard sprang into the
+saddle, and an hour later was received by his companions with raptures
+of surprise and joy, as one who had come alive out of the lion's den.</p>
+
+<p>Milan fell; Sforza was taken; and Bayard went into garrison at
+Monervino. At Andri, some miles distant, was a Spanish garrison under
+the command of Don Alonzo de Sotomayor, one of the most famous knights
+in Spain. Bayard, with fifty men, rode out one morning, in the hope of
+falling in with some adventure. It happened that he came across
+Alonzo, with an equal party, abroad on the same quest. Their forces
+met; both sides flew joyously to battle, and for an hour the victory
+hung in the balance. But at last Bayard, with his own sword, forced
+Alonzo to surrender; and his party, carrying with them a large band of
+prisoners, rode back in triumph to the garrison.</p>
+
+<p>Sotomayor behaved in most unknightly fashion, and after being
+ransomed, accused Bayard of ill-treating him. Bayard sent him the lie,
+and challenging him to a duel to the death, slew him. A few days
+later, the Spaniards, panting for reprisal, proposed to meet a party
+of the French in combat, for the glory of their nations. Bayard
+received the challenge with delight. On the appointed day, thirteen
+knights of either side, glittering in full harness, armed with sword
+and battle-axe, and prepared for a contest to the death, rode forth
+into the lists.</p>
+
+<p>By the laws of such a tilt a knight unhorsed, or forced across the
+boundary, became a prisoner, and could fight no longer. The Spaniards,
+with great cunning, set themselves to maim the horses; and by these
+tactics, eleven of the French were soon dismounted. Two alone were
+left to carry on the contest, Bayard and Lord Orose.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed such a feat of arms as struck the gazers dumb. For four
+hours these two held good their ground against the whole thirteen. The
+Spaniards, stung with rage and shame, spurred till their heels dripped
+blood. In vain. Night fell; the bugles sounded; and still the
+unconquerable pair rode round the ring.</p>
+
+<p>But great as this feat was, it was soon to be succeeded by a greater.
+A few weeks afterward the French and Spanish camps were posted on
+opposite sides of the river Gargliano. Between them was a bridge, in
+the possession of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span> French; and some way farther down the
+river was a ford, known only to the Spanish general, Pedro de Paez. He
+proposed to lure the French guards from the bridge, and then to seize
+it. And his stratagem was ready.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning the French soldiers at the bridge were startled
+to perceive a party of the enemy, each horseman bearing a foot-soldier
+on his crupper, approach the river at the ford and begin to move
+across it. Instantly, as Paez had intended, they left the bridge and
+rushed toward the spot. Bayard, attended by Le Basque, was in the act
+of putting on his armor. He sprang into the saddle, and was about to
+spur after his companions, when he perceived, across the river, a
+party of two hundred Spaniards making for the bridge. The danger was
+extreme; for if the bridge were taken the camp itself would be in the
+most deadly peril. Bayard bade Le Basque gallop for his life to bring
+assistance. And he himself rode forward to the bridge, alone.</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards, on seeing a solitary knight advance against them,
+laughed loudly at his folly. Their foremost horsemen were already
+half-way over when Bayard, with his lance in rest, came flying down
+upon them. His onset swept the first three off the bridge into the
+river, and instantly the rest, with cries of vengeance, rushed
+furiously upon him. Bayard, not to be surrounded, backed his horse
+against the railing of the bridge, rose up in his stirrups, swung his
+falchion with both hands above his head, and lashed out with such fury
+that, with every blow a bloody Spaniard fell into the river, and the
+whole troop recoiled in wonder and dismay, as if before a demon. While
+they still stood, half-dazed, two hundred glaring at one man, a shout
+was heard, and Le Basque, with a band of horsemen, was seen
+approaching like a whirlwind. In two minutes the Spaniards were swept
+back upon the land in hopeless rout&mdash;and the French camp was saved.</p>
+
+<p>Bayard received for this great feat the blazon of a porcupine, with
+this inscription, <i>Unus agminis vires habet</i>&mdash;"One man has the might
+of armies."</p>
+
+<p>And still came exploit after exploit in succession&mdash;exploits of every
+kind of fiery daring. At Genoa, when the town revolted, Bayard stormed
+the fort of the insurgents, quelled the riot, forced the city to
+surrender, and hanged the leader on a pole. At Agnadello, against the
+troops of Venice, he waded with his men through fens and ditches, took
+the picked bands of Lord d'Alvicino on the flank, scattered them to
+the winds, and won the day. At Padua, during the long siege, he
+scoured the country with his band of horse, and frequently rode back
+to camp at nightfall with more prisoners than armed men. At Mirandola,
+where he faced the papal armies, he laid a scheme to take the Pope
+himself. A snowstorm kept the fiery Julius in his tent, and Bayard
+lost him. A few days afterward the pontiff's life was in his hands. A
+traitor offered, for a purse of gold, to poison the Pope's wine. But
+it is not the Bayards of the world who fight with pots of poison; and
+the slippery Judas had to fly in terror from the camp, or Bayard would
+infallibly have hanged him.</p>
+
+<p>So far, amid his life of perils, Bayard had escaped without a wound.
+But now his time had come.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span> Brescia was taken by the troops of Venice. Gaston de Foix,
+the thunderbolt of Italy, marched with 12,000 men to its relief.
+Bayard was among them. At the head of the storming-party he was first
+across the ramparts, and was turning round to cheer his men to victory
+when a pike struck him in the thigh. The shaft broke off, and the iron
+head remained embedded in the wound.</p>
+
+<p>Two of his archers caught him as he fell, bore him out of the rush of
+battle, and partly stanched the wound by stripping up the linen of
+their shirts. They then bore him to a mansion close at hand. The
+master of the house, who seems to have been a person of more wealth
+than valor, had disappeared, and was thought to be hiding somewhere in
+a convent, leaving his wife and his two daughters to themselves. The
+girls had fled into a hay-loft, and plunged themselves beneath the
+hay; but, on the thunderous knocking of the archers, the lady of the
+house came trembling to the door. Bayard was carried in, a surgeon was
+luckily discovered close at hand, and the pike-head was extracted. The
+wound was pronounced to be not dangerous. But Bayard, to his great
+vexation, found he was doomed to lie in idleness for several weeks.</p>
+
+<p>According to the laws of war, the house was his, and all the inmates
+were his prisoners. And the fact was well for them. Outside the house
+existed such a scene of horror as, even in that age, was rare. Ten
+thousand men lay dead in the great square; the city was given up to
+pillage, and it is said that the conquerors gorged themselves that day
+with booty worth three million crowns. The troops were drunk with
+victory and rapine. No man's life, no woman's honor, was in safety for
+an instant.</p>
+
+<p>Bayard set his archers at the door-way. His name was a talisman
+against the boldest; and in the midst of the fierce tumult that raged
+all round it, the house in which he lay remained a sanctuary of peace.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies of the house were soon reassured. Bayard refused to regard
+them as his prisoners or to take a coin of ransom. The daughters, two
+lovely and accomplished girls, were delighted to attend the wounded
+knight. They talked and sang to him, they touched the mandolin, they
+woke the music of the virginals. In such society the hours flew
+lightly by. The wound healed, and in six weeks Bayard was himself
+again.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of his departure the lady of the house came into his
+apartment, and besought him, as their preserver, to accept a certain
+little box of steel. The box contained two thousand five hundred
+golden ducats. Bayard took it. "But five hundred ducats," he said, "I
+desire you to divide for me among the nuns whose convents have been
+pillaged." Then, turning to her daughters, "Ladies," he said, "I owe
+you more than thanks for your kind care of me. Soldiers do not carry
+with them pretty things for ladies; but I pray each of you to accept
+from me a thousand ducats, to aid your marriage portions." And with
+that he poured the coins into their aprons.</p>
+
+<a id="img058" name="img058"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img058.jpg" width="400" height="581" alt="" title="">
+<p>Bayard taking Leave of The Ladies of Brescia.</p></div>
+
+<p>His horse was brought, and he was about to mount, when the girls came
+stealing down the steps into the castle court, each with a little
+present, worked by their own hands, which they desired him to accept.
+One brought a pair of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span> armlets, made of gold and silver
+thread; the other, a purse of crimson satin. And this was all the
+spoil that Bayard carried from the inestimable wealth of Brescia&mdash;the
+little keepsakes of two girls whom he had saved.</p>
+
+<p>The scenes of Bayard's life at which we have been glancing have been
+chiefly those of his great feats of arms. And so it must be still; for
+it is these of which the details have survived in history. And yet it
+was such incidents as these at Brescia which made the fame of Bayard
+what it was and what it is. To his foes, he was the flower of
+chivalry; but to his friends, he was, besides, the most adored of men.
+It is said that in his native province of Dauphiny, at his death, more
+than a hundred ancient soldiers owed to him the roof that covered
+their old age; that more than a hundred orphan girls had received
+their marriage portions from his bounty. But of such acts the vast
+majority are unrecorded; for these are not the deeds which shine in
+the world's eye.</p>
+
+<p>Gaston de Foix was now before Ravenna. Bayard rode thither with all
+speed; he was just in time. Two days after his arrival came the
+battle. Weak though he still was from his long illness, Bayard on that
+day was seen, as ever, "shining above his fellow-men." He turned the
+tide of victory; he tore two standards from the foe with his own hand;
+and he was first in the pursuit.</p>
+
+<p>Two months after, Bayard was at Pavia. The little troop with which he
+was then serving had there sought refuge under Louis d'Ars. The armies
+of the Swiss burst in upon them. Bayard, with a handful of soldiers in
+the market-place, held, for two hours, their whole force at bay, while
+his companions were retreating from the town across a bridge of boats.
+As he himself was crossing, last of all, a shot struck him in the
+shoulder, and stripped it to the bone. No surgeon was at hand. The
+wound, roughly stanched with moss, brought on a fever, and for some
+time he lay in danger of his life.</p>
+
+<p>And now Bayard was to follow a new master. Louis XII. died; Francis I.
+received the crown; and Bayard, with the young king, marched to Milan,
+which the Swiss had seized and held.</p>
+
+<p>On Thursday, September 13, 1515, King Francis pitched his camp at
+Marignano, before the city of the spires. No danger of attack was
+apprehended; the king sat calmly down to supper in his tent; when all
+at once the Swiss, aroused to madness by the fiery eloquence of
+Cardinal de Sion, broke like a tempest from the city, and fell upon
+the camp. The French, by the red light of sunset, flew to arms, and
+fought with fury till night fell. Both armies sat all night on
+horseback, waiting for the dawn; and with the first streaks of
+morning, flew again to battle. It was noon before the bitter contest
+ended, and the Swiss, still fighting every inch of ground, drew slowly
+back toward the city. It had been, indeed, as Trevulzio called it, a
+Battle of the Giants. And the greatest of the giants had been Bayard
+and the king.</p>
+
+<p>That evening Francis held, before his tent, the ceremony of creating
+knights of valor. But before the ceremony began, a proclamation by the
+heralds startled and delighted all the camp. Francis had determined to
+receive the rank in his own person. Bayard was to knight the king!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span> In the days of the primeval chivalry, when even princes were
+compelled to win their spurs, such a spectacle was not uncommon. But
+not for ages had a king been knighted by a subject on a field of
+battle. Nor was any splendor wanting that could make the spectacle
+impressive. Nowhere in Ariosto is a picture of more gorgeous details
+than is presented by this scene of history; the great crimson silk
+pavilion, the seat spread with cloth of gold, the blazoned banners,
+the heralds with their silver trumpets, the multitude all hushed in
+wonder, the plumed and glittering company of knights and men-at-arms.
+Such were the surroundings amid which Francis knelt, and Bayard, with
+his drawn sword, gave the accolade.</p>
+
+<p>The sword with which he had performed the ceremony Bayard kept
+religiously until his death. It was then mislaid, and never
+rediscovered. The loss is a misfortune. For few relics could exist of
+more romantic interest than the sword with which the noblest of all
+knights did honor to the most magnificent of kings.</p>
+
+<p>Bayard's glory had long been at such a height that hardly any exploit
+could increase it. And yet an exploit was at hand at which, even when
+Bayard was the actor of it, all France and Germany were to stand in
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>The German emperor, marching with a mighty army on Champagne, took
+Monson by surprise, and advanced against Mézičres. If Mézičres were
+taken, the whole province would be in the most deadly peril. And yet
+defence seemed hopeless; the place had no artillery, and the ramparts
+were in ruins. At this crisis Bayard volunteered to hold the crazy
+city. "No walls are weak," he said, in his own noble style, "which are
+defended by brave men."</p>
+
+<p>With a small but chosen band he hastened to Mézičres. Two days after
+his arrival the Count of Nassau, with a vast array of men and cannon,
+appeared before the walls. The siege began&mdash;a siege which seemed
+impossible to last twelve hours.</p>
+
+<p>But day after day went by, and still the town was standing. Every day
+the ramparts gaped with cannon-shot; but every night, as if by
+miracle, they rose again. The defenders suffered from wounds,
+pestilence, and famine; but Bayard had put every man on oath to eat
+his horse, and then his boots, before he would surrender. Three weeks
+passed; and when at last the king arrived with forces to relieve the
+town, he found a few gaunt spectres still glaring defiance from the
+battered ramparts against a hundred cannon and more than forty
+thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can more strikingly describe the part of Bayard than the
+testimony of his enemies themselves. Some time after, Mary of Hungary
+asked the Count of Nassau in disdain how it came to pass that with a
+host of troops and guns he could not take a crazy pigeon-house.
+"Because," replied the count, "there was an eagle in it."</p>
+
+<p>It was Bayard's last great exploit. It had been his lifelong wish that
+he might fall upon the field of battle. And so it was to be.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the spring of 1524, the French camp was posted at Biagrasso.
+Lord Bonnivet, who was in command, found himself, after a prolonged
+resistance, at last compelled by famine and sickness to retire before
+the Spaniards. It was Bayard's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span> constant custom to be first
+in an advance and last in retreat, and that day he was, as usual, in
+the post of danger. It was for the last time. Friends and enemies were
+to hear, before night fell, the thrilling tidings that Bayard was no
+more.</p>
+
+<p>On both sides of the road which the retreating army had to traverse
+the Spaniards had placed in ambush a large force of arquebusiers. It
+was a weapon which Bayard held in detestation; for while skill and
+courage were required to wield a spear or sword, any skulking wretch
+could pull a trigger from behind a stone. From one of these hated
+weapons he received his death. As he was retreating slowly with his
+face toward the foe, a stone from a cross-arquebus struck him on the
+side. He instantly sank forward on his saddle-bow, exclaiming in a
+faint voice, "Great God! I am killed."</p>
+
+<p>His squire helped him from his horse, and he was laid beneath a tree.
+His spine was broken in two places; and he felt within himself that he
+was dying. He took his sword, and kissed the cross-hilt, murmuring
+aloud the Latin prayer, "<i>Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam
+misericordiam tuam</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The Spaniards were approaching. His friends made some attempt to raise
+him and to bear him from the field. But the least movement made him
+faint with agony; and he felt that all was vain. He charged his
+companions, as they loved him, to turn his face toward the enemy, and
+to retire into a place of safety; and he sent, with his last breath,
+his salutation to the king. With breaking hearts they did as he
+desired, and he was left alone.</p>
+
+<p>When the Spaniards reached the spot, they found him still alive, but
+sinking fast. The conduct of Lord Pescara, the Spanish general, toward
+his dying foe, was worthy of a great and noble knight. He bade his own
+pavilion to be spread above him; cushions were placed beneath his
+head; and a friar was brought, to whom he breathed his last
+confession. As he was uttering the final words, his voice faltered,
+and his head fell. The friar looked upon his face&mdash;and saw that all
+was over.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>GUSTAVUS VASA<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11" title="Go to footnote 11"><span class="small">[11]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Charles F. Horne</span><br>
+
+(1496-1560)</h3>
+
+
+<p>Three or four hundred years ago the little country of Denmark was of
+much greater importance than it is to-day. It had the mightiest navy
+in the world, and its rule over the seas was undisputed. Its
+appearance on the map was also very different then, for it not only
+extended over much of the German territory now surrounding it, but
+also held all Norway as a province. Sweden, too, though often
+rebelling, and being punished with terrible cruelty, was, up to the
+year 1523, a dependency of the Danish crown.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span> Naturally the Danes rather looked down on the conquered
+Swedes, and made them the subject of many rude jests and taunts. There
+was in the beginning of the sixteenth century at the great Danish
+university at Upsala a Swedish boy, who with the rest of his
+countrymen must have suffered many such insults. His proud, brave,
+little heart rebelled against this treatment; and one day, when his
+teacher had driven him beyond endurance with his severe punishments
+and bitter sneers, the boy snatched out his little sword and plunged
+it straight through the master's book. "I will teach you something,
+too," he cried; "teach you that the Swedes are no cowards, for some
+day I will gather them together and treat every Dane in Sweden as I do
+your book." Then he rushed out of the school, never to return.</p>
+
+<a id="img059" name="img059"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img059.jpg" width="250" height="262" alt="Gustavus Vasa." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Many lads have, in some moment of passion made big boasts of what they
+would do "some day." Few ever made so tremendous a vaunt; fewer still
+ever so completely fulfilled their threats; and, perhaps, no one ever
+struggled so patiently, so nobly, nor against such tremendous
+obstacles before the goal was reached, as did this angry little Swede,
+known to history as Gustavus Vasa. He was born in 1496, and was the
+oldest son of Sir Eric Johansson, governor of a little group of
+islands in the Gulf of Bothnia. Returning home after his precipitate
+flight from school, Gustavus grew up under the eye of his stalwart
+father, who trained him to be not only a strong and a shrewd man, but
+also a good one.</p>
+
+<p>Sent at the age of eighteen to the court of Svante Sture, the regent
+governing Sweden, he threw himself eagerly into the great war for
+freedom which his countrymen had begun under that mighty leader. This
+struggle was so far successful that four years later King Christian,
+of Denmark, utterly defeated on land and with his fleet in sore danger
+anchored off Stockholm, and proposed a peace. He asked that hostages
+be sent to remain on his ships, while he was on shore arranging the
+treaty. This was readily agreed to, and the hostages went on board
+without a thought of evil, the king having guaranteed their safe
+return. Young Vasa, although only twenty-two, had already gained such
+prominence among the patriots as to be one of those selected for this
+duty. Just as he and his companions reached the ships, the wind, which
+had hitherto blown from such a direction that King Christian was
+unable to leave the harbor, suddenly changed, and the king as promptly
+changing his plans, hoisted sail and fled from Stockholm, carrying
+with him, as prisoners, the hostages whom he was bound in honor to
+respect. But this grim and cruel old king never at any time let
+himself be checked by his promised word; and now he seriously
+considered slaying these men as rebels and traitors. Finally he
+concluded to hold them as prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Gustavus was placed for safe keeping in the castle of Eric Bauer, a
+Jutland noble, where he remained for two years. He lived on the very
+poorest food, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span> and far worse, had to endure taunts a hundred
+times more bitter than those of his old school days, from the young
+nobles about him. Worse still, he learned from them that King
+Christian was gathering another and greater army with which to utterly
+crush the rebellious Swedes; and he could neither warn his countrymen
+nor raise a finger to give them help. But his courage and patience
+never failed him. Through all that weary time he was always planning
+and watching for a chance to escape. At last it came. Deceived by his
+apparent indifference his jailers permitted him to ride, and even to
+hunt with them, but always under a careful watch. One day, however,
+the hunt grew so exciting that everyone forgot Gustavus and rode hard
+and fast after the game. He saw his opportunity, and rode hardest and
+fastest of all. Soon he was first in the race; but he did not stop
+when he reached the captured deer. There was no one in sight and he
+hurried on faster than ever. When his horse gave out he pressed
+forward on foot, and nightfall found him forty miles from the castle.
+He astonished a countryman by trading clothes with him; and the next
+day, thus disguised, he hired himself to a drover to help him drive a
+herd of cattle to the great German city of Lubeck. Probably no cattle
+had ever been so driven before. Our hero knew well that the pursuit
+would be fast and furious, and he kept the herd almost on a steady
+run. The old drover was in a perpetual state of amazement; he did not
+know whether to regard his new assistant as a madman or as the most
+valuable hand he had ever hired. Gustavus never let the poor old
+fellow rest a moment; he had to eat his meals as he walked, and even
+to totter along half asleep. At last animals and men reached Lubeck,
+all badly worn out, but safe, for Lubeck was a free city and a
+powerful one, and when, an hour later, the enraged Eric Bauer galloped
+up to its great gates, he knew that his prisoner was beyond his reach,
+and that unless he could persuade the citizens to give him up there
+was no chance of recapturing him.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens did not give Gustavus up. He and his jailer were brought
+face to face before the City Council to argue their case. When Eric
+said his prisoner had broken his word in escaping, Gustavus related
+how the king had broken his in the capture. When Eric threatened them
+all with his master's wrath, the shrewd old burghers laughed. They
+knew King Christian had other things to keep him busy enough, and that
+he would think twice before attacking their great league of cities.
+Besides, this young man had already shown that he could do great
+things, and, as one of the Council said, "Who knows what he may win if
+we send him home." So Eric was forced to leave without his captive;
+and after some delay, during which he was treated with high honor,
+Gustavus was sent home by the kind Lubeckers with the promise to help
+him, if need be, with both men and money.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed Sweden needed all the help she could get just then; but it did
+not seem as though one man could do much for her. King Christian had
+carried out his threats, and landing with a great army, defeated the
+brave Sture and spread terror and destruction through all the land.
+The tale of his cruelty and treacheries belongs rather to the history
+of Sweden than of Gustavus. Enough to say <span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span> that, having by
+promises of peace and pardon got all the leading Swedes into his
+power, he had them murdered, and then he and his soldiers went on
+slaying the common people right and left in mere wanton savagery. All
+the surviving nobles were in his pay; the least suspicion of an
+uprising was crushed with an iron hand, the least murmur of discontent
+brought death. Never had Sweden seemed more helpless in the power of
+the Danes.</p>
+
+<p>To this unhappy country came Gustavus Vasa, and at once he was
+declared an outlaw, and a great price was offered for his head; for
+the king knew that here survived one man whom he could neither terrify
+nor bribe. One castle still held out against the besieging Danes, and
+for this Gustavus set out. But its defenders were disheartened by
+their hopeless position, and were almost on the point of surrender.
+They answered angrily to his brave words, and he left them to try and
+rouse the peasantry all over the land.</p>
+
+<p>Now began for him such a period of danger, sorrow, and privation, as
+few men could have endured and lived. The land was filled with Danes
+eager for his capture. The peasants were timid and disheartened. To
+his passionate patriotic appeal they answered only, "We have salt and
+herring still. If we rebel we will lose them too." Often they drove
+him away with stones. Sometimes his own countrymen would have slain
+him for the promised reward. At length it was no longer possible for
+him to remain in Southern Sweden, and with a single servant he fled to
+the highlands of Dalecarlia, a province in the north. From this on his
+life reads like some wild romance of adventure. He had the grim
+courage and grit and perseverance of a bull-dog. Nothing could
+dishearten him in his seemingly hopeless and insane resolve to raise
+the Swedes once more against Christian.</p>
+
+<p>He found as much devotion in some places, as he did treachery in
+others. Having crossed a ferry in advance of his servant, this latter
+rode off with their small stock of money. Gustavus plunged his horse
+into the river, and riding back after the faithless servitor, pursued
+him all day straight back into the enemy's country, until the
+terrified thief, abandoning horse and money and all, fled into the
+woods. Gustavus recovered his property and pursued his course. The
+Danes swarmed into Dalecarlia after him. He disguised himself as a
+woodcutter, and lived as such. One day he met in the woods a giant
+Dalesman named Liss Lars, and, as they were chatting together, a great
+bear attacked Gustavus. After a fierce battle Lars slew the brute with
+a blow of his axe. The two woodcutters became friends, and Lars got
+his companion a place under the same master as himself, where Gustavus
+remained a whole winter unsuspected. Often he himself was questioned
+by the Danish spies, hunting for the now famous Vasa.</p>
+
+<a id="img060" name="img060"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img060.jpg" width="600" height="486" alt="" title="">
+<p>Abdication of Gustavus Vasa.</p></div>
+
+<p>Once there was like to have been trouble between the two friends, for
+Lars loved a maiden at the farm, who out of coquetry often smiled at
+Gustavus, until the giant Dalesman became terribly jealous. One day
+when she brought them their noon-day ale, she handed it first to
+Gustavus, who, after drinking, returned it with a pleasant word and a
+pat on the cheek. With a roar like a mad bull, Lars rushed on his
+comrade and seized him in his giant arms. As he did so he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span>
+saw around his neck the embroidered collar worn by the Swedish
+nobility. The astounded Dalesman staggered back, pointing to it.
+"Either thou art a thief, or the great Gustavus himself." "Ay, friend
+Lars, I am the outlaw Gustavus, son of Eric. Now, wilt thou hand me
+over to the Danes, or smash my head against the floor, as just now
+thou seemedest minded?" "I will swear eternal fealty to thee," cried
+Lars; "and if thou raisest the standard of revolt, I will be the first
+to join."</p>
+
+<p>Soon, however, even this retired spot became too unsafe, and Gustavus
+fled farther north. Once an old schoolmate offered him shelter, and
+then, while Gustavus slept, rode away to get help to capture him. But
+the housewife, suspecting her husband's treachery, roused Gustavus,
+who climbed through a window twenty feet from the ground, and escaped
+on a horse the good woman had provided.</p>
+
+<p>At another time, by burying himself in a load of hay he was carried
+past some Danish soldiers who were searching for him. They thrust
+their spears through the hay and then rode on. One of the spears
+wounded the hidden man, and, seeing the blood trickle down, the
+soldiers hurried back. But the driver had snatched out his knife and
+given a slight cut to one of his horses; and when he pointed to this,
+charging one of them with having done it, they rode away again
+laughing at their own suspicions. In a hundred other equally dangerous
+situations he escaped either by his own courage, or by the ready wit
+of the brave Dalecarlian peasants; and at last the Danish spies gave
+up the hunt for him, and returned to Stockholm.</p>
+
+<p>Then he came forth again, and in ringing words urged the people to
+revolt. But though they loved Gustavus, and loved Sweden, yet they
+held back in doubt and fear from his daring plans; and so the hero
+left them, and went on through the surrounding provinces, telling
+everywhere of King Christian's cruelty, and sowing seed which was to
+ripen later on. Yet nowhere could he rouse the peasants to action,
+until word came that the cruel king had sworn to cut a hand and foot
+from every man in Sweden, that they might never revolt again. Now all
+felt that there was nothing left but fight. In great haste the
+Dalecarlians sent after Gustavus and brought him back. They held a
+great meeting, and to it came Gustavus' wood-cutter friend, Liss Lars.
+He made a great homely speech, saying, "This Gustavus, son of Eric, is
+a man. He has threshed with me, and I know him. We can trust him, and
+sense has he, more than all of us put together. He must be our
+leader."</p>
+
+<p>All swore fealty to Gustavus; and he bade them make swords and spears
+and arrows on their own anvils, while he went on again to rouse the
+other provinces. King Christian had been called home by a rumor of
+rebellion there, but his lieutenants thought to crush this little
+uprising of the Dalecarlians as easily as they had a few others, and
+one of them marched promptly there with a large force. The brave
+peasants, led by Liss Lars and another, attacked him as he was
+crossing a river and defeated him with great slaughter. Gustavus heard
+rumors of the battle, and that his little army was destroyed. In wild
+haste he galloped back to Dalecarlia to find them celebrating their
+victory.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span> Now did the men he had roused in every quarter come pouring
+in; and he drilled them, and trained them, and encouraged them, became
+head and hand and heart for them all, till soon he had such an army
+that he might fairly hope to match any force the Danes could bring
+against him. Then he sent out a proclamation declaring Christian
+deposed for his cruel and bloody tyranny, and calling all true Swedes
+to join him in making war upon the oppressor.</p>
+
+<p>Thus did this young man at twenty-five become the leader of a great
+rebellion, which he himself had created and controlled. He led his men
+against one fortress after another. There were long sieges and
+terrible battles; but Gustavus proved himself as great a general as he
+was a man; and two years later, in 1525, Stockholm, the last town
+remaining to the Danes in Sweden, surrendered to his army. Christian
+himself had been unable to leave Denmark, but he was in constant
+communication with his lieutenants, and wild was his rage at the
+continued success of his young opponent. Gustavus's mother and sister,
+with many other Swedish ladies, had fallen into the king's hands at
+the time of those wholesale murders; and he tried to frighten the hero
+with threats of what he would do to them; but poor Gustavus had
+learned only too surely that most of them were already dead from his
+cruel treatment. Finally this brute was deposed by his own subjects,
+and a new king chosen. This king made some faint attempts to recover
+Sweden, but he had small chance against such a man as Vasa.</p>
+
+<p>The hero and his army entered Stockholm in triumph; and such of the
+old nobles as were left, gathered in a council and offered him the
+crown which he had wrested from Denmark. He refused it, saying he had
+labored for his country, not himself, and bade the nobles choose from
+among themselves some older man. But the whole country cried out that
+they would submit to no man but him; he had freed them, he should rule
+them. So there was, what seldom has been in history, a free choice of
+a king by a united people; and Gustavus, son of Eric, became Gustavus
+I., King of Sweden. Five years before he had been carried off a
+helpless, almost friendless prisoner, by a mighty king. Now they had,
+by sheer force of character, changed places; the king was in a
+dungeon, Gustavus on a throne.</p>
+
+<p>Though the remainder of our hero's life was less adventurous, it was
+no less noble. He made, as all had foreseen, a great king, showing
+himself as wise and high-minded as he had already proven brave and
+patient. He found Sweden a petty province, he left it a mighty
+kingdom; he found it a wilderness, poor, thinly peopled, and
+semi-barbarous, he left it prosperous, populous, and civilized. He
+himself was the head and centre of all this, performing an amount of
+work which seems almost impossible for one man. His letters, some of
+which remain, are clear, minute in detail, and exact. He knew just how
+he wanted things done, and he had them done his way. His own life
+might be summed up in his advice to his two sons, given when, only a
+few months before his death, he resigned a crown grown too heavy for
+his failing strength. "Think carefully, execute promptly, <i>never give
+up</i>, never delay. Resolves not carried out are like clouds without
+rain in times of drought."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS<br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Samuel L. Knapp</span><br>
+
+(1542-1587)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img061" name="img061"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img061.jpg" width="250" height="248" alt="Mary, Queen of Scots." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the third child of James V. and his
+wife, Mary of Guise. That lady had borne him previously, two sons,
+both of whom died in infancy. Mary was born on December 7, 1542, in
+the palace of Linlithgow. She was only seven days old when she lost
+her father, who, at the time of her birth, lay sick at the palace of
+Falkland.</p>
+
+<p>The young queen was crowned by Cardinal Beaton, at Stirling, on
+September 9, 1543. Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated
+commissioners, to whom they intrusted the charge of the queen's
+person, leaving all her other interests to the care of her mother. The
+first two years of her life, Mary spent at Linlithgow, where it is
+said she had the small-pox, but the disease must have been of a
+particularly gentle kind, having left behind no visible traces. During
+the greater part of the years 1545, 1546, and 1547, she resided at
+Stirling Castle, in the keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. She
+was afterward removed to Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the lake
+of Monteith; after remaining there upward of two years, it was thought
+expedient by those who had at the time the disposal of her future
+destiny, that she should be removed to France. She was accordingly, in
+the fifth year of her age, taken to Dunbarton, where she was delivered
+to the French admiral, whose vessels were waiting to receive her; and
+attended by Lords Erskine and Livingstone, her three natural brothers,
+and four young ladies as companions, she left Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>The thirteen happiest years of Mary's life were spent in France. She
+was received at Brest, by order of Henry II., with all the honors due
+to her rank and royal destiny. She travelled by easy stages to the
+palace at St. Germain en <span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span> Laye; and to mark the respect that
+was paid to her, the prison gates of every town she came to were
+thrown open, and the prisoners set free. Shortly after her arrival she
+was sent, along with the king's own daughters, to one of the first
+convents in France, where young ladies of distinction were instructed
+in the elementary branches of education.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, to confirm the French authority in Scotland, was eager to marry
+Francis, his son, to Mary. Francis, the young dauphin, who was much
+about Mary's own age, was far inferior to her both in personal
+appearance and mental endowments. They had been playmates from
+infancy; they had prosecuted all their studies together; he loved her
+with the tenderest affection; it was not in Mary's nature to be
+indifferent to those who evinced affection for her; and if her
+fondness for Francis was mingled with pity, it has long been asserted
+that "pity is akin to love."</p>
+
+<p>On April 24, 1558, the nuptials took place in the church of Notre
+Dame, with great splendor. Every eye was fixed on the youthful Mary;
+and, inspired by those feelings which beauty seldom fails to excite,
+every heart offered up prayers for her future welfare and happiness.
+She was now at that age when feminine loveliness is perhaps most
+attractive. It is not to be supposed, indeed, that her charms, in her
+sixteenth year, had ripened into that full-blown maturity which they
+afterward attained; but they were on this account only the more
+fascinating. Some have conjectured that Mary's beauty has been
+extolled far above its real merits; and it cannot be denied that many
+vague and erroneous notions exist regarding it. But that her
+countenance possessed, in a pre-eminent degree, the something which
+constitutes beauty, is sufficiently attested by the unanimous
+declaration of all contemporary writers. Her person was finely
+proportioned, and her carriage exceedingly graceful and dignified.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the espousals, Mary and her husband retired to one of
+their princely summer residences, where she discharged the duties of a
+wife without ostentation. But the intriguing and restless ambition of
+her uncles could not allow her to remain long quiet. About this time
+Mary Tudor, who had succeeded Edward VI. on the English throne, died;
+and although the Parliament had declared that the succession rested in
+her sister Elizabeth, it was thought proper to claim for Mary Stuart a
+prior right. But it was destined that there was to be another and more
+unexpected death at the French court. Henry II. was killed at a
+tournament by Count Montgomery. Francis and Mary succeeded to the
+throne. Mary was now at the very height of European grandeur, for she
+was queen of two powerful countries, and heir presumptive of a third.
+She stood unluckily on too high a pinnacle to be able to retain her
+position long. Francis died after a short reign of seventeen months,
+and the heir to the throne Charles IX., being a minor, Catharine de
+Medicis became once more virtually queen of France; and from her Mary
+could expect no favors.</p>
+
+<p>In August, 1561, Mary left France with tears, and was received in
+Scotland with every mark of respect. She came, alone and unprotected,
+to assume the government of a country which had long been
+distinguished for its rebellious turbulence. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span> Contrasted,
+too, with her former situation, that which she was now about to fill
+appeared particularly formidable. By whatever counsel she acted, the
+blame of all unpopular measures would be sure to rest with her. If she
+favored the Protestants, the Catholics were sure to renounce her, and
+if she assisted the Catholics, the Protestants would be again found
+assembling at Perth, listening, with arms in their hands, to the
+sermons of John Knox, pulling down the remaining monasteries, and
+subscribing additional covenants. Is it surprising, then, that she
+found it difficult to steer her course between the rocks of Scylla and
+the whirlpools of Charybdis? If misfortunes ultimately overtook her,
+the wonder unquestionably ought to be, not that they ever arrived, but
+that they should have been guarded against so long.</p>
+
+<p>To further their political views, Mary's hand was sought for by
+princes of the several European courts. The princes of the house of
+Austria, apprehensive of the ambition of France, wished a union
+between the Scottish queen and the Archduke Charles. Philip II.,
+envying the Austrians so important a prize, used all his influence to
+procure her hand for his son Don Carlos, heir to the extensive domains
+of the Spanish monarchy. Catharine de Medicis, jealous of them both,
+offered the hand of the Duke of Anjou, brother to her former husband,
+and Elizabeth, the artful queen of England, recommended Lord Robert
+Dudley, afterward Earl of Leicester.</p>
+
+<p>Mary shunned all their intrigues, and followed the bent of her own
+inclination in marrying Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, eldest son of the
+Earl of Lennox. Darnley, at this time in the bloom of youth, was
+distinguished for the beauty and grace of his person, and accomplished
+in every elegant art; and he also professed the Catholic religion.
+Darnley's qualifications, however, were superficial, and abandoning
+himself to pleasure and the vices of youth, he became gradually
+careless and indifferent toward the queen, whose disappointments and
+mortifications were in proportion to the fervor of her former
+sentiments. Her French secretary was one David Rizzio, who was
+possessed of musical talents, and to whom she became much attached.
+Darnley became jealous of Rizzio, and he, with a number of
+conspirators, took possession of the palace on March 9, 1566, while
+the queen was at supper with the Countess of Argyle and Rizzio. The
+latter clung to the queen for protection, but he was torn from her and
+dragged to the next apartment, where the fury of his enemies put an
+end to his existence, by piercing his body with fifty-six wounds. The
+conspirators put Mary under guard, but she escaped, and by the aid of
+Bothwell and others, she was soon enabled to put her enemies at
+defiance. This event served to alienate Mary's affections from
+Darnley.</p>
+
+<p>On June 19, 1566, the queen gave birth to a son; an event more
+fortunate to the nation than to his unhappy mother, whose evil destiny
+received aggravation from a circumstance which appeared so flattering
+to her hopes.</p>
+
+<p>Darnley, neglected by the queen, and despised by the people, remained
+in solitude at Stirling, but alarmed by the rumor of a design to seize
+his person, he thought fit to retire to his father at Glasgow. On his
+way thither he was seized <span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span> with a dangerous illness. Mary
+visited him, and it is said prevailed on him to be removed to the
+capital, where she would attend on him. Kirk of Field, a house
+belonging to the provost of a collegiate church, was prepared for his
+reception. The situation, on a rising ground and in an open field, was
+recommended for the salubrity of its air.</p>
+
+<p>At two o'clock on the morning of February 10, 1567, the city was
+alarmed by a sudden explosion. The house in which Darnley resided was
+blown up with gunpowder. The dead body of Henry and a servant, who
+slept in his room, were found lying in an adjacent garden, without
+marks of violence, and untouched by fire. Thus perished Henry Stuart,
+Lord Darnley, in his twenty-first year, a youth whom the indulgence of
+nature and fortune had combined to betray to his ruin.</p>
+
+<p>This execrable deed gave rise to various suspicions and conjectures,
+which, while they glanced at the queen from her new sentiments with
+regard to her husband, were, with a general consent, directed toward
+Bothwell. A proclamation was issued from the throne, offering a
+considerable reward for the murderer. Neither the power and greatness
+of Bothwell, nor his favor with the queen, secured him from the
+indignant sentiment of the nation. He had a mock trial, in which he
+was acquitted.</p>
+
+<p>The queen, on a journey from Edinburgh to Stirling, to visit her son,
+was seized by a party of Bothwell's and conducted a prisoner to his
+castle at Dunbar. Here he prevailed on her to marry him, and on her
+subsequent appearance in public she was received with a sullen and
+disrespectful silence by the people.</p>
+
+<p>The transactions which had passed during the last three months in
+Scotland were beheld by Europe with horror and detestation. The murder
+of the king, the impunity with which his assassins were suffered to
+escape, and the marriage of the queen with the man accused of being
+their chief, were a series of incidents, which, for their atrocity and
+rapid succession, were scarcely to be paralleled in the pages of
+history. A general infamy fell upon the Scotch nation, which was
+regarded, from these circumstances, as a people void of decency,
+humanity, and honor.</p>
+
+<a id="img062" name="img062"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img062.jpg" width="600" height="433" alt="" title="">
+<p>Mary Stuart and Rizzio.</p></div>
+
+<p>The discontented nobles confederated together and flew to arms.
+Bothwell and Mary were unable to stem the opposition; she surrendered
+to her enemies, and was conducted a captive to the castle of
+Lochleven. Mary had for some weeks suffered the terrors of a prison;
+of her deliverance there seemed to be but little prospect; no one had
+appeared as her defender or advocate. Thus solitary, deserted, and
+distressed, her persecutors reckoned on her fears and on her sex. Lord
+Lindsay, the fiercest zealot of the party, was employed to communicate
+their plan to the queen, and to obtain from her a subscription to the
+papers with which he was charged. In the execution of his commission,
+he spared neither harshness nor brutality; certain death was offered
+to the unhappy victim, as the alternative of her refusal. Thus urged,
+she yielded to the pressure of circumstances, and put her signature to
+the papers presented to her by Lindsay. By one of these papers she
+resigned the crown, renounced all share in the government, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span>
+and consented to the coronation of the young king. By another, she
+appointed Murray to the regency, and vested him with the powers and
+privileges of the office. Pierced with grief, and bathed in indignant
+tears, she signed the deed of her own humiliation, and furnished to
+her adversaries the instrument of her abasement.</p>
+
+<p>The people were not generally satisfied with the conduct of Murray,
+the regent, and the scattered party of the queen began gradually to
+reunite. Such was the disposition of the nation when Mary, through the
+medium of George Douglas, a youth of eighteen, contrived to escape
+from prison. She flew on horseback, at full speed, to Hamilton, where,
+before a train of great and splendid nobles, and an army 6,000 strong,
+she declared that the deeds signed by her during her imprisonment, and
+the resignation of her crown, were extorted from her by fear. An
+engagement between her forces and those of Murray took place at
+Hamilton; her army was defeated. She stood on a hill and saw all that
+passed. In confusion and horror she began her flight, and so terrible
+was the trepidation of her spirits, that she stopped not till she
+reached the abbey of Dunrenan, in Galloway, fully sixty Scottish miles
+from the field of battle. In the space of eleven days she had beheld
+herself a prisoner, at the mercy of her greatest enemies; at the head
+of a powerful army, with a numerous train of nobles devoted to her
+service; and a fugitive, at the hazard of her life, driven, with a few
+attendants, to lurk in a corner of her kingdom. Still anxious and
+agitated in her retreat, she was impelled by her fears to an
+irretrievable step, fatal to all her future hopes. In vain her
+attendants, with the lords Herries and Heming, implored her on their
+knees not to confide in Elizabeth, her resolution was not to be
+shaken, and to England she fatally resolved to fly. No longer an
+object of jealousy, but compassion, Mary trusted in the generosity of
+a sister queen, that she would not take advantage of her calamitous
+situation. She got into a fisherman's boat, and with about twenty
+attendants, landed at Workington, in Cumberland, whence, with marks of
+respect, she was conducted to Carlisle.</p>
+
+<p>She addressed, on her arrival in England, a letter to the queen, in
+which she painted in glowing colors the injuries she had sustained,
+and implored the sympathy and assistance which her present situation
+so pressingly required. Elizabeth and her council deliberated upon the
+course which, in this extraordinary event, it would be proper to
+pursue; and at last determined, in spite of justice and humanity, to
+avail herself of the advantages given her by the confidence of her
+rival. Mary demanded a personal interview with Elizabeth, but this
+honor she was told must be denied to her. She had no intention of
+acknowledging superiority in the queen of England, who, she expected,
+would, as a friend, herself receive and examine her defences. But
+Elizabeth chose to consider herself as umpire between the Scottish
+queen and her subjects; and she prepared to appoint commissioners to
+hear the pleadings of both parties, and wrote to the Regent of
+Scotland to empower proper persons to appear in his name, and produce
+what could be alleged in vindication of his proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Mary, who had hitherto relied on the professions of Elizabeth, was by
+this <span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span> proposal at once undeceived, and she was, in despite of
+her remonstrances and complaints, conducted to Bolton, a castle of
+Lord Scroop, on the borders of Yorkshire. Commissioners met on both
+sides, and after protracted deliberations for four months, they left
+things just as they found them.</p>
+
+<p>The last eighteen years of Mary's life were spent in imprisonment, and
+are comparatively a blank in her personal history. She was
+transported, at intervals, from castle to castle, and was intrusted
+sometimes to the charge of one nobleman, and sometimes to another; but
+for her the active scenes of life were past; the splendor and dignity
+of a throne were to be enjoyed no longer; the sceptre of her native
+country was never more to grace her hands; her will ceased to
+influence a nation; her voice did not travel beyond the walls that
+witnessed her confinement. She came into England at the age of
+twenty-five, in the prime of womanhood, the full vigor of health, and
+the rapidly ripening strength of her intellectual powers. She was
+there destined to feel, in all its bitterness, that "hope deferred
+maketh the heart sick." Year after year passed slowly on, and year
+after year her spirits became more exhausted, her health feebler, and
+her doubts and fears confirmed, till they at length settled in
+despair. Premature old age overtook her before she was past the
+meridian of life; and for some time before her death, her hair was
+white "with other snows than those of age." Yet, during the whole of
+this long period, amid sufferings which would have broken many a
+masculine spirit, and which, even in our own times, have been seen to
+conquer those who had conquered empires, Mary retained the innate
+grace and dignity of her character, never forgetting that she had been
+born a queen, or making her calamities an excuse for the commission of
+any petty meanness, which she would have scorned in the days of her
+prosperity. Full of incident as her previous life had been, brilliant
+in many of its achievements, it may be doubted whether the
+forbearance, fortitude, and magnanimity displayed in her latter years,
+do not redound more highly to her praise than all that preceded.
+Elizabeth wished for some plausible pretext to take away the life of
+the unhappy Mary, whom, though so defenceless, she regarded as a
+dangerous rival. The Duke of Norfolk made offers of marriage to Mary,
+to which she consented, in case she should be liberated. His scheme
+also was to favor the Catholic cause, and on its being discovered he
+was thrown into prison, where, after six months' confinement, he was
+liberated, on condition of his holding no further intercourse with the
+queen. He was, however, arrested the second time, and executed.</p>
+
+<p>A conspiracy soon after took place, through the blind affection of the
+English Catholics for Mary, and their implacable hatred of Elizabeth;
+that, while it proved fatal to the life of one queen, has left on the
+memory of the other an indelible stain. It was a conspiracy of two
+zealous Catholics, to take the life of Elizabeth. The plot was
+revealed in confidence to Anthony Babington, a young gentleman of
+Derbyshire, possessing a large fortune and many amiable qualities,
+whom the Archbishop of Glasgow had recommended to the notice of Mary.
+The conspirators, through treachery, were arrested, and it is said two
+letters from Mary were found with Babington. This was a pretext to
+represent these fanatics <span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span> as the instruments of the captive
+queen. Determined that no circumstance of solemnity suited to the
+dignity of the person arraigned might be wanting, Elizabeth appointed,
+by a commission under the great seal, forty persons, the most
+illustrious in the kingdom for their rank and birth, together with
+five judges, for the decision of the cause.</p>
+
+<p>On October 11, 1586, the commissioners arrived at Fotheringay, where
+Mary was confined. She solemnly protested her innocence of the crime
+laid to her charge, and having never countenanced any attempt against
+the life of Elizabeth, she refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of
+the commissioners. "I came," said she, "into the kingdom an
+independent sovereign, to implore the queen's assistance, not to
+subject myself to her authority. Nor is my spirit so broken by past
+misfortunes, or intimidated by present dangers, as to stoop to
+anything unbecoming the majesty of a crowned head, or that will
+disgrace the ancestors from whom I am descended, and the son to whom I
+shall leave my throne."</p>
+
+<p>Mary made her own defence; and her conduct before her judges displayed
+the magnanimity of a heroine, tempered by the gentleness and modesty
+of a woman. The judges were predetermined to find her guilty: the
+trial was a mere pretence to give a sanction to their proceedings;
+they were unanimous in declaring Mary "to be accessory to the
+conspiracy of Babington, and to have imagined divers matters, tending
+to the hurt, death, and destruction of Elizabeth, contrary to the
+express words of the statute made for the security of the life of the
+queen."</p>
+
+<p>On Tuesday, February 7, 1587, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent arrived
+at Fotheringay, and read in Mary's presence the warrant for her
+execution, which was appointed for the ensuing day. "That soul," said
+Mary, calmly crossing herself, "is unworthy the joys of heaven, which
+repines because the body must endure the stroke of the axe. I submit
+willingly to the lot which heaven has decreed for me; though I did not
+expect the Queen of England would set the first example of violating
+the sacred person of a sovereign prince." Then laying her hand on a
+Bible, which happened to be near her, she solemnly protested her
+innocence.</p>
+
+<p>At the scaffold she prayed for the prosperity of her son, and for a
+long and peaceable reign to Elizabeth. She hoped for mercy, she
+declared, only through the death of Christ, at the foot of whose image
+she willingly shed her blood. With intrepid calmness she laid her neck
+on the block; her hands were held by one executioner, while the other,
+with two blows, dissevered her head from her body. "So perish all the
+enemies of Elizabeth!" exclaimed the dean, as he held up the streaming
+head. "Amen," answered the Earl of Kent alone; every other eye was
+drowned in tears; every other voice was stifled in commiseration.
+Thus, after a life of forty-four years and two months, nineteen years
+of which had been passed in captivity, perished the lovely and
+unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span> CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12" title="Go to footnote 12"><span class="small">[12]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Marion Harland</span><br>
+
+(1579-1631)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img063" name="img063"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img063.jpg" width="250" height="267" alt="Captain John Smith." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Of the antecedents of John Smith, Esquire, Captain and Knight, little
+is recorded beyond the facts that he was of gentle blood and honorable
+lineage, and that he was born in Lancashire, England, in 1579.</p>
+
+<p>He was still under age when he enlisted as a private soldier and
+fought with "our army" in Flanders. Sigismund Bathor, Duke of
+Transylvania, was warring with the Turks, and young Smith, athirst for
+adventure, next took service under him. Before the Transylvanian town
+of Regall, he killed three Turkish officers in single combat, for
+which doughty deed he was knighted. The certificate of Sigismund's
+patent empowering the Englishman to quarter three Turks' heads upon
+the family coat-of-arms is in the Herald's Office in London.</p>
+
+<p>The tables were turned by his subsequent capture by the Turks. He was
+sent to Tartary as a slave, not a prisoner of war, and compelled to
+perform the most ignoble tasks, until, escaping by killing his brutal
+master, he made his way by his wits to his native country in 1604. He
+was now twenty-five years of age, and emphatically a soldier of
+fortune. The tale of his prowess and adventures had preceded him, and
+he was eagerly welcomed in London by kindred spirits who were
+preparing to emigrate to America to form the colony of Virginia under
+the grant and direct patronage of James I. By the time the enterprise
+was ripe for execution, Smith had made himself so useful in counsel
+and preparation that the king named him as one of the councillors of
+the prospective colony.</p>
+
+<p>The boundary lines of the royal grant were two hundred miles north,
+and the same distance south, of the mouth of the James River, and east
+and west "from sea to sea."</p>
+
+<p>On December 19, 1606, the band of adventurers, 100 in number, embarked
+at Gravesend in three small vessels. Christopher Newport was in
+command, but Smith, and his close allies, Bartholomew Gosnold and
+George Percy, a younger brother of the Duke of Northumberland, were
+the ruling spirits of the voyagers. Carpenters and laborers were oddly
+jumbled upon the list of emigrants with <span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span> jewellers,
+perfumers, and gold refiners, and "gentlemen" held prominence in
+numbers and influence. The officers outnumbered the privates. The
+little fleet was hardly out of the offing when the struggle for power
+began. The voyage was not half accomplished when John Smith was
+charged with complicity in a discovered mutiny. He had intended, it
+was alleged, to murder his superiors, seize the fleet, and make
+himself king of Virginia. The "General History of Virginia" tells how
+serious an aspect the affair wore:</p>
+
+<p>"Such factions here we had, as commonly attend such voyages, that a
+paire of gallowes was made, but Captain Smith, for whom they were
+intended, <i>could not be persuaded to use them</i>."</p>
+
+<p>He was still under suspicion and arrest when the fleet anchored (May
+13, 1607) in the broad river, Powhatan, to which the English explorers
+gave the name of their king. Their first tents were pitched and first
+cabins built upon a low peninsula flanked by extensive marshes. The
+settlement received the name of Jamestown, in further demonstration of
+loyalty.</p>
+
+<p>When the king's sealed orders were opened, the name of John Smith
+appeared second upon the roll of seven councillors appointed to govern
+the infant colony. Next to him Gosnold was fittest for the responsible
+position assigned to them. His death within three months after the
+landing, left Smith the object of the envious distrust of Wingfield,
+who had been elected president, and virtually alone in the honest
+desire to found a permanent settlement in Virginia for ends he thus
+sets forth:</p>
+
+<p>"Erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming
+things unjust, teaching virtue and gain to our native Mother Country."</p>
+
+<p>There is a prophetic ring in this remarkable utterance of one whom his
+contemporaries persisted in regarding as a reckless adventurer,
+ambitious and unscrupulous. His frank denunciation of the feeble
+measures of Wingfield and the selfish villainy of Ratcliffe, another
+colleague, had earned the ill-will of the president and the relentless
+hatred of Ratcliffe. Smith, being under arrest, was not allowed to
+take his place among the councillors. He bided the day of justice with
+patience learned from adversity. When the supreme opportunity came he
+grasped it. An attack from hostile Indians proved Wingfield's
+unfitness for the military command, and the alarmed colonists turned
+instinctively to the bravest of their number. Wingfield anticipated
+the uprising by reiterating his intention of sending Smith to England
+for trial, for the double crime of mutiny and treason.</p>
+
+<p>"The restive soldier suddenly flamed out. He would be tried in
+Virginia as was his right&mdash;there was the charter! and the trial took
+place. The result was a ruinous commentary on the characters of
+Wingfield and the council. The testimony of their own witnesses
+convicted them of subornation of perjury to destroy Smith. He was
+acquitted by the jury of all the charges against him, and Kendall, who
+had conducted the prosecution, was condemned to pay him £200 damages.
+This sum was presented by Smith to the colony for the general use, and
+then the foes partook of the commission, and the soldier was admitted
+to his seat in the council." (Cooke's "History of Virginia.")</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span> By autumn the settlement was fearfully reduced in numbers and
+spirits. Fever, engendered by marshland malaria and famine, threatened
+utter extinction.</p>
+
+<p>"From May to September, those who escaped lived upon sturgeon and
+sea-crabs; 50 in this time were buried," writes one of the sufferers.
+"The rest, seeing the president's projects to escape these miseries in
+our pinnace by flight (who all this time had neither felt want or
+sickness), so moved our dead spirits as we deposed him and established
+Ratcliffe in his place."</p>
+
+<p>It was an exchange of inefficiency for deliberate wickedness, and in
+the excess of continued misery the more reasonable of the victims
+arose as a man and put Smith at the head of affairs.</p>
+
+<p>The "terrible summer" left hardly ten men who could wield axe or hoe.
+Smith himself was ill with malarial fever, yet nursed the sick, prayed
+with the dying, and kept up the hearts of all by brave words and
+braver action. He bought corn and meat of the Indians when they would
+sell, and when they refused, secured supplies by intimidation. Yet we
+find him, as soon as the immediate peril was over, again the
+subordinate of envious leaders, and volunteering to satisfy
+malcontents in America and in England, by heading a party in
+mid-December to attempt the discovery of the great "South Sea," for so
+long the <i>ignis fatuus</i> of Western adventurers.</p>
+
+<p>The explorers sailed up the James, diverging here and there into the
+tortuous creeks of the Chickahominy. When stopped by shallows, Smith
+procured a canoe and Indian guides and pushed on with but two other
+white men (Robinson and Emry) into the unknown wilderness, teeming
+with spies jealous of the foreign intruders. Attempting to land at
+"Powhatan," one of "the emperor's" residences, he and his guide sank
+into the morass and were fired upon from the shore.</p>
+
+<p>"The salvages ... followed him with 300 bowmen, led by the king of
+Pamunkee, who, searching the turnings of the river, found Robinson and
+Emry by the fire-side. These they shot full of arrowes and slew."</p>
+
+<p>Smith bound the Indian guide to his arm and used him as a shield, thus
+saving his own life. He was, however, captured, lashed to a tree, and
+would have been killed, but for his address in presenting the King
+Opecancanough with "a round ivory double compass Dyall"&mdash;his own
+pocket compass&mdash;directing the attention of the "salvages" to the
+movement of the needle, and describing the uses of the instrument.</p>
+
+<p>"A month those Babarians kept him prisoner; many strange triumphes and
+conjurations they made of him, yet he so demeaned himself among them
+as he not only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured
+his own libertie, and got himself and his company such estimation
+among them that these Salvages admired him as a demi-god."</p>
+
+<p>From the pen of a contemporary we have the account of what led to his
+"libertie." He had killed two of the attacking party, and was
+condemned by Powhatan to die for the offence.</p>
+
+<a id="img064" name="img064"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img064.jpg" width="600" height="392" alt="" title="">
+<p>Captain Smith saved by Pocahontas.</p></div>
+
+<p>"Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a
+long consultation was held; but the conclusion was, two great stones
+were brought <span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span> before Powhatan, then, as many as could lay
+hands on him, dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and
+being ready with their clubs to beate out his brains, Pocahontas, the
+king's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevaile, got his head
+in her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death;
+whereat the emperor was contented he should live to make him hatchets,
+and her bells, beads, and copper."</p>
+
+<p>From other pages we get the stage-setting for this, the most dramatic
+incident in colonial history.</p>
+
+<p>The emperor had heard the evidence with a "sour look," sitting in
+state upon a rude dais, covered with mats, his body wrapped in a cloak
+of raccoon skins. His dusky harem was grouped about him, watchful and
+interested. When the trial was over he bade one wife to bring water to
+wash the captive's hands, another a bunch of feathers to dry them
+upon. This was preliminary to the feast.</p>
+
+<p>"So fat they fed Mee," says "A True Relation of Virginia," published
+by Smith in 1608, "that I much doubted they intended to have
+sacrificed mee to the Quioughquosiche, which is a superiour power they
+worship."</p>
+
+<p>The appointment to the position of armorer in the royal household, and
+trinket-maker to the princess, was one of honor. Smith enjoyed it for
+a month only, but to his residence at Powhatan and intimacy with
+Pocahontas, he was indebted for the familiarity with Indian language
+and customs which was afterward of incalculable benefit to the
+Virginians. He describes Pocahontas in respectful admiration:</p>
+
+<p>"For features, countenance, and expression she much exceeded the
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>Her gala attire was a doeskin mantle lined with down from the breasts
+of wood-pigeons; bangles of coral bound her brown ankles and wrists,
+and in her hair was a white heron's feather in token of her royal
+blood. At the time of her rescue of Smith she was about thirteen years
+old.</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1608, the emperor offered Smith a forest principality if
+he would remain with the tribe, but he petitioned to be allowed to
+return to Jamestown. The request was reluctantly granted, and an
+escort sent with him to the "Fort." This returned, bearing gifts for
+Powhatan and his wives, with marvellous stories of the cannon-shot
+fired into the sleety forest at Smith's command. We cannot but wonder
+what toy or ornament went to the petted child whom he had served in
+glad gratitude while a member of her father's household.</p>
+
+<p>He had no time for sentimental musings. Upon the very day of his
+unlooked for return (January 8, 1608), Ratcliffe repeated Wingfield's
+attempt to escape to England in the only vessel left at Jamestown. The
+anchor was actually raised when Smith hastily collected a force and
+hurried to the landing. "With the hazzard of his life, with sakre,
+falcon, and musket shot, Smith forced" (them) "now the third time to
+stay or sinke."</p>
+
+<p>In their sullen rage the foiled conspirators plotted and nearly
+executed a fiendish revenge. Once more we copy from the "General
+History," written by Smith and his friends.</p>
+
+<p>"Some no better than they should be, had plotted with the president"
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span> (Ratcliffe) "the next day to have put him" (Smith) "to death
+by the Leviticall law for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending
+the fault was his that had led them to their ends; but he quickly took
+such order with such lawyers that he layd them by the heeles till he
+sent some of them prisoners to England."</p>
+
+<p>The colony was almost destitute of food, and the memories of the
+famine of last year terrified the imaginations of those who had lived
+through it. "Gentlemen" having again predominated in reinforcements
+sent from England, the crops planted and gathered in Smith's absence
+had been meagre, while rats brought over in one of the vessels had
+wrought havoc with stored grain. Like an angel of mercy was the
+apparition of Pocahontas, at the head of a "wild train" of Indians
+laden with corn and game, approaching the fort. "Ever once in four or
+five days during the time of two or three years," the young princess,
+thus attended, visited the fort and succored the needy settlers. Smith
+declares that "next under God she preserved the colony from death,
+famine, and utter confusion." He might have subjoined that, but for
+himself, not even Pocahontas's bounty could have saved the settlement
+from the consequences of misconduct and misrule.</p>
+
+<p>His was the only voice lifted to condemn the mad folly of loading a
+homeward-bound vessel with the glittering mud of a neighboring creek.
+That he was "not enamored of their dirty skill to freight such a
+drunken ship with so much gilded dirt"&mdash;was one of the mildest of his
+phrases, as, "breathing out these and many other passions," he
+harangued those who had "no thought, no discourse, no hope, and no
+work but to dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, and load gold."</p>
+
+<p>Before the English assayers confirmed his judgment as to the value of
+this cargo, the intrepid adventurer had sailed, with fourteen others,
+up the Chesapeake into new and wonderful regions. Never losing heart,
+even when he believed himself to be dying from the sting of a
+poisonous fish, he discovered and entered the Potomac, the
+Rappahannock, and tributary creeks, fighting his way when not allowed
+to proceed peaceably. In July (1608) he led another party to the spot
+now occupied by the city of Baltimore, and made friends with a tribe
+called Susquehannocks, believed to be sun-worshippers. Returning from
+these voyages of three thousand miles in all, he drew in masterly
+style a chart of the countries explored, and sent it to England.</p>
+
+<p>Jamestown was still in a state of what he calls "combustion," under
+the tyranny of Ratcliffe. Emboldened by Smith's return, the colonists
+deposed the hated governor, and formally elected Smith Governor of
+Virginia. The winter closed in upon an "affrighted" population.
+Storehouses were nearly empty, agriculture having been neglected in
+the gold fever. As Smith could not be "persuaded to use" the gallows,
+so he now announced that "no persuasion could persuade <i>him</i> to
+starve." In company with George Percy and fifty others, he visited his
+old ally Powhatan, and tried to buy food. A change had come to the
+emperor's heart. He addressed his quondam armorer as a "rash youth;"
+protested that he was afraid of him, and would not treat with the
+English unless they came to him unarmed. Warned by Pocahontas, who
+stole through the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span> woods after dark to apprise Smith that
+treachery was intended, the party lay on their arms all night, and the
+force sent to surprise them retreated. Next day, Powhatan loaded the
+boats with corn, and Smith sailed up the York upon a similar errand to
+Opecancanough, Powhatan's brother. While in audience with him, the
+Englishmen were surrounded by a band of seven hundred armed savages.
+Seizing the wily chieftain by the scalp-lock, Smith held a pistol to
+his breast, and demanded a cargo of corn and safe-conduct for his
+party to Jamestown. The fifty men, without loss of a single life, took
+back enough food to victual the town.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the spring of 1609, the president thus made known his policy
+to his constituents:</p>
+
+<p>"Countrymen! You see now that power resteth wholly in myself. You must
+obey this now for a law&mdash;<i>he that will not work shall not eat</i>. And
+though you presume that authority here is but a shadow and that I dare
+not touch the lives of any, but my own must answer for it, yet he that
+offendeth, let him assuredly expect his due punishment.</p>
+
+<p>"I protest by that God that made me, since necessity hath no power to
+force you to gather for yourselves, you shall not only gather for
+yourselves, but for those that are sick. <i>They</i> shall not starve."</p>
+
+<p>Fields were tilled, the fort was repaired, wise Powhatan treated the
+pale-faces kindly for Smith's sake, and the emigrants felt for the
+first time firm ground beneath their feet. They had twenty-four pieces
+of ordnance, and three hundred stand of small-arms; three ships, seven
+boats, a store of more than two months' provisions, six hundred hogs,
+with goats, fowls, and sheep, and an established trading-station with
+the natives.</p>
+
+<p>Like an aėrolite from the summer sky came news from England that a
+fleet was to be sent out with a new colony, a new charter, and new
+officers; Smith's old enemy, Christopher Newport, was in command of
+the expedition. Smith had been complained of at home as "dealing
+harshly with the natives and not returning the ships full-freighted."
+His day was over. The king so willed it.</p>
+
+<p>Smith's last official act was the establishment of a colony at
+Powhatan, renamed "Nonsuch," opposite where the city of Richmond was
+laid out over a century later. On his way back to Jamestown, he was
+cruelly wounded by the explosion of a bag of gunpowder. There was no
+good surgeon in the colony. To return forthwith to England was but
+anticipating by a few weeks what must be when the fleet arrived.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to London at the age of thirty. "He had broke the ice and
+beat the path, but had not there" (in Virginia) "one foot of ground,
+nor the very house he builded, nor the ground he digged with his own
+hands."</p>
+
+<p>In 1614 he returned to America, but now to the northern region
+assigned to the Plymouth Company. He gave name to Boston; explored and
+made a survey of the New England coast. On a second voyage he had a
+fight with a French squadron, was captured, and taken to Rochelle.
+While there he wrote a "Description of New England," for which service
+James I. appointed him <span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span> "Admiral of New England." He died in
+London, in 1631, at the age of fifty-two, never having revisited
+Virginia. Upon his tomb, in the Church of St. Sepulchre's, London, may
+be still traced the outlines of the Three Turks' Heads and the
+inscription, beginning:</p>
+
+<p class="poem10">
+  "<i>Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Any sketch of his life, however brief, would be incomplete that
+contained no reference to the letter written by him to Queen Anne (the
+consort of James I.), in 1616, recommending the Lady Rebecca Rolfe to
+the royal favor.</p>
+
+<p>He would "be guilty of the deadly poison of ingratitude," he wrote, if
+he failed to narrate what he and the colony at Jamestown owed to
+Pocahontas. He besought the queen's kindly consideration for the
+stranger just landed upon her shores, as due to Pocahontas's "great
+spirit, her desert, birth, want, and simplicity." His one call upon
+the wife of John Rolfe, Gentleman, was marked by profound respect on
+his part to one whom he accosted as "Lady Rebecca;" by profound
+emotion on hers.</p>
+
+<p>John Smith's biography and epitaph are best summed up by one of his
+brothers-in-arms:</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     "What shall I saye, but thus we lost him that in all his
+     proceedings made justice his first guide and experience his
+     second, ever hating basenesse, sloth, pride, and indignitie more
+     than any dangers; that never allowed more for himself than for
+     his soldiers with him; that upon no danger would send them where
+     he would not lead them himselfe; that would never see us want
+     what he either had or could by any means get us; that would
+     rather want than borrow, or starve than not pay; that loved
+     action more than wordes, and hated falsehood and covetousnesse
+     worse than death; whose adventures were our lives and whose losse
+     our deaths."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig009" name="sig009"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig009.jpg" width="300" height="61" alt="Author signature. Marion Harland." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>WILLIAM HARVEY<br>
+
+(1578-1657)</h3>
+
+
+<p>William Harvey was born on April 1, 1578, at Folkestone, on the
+southern coast of Kent. He was the eldest of nine children; of the
+rest little more is known, than that several of the brothers were
+among the most eminent merchants in the city of London during the
+reigns of the two first Stuarts. His father, Thomas Harvey, followed
+no profession. He married Joanna Falke, at the age of twenty, and
+lived upon his own estate at Folkestone. This property devolved by
+inheritance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span> upon his eldest son; and the greater part of it
+was eventually bequeathed by him to the college at which he was
+educated.</p>
+
+<p>At ten years of age he commenced his studies at the grammar school in
+Canterbury; and upon May 31, 1593, soon after the completion of his
+fifteenth year, was admitted as a pensioner at Caius College,
+Cambridge.</p>
+
+<a id="img065" name="img065"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img065.jpg" width="200" height="276" alt="William Harvey." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>At that time a familiar acquaintance with logic and the learned
+languages was indispensable as a first step in the prosecution of all
+the branches of science, especially of medicine; and the skill with
+which Harvey avails himself of the scholastic form of reasoning in his
+great work on the Circulation, with the elegant Latin style of all his
+writings, particularly of his latest work on the Generation of
+Animals, affords a sufficient proof of his diligence in the
+prosecution of these preliminary studies during the next four years
+which he spent at Cambridge. The two next were occupied in visiting
+the principal cities and seminaries of the Continent. He then prepared
+to address himself to those investigations to which the rest of his
+life was devoted; and the scene of his introduction to them could not
+have been better chosen than at the University of Padua, where he
+became a student in his twenty-second year.</p>
+
+<p>The ancient physicians gathered what they knew of anatomy from
+inaccurate dissections of the lower animals, and the slender knowledge
+thus acquired, however inadequate to unfold the complicated functions
+of the human frame, was abundantly sufficient as a basis for
+conjecture, of which they took full advantage. With them everything
+became easy to explain, precisely because nothing was understood; and
+the nature and treatment of disease, the great object of medicine, and
+its subsidiary sciences, was hardily abandoned to the conduct of the
+imagination, and sought for literally among the stars. Nevertheless,
+so firmly was their authority established, that even down to the close
+of the sixteenth century the naturalists of Europe still continued to
+derive all their physiology, and the greater part of their anatomy and
+medicine, from the works of Aristotle and Galen, read not in the
+original Greek, but re-translated into Latin from the interpolated
+versions of the Arabian physicians. The opinions entertained by these
+dictators in the republic of letters, and consequently by their
+submissive followers, with regard to the structure and functions of
+the organs concerned in the circulation, were particularly fanciful
+and confused; so much so that it would be no easy task to give an
+intelligible account of them that would not be tedious from its
+length. It will be enough to say, that a scarcely more oppressive mass
+of mischievous error was cleared away from the science of astronomy by
+the discovery of Newton, than that from which physiology was
+disencumbered by the discovery of Harvey.</p>
+
+<p>But though the work was completed by an Englishman, it is to Italy
+that, in anatomy, as in most of the sciences, we owe the first
+attempts to cast off the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span> thralldom of the ancients. Mundinus
+had published a work in the year 1315, which contained a few original
+observations of his own; and his essay was so well received that it
+remained the text-book of the Italian schools of anatomy for upward of
+two centuries. It was enriched from time to time by various
+annotators, among the chief of whom were Achillini, and Berengarius,
+the first person who published anatomical plates. But the great
+reformer of anatomy was Vesalius, who, born at Brussels in 1514, had
+attained such early celebrity during his studies at Paris and Louvain,
+that he was invited by the Republic of Venice, in his twenty-second
+year, to the chair of anatomy at Padua, which he filled for seven
+years with the highest reputation. He also taught at Bologna, and
+subsequently, by the invitation of Cosmo de' Medici, at Pisa. The
+first edition of his work, "De Corporis Humani Fabrica" was printed at
+Basle, in the year 1543; it is perhaps one of the most successful
+efforts of human industry and research, and from the date of its
+publication begins an entirely new era in the science of which it
+treats. The despotic sway hitherto maintained in the schools of
+medicine by the writings of Aristotle and Galen was now shaken to its
+foundation, and a new race of anatomists eagerly pressed forward in
+the path of discovery. Among these no one was more conspicuous than
+Fallopius, the disciple, successor, and in fame the rival, of
+Vesalius, at Padua. After him the anatomical professorship was filled
+by Fabricius ab Aquapendente, the last of the distinguished anatomists
+who flourished at Padua in the sixteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Harvey became his pupil in 1599, and from this time he appears to have
+applied himself seriously to the study of anatomy. The first germ of
+the discovery which has shed immortal honor on his name and country
+was conceived in the lecture-room of Fabricius.</p>
+
+<p>He remained at Padua for two years; and having received the Degree of
+Doctor of Arts and Medicine, with unusual marks of distinction,
+returned to England early in the year 1602. Two years afterward he
+commenced practice in London and married the daughter of Dr. Launcelot
+Browne, by whom he had no children. He became a Fellow of the College
+of Physicians, when about thirty years of age, having in the meantime
+renewed his degree of Doctor in Medicine, at Cambridge; and was soon
+after elected Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which office he
+retained till a late period of his life.</p>
+
+<p>On August 4, 1615, he was appointed Reader of Anatomy and Surgery to
+the College of Physicians. From some scattered hints in his writings
+it appears that his doctrine of the circulation was first advanced in
+his lectures at the college about four years afterward; and a
+note-book in his own hand-writing is still preserved at the British
+Museum, in which the principal arguments by which it is substantiated
+are briefly set down, as if for reference in the lecture-room. Yet
+with the characteristic caution and modesty of true genius, he
+continued for nine years longer to reason and experimentalize upon
+what is now considered one of the simplest, as it is undoubtedly the
+most important known law of animal nature; and it was not till the
+year 1628, the fifty-first of his life, that he consented to publish
+his discovery to the world.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span> In that year the "Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et
+Sanguinis" was published at Frankfort. This masterly treatise begins
+with a short outline and refutation of the opinions of former
+anatomists on the movement of the animal fluids and the function of
+the heart; the author discriminating with care, and anxiously
+acknowledging the glimpses of the truth to be met with in their
+writings; as if he had not only kept in mind the justice due to
+previous discoveries, and the prudence of softening the novelty and
+veiling the extent of his own, but had foreseen the preposterous
+imputation of plagiarism, which, with other inconsistent charges, was
+afterward brought forward against him. This short sketch is followed
+by a plain exposition of the anatomy of the circulation, and a detail
+of the results of numerous experiments; and the new theory is finally
+maintained in a strain of close and powerful reasoning, and followed
+into some of its most important consequences. The whole argument is
+conducted in simple and unpretending language, with great perspicuity,
+and scrupulous attention to logical form.</p>
+
+<p>The doctrine announced by Harvey may be briefly stated thus: The blood
+circulates through the body, thereby sustaining life. The heart is
+simply the pump which drives the blood through the arteries, from
+whence it returns impure, and is then forced through the lungs and
+repurified.</p>
+
+<p>The pulmonary circulation had been surmised by Galen, and maintained
+by his successors; but no proof even of this insulated portion of the
+truth, more than amounted to strong probability, had been given till
+the time of Harvey, and no plausible claim to the discovery, still
+less to the demonstration, of the general circulation has ever been
+set up in opposition to his. Indeed, its truth was quite inconsistent
+with the ideas everywhere entertained in the schools on the functions
+of the heart and other viscera, and was destructive of many favorite
+theories. The new doctrine, therefore, as may well be supposed, was
+received by most of the anatomists of the period with distrust, and by
+all with surprise. Some of them undertook to refute it, but their
+objections turned principally on the silence of Galen, or consisted of
+the most frivolous cavils; the controversy, too, assumed the form of
+personal abuse even more speedily than is usually the case when
+authority is at issue with reason. To such opposition Harvey for some
+time did not think it necessary to reply; but some of his friends in
+England, and of the adherents to his doctrine on the Continent, warmly
+took up his defence. At length he was induced to take a personal share
+in the dispute in answer to Riolanus, a Parisian anatomist of some
+celebrity, whose objections were distinguished by some show of
+philosophy, and unusual abstinence from abuse. The answer was
+conciliatory and complete, but ineffectual to produce conviction; and
+in reply to Harvey's appeal to direct experiment, his opponent urged
+nothing but conjecture and assertion. Harvey once more rejoined at a
+considerable length; taking occasion to give a spirited rebuke to the
+unworthy reception he had met with, in which it seems that Riolanus
+had now permitted himself to join; adducing several new and conclusive
+experiments in support of his theory; and entering at large upon its
+value in simplifying physiology and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span> the study of diseases,
+with other interesting collateral topics. Riolanus, however, still
+remained unconvinced; and his second rejoinder was treated by Harvey
+with contemptuous silence. He had already exhausted the subject in the
+two excellent controversial pieces just mentioned, the last of which
+is said to have been written at Oxford about 1645; and he never
+resumed the discussion in print. Time had now come to the assistance
+of argument, and his discovery began to be generally admitted. To
+this, indeed, his opponents contributed, by a still more singular
+discovery of their own, namely, that the facts had been observed, and
+the important inference drawn, long before. This was the mere
+allegation of envy, chafed at the achievements of another, which, from
+their apparent facility, might have been its own. It is indeed strange
+that the simple mechanism thus explained should have been unobserved
+or misunderstood so long; and nothing can account for it but the
+imperceptible lightness as well as the strength of the chains which
+authority imposes on the mind.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1623 Harvey became physician extraordinary to James I.,
+and seven years later was appointed physician to Charles. He followed
+the fortunes of that monarch, who treated him with great distinction
+during the first years of the civil war, and he was present at the
+battle of Edgehill, in 1642. Having been incorporated doctor of physic
+by the University of Oxford, he was promoted by Charles to the
+wardenship of Merton College, in 1645; but he did not retain this
+office very long, his predecessor, Dr. Brent, being reinstated by the
+Parliament after the surrender of Oxford in the following year.</p>
+
+<p>Harvey then returned to London, and resided with his brother Eliat at
+Cockaine house, in the Poultry. About the time of Charles's execution
+he gave up his practice, which had never been considerable, probably
+in consequence of his devotion to the scientific, rather than the
+practical, parts of his profession. He himself, however, attributed
+his want of success to the enmity excited by his discovery. After a
+second visit to the Continent, he secluded himself in the country,
+sometimes at his own house in Lambeth, and sometimes with his brother
+Eliat at Combe, in Surrey. Here he was visited by his friend, Dr. Ent,
+in 1651, by whom he was persuaded to allow the publication of his work
+on the "Generation of Animals." It was the fruit of many years of
+experiment and meditation; and, though the vehicle of no remarkable
+discovery, is replete with interest and research, and contains
+passages of brilliant and even poetical eloquence. The object of his
+work is to trace the germ through all its changes to the period of
+maturity; and the illustrations are principally drawn from the
+phenomena exhibited by eggs in the process of incubation, which he
+watched with great care, and has described with minuteness and
+fidelity. The microscope had not at that time the perfection it has
+since attained; and consequently Harvey's account of the first
+appearance of the chick is somewhat inaccurate, and has been
+superseded by the observations of Malpighi, Hunter, and others. The
+experiments upon which he chiefly relied in this department of natural
+history had been repeated in the presence of Charles I., who appears
+to have taken great interest in the studies of his physician.</p>
+
+<a id="img066" name="img066"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img066.jpg" width="500" height="412" alt="" title="">
+<p>Harvey demonstrating the Circulation of the Blood.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span> In the year 1653, the seventy-fifth of his life, Harvey
+presented the College of Physicians with the title-deed of a building
+erected in their garden, and elegantly fitted up, at his expense, with
+a library and museum, and commodious apartments for their social
+meetings. Upon this occasion he resigned the professorship of anatomy,
+which he had held for nearly forty years, and was succeeded by Dr.
+Glisson.</p>
+
+<p>In 1654 he was elected to the presidency of the college, which he
+declined on the plea of age; and the former president, Sir Francis
+Prujean, was re-elected at his request. Two years afterward he made a
+donation to the college of a part of his patrimonial estate, to the
+yearly value of £56, as a provision for the maintenance of the
+library, and the annual festival and oration in commemoration of
+benefactors.</p>
+
+<p>At length his constitution, which had long been harassed by the gout,
+yielded to the increasing infirmities of age, and he died in his
+eightieth year, on June 3, 1657. He was buried at Hempstead, in Essex,
+in a vault belonging to his brother Eliat, who was his principal heir,
+and his remains were followed to the grave by a numerous procession of
+the body of which he had been so illustrious and munificent a member.</p>
+
+<p>In person he was below the middle size, but well proportioned. He had
+a dark complexion, black hair, and small, lively eyes. In his youth
+his temper is said to have been very hasty. If so, he was cured of
+this defect as he grew older; for nothing can be more courteous and
+temperate than his controversial writings; and the genuine kindness
+and modesty which were conspicuous in all his dealings with others,
+with his instructive conversation, gained him many attached and
+excellent friends. He was fond of meditation and retirement; and there
+is much in his works to characterize him as a man of warm and
+unaffected piety.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>PRINCE CHARLES STUART<a id="footnotetag13" name="footnotetag13"></a><a href="#footnote13" title="Go to footnote 13"><span class="small">[13]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Andrew Lang, LL.D.</span><br>
+
+(1720-1788)</h3>
+
+
+<p>Charles Edward Stuart, called the "Young Pretender" by his enemies,
+the "Young Chevalier" by neutrals, "Prince of Wales" and "Prince
+Regent" by his partisans, "Prince Edouard" by the French, "Ned" by his
+intimates, as we read in letters of Oliphant of Gask, and "Prince
+Charlie" by later generations, was born at Rome, December 31, 1720.
+His father was James VIII., of Scotland, and III. of England,
+according to the Legitimist theory; his foes called him "The
+Pretender," partly on the strength of the old fable about the
+warming-pan, so useful to the Whigs. No sane person now doubts the
+genuineness of James' descent from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span> James II., but the
+nickname of Pretender still sticks, though Boswell tells us that
+George III. particularly disliked an appellation which "may be
+parliamentary, but is not gentlemanly." James III., or the Chevalier
+de St. George, was taken up by Louis XIV. on the death of James II.,
+in France. He is said to have displayed courage in several battles in
+Flanders, but his attempt to assert his rights in 1715 was a
+melancholy failure. James showed melancholy and want of confidence; he
+soon left Scotland for the Continent, and the best that can be said
+for his conduct is that he endeavored to compensate the peasants whose
+houses were destroyed in the military operations of "the Fifteen."
+Unable to reside in France, he retired to Rome, a pensioner of the
+Pope, and entertained with royal honors. In 1719 he married Clementina
+Sobieski, a granddaughter of the famous John Sobieski, who delivered
+Europe from the Turks. Their eldest son, Prince Charles, appears to
+have inherited the spirit and daring of his Polish ancestors, which
+animated him throughout his youth, and were extinguished less by
+Culloden than by the treatment which he received from the French
+court, by his imprisonment in Vincennes in 1748, and by the
+unrelenting animosity of the English Government, which made him a
+homeless exile living mysteriously in hiding on the Continent.
+Heart-broken by these misfortunes and by other disappointments,
+Charles developed an unreasoning and sullen obstinacy, which alienated
+his adherents, while the habit of heavy drinking, learned in his
+Highland distresses, ruined his head and heart, and converted the most
+gallant, gay, and promising of princes into a brutal dipsomaniac.</p>
+
+<a id="img067" name="img067"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img067.jpg" width="250" height="337" alt="Prince Charles Stuart." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>The education of Charles was casual and interrupted. Now he was in the
+hands of Protestants, now of Catholic governors and tutors, as the
+advice of English adherents, or the wishes of his devout mother,
+chanced to prevail. There were frequent quarrels between James and his
+wife, turning partly on the question of education, more on the
+jealousy which the queen conceived of the Countess of Inverness. The
+Pope sided with the queen in these melancholy broils, and James's
+private life (which was not faultless) was much more subject to
+criticism and interference than that of his at least equally lax rival
+on the English throne. A second son, Henry Benedict, Duke of York, was
+born in 1725, and, at one time, was regarded as of more martial
+disposition than Prince Charles. As the elder, Charles was first under
+fire, and at the siege of Gaeta, in 1734, while a mere boy, he
+displayed coolness, daring, and contempt of danger. Young Henry, aged
+nine, "was so much discontented at being refused the partnership of
+that glory and that danger, that he would not put on his sword till
+his father threatened to take away his garter too," says Murray of
+Broughton, in a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span> letter dated 1742. In later life the Duke of
+York showed no military aptitude. A kind of progress which Charles
+made through the cities of Italy, aroused his desire to be a prince in
+more than name. The English Government quarrelled with the Republic of
+Venice about the royal honors paid to the prince, and his ambition was
+awakened. His education, we have said, was very imperfect. Murray of
+Broughton, indeed, credits him with Latin, Greek, history, and
+philosophy. But his spelling in both French and English was unusually
+bad, even in an age of free spelling; he wrote <i>époles</i> for <i>epaules</i>,
+"Gems" for "James," "sord" for "sword." He did not neglect physical
+exercise; was wont to make long marches without stockings, to harden
+his feet (as he told a follower during his Highland distresses). He
+was a good shot, fond of hunting, and, about 1742, was probably the
+first man who ever played golf in Italy. Murray describes him as "tall
+above the common stature, his limbs cast in the most exact mould, his
+complexion of an uncommon delicacy, all his features perfectly regular
+and well turned, and his eyes the finest I ever saw." Whether they
+were blue or hazel is undecided; they are hazel in at least one
+contemporary portrait. As a boy, engravings show him pretty, merry,
+and buoyant; an air of melancholy may be remarked as early as 1744.
+With bright nut-brown hair, golden in the sun, and worn long beneath
+his peruke, he certainly justified the endearing name of "Bonny Prince
+Charlie." The distinction of his air could be concealed by no
+disguise, as his followers loved fondly to declare. He certainly had
+the royal memory for faces. At the opera, in 1773, he noticed an
+English officer opposite, whom he sent for. The gentleman visited the
+royal box, accompanied by a Scotch servant. "I have seen you before,"
+said Charles to this man. "You once brought me a message at Falkirk,
+in 1746."</p>
+
+<p>Such was Prince Charles when, in 1742, Murray of Broughton became
+acquainted with the royal exile in Rome, and was appointed secretary
+for Scotland. With Lochiel and others, Murray formed a Jacobite
+association in his native country. Negotiations were begun with the
+French court, which hung off and on, as did the English Jacobites.
+They would rise, if France supplied men, money, and arms. France would
+do this if sufficiently assured of support in England. The king had no
+enthusiasm for the enterprise. He was weary of promises and of leaning
+on that broken reed, Louis XV. Murray intrigued in Scotland, Lord
+Elcho in England, Kelly at the French court. Lord Semple confused all
+by false hopes; Charles was much in the hands of Irishmen&mdash;Sheridan,
+Sullivan, O'Brien, and O'Neil; already a "forward," or Prince's party
+was growing, as opposed to the waiting policy and party of the
+disheartened and unambitious James. To what extent English Jacobites
+were pledged is uncertain. There was much discontent with the
+Hanoverian dynasty in England, but the dread of popery was strong
+among the middle classes. The butchers were advised that Catholics ate
+no meat on Sundays, the official clergy preached Protestant sermons,
+the Jacobite gentry feared for their lives and estates in case of
+failure, and the sagacity of the Government has never revealed the
+extent to which the Duke of Beaufort and others were committed to King
+James. The universities, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span> the sporting squires, and the
+smugglers drank to "The king over the water," but there enthusiasm
+began and ended.</p>
+
+<p>More was expected, and till assured of more, France held aloof, while
+making promises enough. Even the Highland chiefs said that without a
+French army nothing could be done. In 1744 Charles left Rome, under
+pretext of a hunting party, concealed his withdrawal with great skill,
+and reached Paris. He was obliged, however, to be incognito and was
+not received by the king. An invading force was crowded on board ship.
+The chance seemed excellent, England's forces being mainly abroad; but
+the old friends of England, the winds, drove the battered fleet back
+into harbor, and Charles in vain tried to persuade the Earl Marischal
+to accompany him to Scotland in a small fishing vessel.</p>
+
+<p>One result followed the reception of Charles by France, niggardly as
+that reception was&mdash;war with England broke out, and the French army of
+invasion was moved from Dunkirk to Flanders. The prince, not permitted
+to serve in the French army, returned to Paris, where he had been
+falsely assured by Semple and Ęneas Macdonald that England was ready
+to rise for him. Murray, who visited him in Paris, tried to dissuade
+him from a wild venture; in Scotland he found the chiefs of his own
+opinion, but the letter carrying the news never reached the prince.
+His Irish friends urged him on; "the expedition was entirely an Irish
+project." He borrowed money from his bankers, the Waters, he pawned
+his share of the Sobieski jewels, and, with a privateer man-of-war and
+a brig, La Doutelle, he left Belleisle on July 13, 1745. Neither the
+French court nor his father knew that, attended only by seven men,
+"The Seven Men of Moidart," he had set out to seek for a crown. The
+day before he embarked he wrote to James; he said that no man would
+buy a horse, nor trust a prince, that showed no spirit. "I never
+intend to come back," he added. So, dressed as a student of the Scots
+College, he started. He lost his convoy, the Elizabeth, on the way,
+after a drawn battle with the Lion (Captain Brett). Resisting all
+advice to turn back, as Ęneas Macdonald, who accompanied him,
+narrates, he held on in La Doutelle, and reached Erisca, an islet
+between Barra and South Uist, on August 2, 1745. An eagle hovered over
+his ship, and Tullibardine hailed the royal bird as a happy omen. But
+he found himself unwelcome. Boisdale bade him go home; "I <i>am</i> at
+home," said the prince. He steered for Moidart, the most beautiful but
+the wildest shore of Scotland, a region of steep and serrated
+mountains, of long salt-water straits, winding beneath the bases of
+the hills, and of great fresh-water lochs. Loch Nahuagh was his port;
+here he received Clan Ranald, whose desolate keep, Castle Tirrim,
+stands yet in ruins, since "the Fifteen." Glenaladale (whose
+descendants yet hold their barren acres), Dalilea, and Kinlochmoidart
+(now, like Clan Ranald, landless men) met him with discouraging words.
+But, seeing a flash in the eyes of a young Macdonald, of
+Kinlochmoidart, Charles said, "You will not forsake me?" "I will
+follow you to death, were no other sword drawn in your cause."</p>
+
+<p>The chiefs caught fire, Charles landed, with the seven men of
+Moidart&mdash;Ęneas Macdonald, the Judas of the cause; the Duke of Athol
+(Tullibardine), <span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span> who had been out in the fifteen; Sheridan,
+the prince's tutor; Sir John Macdonald; Kelley, a parson who had been
+in Atterbury's affair; Strickland, an Englishman; and Buchanan. Young
+Lochiel was disinclined to join, but yielded to the fascination of the
+prince. With his accession the rising was a certainty. But Duncan
+Forbes of Culloden, the lord president, had influence enough to hold
+back the Macleods of Skye, to paralyze the shifty Lovat, and to secure
+the Sutherland house for the Hanoverian cause. Charles left Boisdale
+for Kinlochmoidart, "the head of Loch Moidart," where an avenue of
+trees, the prince's walk, is still shown, though the old house was
+burned after Culloden. Keppoch cut off a small party of Scots Royal;
+this was first blood for the Jacobite cause. The wounded were
+hospitably treated by Lochiel; the English captain was released on
+parole. Charles now crossed the steep hills between Kinlochmoidart and
+the long narrow lake of Loch Sheil, there he took boat, and rowed past
+the lands of Glenaladale and Dalilea to Glenfinnan, where Tullibardine
+raised the standard, inscribed <i>Tandem Triumphans</i>. A statue of the
+prince, gazing southward, now marks the spot. The clans came in, and
+as Charles marched southeast, each glen sent down its warriors to join
+the stream. The clansmen, as a rule, had probably little knowledge of
+or interest in the cause. They followed their chiefs. The surviving
+Gaelic poetry speaks much of the chieftains; of <i>Tearlach, righ nan
+Gael</i>, but little is said. It was the middle of August before the
+rulers of England received the news of the landing. They at once set a
+reward of £30,000 on Charles's head, a proceeding "unusual among
+Christian princes," said Charles, who was compelled by his forces, and
+their threats of desertion, to follow the evil example. Sir John Cope
+was sent with an English army to stop the prince. It appeared likely
+that the armies would meet about Dalwhinnie, now the highest and
+bleakest part of the Highland Railway. The path then led over
+Corryarrack; Charles and his men raced for the summit, but Cope was
+not to be seen. He had marched east and north, to Inverness, and all
+the south of Scotland lay open to the prince. He passed by
+Killiecrankie and Blair Athol to Perth; Cluny came in, with the Duke
+of Perth, and Lord George Murray, Charles's most skilled general, who
+had been out at Glensheil, in 1719, and had learned the lesson of war
+in the Sardinian army. How easily he won Edinburgh, how he held court
+at Holyrood, how he routed Cope (who returned by sea) at Preston Pans
+or Gladsmuir, is familiar to all. His clemency was conspicuous; he
+wrote to James that he would give up Holyrood to the wounded, rather
+than see them homeless. Home, a Whig volunteer, and the author of a
+Whiggish history, acknowledges the nobility of his conduct, and his
+"foolish lenity" (he would not permit the execution of several persons
+who tried to assassinate him) is blamed by the fanatics who, in 1749,
+issued a wild Cameronian manifesto, "The Active Testimonies of
+Presbyterians." The contrast with the savage brutalities of Cumberland
+is very notable. In the battle the chiefs refused to let Charles lead
+the charge, but he was at the head of the second line, "a pistol shot
+behind" the first. Preston Pans was fought on September 21, 1745. That
+Charles dallied before Edinburgh Castle till October 21st <span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span>
+was no fault of his. Some of his men had gone home with booty, others
+were to be waited for, many of the chiefs were in favor of holding
+Scotland under James as a separate kingdom, and it was only by
+constant personal appeals that the prince persuaded them to push
+south. Lord George's strategy deceived the English, who knew not where
+to look for the Highlanders. They met at Carlisle, took it, passed
+through Preston and Manchester, gave Cumberland the slip, and their
+advanced posts, six miles south of Derby, were within a hundred and
+twenty miles of London. The army of Finchley was unlikely to make a
+stand, the city was partly Jacobite, the mob were ready for anything,
+when Lord George and the chiefs insisted on retreat. Historians doubt
+which policy was the wiser; it is certain that success, if to be
+attained at all, could only be won by audacity. The chiefs, however,
+declared for a return and a junction with French forces then expected.
+Charles wept and prayed to no avail. His army, as disappointed as
+himself, found their faces set to the north, and the prince, who had
+ever walked among the first ranks, leaving his carriage to old Lord
+Pitsligo, now rode dejected and heart-broken. The retreat was rapid
+and able. At Clifton, Murray turned on the pursuing dragoons, headed a
+claymore charge, and drove them back. A hapless garrison of Lancashire
+volunteers was left to the tender mercies of Cumberland in Carlisle,
+and Charles went by way of Whiggish Dumfries (the house where he
+lodged is now an inn) to Glasgow. To all intents and purposes the end
+had come. Charles had lost faith in the advisers who dragged him back
+from the south, he listened to Murray of Broughton and to his Irishry;
+he suspected, unjustly but not unnaturally, the good faith of Lord
+George. He dallied at Stirling, besieging the castle without proper
+artillery, and Hawley was sent to attack him. On January 17, 1746, the
+armies met at Falkirk. A storm of wind and rain blew at the backs of
+the Highlanders, they charged, scattered the enemy, drove them in
+flight, and cut up the Glasgow volunteers. But, in the dark and the
+mist they scarcely knew their own advantage. The pipers had thrown
+their pipes to their boys, had gone in with the claymore, and could
+not sound the calls. Hawley wrote to Cumberland "My heart is broke ...
+I got off but three cannon of the ten." Hawley retreated to Edinburgh,
+the Duke of Cumberland came to take the command; the Highlanders began
+to desert with their booty, dissensions prevailed, and Charles went on
+besieging Stirling. Again Lord George Murray urged a retreat, Charles
+dashed his head in impotent rage against the wall of his room, but he
+had to follow. With perfect truth he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot see anything but ruin and destruction to us all in case we
+should think of a retreat;" his forces in flight would lose heart, his
+enemies would gain confidence. All this was true, but all this was
+unavailing. Months were spent in unimportant movements. Cumberland,
+meanwhile, instructed his men in the method of meeting a Highland
+charge, and deceiving the parry of the Highland shields. It was known
+that France would lend no substantial aid, and a French subsidy of
+30,000 <i>Louis d'or</i> came too late, after the battle of Culloden, and
+was buried at the head of Loch Arkaig. One last chance Charles had:
+Lord <span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span> George proposed, and Charles eagerly seconded, a night
+surprise at Nairn. But the delays on the march, and the arrival of
+dawn, made Murray command a retreat, and Charles's faith in him was
+irretrievably gone for the time, though he later expressed in writing
+a more worthy opinion. With 10,000 well-fed men against 5,000 who were
+starving, Cumberland had every chance of victory at Culloden. The
+Macdonalds, placed on the left wing, would not charge. Keppoch's men
+were discontented because they were not allowed to have a Catholic
+chaplain. Crying out, "The children of my clan have forsaken me,"
+Keppoch charged alone, and died the death of renown. Beaten and
+blinded by a storm of snow in their faces, the Highland right clove
+the ranks of Monro and Burrell, only to fall, in layers three or four
+deep, before the fire of Sempill's regiment in the second line. The
+whole English force advanced; Charles rode to his second line, and
+offered to charge with them. His officers told him that it was in
+vain; Highlanders once beaten would not rally. (MS. "Lyon in
+Mourning," and MS. of Stuart Threipland at Abbotsford.) Charles was
+hurried off the field by his Irish tutor, and fled to Lord Lovat's, at
+Gortuleg. A story of his lack of courage, told by Sir Walter Scott on
+the authority of Sir James Stewart Denham's recollections of Lord
+Elcho's MS., is erroneous. Lord Elcho's MS. does not contain the
+statement. What he objects to is Charles's refusal to meet the
+fragments of his army at Ruthven, in Badenoch, whence they hoped to
+wage a guerilla warfare. Lord George Murray himself admits that the
+project was impossible. Charles, however, should have gone to Ruthven,
+but he distrusted Lord George; and his hope of a speedy voyage to
+France, where he expected to receive aid in men and money, was
+frustrated.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to repeat the tale of Cumberland's almost incredible
+butcheries, cruelties, and robberies, or to tell of the executions
+accompanied by the torture of disembowelling the living man. The story
+of Charles's wanderings and distresses is narrated best in the MS.
+"Lyon in Mourning," partly printed by Robert Chambers, in "Jacobite
+Memoirs." No words can overpraise the loyalty of the starving
+Highlanders; neither English tortures, nor the promise of £30,000,
+ever moved one man or woman from their constant faith. Only one hungry
+boy whom Charles had fed, attempted to betray him, but was not
+believed. As for the prince, he is briefly described by a companion as
+"the most prudent man not to be a coward, the most daring not to be
+foolhardy, whom he had ever known." He showed a constant gayety,
+singing and telling tales to hearten his followers. His resource was
+endless; he was by far the best cook and the least fastidious eater of
+his company. He could cook a dish of cow's brains, or swallow raw
+oatmeal and salt-water. Surrounded by English <i>cordons</i>, through which
+he slipped at night up the bed of a burn, when the sentinels had
+reached their furthest point apart, Charles led a little expedition
+which cut off the cattle intended for the provender of his enemies.
+(MS. "Lyon in Mourning.") He would not even let a companion carry his
+great-coat. He knew every extremity of hunger, thirst, and cold; and
+perhaps his most miserable experience was to lurk for many hours,
+devoured by midges, under a wet rock. Unshorn, unwashed, in a filthy
+shirt, his last, he was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span> yet the courteous prince in his
+dealings with all women whom he met, notably with Flora Macdonald, the
+stainless and courageous heroine of loyalty and womanly kindness. At
+last, late in September, 1746, Charles, with Lochiel and many others,
+escaped in a French barque from Loch Nahuagh, where he had first
+landed. It has been said of him by his enemies, especially by Dr.
+King, a renegade, that he was avaricious and ungrateful. Letters and
+receipts in the muniment room of a Highland chief show him directing
+large sums, probably out of the Loch Arkaig treasure, to be paid to
+Lochiel, to "Keppoch's lady," and to many poor clansmen. The receipts,
+written in hiding, and dried with snuff or sand, attest that the money
+came to the persons for whom it was intended.</p>
+
+<p>Charles' expedition could only be justified by success. That it failed
+was due to no want of courage, or audacity, or resolve on his part,
+but to the very nature of a Highland army, to the jealousies of Irish
+and Scotch, to the half-heartedness of his English partisans, and to
+the English horror of his father's religion. By his own creed he held
+very loosely.</p>
+
+<a id="img068" name="img068"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img068.jpg" width="500" height="363" alt="" title="">
+<p>The First Meeting of Prince Charles with Flora Macdonald.</p></div>
+
+<p>In France Charles was a popular hero, and adored by ladies. His
+appearance at court was magnificent, and for him the Princesse de
+Tallemant made every sacrifice. But the Government was deaf to his
+appeals, a journey to Spain was fruitless; worst of all, his brother
+Henry, to whom he had been tenderly devoted, accepted a cardinal's
+hat, on July 3, 1747. This was fatal. The English would never forgive
+a son of their so-called king who became a Romish priest; and the
+shadow of the hat fell on Charles. From letters of James to the
+prince, it is plain that, for some reason, the Duke of York could not
+look forward to marriage and to continuing the Stuart family. The
+young man, therefore, having also a vocation withal, accepted
+ecclesiastical rank, and a cluster of rich benefices. A breach between
+Charles and James followed, which was never healed, despite the
+touching letters of the king to his "dearest Carluccio." Charles
+betook himself to adventurous and secret projects. In the Highlands he
+had learned to seek the consolation of the poor, and to forget hunger,
+cold, misery, and sorrow in drink. He drank "our best bowlsman," says
+an islander, under the table. The habit soon dominated him, and&mdash;with
+his disgraceful arrest and imprisonment, when he refused to
+acknowledge the peace of Aix la Chapelle and to withdraw from
+France&mdash;soured his character and ruined his life. Released from
+Vincennes, he hurried to the then Papal city of Avignon, where he
+introduced boxing-matches. England threatened to bombard Civita
+Vecchia, and Charles had to depart. Whither he went no man knows.
+There is a Jacobite tract of 1750, purporting to be written by his
+equerry, Henry Goring. According to this, Charles, Goring, and a
+mysterious Comte de la Luze (Marshal Keith?), went to Lyons, Dijon,
+Strasbourg. Here Charles rescued a beautiful girl from a fire, and
+honorably declined to take advantage of her manifest passion for her
+preserver. The party was attacked by assassins, Charles shot two of
+them, La Luze and Goring accounted for others. They took ship from
+some northern coast, were tempest-driven to an unfriendly port,
+visited, apparently, Frederick the Great, spent some time in
+Lithuania, and there are hints of a love affair, though Charles had
+already <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span> proclaimed that he would never marry to beget
+royal beggars. He certainly visited Sweden; there was talk of him as a
+candidate for the Polish crown. For many years (1749-1755) neither
+James nor the English Government knew where Charles really was. Grimm
+says that for three years he lay hidden in the house of a lady in
+Paris, a friend of the Princesse de Tallemant. A sportsman and a lover
+of the open air is not likely to have loitered so long with Armida in
+a secret chamber. There is tattle about him in D'Argenson's "Memoirs;"
+a disguised shabby prince appears now and then, none knows whence, and
+vanishes. In the papers of Charles Stuart, Comte d'Albanie, one finds
+a trace of a visit paid by the prince to Ireland. There is evidence,
+in the State Papers, that he was not far from Paris, in June, 1749. We
+have it under his own hand, in the Stuart Papers at Windsor, that he
+visited London on September 5, 1750, returning to Paris on September
+13th. Here, as we know from the document left by Archibald Cameron,
+Lochiel's brother, the last man executed for the rising, or rather for
+a later plot, Charles renounced the Catholic faith. Charles himself
+gives 1750 as the date of this conversion. It came five years too
+late, and he recanted his recantation. He was in England again later
+(1752), and held his last council in Merriworth Castle in Kent. There
+is a legend of his ghost haunting a house in Godalming, which probably
+comes from a tradition of his residence there. Since 1750 or
+thereabouts, a Miss Clementina Walkinshaw, of Barrowfield, had been
+his mistress. He is said to have met her near Glasgow, and flirted
+with her; when or where she fled to him on the continent is obscure.
+Mr. Ewald supposes her to have been with him in Paris before the
+affair of Vincennes (1748). The writer, however, has seen a letter
+from Paris to a sister of Miss Walkinshaw describing the arrest at the
+Opera House, without the most distant allusion to Clementina, about
+whom her sister would be concerned. Clementina, judging by a
+miniature, was a lady with very large black eyes; a portrait in oil
+gives a less favorable view of her charms. In 1754 Charles was again
+in England, and in Nottingham. He actually walked in Hyde Park, where
+someone, recognizing him, tried to kneel to him. He therefore returned
+at once to France. He is reported to have come back in 1755 or 1756,
+braving the reward of £30,000 for his head. The Jacobites now
+requested him to dismiss Clementina Walkinshaw, whose eldest sister
+was a lady housekeeper in the Hanoverian family. A scrap in Charles's
+hand at Windsor proves that he regarded some lady as a possible
+traitor, but he declined to be dictated to, in his household matters,
+by his adherents. This gave the English Jacobites an excuse for
+turning their coats, of which they availed themselves. Sir Walter
+Scott makes the romance of "Redgauntlet" hang on the incident. About
+this time jottings of Charles prove that he fancied himself a
+Republican. He hated Louis XV., and declined on one occasion to act as
+a bug-bear (<i>épouvantail</i>), at the request of France. He had already
+struck a medal in honor of the British Navy and contempt of the
+French. He is now lost sight of till 1760, when Miss Walkinshaw, with
+his daughter, left his protection for that of a convent. This lady, in
+some letters, now unluckily lost, endeavored to persuade her family
+that she was married to the prince. A later myth <span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span> averred
+that her daughter (the Duchess of Albany) had been secretly married,
+and a General Stuart, claiming, on this evidence, to be a legitimate
+descendant of the prince, died about 1852. As Charles, late in life,
+legitimatized his daughter by Clementina Walkinshaw (a thing needless
+had he been married to her mother), and made affirmation that he never
+had any other child, all these legends are manifestly absurd. (The
+affirmation is among documents in possession of Lord Braye, and is
+published by the Historical MSS. Commission.)</p>
+
+<p>From this point there is little historical or personal interest in the
+life of Charles. His father, James III., died in 1766, and was buried
+as a king. Charles hurried from Bouillon to Rome; his brother, the
+cardinal, tried to secure his recognition by the Papal Court, but the
+Pope dared not, and no other government chose to defy the English
+Ministry. Charles's life was spent, now in seclusion, now in society;
+he still was fond of shooting, of music, and the drama; he still
+retained his grace of demeanor when he happened to be sober. Late in
+1771 he went in disguise to Paris, where he accepted a pension from
+France, and a beautiful bride, Louise, Princess of Stolberg, descended
+from the Earl of Ailesbury into whose arms Charles II. fell under the
+stroke of his fatal illness. The ill-matched pair were married on Good
+Friday, April 17, 1772. At first Charles behaved with more sobriety
+and good humor than usual. A child of the marriage was expected, at
+least by the Scotch Jacobites, in 1773. There is a legend that a child
+was actually born, was intrusted to Captain John Carter Allen, was
+brought up by him as his own, and this infant, grown to manhood,
+became the father of two gentlemen calling themselves John Sobieski
+Stolberg Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, Counts of Albany. They
+lived till late in the present century, were picturesque figures in
+society, and writers of some spirit and vigor. For long they were much
+cherished by some noble Highland families. Charles, the younger, has
+left descendants. It is needless to discuss here the authenticity of
+these claims.</p>
+
+<p>Charles's relations with his wife were on the pattern of his relations
+with his mistress. He was jealous, and brutal beyond description; she
+was courted by Alfieri, the poet, and, after fleeing from her husband
+to a convent, she united her fortunes with Alfieri's. On his death she
+chose a young French painter, Fabre, as his successor, and to him she
+left her rich collection of relics, spoils of the poet and the king. A
+beautiful, witty, and engaging woman, she was long a centre of society
+in Italy. She died in 1824. In 1784 Charles sent for his daughter by
+Miss Walkinshaw. Both had long been maintained by the cardinal. He
+made her Duchess of Albany, medals were designed, if never struck,
+representing her as <i>spes ultima et exigua</i>, "the last frail hope," of
+the Stuarts. For the last time, in conversation with a Mr. Greathead,
+the old spirit blazed out. His face brightened, he began the tale of
+his campaign, but, when attempting to narrate the butcheries of
+Cumberland, the cruel executions in London, he fell on the floor in
+convulsions. He used to solace himself by playing on the pipes, and at
+the sound of the martial music which he had heard on three stricken
+fields, he was able to live in the past. On January 31, 1788, the
+anniversary of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span> the death of Charles I., Charles Edward
+passed away from earth. His daughter did not long survive him; she was
+killed by a fall from her horse. Henry now took the title of Henry IX.
+"by grace of God, not by the will of men." He died in 1806; the French
+had stripped him of all his property, even the famous Sobieski rubies
+were gone, and he was in receipt of a pension from the English
+Government. In 1819 George IV. erected a monument by Canova, in St
+Peters at Rome, to "James III., son of James II., King of Great
+Britain, to Charles Edward, and Henry, his sons, the last of the Royal
+Stuart line. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Sir Walter
+Scott visited this alone of Roman sights, in 1832, just before he came
+home to die.</p>
+
+<p>Had Charles fallen at Culloden, history could find no blot on his
+name, no stain on the white rose. Surviving, as he did, a
+broken-hearted exile, with no home, no chance of a career, "eating his
+own heart, shunning the paths of men," as Homer says of Bellerophon,
+he fell a victim to the habit which has ever the same wretched
+results, which turns a hero to a coward, a gentleman to a brute. Yet,
+in his one year of brilliance, he won immortal love. Scott had seen
+strong men, the prince's ancient comrades, weep at the mention of his
+name. No man, in any age, ever inspired such a large, such a gallant,
+such a tender and melancholy body of song. Even now as one hears the
+notes of</p>
+
+<p class="poem30">
+  "Will ye no come back again,<br>
+  Better lo'ed ye canna be,"</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">sung by the lads of a Scotch village, one feels that Charles Stuart
+did not wholly fail; the song outlives the dynasty, and relics of
+Prince Charlie are fondly cherished, while no man cares a halfpenny
+for his Hanoverian rivals.</p>
+
+<p>The best life of Prince Charles is that by Mr. Ewald (London, 1875).
+Mr. Ewald alone has used the State Papers at the Record Office. Lord
+Stanhope's and Mr. Chambers's "Histories of the Forty-five" are also
+excellent; as are "Jacobite Memoirs," selected from Bishop Forbes's
+MS. "Lyon in Mourning." These works, with the contemporary tracts, and
+some MSS., with Lord Stanhope's "Decline of the Last Stuarts," and the
+Stuart Papers at Windsor, as given in Browne's "History of the
+Highland Clans," have been consulted in compiling this study of Prince
+Charles.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig010" name="sig010"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig010.jpg" width="150" height="75" alt="Author signature. Andrew Lang." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span> CAPTAIN JAMES COOK<a id="footnotetag14" name="footnotetag14"></a><a href="#footnote14" title="Go to footnote 14"><span class="small">[14]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Oliver Optic</span><br>
+
+(1728-1779)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img069" name="img069"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img069.jpg" width="250" height="279" alt="Captain James Cook." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>As an example of the self-made man without fortune or the prestige of
+a distinguished family to assist him, perhaps there is none better and
+more instructive than the career of Captain Cook, the great English
+navigator and discoverer. At his birth, in 1728, his father was a
+farm-laborer, and his mother belonged to the same grade of society.
+They lived in the north of England, and were people of excellent
+character. On account of his honesty, industry, and skill in farming,
+his father was promoted to the place of head servant on a farm some
+distance from where he had been working; but it does not appear that
+he ever made any further advancement. James learned to read and write,
+and was instructed in some of the simpler rules of arithmetic, which
+was the extent of his school learning, a very slender outfit for one
+of the distinction to which he attained in a lifetime of fifty years.</p>
+
+<p>At the age of thirteen James was bound as an apprentice to a dry-goods
+dealer in a small way in a considerable fishing town. The business did
+not suit the youth at all, for he had before cherished the idea of
+going to sea, and his surroundings in a seaport doubtless increased
+his yearnings in that direction. A disagreement between the apprentice
+and his employer enabled him to procure his discharge, and he engaged
+his services to the Messrs. Walker, a couple of Quakers, who owned two
+vessels employed in the coal trade. He passed the greater portion of
+his term, and a considerable period after its expiration, as a common
+sailor on board of the ship Free Love, where he obtained a thorough
+knowledge of seamanship. From this humble sphere he was promoted to be
+mate of one of the Walker ships. His life in this capacity was
+uneventful, though he was all the time learning navigation and storing
+his mind with the information which was to enable him to distinguish
+himself in later years.</p>
+
+<p>In 1755, when Cook was twenty-seven years old, war broke out between
+England and France, and there was a great demand for seamen for the
+navy of England. At that time the system of impressment was in vogue,
+and when Britain wanted sailors she took them, wherever and whenever
+she could find them. Press-gangs were sent out, under one or more
+officers, by ships of war in port needing more men. They visited the
+drinking-places and taverns of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span> town and captured all the
+seamen they could find, usually more or less intoxicated, and
+compelled them to go on board of the man-of-war. They were forced to
+do duty. Sometimes the unlucky tars were taken from the vessels to
+which they belonged, whether in port or at sea. This impressment was
+not always confined to British seamen, and this system was one of the
+causes which led to the war of 1812 between England and the United
+States. Though the law sanctioning this abuse was never repealed,
+press-gangs became obsolete half a century ago.</p>
+
+<p>Cook's ship was in the Thames at this time, and he was liable to
+impressment, for mates were not exempt, though captains were. Like all
+British seamen, he had a dread of being forced into the naval service,
+oftener because they were forced than for any other reason. He
+concealed himself, and used all the precautions he could to avoid such
+a calamity, as he then regarded it. But he faithfully reconsidered the
+subject, and concluded to enter the navy by voluntary enlistment, thus
+escaping impressment, which would be an outrage upon his manhood. He
+began his service on board the Eagle, a sixty-gun ship, which was soon
+after commanded by Captain Palliser. Cook was not only an able and
+skilful seaman, but he diligently and faithfully performed every duty,
+so that he soon attracted the attention of his officers.</p>
+
+<p>His friends at home had endeavored to do something for him, and his
+commander received a letter from a member of Parliament commending the
+seaman to his favor. The captain acknowledged the merit of Cook in his
+reply, but stated that he had been in the navy for so brief a period
+that he could not be made a commissioned officer, but in due time, if
+he proved worthy, a master's warrant might be obtained for him. Four
+years after he entered the service a strong interest secured this
+promotion for him. In this capacity he was assigned to the frigate
+Mercury, which was ordered to North America, where she became one of
+the fleet that operated in connection with the army of General Wolfe
+in the siege of Quebec.</p>
+
+<p>The navigation of this portion of the St. Lawrence River was difficult
+and dangerous then to the English; they were comparative strangers
+there, and the French had removed the channel buoys. It was necessary
+to make a survey, and Captain Palliser recommended Master Cook for the
+service. The locality was exposed to the enemy, and for several nights
+he conducted the work till he had about completed it, when his
+operations were discovered by the French. A force of Indians was sent
+to capture the surveyor, and they surrounded him in the darkness in
+their canoes, and Cook made his escape only by leaping ashore, to
+which his barge had been directed, near the English hospital, while
+the Indians were boarding the boat over the stern. But he had
+performed the duty intrusted to him, and from his measurements
+constructed a perfect chart of the channel.</p>
+
+<p>He was a very skilful draughtsman, though he had educated himself in
+the art, as well as an expert surveyor, and he was employed by the
+admiral in making surveys of other portions of the river. His charts
+of the locality were published, with soundings and sailing directions;
+and they were so correct that no <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span> others were needed for at
+least a hundred years. He piloted the boats of the squadron in the
+attack upon Montmorency, and superintended the landing of the troops
+for the assault on the Plains of Abraham, where both Wolfe and
+Montcalm were mortally wounded.</p>
+
+<p>For four years Cook had been an acting master, but in 1759 he was
+fully confirmed in his rank and appointed to the flag-ship of Lord
+Colvill, passing the following winter at Halifax. This was a season of
+leisure from active professional occupation, and the master employed
+it in studying geometry, astronomy, and mathematics generally, fitting
+himself for the highest positions in the navy. For the next ten years
+he was largely engaged in surveying in Newfoundland, and was present
+at its capture from the French. Returning to England he was married,
+but was soon sent back to the field of his recent labors, as marine
+surveyor of the coasts, by the influence of his constant friend, now
+Sir Hugh Palliser. He was busily employed in this capacity, rendering
+valuable service to his country, and especially to the king's
+ministers in arranging the terms of peace with France. During his
+absence he observed an eclipse of the sun, which was so well done that
+his results were published in the "Philosophical Transactions," adding
+greatly to his reputation as an astronomer.</p>
+
+<p>At this period the spirit of discovery was reanimated in England, and
+an expedition was fitted out, at the instance of the Royal Society,
+primarily to observe a transit of Venus across the disk of the sun,
+which could only be done in some parts of the Pacific Ocean. Sir Hugh
+Palliser was again his friend, and Cook, raised to the rank of
+lieutenant, was appointed to the command. He selected a ship of three
+hundred and seventy tons, called the Endeavor, for the purpose, and
+accompanied by several eminent scientists, he sailed in 1778. In
+addition to its astronomical task, the expedition was to make
+discoveries and explorations in the Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>It would be impossible to follow Lieutenant Cook in the details of his
+three notable voyages of discovery in anything less than a volume, so
+full are they of interesting incidents. He proceeded first to Madeira,
+and then across the Atlantic to Rio Janeiro, where he made a
+considerable stay to obtain supplies, and improve the condition of his
+crew. Passing through the Strait of Le Maire, he went around Cape
+Horn, and in April of 1769 the Endeavor arrived at Otaheite, now
+called Tahiti, in the Society Islands, where the transit was to be
+observed. The observations required a considerable stay in Matavia
+Bay, and as soon as he had made his preparations on shore for the
+work, the commander established regulations for intercourse between
+his people and the natives who crowded in multitudes around their
+strange visitors.</p>
+
+<p>No man in his day and generation ever had more extensive dealings with
+the uncivilized tribes of the earth than Captain Cook, and none ever
+treated them with more enlightened humanity, or with more even-handed
+justice. His treatment of the aborigines of the vast number of islands
+and other regions he visited, is in remarkable contrast with that of
+the early explorers of the Western Continent. By the latter the
+natives were remorselessly slain, enslaved, and even tortured.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span> They were regarded as pagans, with no natural rights, whose
+territories, families, and persons were the legitimate spoils of the
+conquerors. On the contrary, Cook, with the means in his possession to
+overawe, subdue, and subjugate them, always extended to them the
+utmost consideration in his power. He could be severe when necessity
+required, but his forbearance was almost unlimited.</p>
+
+<p>The first of a series of rules he established and enforced was: "To
+endeavor, by every fair means, to cultivate a friendship with the
+natives, and to treat them with all imaginable humanity." He was
+largely dependent upon the resources of the islands he visited for the
+sustenance of his people; but nothing, except in dire necessity, was
+ever taken from the natives by force. Persons were appointed to trade
+with them, and no others were allowed to barter or exchange goods with
+them, and a proper equivalent was always to be given. His own men were
+put under the strictest discipline in order to control their relations
+with the natives who constantly surrounded them. Generally the most
+friendly spirit prevailed on both sides. The inhabitants of all the
+islands seemed to have a natural inclination to steal, and most of the
+trouble with them grew out of this tendency. Cook judiciously
+repressed theft from the beginning, and almost invariably compelled
+the restoration of the property.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, his own men were sometimes tempted to desert; but
+he hunted them down, secured one or more chiefs as hostages, or by
+some common-sense method recovered the absentees. At some of the
+islands Cook was extremely popular with the inhabitants, and was
+regarded as a superior being, even a demigod, in many of them. When he
+was compelled to resort to extreme severity, he did not begin with
+cannon, loaded with grape, but trusted first to the loud report,
+terrific to the savages, fired over their heads, or had the muskets
+loaded with small shot which would hurt, but did not kill. No
+slaughter that could possibly be avoided was permitted. If he erred at
+all it was on the side of humanity, and if he had been less forbearing
+he might have added more years to his length of days.</p>
+
+<p>The astronomical work at Otaheite was successfully accomplished, and
+in July Captain Cook departed, taking with him Tupia, a native of some
+distinction, who proved to be valuable to him as an interpreter, and
+for his general knowledge. During this voyage he visited many of the
+islands of the Pacific, including New Zealand, where he encountered no
+little hostility, so that it was often difficult and sometimes
+impossible to establish friendly relations with the natives. But he
+obtained what he needed, and proceeded on his voyage. He gave names to
+islands, bays, straits, and harbors, some of which seem strange at the
+present day, but most of them were suggested by the circumstances of
+the visit. Of many of the islands he took possession in the name of
+his sovereign, leaving memorials of his landing.</p>
+
+<p>Sailing to the westward, he examined the east coast of New Holland, as
+it was then called, Australia, at the present time, charted the coast,
+as he had done throughout the voyage, and took possession of the
+country in the name of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span> England. The existence of a Southern
+Continent had long been a mooted question, and in this and subsequent
+voyages Captain Cook searched unsuccessfully for it. He passed through
+Torres Strait, and thus proved that New Guinea was not a part of
+Australia, as some claimed. Continuing his voyage, he went around the
+Cape of Good Hope, and reached England in the middle of 1771. The
+results of his cruise of nearly four years were exceedingly important
+to his country. His reputation was largely increased, and he was
+promoted to the rank of commander in the navy.</p>
+
+<p>So well approved was the conduct of Captain Cook on his first voyage
+around the world, that he was appointed to the command of another
+similar expedition, consisting of two ships, the Resolution and the
+Adventure, and after about a year on shore, he sailed again in 1772.
+He went around the Cape of Good Hope, and cruised in the Southern
+Pacific, discovering and taking possession of New Caledonia, visiting
+islands where he had landed before, and exploring and charting the New
+Hebrides. His instructions particularly required him to circumnavigate
+the earth in the highest practicable southern latitude in search of
+the unknown continent still supposed to be there. He used the southern
+summer for this purpose; but he found no land he was willing to call a
+continent. Though large bodies of land have since been discovered in
+that region, the question is still an open one.</p>
+
+<p>Adapting his operations to the varying climate of the north and the
+south, Captain Cook continued his explorations, encountering many
+hardships and perils in unknown seas, from hostile savages, and in the
+icy realms of the extreme south.</p>
+
+<p>He returned to England in 1775 after an absence of three years. The
+commander had always taken excellent care of the health of his men,
+for in voyages of the description he had undertaken the mortality was
+always considerable, and sometimes terrible. One of the most
+noticeable features of his second expedition was that it returned with
+a record of only one death in both ships; and the details of the means
+he used to secure a good sanitary condition among his crews are very
+interesting.</p>
+
+<p>On his return Cook was immediately raised to the rank of post-captain,
+and was also appointed a captain in Greenwich Hospital, which secured
+to him an honorable retirement, and reward for his important labors.
+He was elected a member of the Royal Society, which also bestowed upon
+him a gold medal in recognition of his contributions to the science of
+the period. The passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the north
+coast of America was exciting a great deal of attention at this time,
+and Captain Cook was sent upon an expedition to continue his
+explorations in the Pacific, and then to investigate the mystery of a
+northwest passage. He sailed in the Resolution in 1776, and was
+followed by Captain Clerke in the Discovery. He proceeded, after his
+arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, to Tasmania, visited New Zealand
+again, and passed the following year in explorations in the Pacific.</p>
+
+<a id="img070" name="img070"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img070.jpg" width="600" height="436" alt="" title="">
+<p>Death of Captain Cook.</p></div>
+
+<p>In the first month of 1778 he discovered the Sandwich Islands, to
+which he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span> gave this name in honor of his patron, the Earl
+of Sandwich, then the first Lord of the Admiralty. Obtaining the
+supplies he needed, the commander proceeded to explore the northwest
+coast of America, which he followed inside of Behring Strait, till the
+ice and cold compelled him to seek a more southern latitude, which he
+found in the genial airs of the Sandwich Islands.</p>
+
+<p>During his former visit he had found the natives to be friendly and
+generally well disposed, though more addicted to thieving than the
+people of any other islands the explorer had visited. For some
+unexplained reason they were in a different frame of mind on his
+second visit. A boat belonging to the expedition had been stolen by
+the savages, and Captain Cook proceeded, in his usual vigorous manner,
+to recover it. He sent a boat on shore for this purpose, and then
+landed himself with another party, intending to capture a certain
+chief, to be exchanged for the boat. An immense crowd gathered around
+him, and were hypocritically friendly at first; but it was soon
+observed that they were arming themselves. The commander asked
+Kariopoo, the chief he had selected, to go with him, and he made no
+objection. The captain had ordered the marines to be drawn up on the
+shore, and leading his prisoner by the hand he approached the boat,
+the natives opening a passage for him.</p>
+
+<p>The chief's family and friends interposed to save him, declaring that
+he would be killed if he went on board of the ship. The captain
+expostulated with them and the tumult increased. The lieutenant of
+marines wanted to fire, but Cook refused the pet mission. The tumult
+soon became a battle, and then he ordered his men to fire. As he was
+trying to save his party he was struck with a club, which partially
+stunned him, and then he was stabbed in the back of the neck by an
+iron dagger. He fell into shallow water, and the savages threw
+themselves upon him. A struggle ensued, and he was hauled on the beach
+by his foes, where they stabbed him in turn in their barbarous rage.
+His body lay on the beach, and it might have been recovered, but it
+was not. Only a portion of his remains were obtained, and they were
+buried at sea.</p>
+
+<p>Thus perished Captain James Cook, and all England mourned him.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig011" name="sig011"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig011.jpg" width="300" height="74" alt="Author signature. William S. Adams." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span> JOHN HOWARD<a id="footnotetag15" name="footnotetag15"></a><a href="#footnote15" title="Go to footnote 15"><span class="small">[15]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Harriet G. Walker</span><br>
+
+(1726-1790)</h3>
+
+
+<a id="img071" name="img071"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img071.jpg" width="250" height="277" alt="John Howard." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>John Howard was born in Hackney, Middlesex County, England, September
+2, 1726. The only existing record of this fact is the inscription upon
+his monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. His parentage came
+through a somewhat obscure family, his father being sometimes
+mentioned as an upholsterer and sometimes as a merchant of moderate
+means. Of his mother we know only her name&mdash;Chomley&mdash;and that she died
+when her second child, and only son, was an infant. The father was a
+strict, sturdy, honest, severe Puritan, the marks of whose character
+ever remained on the character of the son.</p>
+
+<p>The motherless boy seems to have passed unnoticed through the weary
+days of a sickly childhood, and the usual martyrdom of the "dullest
+boy in the school," under first one tutor and then another, to his
+sixteenth year, when he left school and books, as he afterward
+testifies, "not thoroughly knowing any one thing." How much does any
+boy or girl thoroughly know of any one thing at sixteen? Surely not
+enough to warrant his removal from school.</p>
+
+<p>But not so reasoned the father of John Howard, for we find him at this
+age apprenticing his only son to Alderman Newham, a wholesale grocer
+on Watling Street, London.</p>
+
+<p>That this was not a change made from pecuniary necessity is evidenced
+by the liberal provision made for the boy. We are told that his father
+paid £700 for his fee of apprenticeship, and provided him a separate
+suite of apartments, a servant, and a pair of saddle-horses! The
+inference is that young John's progress in school was not such as to
+warrant his continuance at his books.</p>
+
+<p>His letters and manuscripts still in existence reveal a lamentable
+deficiency in orthography and the handling of the king's English.</p>
+
+<p>Some of Howard's biographers attempt to attribute his methodical
+businesslike habits in later life to the experience gained while in
+the service of this wholesale grocer. But when we consider that his
+stay was far less than one year, we <span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span> may fairly be allowed to
+conclude that more was due to an inherited temperament for slow
+methodical action.</p>
+
+<p>Before reaching his seventeenth year, the death of his father released
+him from the grocery business, for which he had evidently no
+affection, and left him in possession of £7,000 in ready cash, beside
+land, plate, house, etc.</p>
+
+<p>This fortune was left under the management of guardians, it being his
+father's wish that he should not control it until his twenty-fourth
+year. But his course of life goes to show that he had wonderfully easy
+trustees, as he immediately bought himself off the grocery business,
+and made a long tour of the Continent for the benefit of his health.
+Returning to England, he dropped into the little village of Stoke
+Newington, a mere hamlet, where he had some possessions.</p>
+
+<p>That a young man of wealth and free from all ties of family or
+business, should have voluntarily chosen such a home, and been
+contented to remain there, in a state of idle inactivity, for the
+space of seven or eight years, can be accounted for only by
+remembering his feeble health.</p>
+
+<p>When twenty-five, his health entirely failed, and he was prostrated by
+a severe fit of illness, through which he was nursed by his landlady,
+Mrs. Loidore. Upon his recovery he made her his wife, in testimony of
+his gratitude, though history records that she had neither beauty,
+money, nor health, having been an invalid for twenty-two years, and
+was twenty-seven years his senior.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three years after this seemingly ill-suited marriage, which,
+strange to say, seems to have been a not unhappy one, Mrs. Howard
+died. Immediately Mr. Howard, then twenty-eight or nine years of age,
+again left England for a second extended tour. This being the year of
+the great earthquake of Lisbon, he naturally turned his steps
+thitherward.</p>
+
+<p>Setting sail from England for Spain, he was captured on the high seas
+by a French privateer, and for two months suffered the hardships and
+indignities of prison life in those times. Upon his release he used
+all his influence to secure the exchange of the remainder of his
+vessel's company, and was successful. This prison experience he never
+forgot.</p>
+
+<p>Three years later (1758) he married Henrietta Leeds, a lady of fine
+character, and one to whom he was sincerely attached. Indeed, so
+fearful was he that their married life might not be entirely without
+jars, that he made a bargain with her, in advance of their marriage,
+that on all disputed points the adjustment should be according to his
+judgment. One is at a loss which member of a couple the most to
+admire, the man who could make such a proposition, or the woman who
+would bind herself with such bonds! But, like his first marriage, his
+strange contract with his second wife seems to have led only to happy
+results.</p>
+
+<p>They settled in Cardington, upon the Howard estate, and for the next
+seven years led the uneventful life of landed gentry of the times. The
+husband and wife were united in their efforts to improve the morals
+and general condition of their tenantry. Rightly believing that the
+beginning of all reform was to improve the physical condition, Howard
+spared no expense in rearing new cottages <span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span> upon new and
+improved plans, held his tenants removable at will, and through their
+improved conditions ruled over them with an almost despotic sway,
+tempered and made bearable in that all his restrictions and
+requirements were on the line of their temporal and spiritual
+advancement.</p>
+
+<p>How strange is the making of history! Had the gentle, loving,
+well-governed, dependent Mrs. Howard lived on, this would no doubt
+have been the continuation, the aim, and the end of John Howard's
+life&mdash;to constantly advance and improve the interests and condition of
+his tenantry, and to wisely govern and administer his estate. But it
+was not so to be. The happy home must be broken up, and the man whom
+God needed must, through the sting of his own sorrow, be sent out
+again upon his wanderings to do the work reserved for him in the broad
+field not of his own choosing. The birth of the only child, a son,
+preceded the death of its mother by but a few days, and Howard was
+again alone. To the end of his life he remained a sincere and constant
+mourner for the wife to whom he owed the happiest, if not the most
+useful, seven years of his life. It is said by some of his biographers
+that he always kept the anniversary of her death as a solemn day of
+fasting and prayer.</p>
+
+<p>Come we now to the point in his career where, all unknown to himself,
+Howard took up the work which was to startle the whole civilized
+world, and place his name in the roll of those whose memories die not.</p>
+
+<p>But first let us remember the son whose life began where his mother's
+ended, and ended where it was well his mother had not lived to see it.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem that the loss of his beloved wife and the sad
+recollection of his own motherless unloved boyhood, would have made of
+John Howard a tender and pitiful, as well as devoted father. Such was
+not the case, if we may judge from the vehemence with which some of
+his biographers deny the charges of undue severity to the infant, and
+forgetfulness and neglect of the growing-up boy, and the silence of
+others on the same subject.</p>
+
+<p>The real truth probably was, so far as we can judge, that the man had
+nothing in his stiff nature and puritanical education, certainly
+nothing in his own early life, to make him respond to the
+uninteresting helplessness of infancy.</p>
+
+<p>So we find him doing his duty by the crying infant of a few months, in
+a manner which would be amusing if it were not pathetic. He takes him
+from the nurse, lays him across his knees, and sits unmoved and
+unmovable until the tempest exhausts itself, and the child is silent
+from exhaustion, when he hands him solemnly back to the nurse, and
+feels that, by so much at least, has he cast out of the young child
+the spice of Old Adam, which is the birthright of us all! A few such
+experiences, we are told, and the child would at once cease its
+struggles and be silent. One would surely think it would!</p>
+
+<p>But the silent, lonely man, bereft of the loving companionship of the
+gentle wife, who would so differently have soothed and silenced the
+crying infant, could not long bear the solitude of his broken home,
+and so began the years of wanderings, which lasted as long as his
+life, and through which he seems so largely to have lost sight of his
+young son at his most impressionable age, save to provide <span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span>
+for his material wants, and to some extent, also, his education. When
+with him in later years he appears to have enjoyed his society, or at
+least the evidences which he gave of implicit, unreasoning obedience,
+illustrated by his remark, "I believe if I told the boy to put his
+hand in the fire he would obey me."</p>
+
+<p>At four the boy was put into a boarding-school, and the home was
+broken up. The later glimpses which we get of his career are vague,
+unsatisfactory, or decidedly bad, until the end came, and "Jack" was
+incarcerated in a mad-house when but twenty-two, where his unfortunate
+life went out after twelve years' confinement in a darkness that
+darkened also the last years of his good, if injudicious, father, with
+a sorrow beside which all common bereavements should seem like
+blessings.</p>
+
+<p>In 1769, then, we see the Cardington home broken up, the boy placed in
+a boarding-school, and John Howard setting forth upon what to him was
+but an aimless journey, in search of consolation, amid new scenes, for
+the shattered fortunes of his home. He travelled over large portions
+of Italy, and returned again to England, where in 1773 he was elected
+High Sheriff of Bedford. No sooner had he entered upon the duties of
+his office, than he was struck with the gross injustice of the
+practices, especially as affecting those prisoners held for debt. Many
+heads of families were held for months and years, not for the original
+debt for which they were incarcerated, which in many cases had been
+forgiven or paid, but for an accumulation of fees due to jailer and
+divers other officers of the prison, who drew their salaries from this
+source. Much astounded by such a state of things in a Christian land,
+but supposing it to be a peculiarity of his own county, he made a
+journey into some of the surrounding districts, to learn from them, if
+possible, some better method. It but augmented his indignation and
+distress to find their condition and methods worse even than at home,
+since in some he actually found the fees wrung from these unhappy
+prisoners to amount to so much that the office of jailer was sold to
+the highest bidder, the sum paid for the position often amounting to
+as much as £40 per annum.</p>
+
+<p>On this tour Howard, now thoroughly awake on the subject, could not
+but observe the miseries of the prisoners from other sources, besides
+extortions. This might have been borne, but for the terrible crowding
+of herds of men and women, without regard to age, sex, character, or
+crime, into foul underground dungeons, damp, dark, unventilated, often
+unwarmed, with insufficient and unfit food and clothing, without beds,
+and many in chains. Such were the sights which met his gaze at every
+turn, and moved his soul with shame for his country, and a slow but
+deadly anger that, once kindled, died only with his life. Thoroughly
+and systematically he continued his investigation of the jails and
+prisons of England, until he had been over them all, which consumed
+nearly a year's time (travel was a different matter a hundred years
+ago, from now), and then made his report public, for which labor he
+was called before the bar of the House of Commons and received the
+thanks of that august body.</p>
+
+<p>More satisfactory still, he had the pleasure of seeing two bills
+passed, one making the office of jailer a salaried position, thereby
+abolishing the whole <span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span> iniquitous system of special fees from
+prisoners, the other having reference to improvements in ventilation
+and other sanitary matters.</p>
+
+<p>The text of these bills he had printed in large bold type at his own
+expense, and sent them to every jail and prison in England. A few
+months later, being desirous of seeing whether or not the requirements
+of the new laws were being put into execution, he made personal
+inspection, riding by chaise or on horseback from city to city and
+from town to town.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the last of this year, 1774, Howard made his first and last
+venture into the arena of political life. Being a man of strong, stern
+political convictions, and feeling it his duty to stand by his
+principles, he listened to the advice of friends, and made a stand for
+the House of Commons. Fortunately for the world he was defeated by
+<i>four votes</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On such small hinges swing the doors of life. Had he been elected he
+would doubtless have sunk out of sight and been forgotten, and his
+great work would have been given to some other agent.</p>
+
+<p>Though greatly disappointed at his failure, Howard's mind at once
+returned to the question of prison reform, and his next journey led
+him over Ireland and Scotland. The former he found worse and the
+latter better than England.</p>
+
+<p>Being desirous of publishing a book upon his investigations and their
+results, he at the close of this year left England to examine the
+prisons of France, Flanders, and Holland. It surprises us much to
+learn that he found the prisons of Holland almost models, while France
+is declared far in advance of England, although these were the days of
+the Bastille! He also journeyed into Switzerland and again made a
+survey of the jails of England and Wales. Feeling at last that he had
+sufficient material he returned to England and began upon his book.
+For eight months he labored incessantly upon this work, correcting
+proofs, collating and arranging statistics, etc., although for the
+literary part he was obliged to call in the assistance of some of his
+learned friends, who, better than he understood the use of the king's
+English.</p>
+
+<p>This book made a most profound sensation throughout the civilized
+world. That it might reach a more extended circulation, it was sold at
+less than the cost of production, and large numbers were given away
+among the officials. All this expense was borne by Howard out of his
+own private purse, as were at all times his immense and constant
+outlay in travel. Not only his whole private income, but the fortune
+of £15,000 received from his only sister at her death, was expended in
+the same manner.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently Howard published a second volume, in 1780, as an appendix
+to the first, and in 1784 a third and last, which was a compilation of
+the first two, with much added material acquired during his continuous
+travels over every part of Europe.</p>
+
+<a id="img072" name="img072"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img072.jpg" width="600" height="448" alt="" title="">
+<p>Howard relieving a Prisoner.</p></div>
+
+<p>During the earlier and idler parts of his life, Howard had been
+pleased to dabble somewhat in medicine, after the manner of the
+gentlemen of his time. This stood him in good part upon his travels,
+and made him familiar with the various forms of disease that
+especially afflicted prisons and the people at large. For <span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span>
+jail fever and typhus he rightly judged that the sanitary and food
+conditions were sufficient cause and attacked them from this basis.
+But having in a measure finished his jail and prison work, to his
+mind, he became possessed with the idea that he might search out and
+find a remedy for the dreadful <i>plague</i> that was filling all Europe
+with dismay. The methodical habit of the man's mind is evidenced by
+noting that he followed exactly the same method in this as in his
+former undertaking, namely, personal investigation and experience. He
+left home in July, 1789, and it is surprising that for six months he
+literally lived in the poisonous atmosphere of the pest-houses,
+pest-ships, and lazarettos of Europe, and escaped contagion. In
+January, 1790, however, in a little Russian village near the Crimea,
+he was called upon to prescribe for a young lady, ill with some low
+malignant fever, from which visit he contracted the same disease.
+Being then sixty-four years of age, naturally frail, worn down by
+sixteen years of hard, exhaustive toil, depleted by a diet that found
+no place for meats or stimulants, he had nothing upon which to rally,
+and rapidly sank into the long slumber which at last gave him what he
+had so many years denied himself&mdash;<i>rest</i>.</p>
+
+<p>His remains were buried there in Russia in the village of Dophinovka.
+After his death a monument was erected to his memory, being the first
+placed in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. This was appropriately
+inscribed to his memory, although it was his latest expressed wish
+that he should be left to sleep in an unmarked, unknown grave.</p>
+
+<p>A just estimate of the character of John Howard can only be arrived at
+by a careful consideration of the times in which he lived and the
+peculiar circumstances of his life. The natural inherited sternness of
+his character never felt the modifying influences of a mother's love
+or the companionship of brothers or sisters. His ill health added to
+his restless desire for travel and change, but unfitted him for close
+or continued application to any special line of thought or interest,
+while his early independence in the management of his fortune placed
+in his way strong temptations to extravagance and idleness.</p>
+
+<p>It is therefore more than an ordinary indication of an inborn
+principle of humanity when we find him, upon his first settlement upon
+his father's estates, devoting time, thought, and money to the
+amelioration of the condition of his neglected and suffering tenantry.
+Model landlords were not in fashion in those times, and a man who so
+administered his affairs must have done so in the face of much
+criticism, ridicule, and contempt among his peers.</p>
+
+<p>But none of these things seem to have moved him from the even tenor of
+his way. Yet there was no sentimentalism in his dealings with his
+tenants, as we find him holding them to a strict accounting for the
+use made of their improved conditions.</p>
+
+<p>So of his prison work. It seemed to be all and altogether for the
+masses, and not for individuals. No record is left of personal
+almsgiving, save when resorted to as a ruse to obtain entrance to the
+French prisons. That his interest was not in individuals is further
+shown by the calm and deliberate manner in which he prosecuted his
+investigations, taking years for the accumulation of materials
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span> and months to their careful watching through the press. It
+was the principle of justice ingrained in the man's deepest nature
+that forced him to <i>know</i> all that could be known or said upon both
+sides before speaking. It was this thoroughness, this absolute
+fairness, that made of his work and of his inartistically constructed
+books the tremendous and lasting success which they were.</p>
+
+<p>Deeply religious, he naturally reflected the spirit of the religious
+teachings of the times, which savored more of the terrors of the law
+than of mercy and forgiveness to evil-doers; that found more worship
+in denying self the indulgences of soft living than in the partaking
+of the harmless pleasures and sweets of life, giving a good God thanks
+for His good gifts. Through all the life and writings of Howard one
+constantly hears the minor chord of infinite sadness wrought into his
+life by his motherless infancy, his unloved boyhood, his years of
+invalidism, his ceaseless mourning for his wife Henrietta, the
+bitterness of death in the cup held to his lips by his unfortunate
+son, and over and above all, the constant atmosphere of crime,
+cruelty, sin, and suffering in which he spent the last sixteen years
+of his life. Life to him came to mean sin, suffering, and sorrow in
+the world about him, and for himself work, work, incessant work, in
+the effort to do what one man could to lift or lighten the burden
+under which the whole earth groaned. Death came to him where he would
+have most wished it might, and took him directly from labor to reward.
+And throughout the coming ages the world will be the better because in
+the last half of the eighteenth century there lived, labored, and died
+in the midst of his labors one <i>John Howard, the Philanthropist</i>.<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig012" name="sig012"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig012.jpg" width="300" height="53" alt="Author signature. Harriet G. Walker." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>ETHAN ALLEN<a id="footnotetag16" name="footnotetag16"></a><a href="#footnote16" title="Go to footnote 16"><span class="small">[16]</span></a><br>
+
+By <span class="smcap">Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham</span><br>
+
+(1738-1789)</h3>
+
+
+<p>Was Ethan Allen a hero or a humbug? a patriot or a pretender? Ask
+Vermont and she cries "Nulli secundus!" Ask New York and the reply is
+"Ad referendum."</p>
+
+<p>The differentiation antedates the American Revolution and the part
+Ethan Allen played in that historic drama. It is an inheritance of
+loving loyalty and gratitude that quivers in the answer of one State,
+the traditional antagonisms of prejudice that speak in the other.</p>
+
+<p>But for Ethan Allen, Vermont would have had no separate existence. But
+for Ethan Allen, New York's northeastern boundary would have been the
+Connecticut River. Therefore, on one shore of Lake Champlain the
+disputed shield <span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span> is unalloyed gold, reflecting all that is
+strong and brave, all that is courageous and magnanimous, all that is
+patriotic and generous, while from the other shore its appearance is
+as brass engraven by vanity and vulgarity, by self-sufficiency and
+infidelity.</p>
+
+<a id="img073" name="img073"></a>
+<div class="floatright">
+<img src="images/img073.jpg" width="250" height="295" alt="Ethan Allen." title="">
+</div>
+
+<p>Controversy over property rights engenders such diversities of
+opinion, and when, as in this case, one side gains all and the other
+loses much, the exultation of triumph or the bitterness of defeat will
+color the ink of all literature on the subject for a century to come.</p>
+
+<p>Not until after the year 1761 did the dense wilderness of either
+Northern New York, or what was then considered Western New Hampshire,
+prove attractive to the Yankee or Dutch settler in search of a pioneer
+home. The cruel conflicts that for over seventy years had made these
+border lands the scene of bloody race enmities were ended by the
+conquest of Canada. These primeval forests, that had echoed only to
+the tread of skulking savages, or the revengeful tramp of opposing
+forces, became peaceful spots for the erection of hearth-stones around
+which women and children might gather in safety. Many of the
+Connecticut soldiery who had taken active part in the late French and
+Indian wars, now recalled the beautiful country through which they had
+marched to meet or pursue the foe, the grandeur of its evergreen
+mountain peaks, the limpid sheets of water nestling between, its
+sparkling fish-laden streams, and the apparent fertility of its soil.</p>
+
+<p>These recollections were stimulated by the conditions which confronted
+them on their return to peaceful and agricultural pursuits. The
+subdivision of farms among the many robust sons of the average New
+England household had reached its limit, and the young man who would
+found a home and family of his own, thenceforth must seek for cheaper
+and broader acres than were to be found already under cultivation. New
+Hampshire's liberal offer of grants in her western border upon easy
+terms, decided the future of many a New England lad, and for several
+years the tide of emigration rolled steadily northward.</p>
+
+<p>From Burlington, on Lake Champlain, for one hundred miles south to
+Bennington, the sound of the axe was heard by day and by night. The
+enthusiasms of a new country lent strength to the arm and courage to
+the heart. In every direction homes sprang up, surrounded by young
+orchards, and beyond and around these, cultivated fields.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the settlers were set to wondering and worrying at the sight
+of strange surveyors taking new measurements through the farms
+wrenched from the wilds with so much of hard labor and wearisome toil.
+And then the blow fell. New York was claiming all this tract of land
+as part of her province, and declaring New Hampshire grants to be null
+and void. A second payment for their farms was demanded, based upon
+their present value as improved property.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span> In some cases new owners put in an appearance and attempted
+to take possession, having purchased, in good faith, of land
+speculators in New York City, to whom Governor Colden, of New York,
+had issued immense grants covering a large part of the disputed
+territory. These speculators were mostly lawyers, who were favorites
+or friends of the governor. Against these shrewd men of wealth and
+education, with their powerful backing, the puny defence of the
+original settlers seemed wellnigh hopeless. But it was to be a contest
+between might and right, and that invisible influence which seems ever
+to weaken the one and strengthen the other was surely, though silently
+at work.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this scene of trouble and uncertainty appears Ethan Allen, a
+farmer, born about thirty years before in Coventry, Conn., large of
+frame, of great personal strength, and with mental characteristics in
+harmony with his powerful physique: a tender-hearted giant whose
+standard of honor and honesty soon measured the injustice of New
+York's position in the land controversy, and at once sided with the
+besieged farmers, with whom he had many generalities of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>With fiery energy of will and purpose, he immediately assumed the
+leadership of the defence, guiding its combined strength into the
+legal side of the question, thus meeting the power of alleged law with
+like weapons. Selecting the best legal talent of Connecticut as
+assistants, and armed with New Hampshire's charter and seal, he
+appeared in the Albany courts to contest New York's claim that the
+Connecticut River was the boundary between that province and New
+Hampshire.</p>
+
+<p>But the trial was a farce, stripped of all dignity and justice by the
+fact that the judge upon the bench, the prosecuting attorneys, and
+other officials were personally interested, each holding New York
+grants for many thousand acres in the disputed territory. All evidence
+for the defence, even the New Hampshire charter, was ruled out of
+court, and Ethan Allen's peaceful efforts for defence were defeated.</p>
+
+<p>He returned home, burning with indignation and resolving to protect
+his property and that of his neighbors, if need were, by the force of
+his own strong right arm. For six years, under his leadership, all
+attempts by New York settlers to take possession were frustrated by
+the alertness of the "Green Mountain Boys," as the defence now termed
+themselves, who drove them off quietly or with violence, according to
+the exigencies of the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>As a measure of punishment for these acts, Ethan Allen was outlawed by
+the Governor of New York, and a price offered for his capture. Soon
+after he rode alone into Albany one day, and alighting at a tavern in
+the heart of the city, called for refreshment. His former visit had
+marked his strong personality in the remembrance of many, and he was
+at once recognized by prominent officials, who stared at him with
+curiosity, but made no effort to arrest him. Returning their gaze, he
+lifted his glass to his lips, pledging in a loud, firm voice "The
+Green Mountain Boys," and then rode away unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>This act was defined by his friends as the rashness of bravery; by his
+enemies as the madness of impudence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span> But the cloud overhanging the shores of Lake Champlain was
+but a shadow compared with the darkness of the storm brooding over the
+whole region south and east of it, and the battle of Lexington ended
+this local strife.</p>
+
+<p>Thenceforth, Ethan Allen was to bid defiance, not to a State, but to a
+nation. To him and his Green Mountain Boys came urgent appeals from
+leading patriots of the American Revolution for help and support in
+the coming struggle, and the answer was more than kindly assent and
+promise: it was prompt and vigorous action&mdash;the first aggressive blow
+at the power of Great Britain, for the musket-shots that harassed the
+retreating red-coats from Concord were those of spirited defence
+rather than of deliberate attack.</p>
+
+<p>As the fortress of Ticonderoga had been the key of the position in the
+late French and Indian wars, the gain or loss of which meant either
+overwhelming victory or disaster, so now it was deemed of equal
+importance in the coming conflict, which inevitably would bring the
+British foe upon them from the North, along the same familiar
+war-path. The capture of this fort was a serious undertaking, for it
+was well garrisoned by a company of British soldiers, and thoroughly
+equipped for vigorous defense. Only the keenest strategy and the most
+complete surprise would avail in the accomplishment of the task.</p>
+
+<p>But the experience and ability of Ethan Allen&mdash;who had been
+unanimously chosen as leader&mdash;was adequate to the occasion, and his
+plans were made with the greatest secrecy and skill. One of his men
+was detailed to gain admission to the fort on some pretext, and then
+by skilfully acting the part of a greenhorn full of foolish questions,
+to learn many important facts and necessary details. In addition, a
+lad was found thoroughly familiar with the interior of the garrison,
+who would serve as guide, and on the night of May 9, 1775, 270
+American patriots appeared on the shore opposite Fort Ticonderoga,
+which was on the west or New York side of Lake Champlain.</p>
+
+<p>A day or two previous a small force of men had been despatched
+secretly to points above and below this spot in quest of boats, which
+failing them, in this emergency only 83 of the 270 men could be
+accommodated in the limited number at hand. Spring lingers long in
+this latitude, and the night, clear and cold, was giving way to dawn
+when the brave leader and his little vanguard of heroes resolved to
+attack without further re-enforcement. According to military precedent,
+he first harangued his followers.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends and fellow-soldiers, you have for a number of years been a
+scourge and a terror to arbitrary power. Your valor has been famed
+abroad and acknowledged, as appears by the advice and orders to me
+from the General Assembly of Connecticut to surprise and take the
+garrison now before us. I now propose to advance before you and in
+person conduct you through the wicket gate; for we must this morning
+either quit our pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves of this
+fortress in a few minutes. And inasmuch as it is a desperate attempt,
+which none but the bravest men dare undertake, I do not urge it on any
+contrary to his will. You that will undertake voluntarily, poise your
+firelock!"</p>
+
+<p>Needless to state, the firelocks were all "poised"&mdash;whatever that may
+be&mdash;and, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span> led by Allen, a rush was made, the sentry
+overpowered, and soon the gallant "83" were standing back to back on
+the parade-ground within the fort, their muskets levelled at the two
+barracks which, filled with sleeping soldiers, faced each other.</p>
+
+<p>The commandant was then aroused by loud rapping on his door and the
+voice of Allen bidding him come out and surrender the fort. The
+astonished officer, half dressed, made his appearance, demanding by
+what authority he was asked to do such a thing.</p>
+
+<p>A part of Ethan Allen's famous reply: "In the name of Jehovah and the
+Continental Congress!" was more prophetic than authentic, as the
+latter earthly tribunal at that time had no existence.</p>
+
+<p>The hundred cannon and quantities of ammunition found in the fort were
+sent east, where they proved of great service in the siege of Boston.</p>
+
+<p>Crown Point, the garrison of St. Johns, many boats, vessels, and a
+British armed schooner soon after fell into the hands of the Green
+Mountain Boys, thus giving them the full sweep of Lake Champlain, and
+holding in check any attempts at invasion from that direction.</p>
+
+<p>Ethan Allen's military instincts and foresight transcended any
+experience and all knowledge he possessed on the subject. He at once
+saw the importance of pushing the advantage now gained, by an
+immediate advance upon Canada before reinforcements could arrive to
+strengthen the strongholds of Montreal and Quebec; a measure which, if
+adopted, would have changed the whole history of the northern campaign
+that eventually proved so disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>With the splendid magnanimity of a noble soul and the abnegation of a
+true patriot, he addressed the Continental Congress of New York on the
+subject, first apologizing for his seeming neglect to consult with
+that body before his attack on Ticonderoga, which was within its
+province, and explaining the necessity for secrecy, which prompted
+him. Note the spirit of prophecy breathed in the following words:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to God America would at this critical juncture exert herself
+agreeable to the indignity offered her by a tyrannical ministry. She
+might rise on eagle's wings and mount up to glory, freedom, and
+immortal honor if she did but know and exert her strength. Fame is now
+hovering over her head. A vast continent must now sink to slavery,
+poverty, and bondage, or rise to unconquerable freedom, immense
+wealth, inexpressible felicity, and immortal fame."</p>
+
+<p>He then offers the services of his own men for the purpose, and to
+raise a regiment of rangers in Northern New York, a proposal which he
+trusts will not be deemed impertinent.</p>
+
+<a id="img074" name="img074"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img074.jpg" width="600" height="426" alt="" title="">
+<p>Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga.</p></div>
+
+<p>But for some unexplained reason no action was taken on his suggestions
+until months later, when the conditions had materially changed, making
+such a campaign exceedingly more difficult. Generals Schuyler and
+Montgomery were then in command, and to Ethan Allen was given a task
+requiring shrewdness, tact, and great personal influence&mdash;to enlist
+the co-operation or the neutrality of the Canadians in the struggle
+between the American colonists and the mother country. For weeks he
+travelled in Canada, "preaching politics" so successfully <span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span>
+that he was able to report a company of 300 Canadian recruits for the
+American service, and that 2,000 more could be enlisted when needed.</p>
+
+<p>In returning from this expedition he was persuaded by a brother
+officer into a step that but for an accident would have been more
+brilliant than Allen's former exploit and added fresh laurels to his
+name as a military hero. It was no less than the surprise and capture
+of Fort Montreal, then garrisoned by 500 men, 40 only of whom were
+regulars, the remainder volunteers and Indians.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a feasible undertaking. The plan was similar to the seizure
+of Ticonderoga&mdash;the quiet landing of boats under the walls of the fort
+before daybreak and the quick rush of attack. The forces were divided,
+Allen taking 110 men and landing below the city. The remainder and
+larger portion were to cross the river above and then signal the
+others. Colonel Allen promptly performed his part of the programme,
+but no signal greeted his ears, and daylight found him in full view of
+the fort and unable to retreat. He and his men for two hours bravely
+resisted the enemy, who sallied out to attack them, but without avail,
+and they were taken prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The story of Ethan Allen's long captivity, lasting two years and eight
+months, as told by himself, is one of the most interesting narratives
+connected with the Revolutionary war. Loaded with chains, consigned to
+the filthy hold of a vessel, with no seat nor bed save a seaman's
+chest, half starved, tortured by daily indignities, his high courage
+and brave spirit never faltered. Once, when insulted, he sprang at his
+tormentor&mdash;the captain of the ship&mdash;and with his shackled hands
+knocked him down; and again he bit off the nail that fastened his
+handcuffs, and by these feats of strength and anger awed his guards
+into some show of respect.</p>
+
+<p>The method by which he saved himself from a felon's death in England
+was worthy the dignity of a veteran diplomat. A letter to the
+Continental Congress, which he knew would never reach its destination,
+but fall into the hands of its bitterest enemy, Lord North, contained
+an account of his ill treatment and possible fate, and closed with the
+request that if retaliation upon the Tory and other prisoners in its
+power should be found necessary, it might be exercised not according
+to his own value or rank, but in proportion to the importance of the
+cause for which he suffered.</p>
+
+<p>The English ministry concluded evidently to treat him henceforth as a
+prisoner of war entitled to an honorable exchange, rather than a rebel
+deserving an ignoble death, and he was returned to America, where he
+was confined, with varieties of usage, in Halifax, and afterward in
+New York.</p>
+
+<p>While in the latter place, and suffering from hunger and long ill
+health, he was approached by a British officer, authorized to offer
+him the command of a royalist regiment, and the gift of thousands of
+acres of land at the close of the war, in any part of the American
+colonies he might select, providing he would forsake the patriot cause
+and take oath of allegiance to the crown. Colonel Allen rejected this
+overture with great scorn, assuring the officer that he had as little
+land to promise him as had the devil when making a similar one.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span> "Thereupon," said Allen, "he closed the conversation and
+turned from me with an air of dislike, saying I was a bigot."</p>
+
+<p>An exchange of prisoners at length freed him from a situation so full
+of personal hardship and mental anguish, and he hastened home to his
+family, from whom he so long and cruelly had been separated.</p>
+
+<p>His only son had died in the meantime, and his wife and daughters, not
+expecting his arrival, were not at Bennington in time to receive him.
+But his neighbors and friends flocked in from miles around to give him
+greeting, and although it was the Sabbath, a day strictly observed in
+those parts, the enthusiasm of the joyful occasion could neither be
+postponed nor suppressed, and its expression found vent in the firing
+of cannon and happy huzzas.</p>
+
+<p>The "Hampshire Grants" in his absence had become the full-fledged
+"State of Vermont," knocking for admission at the doors of the
+Continental Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Ethan Allen at once was appointed General of the Vermont State
+Militia, and although he did not again join the American army, his
+natural gifts of diplomacy were of inestimable service to the country,
+and the number of men he could summon at a moment's notice to his
+command, served to hold in check any attempted raids of the enemy
+through Canada. He lived eight years after the declaration of peace,
+dying at the age of fifty-one, in Burlington, where he was engaged in
+farming.</p>
+
+<p>A little incident never before in print was recently related to the
+writer of this sketch by a lady to whom it was told in childhood by an
+old man who, as a lad, lived on Ethan Allen's farm. It was in
+illustration of the simplicity of the celebrated hero's private life.</p>
+
+<p>The farm hands all sat at the table with the family, much to the
+amusement or astonishment of his frequent guests, who sometimes were
+wealthy and distinguished and quite unaccustomed to such practical
+exhibitions of democracy. One of these had the poor taste to
+expostulate with the general, and remarked, "I should think your men
+would prefer to eat by themselves."</p>
+
+<p>General Allen feigned to misunderstand the meaning of this, and after
+a moment's reflection replied, "Thank you very much for calling my
+attention to it. I see that what has been hearty enough for my family
+may not have been for my hard-working help. I will take more notice
+hereafter to see that they are better served."</p>
+
+<p>"It was little use," says my informant, "to try to dictate to Ethan
+Allen."<a href="#toc"><span class="small">[Back to Contents]</span></a></p>
+
+<a id="sig013" name="sig013"></a>
+<div class="right">
+<img src="images/sig013.jpg" width="350" height="42" alt="Author signature. Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham." title="">
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p class="p4"><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a>
+<b>Footnote 1:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag1"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a>
+<b>Footnote 2:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag2"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a>
+<b>Footnote 3:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag3"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a>
+<b>Footnote 4:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag4"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a>
+<b>Footnote 5:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag5"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a>
+<b>Footnote 6:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag6"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a>
+<b>Footnote 7:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag7"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a>
+<b>Footnote 8:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag8"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a>
+<b>Footnote 9:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag9"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a>
+<b>Footnote 10:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag10"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a>
+<b>Footnote 11:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag11"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a>
+<b>Footnote 12:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag12"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote13" name="footnote13"></a>
+<b>Footnote 13:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag13"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote14" name="footnote14"></a>
+<b>Footnote 14:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag14"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote15" name="footnote15"></a>
+<b>Footnote 15:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag15"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote16" name="footnote16"></a>
+<b>Footnote 16:</b> Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.<a href="#footnotetag16"><span class="small">[Back to Main Text]</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8
+       A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more
+       than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Charles F. Horne
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2009 [EBook #28455]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN. ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Sigal Alon, Christine P. Travers and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: ^ is used to mark superscript.]
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Columbus before Isabella.]
+
+
+
+
+GREAT MEN AND FAMOUS WOMEN
+
+
+_A Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of_
+
+THE LIVES OF MORE THAN 200 OF THE MOST PROMINENT PERSONAGES IN HISTORY
+
+
+VOL. V.
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1894, BY SELMAR HESS
+
+edited by Charles F. Horne
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's arm.]
+
+New-York: Selmar Hess Publisher
+
+
+Copyright, 1894, by SELMAR HESS.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOLUME V.
+
+
+  SUBJECT                         AUTHOR                          PAGE
+
+  AENEAS,                      _Charlotte M. Yonge_,                 12
+  ETHAN ALLEN,                _Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham_,   200
+  KING ARTHUR,                _Rev. S. Baring-Gould_,               36
+  THE CHEVALIER BAYARD,       _Herbert Greenhough Smith_,          145
+  ST. BERNARD,                _Henry G. Hewlett_,                   60
+  ROBERT BRUCE,               _Sir J. Bernard Burke, LL.D._,       105
+  WILLIAM CAXTON,                                                  129
+  THE CID,                    _Henry G. Hewlett_,                   56
+  CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS,       _A. R. Spofford, LL.D._,             131
+  CAPTAIN JAMES COOK,         _Oliver Optic_,                      188
+  ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI,      _George Parsons Lathrop, LL.D._,      78
+  FREDERICK BARBAROSSA,       _Lady Lamb_,                          65
+  VASCO DA GAMA,              _Judge Albion W. Tourgee_,           139
+  THE GRACCHI,                _James Anthony Froude, LL.D._,        20
+  GUSTAVUS VASA,              _Charles F. Horne_,                  153
+  HANS GUTENBERG,             _Alphonse de Lamartine_,             121
+  HAROLD, KING OF ENGLAND,                                          54
+  WILLIAM HARVEY,                                                  172
+  HERCULES,                   _Charlotte M. Yonge_,                  1
+  JOHN HOWARD,                _Harriet G. Walker_,                 194
+  JOAN OF ARC,                _Ella Wheeler Wilcox_,               113
+  LEIF ERICSON,               _Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen_,             49
+  ST. LOUIS,                  _Henry G. Hewlett_,                   86
+  MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS,       _Samuel L. Knapp_,                   159
+  MARCO POLO,                 _Noah Brooks_,                        92
+  RICHARD COEUR DE LION,                                            71
+  ROLAND,                                                           39
+  ROLLO THE GANGER,           _Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen_,             44
+  SIEGFRIED,                  _Karl Blind_,                         31
+  CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH,         _Marion Harland_,                    166
+  PRINCE CHARLES STUART,      _Andrew Lang, LL.D._,                177
+  THESEUS,                                                           5
+  ULYSSES,                    _Charles F. Horne_,                    7
+  SIR WILLIAM WALLACE,                                             100
+  ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED,                                           111
+  XENOPHON,                   _Professor J. Pentland Mahaffy_,      15
+  ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA,  _Anna Jameson_,                       26
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME V.
+
+
+PHOTOGRAVURES
+
+  ILLUSTRATION                           ARTIST              TO FACE PAGE
+
+  COLUMBUS BEFORE ISABELLA,              _Vacslav Brozik_   _Frontispiece_
+  ULYSSES DEFYING THE CYCLOPS,           _Louis-Frederic
+                                           Schutzenberger_          10
+  THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI,             _Gustave Boulanger_        20
+  LEIF ERICSON OFF THE COAST OF
+    VINELAND,                            _O. A. Wergeland_          52
+  THE VISION OF ST. BERNARD,             _Wilhelm Bernatzik_        62
+  THE DEATH OF BARBAROSSA,               _Wilhelm Beckmann_         70
+  LOUIS IX. OPENS THE JAILS OF FRANCE,   _Luc Olivier Merson_       90
+  ARNOLD WINKELRIED AT SEMPACH,          _Konrad Grob_             112
+   JOAN OF ARC,                          _Mme. Zoe-Laure de
+                                           Chatillon_              118
+  MARY STUART AND RIZZIO,                _Georg Conrader_          162
+
+
+
+
+WOOD-ENGRAVINGS AND TYPOGRAVURES
+
+
+  HERCULES AT THE FEET OF OMPHALE,       _J. E. Dantan_              4
+  TRIBUTE TO THE MINOTAUR,               _A. Gendron_                6
+  ZENOBIA CAPTIVE,                       _H. Schmalz_               26
+  SIEGFRIED SLAYING THE DRAGON,          _K. Dielitz_               32
+  THE RUINS OF KING ARTHUR'S CASTLE,     _Percy Dixon_              38
+  ROLAND AT RONCESVALLES,                _Alphonse de Neuville_     42
+  ROLLO THE RANGER ATTACKS PARIS,        _Alphonse de Neuville_     46
+  EDITH SEARCHING FOR THE BODY OF
+    HAROLD,                              _Alphonse de Neuville_     56
+  THE CID ORDERING THE EXECUTION OF
+    AHMED,                               _Alphonse de Neuville_     58
+  RICHARD COEUR DE LION ON THE FIELD
+    OF ARSUR,                            _Gustave Dore_             74
+  THE VISION OF ST. FRANCIS,             _Chartran_                 84
+  THE EDUCATION OF LOUIS IX.,            _Chartran_                 86
+  GUTENBERG'S INVENTION,                 _E. Hillemacher_          126
+  THE FIRST SHEET FROM CAXTON'S PRESS,   _E. H. Wehnert_           130
+  COLUMBUS RIDICULED AT THE COUNCIL OF
+    SALAMANCA,                           _Nicolo Barabino_         134
+  BAYARD TAKING LEAVE OF THE LADIES OF
+    BRESCIA,                             _Alphonse de Neuville_    150
+  ABDICATION OF GUSTAVUS VASA,           _Hersent_                 156
+  CAPTAIN SMITH SAVED BY POCAHONTAS,     _Grosch_                  168
+  HARVEY DEMONSTRATING THE CIRCULATION
+    OF THE BLOOD,                        _Robert Hannah_           176
+  THE FIRST MEETING OF PRINCE CHARLES
+    WITH FLORA MACDONALD,                _Alex. Johnstone_         184
+  DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK,                 _J. Webber_               192
+  HOWARD RELIEVING A PRISONER,           _F. Wheatley_             198
+  ETHAN ALLEN AT TICONDEROGA,            _Alonzo Chappel_          204
+
+
+
+
+WORKMEN AND HEROES
+
+  The heights by great men reached and kept
+    Were not attained by sudden flight,
+  But they, while their companions slept,
+    Were toiling upward in the night.
+
+  --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+
+
+HERCULES
+
+By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+[Illustration: Hercules.]
+
+
+One morning Jupiter boasted among the gods in Olympus that a son would
+that day be born, in the line of Perseus, who would rule over all the
+Argives. Juno was angry and jealous at this, and, as she was the goddess
+who presided over the births of children, she contrived to hinder the
+birth of the child he intended till that day was over, and to hasten
+that of another grandson of the great Perseus. This child was named
+Eurystheus, and, as he had been born on the right day, Jupiter was
+forced to let him be King of Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae, and all the
+Dorian race; while the boy whom he had meant to be the chief was kept in
+subjection, in spite of having wonderful gifts of courage and strength,
+and a kind, generous nature, that always was ready to help the weak and
+sorrowful.
+
+His name was Alcides, or Hercules, and he was so strong at ten months
+old that, with his own hands, he strangled two serpents whom Juno sent
+to devour him in his cradle. He was bred up by Chiron, the chief of the
+Centaurs, a wondrous race of beings, who had horses' bodies as far as
+the forelegs, but where the neck of the horse would begin had human
+breasts and shoulders, with arms and heads. Most of them were fierce and
+savage; but Chiron was very wise and good, and, as Jupiter made him
+immortal, he was the teacher of many of the great Greek heroes. When
+Hercules was about eighteen, two maidens appeared to him--one in a
+simple white dress, grave, modest, and seemly; the other scarcely
+clothed but tricked out in ornaments, with a flushed face, and bold,
+roving eyes. The first told him that she was Virtue, and that, if he
+would follow her, she would lead him through many hard trials, but that
+he would be glorious at last, and be blest among the gods. The other was
+Vice, and she tried to wile him by a smooth life among wine-cups and
+dances and flowers and sports, all to be enjoyed at once. But the choice
+of Hercules was Virtue, and it was well for him, for Jupiter, to make up
+for Juno's cheat, had sworn that, if he fulfilled twelve tasks which
+Eurystheus should put upon him, he should be declared worthy of being
+raised to the gods at his death.
+
+Eurystheus did not know that in giving these tasks he was making his
+cousin fulfil his course; but he was afraid of such a mighty man, and
+hoped that one of these would be the means of getting rid of him. So
+when he saw Hercules at Argos, with a club made of a forest-tree in his
+hand, and clad in the skin of a lion which he had slain, Eurystheus bade
+him go and kill a far more terrible lion, of giant brood, and with a
+skin that could not be pierced, which dwelt in the valley of Nemea. The
+fight was a terrible one; the lion could not be wounded, and Hercules
+was forced to grapple with it and strangle it in his arms. He lost a
+finger in the struggle, but at last the beast died in his grasp, and he
+carried it on his back to Argos, where Eurystheus was so much frightened
+at the grim sight that he fled away to hide himself, and commanded
+Hercules not to bring his monsters within the gates of the city.
+
+There was a second labor ready for Hercules--namely, the destroying a
+serpent with nine heads, called Hydra, whose lair was the marsh of
+Lerna. Hercules went to the battle, and managed to crush one head with
+his club, but that moment two sprang up in its place; moreover, a huge
+crab came out of the swamp and began to pinch his heels. Still he did
+not lose heart, but, calling his friend Iolaus, he bade him take a
+firebrand and burn the necks as fast as he cut off the heads; and thus
+at last they killed the creature, and Hercules dipped his arrows in its
+poisonous blood, so that their least wound became fatal. Eurystheus said
+that it had not been a fair victory, since Hercules had been helped, and
+Juno put the crab into the skies as the constellation Cancer; while a
+labor to patience was next devised for Hercules--namely, the chasing of
+the Arcadian stag, which was sacred to Diana, and had golden horns and
+brazen hoofs. Hercules hunted it up hill and down dale for a whole year,
+and when at last he caught it, he got into trouble with Apollo and Diana
+about it, and had hard work to appease them; but he did so at last; and
+for his fourth labor was sent to catch alive a horrid wild boar on Mount
+Erymanthus. He followed the beast through a deep swamp, caught it in a
+net, and brought it to Mycenae.
+
+The fifth task was a curious one. Augeas, King of Elis, had immense
+herds, and kept his stables and cowhouses in a frightful state of filth,
+and Eurystheus, hoping either to disgust Hercules or kill him by the
+unwholesomeness of the work, sent him to clean them. Hercules, without
+telling Augeas it was his appointed task, offered to do it if he were
+repaid the tenth of the herds, and received the promise on oath. Then he
+dug a canal, and turned the water of two rivers into the stables, so as
+effectually to cleanse them; but when Augeas heard it was his task, he
+tried to cheat him of the payment, and on the other hand Eurystheus
+said, as he had been rewarded, it could not count as one of his labors,
+and ordered him off to clear the woods near Lake Stymphalis of some
+horrible birds, with brazen beaks and claws, and ready-made arrows for
+feathers, which ate human flesh. To get them to rise out of the forest
+was his first difficulty, but Pallas lent him a brazen clapper, which
+made them take to their wings; then he shot them with his poisoned
+arrows, killed many, and drove the rest away.
+
+King Minos, of Crete, had once vowed to sacrifice to the gods whatever
+should appear from the sea. A beautiful white bull came, so fine that it
+tempted him not to keep his word, and he was punished by the bull going
+mad, and doing all sorts of damage in Crete; so that Eurystheus thought
+it would serve as a labor for Hercules to bring the animal to Mycenae. In
+due time back came the hero, with the bull, quite subdued, upon his
+shoulders; and, having shown it, he let it loose again to run about
+Greece.
+
+He had a harder task in getting the mares of the Thracian king,
+Diomedes, which were fed on man's flesh. He overcame their grooms, and
+drove the beasts away; but he was overtaken by Diomedes, and, while
+fighting with him and his people, put the mares under the charge of a
+friend; but when the battle was over, and Diomedes killed, he found that
+they had eaten up their keeper. However, when he had fed them on the
+dead body of their late master they grew mild and manageable, and he
+brought them home.
+
+The next expedition was against the Amazons, a nation of women warriors,
+who lived somewhere on the banks of the Euxine, or Black Sea, kept their
+husbands in subjection, and seldom brought up a son. The bravest of all
+the Amazons was the queen, Hippolyta, to whom Mars had given a belt as a
+reward for her valor. Eurystheus's daughter wanted this belt, and
+Hercules was sent to fetch it. He was so hearty, honest, and
+good-natured, that he talked over Hippolyta, and she promised him her
+girdle; but Juno, to make mischief, took the form of an Amazon, and
+persuaded the ladies that their queen was being deluded and stolen away
+by a strange man, so they mounted their horses and came down to rescue
+her. He thought she had been treacherous, and there was a great fight,
+in which he killed her, and carried off her girdle.
+
+Far out in the west, near the ocean flowing found the world, were herds
+of purple oxen, guarded by a two-headed dog, and belonging to a giant
+with three bodies called Geryon, who lived in the isle of Erythria, in
+the outmost ocean. Passing Lybia, Hercules came to the end of the
+Mediterranean Sea, Neptune's domain, and there set up two
+pillars--namely, Mounts Calpe and Abyla--on each side of the Straits of
+Gibraltar. The rays of the sun scorched him, and in wrath he shot at it
+with his arrows, when Helios, instead of being angry, admired his
+boldness, and gave him his golden cup, wherewith to cross the outer
+ocean, which he did safely, although old Oceanus, who was king there,
+put up his hoary head, and tried to frighten him by shaking the bowl. It
+was large enough to hold all the herd of oxen, when Hercules had killed
+dog, herdsman, and giant, and he returned it safely to Helios when he
+had crossed the ocean.
+
+Again Eurystheus sent Hercules to the utmost parts of the earth. This
+time it was to bring home the golden apples which grew in the gardens of
+the Hesperides, the daughters of old Atlas, who dwelt in the land of
+Hesperus, the Evening Star, and, together with a dragon, guarded the
+golden tree in a beautiful garden. Hercules made a long journey,
+apparently round by the north, and on his way had to wrestle with a
+dreadful giant named Antaeus. Though thrown down over and over again,
+Antaeus rose up twice as strong every time, till Hercules found out that
+he grew in force whenever he touched his mother earth, and therefore,
+lifting him up in those mightiest of arms, the hero squeezed the breath
+out of him. By and by he came to Mount Caucasus, where he found the
+chained Prometheus, and, aiming an arrow at the eagle, killed the
+tormentor, and set the Titan free. Atlas undertook to go to his
+daughters, and get the apples, if Hercules would hold up the skies for
+him in the meantime. Hercules agreed, and Atlas shifted the heavens to
+his shoulders, went, and presently returned with three apples of gold,
+but said he would take them to Eurystheus, and Hercules must continue to
+bear the load of the skies. Prometheus bade Hercules say he could not
+hold them without a pad for them to rest on upon his head. Atlas took
+them again to hold while the pad was put on; and thereupon Hercules
+picked up the apples, and left the old giant to his load.
+
+One more labor remained--namely, to bring up the three-headed watch-dog,
+Cerberus, from the doors of Tartarus. Mercury and Pallas both came to
+attend him, and led him alive among the shades, who all fled from him,
+except Medusa and one brave youth. He gave them the blood of an ox to
+drink, and made his way to Pluto's throne, where he asked leave to take
+Cerberus to the upper world with him. Pluto said he might, if he could
+overcome Cerberus without weapons; and this he did, struggling with the
+dog, with no protection but the lion's skin, and dragging him up to the
+light, where the foam that fell from the jaws of one of the three mouths
+produced the plant called aconite, or hellebore, which is dark and
+poisonous. After showing the beast to Eurystheus, Hercules safely
+returned him to the under world, and thus completed his twelve great
+labors.
+
+Hercules was subject to fits of madness, in one of which he slew a
+friend, and as a penalty he allowed himself to be sold as a slave. He
+was purchased by the Queen of Lydia, Omphale, and remained in her
+service three years. She used to make him do a woman's work, and even
+dressed him at times in female garments, while she herself wore his
+famous lion skin and laughed at him.
+
+[Illustration: Hercules at the Feet of Omphale.]
+
+But strong as he was, Hercules had in time to meet death himself. He had
+married a nymph named Deianira, and was taking her home, when he came to
+a river where a Centaur named Nessus lived, and gained his bread by
+carrying travellers over on his back. Hercules paid him the price for
+carrying Deianira over, while he himself crossed on foot; but as soon as
+the river was between them, the faithless Centaur began to gallop away
+with the lady. Hercules sent an arrow after him, which brought him to
+the ground, and as he was dying he prepared his revenge by telling
+Deianira that his blood was enchanted with love for her, and that if
+ever she found her husband's affection failing her, she had only to make
+him put on a garment anointed with it, and his heart would return to
+her; he knew full well that his blood was full of the poison of the
+Hydra, but poor Deianira believed him, and had saved some of the blood
+before Hercules came up.
+
+Several years after, Hercules made prisoner a maiden named Iole, in
+Lydia, after gaining a great victory. Landing in the island of Euboea,
+he was going to make a great sacrifice to Jupiter, and sent home to
+Deianira for a festal garment to wear at it. She was afraid he was
+falling in love with Iole, and steeped the garment in the preparation
+she had made from Nessus's blood. No sooner did Hercules put it on, than
+his veins were filled with agony, which nothing could assuage. He tried
+to tear off the robe, but the skin and flesh came with it, and his blood
+was poisoned beyond relief. Unable to bear the pain any longer, and
+knowing that by his twelve tasks he had earned the prize of endless
+life, he went to Mount Oeta, crying aloud with the pain, so that the
+rocks rang again with the sound. He gave his quiver of arrows to his
+friend Philoctetes, charging him to collect his ashes and bury them, but
+never to make known the spot; and then he tore up, with his mighty
+strength, trees by the roots, enough to form a funeral pile, lay down on
+it, and called on his friend to set fire to it; but no one could bear to
+do so, till a shepherd consented to thrust in a torch. Then thunder was
+heard, a cloud came down, and he was borne away to Olympus, while
+Philoctetes collected and buried the ashes.
+
+
+
+
+THESEUS
+
+[Illustration: Theseus.]
+
+
+Theseus, the great national hero of Athens, is said to have been born at
+Troezen, where his father, AEgeus, King of Athens, slept one night with
+AEthra, the daughter of Pittheus, king of the place. AEgeus, on his
+departure, hid his sword and his shoes under a large stone, and charged
+AEthra, if she brought forth a son, to send him to Athens with these
+tokens, as soon as he was able to roll away the stone. She brought forth
+a son, to whom she gave the name of Theseus, and when he was grown up
+informed him of his origin, and told him to take up the tokens and sail
+to Athens, for the roads were infested by robbers and monsters. But
+Theseus, who was desirous of emulating the glory of Hercules, refused to
+go by sea, and after destroying various monsters who had been the terror
+of the country, arrived in safety at Athens. Here he was joyfully
+recognized by AEgeus, but with difficulty escaped destruction from Media
+and the Pallantids, the sons and grandsons of Pallas, the brother of
+AEgeus. These dangers, however, he finally surmounted, and slew the
+Pallantids in battle.
+
+His next exploit was the destruction of the great Marathonian bull,
+which ravaged the neighboring country; and shortly after he resolved to
+deliver the Athenians from the tribute that they were obliged to pay to
+Minos, King of Crete. Every ninth year the Athenians had to send seven
+young men and as many virgins to Crete, to be devoured by the Minotaur
+in the Labyrinth. Theseus volunteered to go as one of the victims, and
+through the assistance of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, who became
+enamoured of him, he slew the Minotaur and escaped from the Labyrinth.
+He then sailed away with Ariadne, whom he deserted in the island of Dia
+or Naxos, an event which frequently forms the subject of ancient works
+of art. The sails of the ship Theseus left Athens in were black, but he
+promised his father, if he returned in safety, to hoist white sails.
+This, however, he neglected to do, and AEgeus, seeing the ship draw near
+with black sails, supposed that his son had perished, and threw himself
+from a rock.
+
+Theseus now ascended the throne of Athens. But his adventures were by no
+means concluded. He marched into the country of the Amazons, who dwelt
+on the Thermodon, according to some accounts, in the company of
+Hercules, and carried away their queen, Antiope. The Amazons in revenge
+invaded Attica, and were with difficulty defeated by the Athenians. This
+battle was one of the favorite subjects of the ancient artists, and is
+commemorated in several works of art that are still extant. Theseus also
+took part in the Argonautic expedition and the Calydonian hunt. He
+assisted his friend Pirithous and the Lapithae in their contest with the
+Centaurs, and also accompanied the former in his descent to the lower
+world to carry off Proserpine, the wife of Pluto. When Theseus was fifty
+years old, according to tradition, he carried off Helen, the daughter of
+Leda, who was then only nine years of age. But his territory was invaded
+in consequence by Castor and Pollux, the brothers of Leda; his own
+people rose against him, and at last, finding his affairs desperate, he
+withdrew to the island of Scyros, and there perished, either by a fall
+from the cliffs or through the treachery of Lycomedes, the king of the
+island. For a long time his memory was forgotten by the Athenians, but
+he was subsequently honored by them as the greatest of their heroes. At
+the battle of Marathon they thought they saw him armed and bearing down
+upon the barbarians, and after the conclusion of the Persian war his
+bones were discovered at Scyros by Cimon, who conveyed them to Athens
+where they were received with great pomp and deposited in a temple built
+to his honor. A festival also was instituted, which was celebrated on
+the eighth day of every month, but more especially on the eighth of
+Pyanipsion.
+
+The above is a brief account of the legends prevailing respecting
+Theseus. But he is, moreover, represented by ancient writers as the
+founder of the Attic commonwealth, and even of its democratic
+institutions. It would be waste of time to inquire whether there was an
+historical personage of this name who actually introduced the political
+changes ascribed to him; it will be convenient to adhere to the ancient
+account in describing them as the work of Theseus.
+
+[Illustration: Tribute to the Minotaur.]
+
+Before this time Attica contained many independent townships, which were
+only nominally united. Theseus incorporated the people into one state,
+removed the principal courts for the administration of justice to
+Athens, and greatly enlarged the city, which had hitherto covered little
+more than the rock which afterward formed the citadel. To cement their
+union he instituted several festivals, and especially changed the
+Athenaea into the Panathenaea, or the festivals of all the Atticans. He
+encouraged the nobles to reside at Athens, and surrendered a part of his
+kingly prerogatives to them; for which reason he is perhaps represented
+as the founder of the Athenian democracy, although the government which
+he established was, and continued to be long after him, strictly
+aristocratic.
+
+
+
+
+ULYSSES[1]
+
+         [Footnote 1: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By CHARLES F. HORNE
+
+[Illustration: Ulysses.]
+
+
+While courage and strength seemed to the ancient Greeks the noblest of
+virtues, they ranked wisdom and ready wit almost as high. Achilles was
+the strongest of the Grecian warriors at the siege of Troy, but there
+was another almost as strong, equally brave, and far shrewder of wit.
+This was Ulysses. It was he who ultimately brought about the capture of
+the city. Homer speaks often of him in his "Iliad;" and the bard's
+second great work, the "Odyssey," is devoted entirely to the wanderings
+of Odysseus, or, as we have learned from the Romans to call him,
+Ulysses. Whether he was a real person or only a creation of the poet's
+fancy, it is impossible to say. But as it is now generally agreed that
+there was a siege of Troy, it follows that there was probably a Ulysses,
+and his adventures, while in the main mythical, are of value as having
+perhaps some foundation in truth, and giving, at all events, a picture
+of what the old Greeks thought a hero should be and do.
+
+Ulysses was King of Ithaca when he was summoned to join the rest of the
+Grecian princes for the war with Troy. He had no wish to go, for he had
+lately married a beautiful girl, Penelope, and was happy as a man might
+be. So when the heralds came he pretended to be insane, and hitching a
+yoke of oxen to a plough he drove them along the sands of the sea-shore.
+He sang and shouted, and ploughed up the sand, and scattered salt as if
+he were sowing it, and cried out that he would soon have a beautiful
+crop of salt waves. The heralds watched him for a moment, and then
+returning to the princes told them that there was no use delivering the
+summons to Ulysses, for he had lost his wits. Then Palamedes, who, after
+Ulysses, was accounted shrewdest of the Greeks, went, and standing there
+on the beach, watched the plough. And he took Ulysses's baby son and
+threw him in front of the team to see if the father was indeed mad.
+Ulysses turned the plough aside to avoid the child; and then the princes
+knew it was all a pretence, and he had to go with them. But he never
+forgave Palamedes, and long after brought about his death.
+
+He was in many ways the ablest of the Greeks. Next to Achilles, Ajax was
+accounted the strongest; but Ulysses threw him in wrestling. Oilemenus
+was regarded as the swiftest of men, but Ulysses in a race outran him.
+When Achilles was slain Ulysses alone held back all the Trojans, while
+his comrades bore the body to their ships. Many other great exploits he
+performed, and his counsels were of much value to the Greeks through all
+the long siege. A great pile of spoils was heaped up to be given to the
+man who had been of most use to the assailants, and the Trojan prisoners
+themselves being called on to decide, gave it to Ulysses. At the last,
+when Achilles was dead, and the Greeks were all worn out and despairing,
+it was his fertile brain which originated the snare into which the
+Trojans fell.
+
+Now, with the other Greeks, Ulysses set out to return to his home. Yet
+first he stopped with his Ithacans to attack the Trojan city of Ciconia.
+The assault was unexpected and successful. Great treasure fell into the
+hands of the conquerors; but, in spite of their leader's entreaties,
+they persisted in stopping in the captured city for a night's carouse.
+The dispersed Ciconians rallied, gathered together their allies, and
+attacking the revellers, defeated them with great slaughter, so that
+less than half of them escaped in their ships. Yet this was only the
+first of the many mishaps which befell the ill-starred Ulysses. So
+persistently did misfortune pursue him that the superstitious Greeks
+declared that he must have incurred the hatred of the sea-god, Neptune,
+who would not let him cross his domains.
+
+No sooner had his flying ships escaped from Ciconia than they were
+struck by a terrific tempest which drove them far out of their course.
+For three days the storm continued; then, as it abated, they saw before
+them an unknown shore on which they landed to rest and recover their
+strength. It was the land of the lotos-eaters, and when Ulysses sent
+messengers to find out where he was, they, too, ate of the lotos fruit.
+It caused them to forget everything; their struggles and exhaustion,
+their homes, their leader, the great battles they had fought, all were
+obliterated. They only cared to lie there as the other lotos-eaters did,
+doing no work, but just dreaming all their lives, nibbling at the fruit,
+which was both food and drink, until they grew old and died.
+
+Ulysses knew that any life, no matter how wretched, was far better than
+this death in life. He forbade any other of his men to touch the fruit,
+and binding those who had already eaten it, he bore them, despite their
+pleading and weeping, back to his ships, which he at once led away from
+that clime of subtle danger. They next sighted a fertile island, where
+leaving most of his comrades for the rest they needed, Ulysses sailed
+in his own ship, exploring. He soon found himself in a beautiful
+country, where were seen vast herds of sheep and goats, but no people.
+Landing with his men, they explored it and found great caves full of
+milk and cheese, but still no people, only a huge giant in the distance.
+So sitting down in one of the caves they feasted merrily and awaited the
+return of the inhabitants.
+
+Now these inhabitants were giants, such as the one they had seen. They
+were called Cyclops, and had only one great eye in the middle of the
+forehead. The Cyclops who owned the cave in which the adventurers were
+was a particularly large and savage one named Polyphemus. When he
+returned at night and saw the men within, he immediately seized two of
+them, cracked their heads together, and ate them for supper. Then he
+went to bed. Ulysses and his terrified men would have slain the huge
+creature as he slept; but he had rolled a great stone in front of the
+door, and they could not possibly move it to escape. In the morning the
+monster ate two more of the unfortunates and then went off with his
+flocks, fastening the door as before. In the evening he ate two more.
+
+By this time the crafty Ulysses, as Homer delights to call him, had
+perfected his plans. He offered Polyphemus some wine, which so delighted
+him that he asked the giver his name, and said he had it in mind to do
+him a kindness. The crafty one told him his name was No-man. Then said
+the ogre, "This shall be your reward, I will eat No-man the last of you
+all." Then, heavy with the wine, he fell into a deep sleep. The tiny
+weapons of the wanderers would have been of little effect against this
+man-mountain, so taking a great pole, they heated it red-hot in the
+fire, and all together plunged it into his one great eye, blinding him.
+Up he jumped, roaring and howling horribly, and groping in the dark to
+find his prisoners; but they easily avoided him. Then came other Cyclops
+running at the noise from their distant caves, and called to him, "Who
+has hurt thee, Polyphemus?"
+
+He answered them, "No-man has hurt me, No-man has blinded me."
+
+Then they said, "If no man has hurt thee, thy trouble is from the gods,
+and we may not interfere. Bear it patiently, and pray to them."
+
+In the morning Polyphemus opened the door, and sitting in it, let his
+sheep pass out, feeling each one, so that the Greeks might not escape.
+But the crafty one fastened himself and his remaining comrades under the
+breasts of the largest sheep, and so, hidden by the wool, escaped
+unnoticed. They hurried to their ship and put out to sea. And now
+feeling safe, Ulysses shouted to the blind monster and taunted him,
+whereon, rushing to the shore, Polyphemus lifted up a vast rock and
+hurled it toward the sound he heard. It almost struck the vessel, and
+its waves swept the little craft back to the land. In great haste they
+shoved off again, and when they felt safe, shouted at him once more. He
+followed them, hurling rocks, but now they were beyond his reach and
+returned safely to their companions.
+
+Next the wanderers reached the island of AEolus, who controls the winds.
+He received them with royal hospitality, pointed out to them their
+proper course to Ithaca, and when they left him, gave to Ulysses a bag
+in which he had tied up all the contrary winds, that they might have a
+fair one to waft them home. For nine days they sailed, and at last were
+actually in sight of their destination; but the seamen fancying there
+was treasure in AEolus's bag opened it while their leader slept. At once
+leaped out all the wild winds, and there was a terrible tempest which
+swept the vessels back to their starting-point. AEolus, however, refused
+to help them again, for he said they were plainly accursed of the gods.
+
+So they journeyed on as best they might, and came to the land of the
+Laestrygonians. These people were of enormous strength and were
+cannibals; but Ulysses and his men knowing nothing of this, sailed into
+the narrow harbor. As they landed the cannibals rushed upon them and
+slew them, and hurling rocks from the top of the narrow entrance, sank
+those ships which would have escaped. Ulysses in his own ship managed to
+force his way out, but all the other ships were taken and their crews
+slain.
+
+Then, in deep mourning, Ulysses sailed on till he came to the home of
+Circe, a beautiful but wicked enchantress. Here he divided his crew into
+two parties, and while one half rested, the others went to find what
+place this was. Circe welcomed them in her palace, feasted them, and
+gave them a magic drink. When they had drunk this, she touched them with
+her wand, and they were turned into swine, all except one, who had
+feared to enter the palace, and now returning, told Ulysses that the
+others had disappeared. Then the hero arose and went alone to the
+palace; but on the way he sought out a little herb which might render
+the drink harmless. This he ate, and when Circe having given him the
+deadly cup, would have turned him also into a brute, he drew his sword
+as if to slay her. Terribly frightened, she besought mercy, and at his
+request restored his men to their own forms.
+
+Directed by her, Ulysses is said to have entered the abode of the dead,
+and conversed with the ghosts of all the great warriors who had been
+slain in the Trojan war, or who had died since. At last, when Circe had
+no more wonders to show him, the wanderer left her, once more directed
+on the road to Ithaca, and to some extent warned of the dangers which
+beset the path.
+
+First he had to pass the Sirens, beautiful but baleful maidens, who sat
+on a rocky shore and sang a magic song so alluring, that men hearing it
+let their ships drift on the rocks while listening, or threw themselves
+into the sea to swim to the maidens, and were drowned. No man had ever
+heard them and lived. Here the crafty one filled his companions' ears
+with wax, so they could not hear the Sirens' song, and he bade them bind
+him to the mast, so that he might hear it but could not go to them. This
+was done, and they passed in safety. Ulysses heard the sweet song, and
+raved and struggled to break his bonds, but they held fast. So he was
+the first to hear the Sirens' song and live. And some say he was the
+last as well, for in despair, thinking their music had lost its power,
+the maidens threw themselves into the sea.
+
+[Illustration: Ulysses defying the Cyclops.]
+
+Next the wanderers came to a narrow strait, on one side of which was
+Charybdis, a dread whirlpool from which no ship could escape, and on the
+other was the cave of Scylla, a monster having six snake-like heads,
+with each of which she seized a man from every passing ship. Choosing
+the lesser evil, the bold Ulysses sailed through the strait close to
+Scylla; and six poor wretches were snatched by the monster from the deck
+and devoured, but the rest escaped.
+
+[Illustration: Menelaus. Paris. Diomedes. Ulysses. Nestor. Achilles.
+Agamemnon.]
+
+Then they came to an uninhabited island, filled with herds of cattle.
+These were held sacred to the sun, and no man might slay or eat them
+without being punished by the gods. This Ulysses knew well, and warned
+his men against touching them; but great tempests now swelled up, and
+for a whole month the sailors could not leave the island. Their
+provisions gave out and they were starving. Then their leader wandered
+away looking for help, and while he was gone they slew some of the oxen
+and ate their fill. The storm died, and, Ulysses returning, they again
+set sail; but at once came a terrific hurricane, upset the ship, and
+drowned all of the guilty ones. Ulysses had not eaten the flesh of the
+oxen; and he alone was saved, clinging to a spar, and was tossed on the
+island of the nymph Calypso. After a long sojourn he escaped from here
+on a raft. But his old enemy Neptune again raised a storm, which broke
+his raft; and, naked and almost dead, he was thrown upon another shore,
+from which at last the pitying people sent him home. He had been away
+twenty years.
+
+His fair wife Penelope had been for four years past pestered with
+suitors, who declared that Ulysses must be dead. She put them all off,
+by saying that first she must finish a wonderful cloth she was weaving;
+and on this she undid each night what she had done in the day. Meanwhile
+they stayed in the palace, haughty and insolent, terrifying everybody,
+in defiance of the protests of Ulysses' infant son, now grown to be
+almost a man.
+
+The wanderer, coming alone and finding how things were, feared they
+would slay him; so, disguised as an old beggar man, he went to the
+palace. The suitors mocked him, and then in sport it was proposed to see
+who could bend the great Ulysses's bow. It was brought out, but none
+could bend it. The beggar asked leave to try, and they hesitated, but
+gave him leave. Right easily he bent it, and sent then a broad arrow
+through the leader of the suitors. Ulysses's son ranged himself by his
+side. Some old servants, recognizing him, did the same; and soon all
+those parasites were slain. Then was there a royal welcome from wife and
+son, and afterward from kinsmen and friends and servants, for the royal
+wanderer, whom the gods had spared, and who at last was returned home.
+
+
+
+
+AENEAS
+
+By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+[Illustration: AEneas.]
+
+
+Among the Trojans at the fall of Troy there was a prince called AEneas,
+whose father was Anchises, a cousin of Priam, and whose mother was said
+to be the goddess Venus. When he saw that the city was lost he rushed
+back to his house and took his old father Anchises on his back, giving
+him his penates, or little images of household gods, to take care of,
+and led by the hand his little son Iulus, or Ascanius, while his wife
+Creusa followed close behind, and all the Trojans who could get their
+arms together joined him, so that they escaped in a body to Mount Ida;
+but just as they were outside the city he missed poor Creusa, and though
+he rushed back and searched for her everywhere, he never could find her.
+Because of his care for his gods, and for his old father, he is always
+known as the pious AEneas.
+
+In the forests of Mount Ida he built ships enough to set forth with all
+his followers in quest of the new home which his mother, the goddess
+Venus, gave him hopes of. He had adventures rather like those of Ulysses
+as he sailed about the Mediterranean. Once in the Strophades, some
+clusters belonging to the Ionian Islands, where he and his troops had
+landed to get food, and were eating the flesh of the numerous goats
+which they found climbing about the rocks, down on them came the
+harpies, horrible birds with women's faces and hooked hands, with which
+they snatched away the food and spoiled what they could not eat. The
+Trojans shot at them, but the arrows glanced off their feathers and did
+not hurt them. However, they all flew off except one, who sat on a high
+rock, and croaked out that the Trojans would be punished for thus
+molesting the harpies, by being tossed about till they should reach
+Italy, but there they should not build their city till they should have
+been so hungry as to eat their very trenchers.
+
+They sailed away from this dismal prophetess, and touched on the coast
+of Epirus, where AEneas found his cousin Helenus, son to old Priam,
+reigning over a little new Troy, and married to Andromache, Hector's
+wife, whom he had gained after Pyrrhus had been killed. Helenus was a
+prophet, and he gave AEneas much advice. In especial he said that when
+the Trojans should come to Italy they would find, under the holly-trees
+by the river-side, a large, white, old sow lying on the ground, with a
+litter of thirty little pigs round her, and this should be a sign to
+them where they were to build their city.
+
+By his advice the Trojans coasted round the south of Sicily, instead of
+trying to pass the strait between the dreadful Scylla and Charybdis, and
+just below Mount Etna an unfortunate man came running down to the beach
+begging to be taken in. He was a Greek, who had been left behind when
+Ulysses escaped from Polyphemus's cave, and had made his way to the
+forests, where he had lived ever since. They had just taken him in when
+they saw the Cyclop coming down, with a pine-tree for a staff, to wash
+the burning hollow of his lost eye in the sea, and they rowed off in
+great terror.
+
+Poor old Anchises died shortly after, and while his son was still
+sorrowing for him, Juno, who hated every Trojan, stirred up a terrible
+tempest, which drove the ships to the south, until, just as the sea
+began to calm down, they came into a beautiful bay, enclosed by tall
+cliffs with woods overhanging them. Here the tired wanderers landed,
+and, lighting a fire, AEneas went in quest of food. Coming out of the
+forest they looked down from a hill, and beheld a multitude of people
+building a city, raising walls, houses, towers, and temples. Into one of
+these temples AEneas entered, and to his amazement he found the walls
+sculptured with all the story of the siege of Troy, and all his friends
+so perfectly represented, that he burst into tears at the sight.
+
+Just then a beautiful queen, attended by a whole troop of nymphs, came
+into the temple. This lady was Dido; her husband, Sichaeus, had been King
+of Tyre, till he was murdered by his brother, Pygmalion, who meant to
+have married her; but she fled from him with a band of faithful Tyrians
+and all her husband's treasure, and had landed on the north coast of
+Africa. There she begged of the chief of the country as much land as
+could be enclosed by a bullock's hide. He granted this readily; and
+Dido, cutting the hide into the finest possible strips, managed to
+measure off ground enough to build the splendid city which she had named
+Carthage. She received AEneas most kindly, and took all his men into her
+city, hoping to keep them there forever, and make him her husband. AEneas
+himself was so happy there that he forgot all his plans and the
+prophecies he had heard, until Jupiter sent Mercury to rouse him to
+fulfil his destiny. He obeyed the call; and Dido was so wretched at his
+departure that she caused a great funeral pile to be built, laid herself
+on the top, and stabbed herself with AEneas's sword; the pile was burnt,
+and the Trojans saw the flame from their ships without knowing the
+cause.
+
+By and by AEneas landed at a place in Italy named Cumae. There dwelt one
+of the Sibyls. These were wondrous virgins whom Apollo had endowed with
+deep wisdom; and when AEneas went to consult the Cumaean Sibyl, she told
+him that he must visit the under-world of Pluto to learn his fate.
+First, however, he had to go into a forest, and find there and gather a
+golden bough, which he was to bear in his hand to keep him safe. Long he
+sought it, until two doves, his mother's birds, came flying before him
+to show him the tree where gold gleamed through the boughs, and he found
+the branch growing on the tree as mistletoe grows on the thorn.
+
+Guarded with this, and guided by the Sibyl, after a great sacrifice,
+AEneas passed into a gloomy cave, where he came to the river Styx, round
+which flitted all the shades who had never received funeral rites, and
+whom the ferryman, Charon, would not carry over. The Sibyl, however,
+made him take AEneas across, his boat groaning under the weight of a
+human body. On the other side stood Cerberus, but the Sibyl threw him a
+cake of honey and of some opiate, and he lay asleep, while AEneas passed
+on and found in myrtle groves all who had died for love--among them, to
+his surprise, poor forsaken Dido. A little farther on he found the home
+of the warriors, and held converse with his old Trojan friends. He
+passed by the place of doom for the wicked, Tartarus; and in the Elysian
+Fields, full of laurel groves and meads of asphodel, he found the spirit
+of his father Anchises, and with him was allowed to see the souls of all
+their descendants, as yet unborn, who should raise the glory of their
+name. They are described on to the very time when the poet wrote to whom
+we owe all the tale of the wanderings of AEneas, namely, Virgil, who
+wrote the "AEneid," whence all these stories are taken. He further tells
+us that AEneas landed in Italy, just as his old nurse Caieta died, at the
+place which still is called Gaeta. After they had buried her they found
+a grove, where they sat down on the grass to eat, using large round
+cakes or biscuits to put their meat on. Presently they came to eating up
+the cakes. Little Ascanius cried out, "We are eating our very tables,"
+and AEneas, remembering the harpy's words, knew that his wanderings were
+over.
+
+Virgil goes on to tell at much length how the king of the country,
+Latinus, at first made friends with AEneas, and promised him his daughter
+Lavinia in marriage; but Turnus, an Italian chief who had before been a
+suitor to Lavinia, stirred up a great war, and was only conquered and
+killed after much hard fighting. However, the white sow was found in the
+right place with all her little pigs, and on the spot was founded the
+city of Alba Longa, where AEneas and Lavinia reigned until he died, and
+his descendants, through his two sons, Ascanius or Iulus, and AEneas
+Silvius, reigned after him for fifteen generations.
+
+
+
+
+XENOPHON[2]
+
+         [Footnote 2: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By PROFESSOR J. PENTLAND MAHAFFY
+
+(445-354 B.C.)
+
+[Illustration: Xenophon.]
+
+
+There is no figure in Greek history more familiar to us than this famous
+Athenian. There are passages in his life known to every schoolboy; we
+possess all the books he ever wrote; we know therefore his opinions upon
+all the important questions of life, religion, ethics, politics,
+manners, education, as well as upon finance and military tactics, not to
+speak of social intercourse and sport. And yet his early youth and late
+age are hidden from us. Like the models of Greek eloquence, which begin
+with tame obviousness, rise into dignity, fire, pathos, and then close
+softly, without sounding peroration, so Xenophon comes upon us, an
+educated young man, looking out for something to do; we lose him in the
+autumn of his life, when he was driven from the fair retreat which the
+old man had hoped would be his final resting-place. During seven years
+of his early manhood we find him in the middle of all the most stirring
+events in the Greek world. For thirty years later (394-62 B.C.), we hear
+him from his retired country-seat recording contemporary history,
+telling the adventures of his youth, from the fascinations of the ragged
+Socrates to the fascinations of the magnificent Cyrus, preaching the
+lessons of his varied life. Then came the bitter loss of his brave son,
+killed in the van at Mantinea. According to good authority he only
+survived this blow a couple of years. But even then he appears to have
+found distraction from his grief by a dry tract upon the Attic revenue.
+Such is the general outline which we shall fill up and color from
+allusions throughout his varied and manifold writings.
+
+He was a pure Athenian, evidently of aristocratic birth, and attracted,
+probably by his personal beauty, the attention of Socrates, who is said
+to have stopped him in the way, and asked him did he know where men of
+honor were to be found; upon his replying _no_, the sage said, follow me
+and learn. This apocryphal anecdote, at all events, records the fact
+that Xenophon attached himself to Socrates's teaching, and so afforded
+us perhaps the most remarkable instance of the great and various
+influence of that great teacher. We do not wonder at disciples like
+Plato; but here is a young man of fashion, of a practical turn, and
+loving adventure, who records in after years the teaching after his own
+fashion, and in a perfectly independent way, as the noblest of
+training. His youth, however, was spent in the distressful later years
+of the Peloponnesian War, which ended in fearful gloom and disaster for
+his native city. Intimate, apparently, with the great historian
+Thucydides, whose unfinished work he seems to have edited, and
+subsequently to have continued in his own "Hellenica," he must have long
+foreseen the collapse of the Athenian empire, and then he and many other
+adventurous spirits found themselves in a society faded in prosperity,
+with no scope for energy or enterprise. Such was the somewhat tame and
+vulgar Athens which succeeded to that of Pericles and Aristophanes, and
+which could not tolerate the spiritual boldness of Socrates. He tells us
+himself, in the third book of his "Anabasis," how he was tempted to
+leave Athens for the East by his friend Proxenus, who had made the
+acquaintance of the chivalrous and ambitious Cyrus, brother of the
+Persian king, and governor of southern Asia Minor. This prince was
+preparing secretly to invade Persia and dethrone his brother, and for
+that purpose was gathering troops and courting the favor of the Greeks.
+His splendid gifts were on a scale sufficient to dazzle men of small
+means and smaller prospects, like the youth of conquered Athens.
+Xenophon thought it right to consult his spiritual guide, Socrates, on
+the propriety of abandoning his country for hireling service. The
+philosopher advised him to consult the oracle at Delphi, but the young
+man only asked what gods he might best conciliate before his departure,
+and Socrates, though noting the evasion of his advice, acquiesced.
+
+When Xenophon arrived at Sardis, Proxenus presented him to Cyrus, who
+invited him to accompany him on his pretended campaign to Pisidia, and
+then coaxed him on with the rest into his enterprise against the king
+Artaxerxes. On this expedition or _anabasis_ up the country, Xenophon
+was only a volunteer, with no command, and under no man's orders, but
+accompanying the army on horseback, and enjoying the trip as a bright
+young man, well appointed by the prince, and full of intelligent
+curiosity, was sure to enjoy it. But then came the decisive day of
+Cunaxa, where Xenophon offered his services as an extra aide-de-camp to
+Cyrus, and where he witnessed the victory of his countrymen and the
+defeat of their cause by the rashness and death of Cyrus. In the crisis
+which followed he took no leading part, till the generals of the 10,000
+Greeks were entrapped and murdered by Tissaphernes. Then, in the midst
+of the panic and despair which supervened, he tells us in graphic words
+how he came to be a leader of men. He, too, with the rest, was in sore
+distress, and could not sleep; but anon getting a snatch of rest he had
+a dream. It seemed to him that there was a storm, and a thunderbolt fell
+on his father's house and set it all in a blaze. He sprang up in terror,
+and, pondering the matter, decided that in part the dream was good, in
+that when in great danger he had seen a light from Zeus; but partly,
+too, he feared it, for it came from the king of heaven. But as soon as
+he was fully awake the first clear thought that came into his head was:
+"Why am I lying here? The night advances, and with the coming day the
+enemy will be upon us. If we fall into the king's hands we must face
+torture, slavery, and death, and yet here we lie, as if it were a time
+for rest! What am I waiting for? Is it a general to lead me? and where
+is he? or till I am myself of riper age to command? Older I shall never
+be, if to-day I surrender to mine enemies." And so he rouses the
+officers of his murdered friend, Proxenos, and appeals to them all to be
+up and stirring, to organize their defence and appoint new leaders to
+direct them. Before dawn he has some kind of confidence restored, and
+the new organization in progress. Presently the Persians send to demand
+the surrender of the army whose generals they had seized, and find to
+their astonishment that their task of subduing the Greeks must begin
+afresh. Meanwhile the policy of the Greek army becomes defined. They
+threaten to settle in Mesopotamia and build a fortified city which shall
+be a great danger and a torment to the king. They really desire to
+escape to the coast, if they can but find the way.
+
+It was the king's policy to let them depart, but so harass them by the
+way as to produce disorder and rout, which meant absolute destruction.
+It was in conducting this retreat, as a joint general with the Spartan
+Cheirisophos, that Xenophon showed all his resource. There were no great
+pitched battles; no room for strategy or large combinations; but ample
+scope for resource in the details of tactics for meeting new and sudden
+difficulties, for maintaining order among an army of men that only
+acknowledged leaders for their ability. At first, in the plains, as they
+journeyed northward, the danger was from the Persian cavalry, for their
+own contingent had deserted to the enemy. This difficulty, which
+well-nigh ruined the 10,000, as it ruined Crassus in his retreat at
+Carrhae, he met by organizing a corps of Rhodian slingers and archers,
+whose range was longer than that of the Persians, and who thus kept the
+cavalry in check. When the plains were passed, and the mountains
+reached, there arose the new difficulties of forcing passes, of
+repelling wild mountaineers from positions commanding the road, of
+providing food, and avoiding false routes. The narrative of the
+surmounting of all these obstacles with tact and temper is the main
+subject of the famous "Anabasis." Still graver dangers awaited Xenophon
+when the retreating army had at last hailed the welcome sea--the Black
+Sea--and with returning safety returned jealousies, insubordinations,
+and the great problem what to do with this great army when it arrived at
+Greek cities. Xenophon had always dreamt of forming on the border of
+Hellenedom a new city state, which should honor him as its founder. The
+wilder spirits thought it simpler to loot some rich city like Byzantium,
+which was saved with difficulty from their lawlessness. The Spartan
+governors, who now ruled throughout the Greek world, saw the danger, and
+were determined to delay and worry the dangerous horde until it
+dissipated; and they succeeded so well that presently the 6,000 that
+remained were glad to be led by Xenophon to take service under the
+Spartan commander Thibron in Asia Minor (399 B.C.). But Xenophon was not
+given any independent command. He appears to have acted on the staff of
+the successive Spartan commanders till with King Agesilaus he attained
+personal influence, and probably planned the new expedition of that king
+to conquer Persia, which was only balked by a diversion wrought by
+Persian gold in Greece. With Agesilaus Xenophon returned therefore to
+Greece, and was present at the great shock of the rival infantries, the
+Theban and the Spartan, at Coronea (394 B.C.). But either his presence
+in the Spartan army, or his former action against the King of Persia,
+whom shifting politics were now bringing over to the Athenian side,
+caused him to be sentenced to banishment at Athens, and so made his
+return to his native city impossible. He went, therefore, with his royal
+patron to Sparta, and sojourned there for some time, even sending for
+his sons, now growing boys, from Miletus, and submitting them, at
+Agesilaus's advice, to the famous Spartan education. They grew up fine
+and warlike young men, so that the death of one of them, Gryllus, in a
+cavalry skirmish just before the great battle of Mantinea (362 B.C.)
+caused universal regret. But long before this catastrophe the Spartans
+gave Xenophon possession of an estate at Skillus, near the famous
+Olympia, which combined the pleasures of seclusion and of field sports
+with those of varied society when the stream of visitors assembled for
+the Olympic games (every four years). He himself tells us that he and
+his family, in company with their neighbors, had excellent sport of all
+kinds. He was not only a careful farmer, but so keen at hunting hares
+that he declares a man at this delightful pursuit "will forget that he
+ever cared for anything else." He had also built a shrine to his
+patroness, the goddess Artemis, and the solemn sacrifices at her shrine
+were the occasion of feasts, whose solemnity only enhanced their
+enjoyments. As Mr. Dakyns writes: "The lovely scenery of the place, to
+this day lovely; the delicious atmosphere; the rare combination of
+mountain, wood, and stream; the opportunity for sport; the horses and
+the dogs; the household, the farmstead, and their varying occupations;
+the neighboring country gentlemen, and the local politics; the recurring
+festival at Olympia with its stream of visitors; the pleasures of
+hospitable entertainment; the constant sacrifices before the cedar image
+of Artemis in her temple--these things, and above all the serene
+satisfaction of successful literary labors, combined to form an enviable
+sum total of sober happiness during many years." There can be no doubt
+that this was the first great period of his literary activity, though he
+may have edited, in early youth, his predecessor Thucydides, and
+composed the first two books of his historical continuation entitled
+"Hellenica." In his retreat at Skillus he composed a series of
+"Dialogues," in what is termed the Socratic vein; "Memorials" of his
+great master, a tract on household "Economy," another on a "Symposium,"
+or feast, one called "Hiero," or on the Greek tyrant, and an account of
+the "Laconian Polity," which he had so long admired and known. The tract
+on "Hunting" also speaks the experience at Skillus. The tract "On the
+Athenian State," preserved among his writings, is not from his hand, but
+the work of an earlier writer.
+
+With the sudden rise of the Theban power, and consequent depression of
+Sparta, he and other settlers around Skillus were driven out by the
+Eleans, and he lost his country-seat, with all its agreeable diversions.
+But probably the ageing man did not feel the transference of his home to
+Corinth so keenly as an English gentleman would. He was a thorough
+Greek, and therefore intensely attached to city life, Elis, his adopted
+country, being the only state which consisted of a country gentry.
+
+In the next place, a daily thoroughfare such as the Isthmus, must have
+been far more suitable for the collecting of historical evidence than
+Skillus, where the crowd came by only once in four years. And then his
+grown-up sons could find something more serious to do than hunting deer,
+boars, and hares in the glades of Elis. He may have known, too, that his
+chances of restoration to Athens were improving, and that he would do
+well to be within easy reach of friends in that city. Indeed we find
+that the rescinding of exile soon followed, and so he was able to send
+his two sons to do cavalry duty for Athens (and Sparta) against the
+Thebans. It is, indeed, likely that the young men were enrolled as
+Spartan volunteers. He himself must have kept very close to his literary
+work; for in these closing years of his life he brought out or re-edited
+the "Anabasis;" he discussed "Cavalry Tactics," he kept writing up
+contemporary history to the year 362 B.C., when the star of Thebes set
+with the death of Epaminondas; he completed his long and perhaps tedious
+historical novel, the "Education of Cyrus" (the elder), and lastly
+composed a curious and fanciful tract on the "Revenues of Athens." There
+is no evidence that he ever changed his residence back to his native
+city, but that he often went there when no obstacle remained, from the
+neighboring Corinth, is most probable. An open sailing boat could carry
+him, with a fair wind, in a few hours. Though a very old man, he was,
+however, still active with his pen when we lose him. His promising
+remaining son disappears with him from the scene; we hear of no
+descendants. The only offspring he has left us are his immortal works.
+The names of these have already been given, with the exception of the
+speech put into Socrates's mouth as his Defence, the tract on "The
+Horse," appendant to his "Cavalry Tactics," and his "Panegyric on
+Agesilaus." It remains to estimate their general features. Without
+controversy, he excelled all his great contemporaries in breadth of
+culture and experience, and in the variety of his interests. Philosophy,
+politics, war, husbandry, sport, travel, are all represented in his
+works. And upon all he has written with a clearness and a grace which
+earned for him the title of the "Attic Bee." But this breadth implies
+(as usual) a certain lack of depth, as is particularly obvious in his
+case, owing to the almost necessary comparison with his two mighty
+rivals--Thucydides, in history, Plato, in philosophy. It may, indeed, be
+considered hard luck for him that he stood between two such men, for
+they have necessarily damaged his reputation by comparison. Xenophon's
+portrait of Socrates is quite independent, and probably historically
+truer than that of Plato; but the sage lives for us in Plato, not in
+Xenophon. The Retreat of the Ten Thousand, and the wars of Epaminondas
+were far more brilliant than the operations of the Peloponnesian War.
+Yet, to the scholar, a raid in Thucydides is more than a campaign in
+Xenophon. For neither is his style so pure as that of either of his
+rivals, nor is his enthusiasm the same. We feel him always a polished
+man of the world--never the rugged patriot, never the rapt seer. He
+seems, too, to lack impartiality. He lavishes praise upon Agesilaus, a
+second-rate man, while he is curt and ill-tempered concerning
+Epaminondas, the real genius of the age. It is more than likely that he
+has colored his own part in the famous "Retreat," in glowing colors.
+His hereditary instincts lead him to approve of autocrats as against
+republics, Spartan discipline as against Attic freedom. Yet in himself
+he has shown a striking example how the latter could appreciate and
+embrace the former. As the simplest specimen of pure Attic prose he will
+ever be paramount in schools, neglected in universities--the recreation
+rather than the occupation of mature scholars. He is a great worthy, a
+man of renown; "nevertheless, he did not attain unto the first
+three"--the two masters of his own day, and the colossal Demosthenes.
+
+[Signature: J. Pentland Mahaffy.]
+
+
+
+
+THE GRACCHI
+
+Extracts from "Caesar, a Sketch," by JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, LL.D.
+(164-133, 153-121 B.C.)
+
+[Illustration: The Gracchi.]
+
+
+Tiberius Gracchus was born about the year 164 B.C. He was one of twelve
+children, nine of whom died in infancy, himself, his brother Caius, and
+his sister Cornelia being the only survivors. His family was plebeian,
+but of high antiquity, his ancestors for several generations having held
+the highest offices in the Republic. On the mother's side he was the
+grandson of Scipio Africanus. His father, after a distinguished career
+as a soldier in Spain and Sardinia, had attempted reforms at Rome. He
+had been censor, and in this capacity he had ejected disreputable
+senators from the Curia; he had degraded offending Equites; he had
+rearranged and tried to purify the Comitia. But his connections were
+aristocratic. His wife was the daughter of the most famous of them,
+Scipio Africanus the Younger. He had been himself in antagonism with the
+tribunes, and had taken no part, at any time, in popular agitations.
+
+[Illustration: The Mother of the Gracchi.]
+
+The father died when Tiberius was still a boy, and the two brothers grew
+up under the care of their mother, a noble and gifted lady. They early
+displayed remarkable talents. Tiberius, when old enough, went into the
+army, and served under his brother-in-law in the last Carthaginian
+campaign. He was first on the walls of the city in the final storm. Ten
+years later he went to Spain as quaestor, when he carried on his father's
+popularity, and by taking the people's side in some questions, fell into
+disagreement with his brother-in-law. His political views had perhaps
+already inclined to change. He was still of an age when indignation
+at oppression calls out a practical desire to resist it. On his journey
+home from Spain he witnessed scenes which confirmed his conviction and
+determined him to throw all his energies into the popular cause. His
+road lay through Tuscany, where he saw the large estate system in full
+operation--the fields cultivated by the slave gangs, the free citizens
+of the Republic thrust away into the towns, aliens and outcasts in their
+own country, without a foot of soil which they could call their own. In
+Tuscany, too, the vast domains of the landlords had not even been fairly
+purchased. They were parcels of the _ager publicus_, land belonging to
+the state, which, in spite of a law forbidding it, the great lords and
+commoners had appropriated and divided among themselves. Five hundred
+acres of state land was the most which by statute any one lessee might
+be allowed to occupy. But the law was obsolete or sleeping, and avarice
+and vanity were awake and active. Young Gracchus, in indignant pity,
+resolved to rescue the people's patrimony. He was chosen tribune in the
+year 133. His brave mother and a few patricians of the old type
+encouraged him, and the battle of the revolution began. The Senate, as
+has been said, though without direct legislative authority, had been
+allowed the right of reviewing any new schemes which were to be
+submitted to the Assembly. The constitutional means of preventing
+tribunes from carrying unwise or unwelcome measures lay in a consul's
+veto, or in the help of the College of Augurs, who could declare the
+auspices unfavorable and so close all public business. These resources
+were so awkward that it had been found convenient to secure beforehand
+the Senate's approbation, and the encroachment, being long submitted to,
+was passing by custom into a rule. But the Senate, eager as it was, had
+not yet succeeded in engrafting the practice into the constitution. On
+the land question the leaders of the aristocracy were the principal
+offenders.
+
+Disregarding usage, and conscious that the best men of all ranks were
+with him, Tiberius Gracchus appealed directly to the people to revive
+the Agrarian law. His proposals were not extravagant. That they should
+have been deemed extravagant was a proof of how much some measure of the
+kind was needed. Where lands had been enclosed and money laid out on
+them, he was willing that the occupants should have compensation. But
+they had no right to the lands themselves. Gracchus persisted that the
+_ager publicus_ belonged to the people, and that the race of yeomen, for
+whose protection the law had been originally passed, must be
+re-established on their farms. No form of property gives to its owners
+so much consequence as land, and there is no point on which in every
+country an aristocracy is more sensitive. The large owners protested
+that they had purchased their interests on the faith that the law was
+obsolete. They had planted and built and watered with the sanction of
+the government, and to call their titles in question was to shake the
+foundations of society. The popular party pointed to the statute. The
+monopolists were entitled in justice to less than was offered them. They
+had no right to a compensation at all. Political passion awoke again
+after the sleep of a century. The oligarchy had doubtless connived at
+the accumulations. The suppression of the small holdings favored their
+supremacy, and placed the elections more completely in their control.
+Their military successes had given them so long a tenure of power that
+they had believed it to be theirs in perpetuity; and the new sedition,
+as they called it, threatened at once their privileges and their
+fortunes. The quarrel assumed the familiar form of a struggle between
+the rich and the poor, and at such times the mob of voters becomes less
+easy to corrupt. They go with their order, as the prospect of larger
+gain makes them indifferent to immediate bribes. It became clear that
+the majority of the citizens would support Tiberius Gracchus, but the
+constitutional forms of opposition might still be resorted to. Octavius
+Caecina, another of the tribunes, had himself large interests in the land
+question. He was the people's magistrate, one of the body appointed
+especially to defend their rights, but he went over to the Senate, and,
+using a power which undoubtedly belonged to him, he forbade the vote to
+be taken.
+
+There was no precedent for the removal of either consul, praetor, or
+tribune, except under circumstances very different from any which could
+as yet be said to have arisen. The magistrates held office for a year
+only, and the power of veto had been allowed them expressly to secure
+time for deliberation and to prevent passionate legislation. But
+Gracchus was young and enthusiastic. Precedent or no precedent, the
+citizens were omnipotent, he invited them to declare his colleague
+deposed. They had warmed to the fight, and complied. A more experienced
+statesman would have known that established constitutional bulwarks
+cannot be swept away by a momentary vote. He obtained his Agrarian law.
+Three commissioners were appointed, himself, his younger brother, and
+his father-in-law, Appius Claudius, to carry it into effect; but the
+very names showed that he had alienated his few supporters in the higher
+circles, and that a single family was now contending against the united
+wealth and distinction of Rome. The issue was only too certain. Popular
+enthusiasm is but a fire of straw. In a year Tiberius Gracchus would be
+out of office. Other tribunes would be chosen more amenable to
+influence, and his work could then be undone. He evidently knew that
+those who would succeed him could not be relied on to carry on his
+policy. He had taken one revolutionary step already; he was driven on to
+another, and he offered himself illegally to the Comitia for
+re-election. It was to invite them to abolish the constitution, and to
+make him virtual sovereign; and that a young man of thirty should have
+contemplated such a position for himself as possible, is of itself a
+proof of his unfitness for it. The election day came. The noble lords
+and gentlemen appeared in the Campus Martius with their retinues of
+armed servants and clients; hot-blooded aristocrats, full of disdain for
+demagogues, and meaning to read a lesson to sedition which it would not
+easily forget. Votes were given for Gracchus. Had the hustings been left
+to decide the matter, he would have been chosen; but as it began to
+appear how the polling would go, sticks were used and swords; a riot
+rose, the unarmed citizens were driven off, Tiberius Gracchus himself
+and three hundred of his friends were killed, and their bodies were
+flung into the Tiber.
+
+Thus the first sparks of the coming revolution were trampled out. But
+though quenched and to be again quenched with fiercer struggles, it was
+to smoulder and smoke and burst out time after time, till its work was
+done. Revolution could not restore the ancient character of the Roman
+nation, but it could check the progress of decay by burning away the
+more corrupted parts of it. It could destroy the aristocracy and the
+constitution which they had depraved, and under other forms preserve for
+a few more centuries the Roman dominion. Scipio Africanus, when he heard
+in Spain of the end of his brother-in-law, exclaimed "May all who act as
+he did perish like him!" There were to be victims enough and to spare
+before the bloody drama was played out. Quiet lasted for ten years, and
+then, precisely when he had reached his brother's age, Caius Gracchus
+came forward to avenge him, and carry the movement through another
+stage. Young Caius had been left one of the commissioners of the land
+law; and it is particularly noticeable that, though the author of it had
+been killed, the law had survived him, being too clearly right and
+politic in itself to be openly set aside. For two years the
+commissioners had continued to work, and in that time forty thousand
+families were settled on various parts of the _ager publicus_, which the
+patricians had been compelled to resign. This was all which they could
+do. The displacement of one set of inhabitants and the introduction of
+another could not be accomplished without quarrels, complaints, and
+perhaps some injustice. Those who entered on possession were not always
+satisfied. The commissioners became unpopular. When the cries against
+them became loud enough, they were suspended, and the law was then
+quietly repealed. The Senate had regained its hold over the Assembly,
+and had a further opportunity of showing its recovered ascendency when,
+two years after the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, one of his friends
+introduced a bill to make the tribunes legally re-eligible. Caius
+Gracchus actively supported the change, but it had no success; and,
+waiting till times had altered, and till he had arrived at an age when
+he could carry weight, the young brother retired from politics, and
+spent the next few years with the army in Africa and Sardinia, he served
+with distinction; he made a name for himself, both as a soldier and an
+administrator. Had the Senate left him alone, he might have been
+satisfied with a regular career, and have risen by the ordinary steps to
+the consulship. But the Senate saw in him the possibilities of a second
+Tiberius; the higher his reputation, the more formidable he became to
+them. They vexed him with petty prosecutions, charged him with crimes
+which had no existence, and at length, by suspicion and injustice, drove
+him into open war with them. Caius Gracchus had a broader intellect than
+his brother, and a character considerably less noble. The land question
+he perceived was but one of many questions. The true source of the
+disorders of the commonwealth was the Senate itself. The administration
+of the empire was in the hands of men totally unfit to be trusted with
+it, and there he thought the reform must commence. He threw himself on
+the people, he was chosen tribune in 123, ten years exactly after
+Tiberius. He had studied the disposition of parties. He had seen his
+brother fall because the Equites and the senators, the great commoners
+and the nobles, were combined against him. He revived the Agrarian law
+as a matter of course, but he disarmed the opposition to it by throwing
+an apple of discord between the two superior orders. The high judicial
+functions in the commonwealth had been hitherto a senatorial monopoly.
+All cases of importance, civil or criminal, came before courts of sixty
+or seventy jurymen, who, as the law stood, must be necessarily senators.
+The privilege had been extremely lucrative. The corruption of justice
+was already notorious, though it had not yet reached the level of infamy
+which it attained in another generation. It was no secret that in
+ordinary causes jurymen had sold their verdicts, and, far short of
+taking bribes in the direct sense of the word, there were many ways in
+which they could let themselves be approached, and their favor
+purchased. A monopoly of privileges is always invidious. A monopoly in
+the sale of justice is alike hateful to those who abhor iniquity on
+principle, and to those who would like to share the profits of it. But
+this was not the worst. The governors of the provinces, being chosen
+from those who had been consuls or praetors, were necessarily members of
+the Senate. Peculation and extortion in these high functions were
+offences, in theory, of the gravest kind; but the offender could only be
+tried before a limited number of his peers, and a governor who had
+plundered a subject state, sold justice, pillaged temples, and stolen
+all that he could lay hands on, was safe from punishment if he returned
+to Rome a millionnaire and would admit others to a share in his spoils.
+The provincials might send deputations to complain, but these complaints
+came before men who had themselves governed provinces, or else aspired
+to govern them. It had been proved in too many instances that the law
+which professed to protect them was a mere mockery.
+
+Caius Gracchus secured the affections of the knights to himself, and
+some slightly increased chance of an improvement in the provincial
+administration, by carrying a law in the Assembly disabling the senators
+from sitting on juries of any kind from that day forward, and
+transferring the judicial functions to the Equites. How bitterly must
+such a measure have been resented by the Senate, which at once robbed
+them of their protective and profitable privileges, handed them over to
+be tried by their rivals for their pleasant irregularities, and stamped
+them at the same time with the brand of dishonesty! How certainly must
+such a measure have been deserved when neither consul nor tribune could
+be found to interpose his vote! Supported by the grateful knights, Caius
+Gracchus was for the moment all-powerful. It was not enough to restore
+the Agrarian law. He passed another aimed at his brother's murderers,
+which was to bear fruit in later years, that no Roman citizen might be
+put to death by any person, however high in authority, without legal
+trial, and without appeal, if he chose to make it, to the sovereign
+people. A blow was thus struck against another right claimed by the
+Senate, of declaring the Republic in danger, and the temporary
+suspension of the constitution. These measures might be excused, and
+perhaps commended; but the younger Gracchus connected his name with
+another change less commendable, which was destined also to survive and
+bear fruit. He brought forward and carried through, with enthusiastic
+clapping of every pair of hands in Rome that were hardened with labor, a
+proposal that there should be public granaries in the city, maintained
+and filled at the cost of the state, and that corn should be sold at a
+rate artificially cheap to the poor free citizens. Such a law was purely
+socialistic. The privilege was confined to Rome, because in Rome the
+elections were held, and the Roman constituency was the one depositary
+of power. The effect was to gather into the city a mob of needy
+unemployed voters, living on the charity of the state, to crowd the
+circus and to clamor at the elections, available no doubt immediately to
+strengthen the hands of the popular tribune, but certain in the long run
+to sell themselves to those who could bid highest for their voices.
+Excuses could be found, no doubt, for this miserable expedient, in the
+state of parties, in the unscrupulous violence of the aristocracy, in
+the general impoverishment of the peasantry through the land monopoly,
+and in the intrusion upon Italy of a gigantic system of slave labor. But
+none the less it was the deadliest blow which had yet been dealt to the
+constitution. Party government turns on the majorities at the polling
+places, and it was difficult afterward to recall a privilege which, once
+conceded, appeared to be a right. The utmost that could be ventured in
+later times, with any prospect of success, was to limit an intolerable
+evil, and if one side was ever strong enough to make the attempt, their
+rivals had a bribe ready in their hands to buy back the popular support.
+Caius Gracchus, however, had his way, and carried all before him. He
+escaped the rock on which his brother had been wrecked. He was elected
+tribune a second time. He might have had a third term if he had been
+contented to be a mere demagogue. But he, too, like Tiberius, had
+honorable aims. The powers which he had played into the hands of the mob
+to obtain, he desired to use for high purposes of statesmanship, and his
+instrument broke in his hands. He was too wise to suppose that a Roman
+mob, fed by bounties from the treasury, could permanently govern the
+world. He had schemes for scattering Roman colonies, with the Roman
+franchise, at various points of the empire.
+
+Carthage was to be one of them. He thought of abolishing the distinction
+between Romans and Italians, and enfranchising the entire peninsula.
+These measures were good in themselves--essential, indeed, if the Roman
+conquests were to form a compact and permanent dominion. But the object
+was not attainable on the road on which Gracchus had entered. The
+vagabond part of the constituency was well contented with what it had
+obtained, a life in the city, supported at the public expense, with
+politics and games for its amusements. It had not the least inclination
+to be drafted off into settlements in Spain or Africa, where there would
+be work instead of pleasant idleness. Carthage was still a name of
+terror. To restore Carthage was no better than treason. Still less had
+the Roman citizens an inclination to share their privileges with
+Samnites and Etruscans, and see the value of their votes watered down.
+Political storms are always cyclones. The gale from the east to-day is a
+gale from the west to-morrow. Who and what were the Gracchi, then?--the
+sweet voices began to ask--ambitious intriguers, aiming at dictatorship,
+or perhaps the crown. The aristocracy were right, after all; a few
+things had gone wrong, but these had been amended. The Scipios and
+Metelli had conquered the world: the Scipios and Metelli were alone fit
+to govern it. Thus, when the election time came round, the party of
+reform was reduced to a minority of irreconcilable radicals, who were
+easily disposed of. Again, as ten years before, the noble lords armed
+their followers. Riots broke out and extended day after day. Caius
+Gracchus was at last killed, as his brother had been, and under cover of
+the disturbance three thousand of his friends were killed along with
+him. The power being again securely in their hands, the Senate proceeded
+at their leisure, and the surviving patriots who were in any way
+notorious or dangerous were hunted down in legal manner, and put to
+death or banished.
+
+
+
+
+ZENOBIA, QUEEN OF PALMYRA
+
+By ANNA JAMESON
+
+(REIGNED 267-273 A.D.)
+
+[Illustration: Zenobia.]
+
+
+Of the government and manners of the Arabians before the time of
+Mahomet, we have few and imperfect accounts; but from the remotest ages
+they led the same unsettled and predatory life which they do at this
+day, dispersed in hordes, and dwelling under tents. It was not to those
+wild and wandering tribes that the superb Palmyra owed its rise and
+grandeur, though situated in the midst of their deserts, where it is now
+beheld in its melancholy beauty and ruined splendor, like an enchanted
+island in the midst of an ocean of sands. The merchants who trafficked
+between India and Europe, by the only route then known, first colonized
+this singular spot, which afforded them a convenient resting-place; and
+even in the days of Solomon it was the emporium for the gems and gold,
+the ivory, gums, spices, and silks of the far Eastern countries, which
+thus found their way to the remotest parts of Europe. The Palmyrenes
+were, therefore, a mixed race--their origin, and many of their customs,
+were Egyptian; their love of luxury and their manners were derived from
+Persia; their language, literature, and architecture were Greek.
+
+Thus, like Venice and Genoa, in more modern times, Palmyra owed its
+splendor to the opulence and public spirit of its merchants; but its
+chief fame and historical interest it owes to the genius and heroism of
+a woman.
+
+[Illustration: Zenobia Captive.]
+
+Septimia Zenobia, for such is her classical appellation, was the
+daughter of an Arab chief, Amrou, the son of Dharb, the son of Hassan.
+Of her first husband we have no account; she was left a widow at a
+very early age, and married, secondly, Odenathus, chief of several
+tribes of the desert, near Palmyra, and a prince of extraordinary valor
+and boundless ambition. Odenathus was the ally of the Romans in their
+wars against Sapor (or, more properly, Shah Poor), king of Persia; he
+gained several splendid victories over that powerful monarch, and twice
+pursued his armies even to the gates of Ctesiphon (or Ispahan), his
+capital. Odenathus was as fond of the chase as of war, and in all his
+military and hunting expeditions he was accompanied by his wife
+Zenobia--a circumstance which the Roman historians record with
+astonishment and admiration, as contrary to their manners, but which was
+the general custom of the Arab women of that time. Zenobia not only
+excelled her countrywomen in the qualities for which they were all
+remarkable--in courage, prudence, and fortitude, in patience of fatigue,
+and activity of mind and body--she also possessed a more enlarged
+understanding; her views were more enlightened, her habits more
+intellectual. The successes of Odenathus were partly attributed to her,
+and they were always considered as reigning jointly. She was also
+eminently beautiful--with the oriental eyes and complexion, teeth like
+pearls, and a voice of uncommon power and sweetness.
+
+Odenathus obtained from the Romans the title of Augustus, and General of
+the East; he revenged the fate of Valerian, who had been taken captive
+and put to death by Shah Poor: the eastern king, with a luxurious
+barbarity truly oriental, is said to have used the unfortunate emperor
+as his footstool to mount his horse. But in the midst of his victories
+and conquests Odenathus became the victim of a domestic conspiracy, at
+the head of which was his nephew Maeonius. He was assassinated at Emessa
+during a hunting expedition, and with him his son by his first marriage.
+Zenobia avenged the death of her husband on his murderers, and as her
+sons were yet in their infancy, she first exercised the supreme power in
+their name; but afterward, apparently with the consent of the people,
+assumed the diadem with the titles of Augusta and Queen of the East.
+
+The Romans, and their effeminate emperor Gallienus, refused to
+acknowledge Zenobia's claim to the sovereignty of her husband's
+dominions, and Heraclianus was sent with a large army to reduce her to
+obedience; but Zenobia took the field against him, engaged and totally
+defeated him in a pitched battle. Not satisfied with this triumph over
+the haughty masters of the world, she sent her general Zabdas to attack
+them in Egypt, which she subdued and added to her territories, together
+with a part of Armenia and Asia Minor. Thus her dominions extended from
+the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and over all those vast and fertile
+countries formerly governed by Ptolemy and Seleucus. Jerusalem, Antioch,
+Damascus, and other cities famed in history, were included in her
+empire, but she fixed her residence at Palmyra, and in an interval of
+peace she turned her attention to the further adornment of her
+magnificent capital. It is related by historians, that many of those
+stupendous fabrics of which the mighty ruins are still existing, were
+either erected, or at least restored and embellished, by this
+extraordinary woman. But that which we have most difficulty in
+reconciling with the manners of her age and country, was Zenobia's
+passion for study, and her taste for the Greek and Latin literature.
+She is said to have drawn up an epitome of history for her own use; the
+Greek historians, poets, and philosophers were familiar to her; she
+invited Longinus, one of the most elegant writers of antiquity, to her
+splendid court, and appointed him her secretary and minister. For her he
+composed his famous "Treatise on the Sublime," a work which is not only
+admirable for its intrinsic excellence, but most valuable as having
+preserved to our times many beautiful fragments of ancient poets whose
+works are now lost, particularly those of Sappho.
+
+The classical studies of Zenobia seem to have inspired her with some
+contempt for her Arab ancestry. She was fond of deriving her origin from
+the Macedonian kings of Egypt, and of reckoning Cleopatra among her
+progenitors. In imitation of the famous Egyptian queen, she affected
+great splendor in her style of living and in her attire; and drank her
+wine out of cups of gold richly carved and adorned with gems. It is,
+however, admitted that in female dignity and discretion, as well as in
+beauty, she far surpassed Cleopatra. She administered the government of
+her empire with such admirable prudence and policy, and in particular
+with such strict justice toward all classes of her subjects, that she
+was beloved by her own people, and respected and feared by the
+neighboring nations. She paid great attention to the education of her
+three sons, habited them in the Roman purple, and brought them up in the
+Roman fashion. But this predilection for the Greek and Roman manners
+appears to have displeased and alienated the Arab tribes; for it is
+remarked that after this time their fleet cavalry, inured to the deserts
+and unequalled as horsemen, no longer formed the strength of her army.
+
+While Gallienus and Claudius governed the Roman empire, Zenobia was
+allowed to pursue her conquests, rule her dominions, and enjoy her
+triumphs almost without opposition; but at length the fierce and active
+Aurelian was raised to the purple, and he was indignant that a woman
+should thus brave with impunity the offended majesty of Rome. Having
+subdued all his competitors in the West, he turned his arms against the
+Queen of the East. Zenobia, undismayed by the terrors of the Roman name,
+levied troops, placed herself at their head, and gave the second command
+to Zabdas, a brave, and hitherto successful, general. The first great
+battle took place near Antioch; Zenobia was totally defeated after an
+obstinate conflict; but, not disheartened by this reverse, she retired
+upon Emessa, rallied her armies, and once more defied the Roman emperor.
+Being again defeated with great loss, and her army nearly dispersed, the
+high-spirited queen withdrew to Palmyra, collected her friends around
+her, strengthened her fortifications, and declared her resolution to
+defend her capital and her freedom to the last moment of her existence.
+
+Zenobia was conscious of the great difficulties which would attend the
+siege of a great city, well stored with provisions and naturally
+defended by surrounding deserts; these deserts were infested by clouds
+of Arabs, who, appearing and disappearing with the swiftness and
+suddenness of a whirlwind, continually harassed her enemies. Thus
+defended without, and supported by a strong garrison within, Zenobia
+braved her antagonist from the towers of Palmyra as boldly as she had
+defied him in the field of battle. The expectation of succors from the
+East added to her courage, and determined her to persevere to the last.
+"Those," said Aurelian in one of his letters, "who speak with contempt
+of the war I am waging against a woman, are ignorant both of the
+character and power of Zenobia. It is impossible to enumerate her
+warlike preparations of stones, of arrows, and of every species of
+missile weapons and military engines."
+
+Aurelian, in fact, became doubtful of the event of the siege, and he
+offered the queen the most honorable terms of capitulation if she would
+surrender to his arms; but Zenobia, who was aware that famine raged in
+the Roman camp, and daily looked for the expected relief, rejected his
+proposals in a famous Greek epistle, written with equal arrogance and
+eloquence; she defied the utmost of his power; and, alluding to the fate
+of Cleopatra, expressed her resolution to die like her rather than yield
+to the Roman arms. Aurelian was incensed by this haughty letter, even
+more than by dangers and delays attending the siege; he redoubled his
+efforts, he cut off the succors she expected; he found means to subsist
+his troops even in the midst of the desert; every day added to the
+number and strength of his army, every day increased the difficulties of
+Zenobia, and the despair of the Palmyrenes. The city could not hold out
+much longer, and the queen resolved to fly, not to insure her own
+safety, but to bring relief to her capital--such at least is the excuse
+made for a part of her conduct which certainly requires apology. Mounted
+on a fleet dromedary, she contrived to elude the vigilance of the
+besiegers, and took the road to the Euphrates; but she was pursued by a
+party of the Roman light cavalry, overtaken, and brought as a captive
+into the presence of Aurelian. He sternly demanded how she had dared to
+oppose the power of Rome? to which she replied, with a mixture of
+firmness and gentleness, "Because I disdained to acknowledge as my
+masters such men as Aureolus and Gallienus. To Aurelian I submit as my
+conqueror and my sovereign." Aurelian was not displeased at the artful
+compliment implied in this answer, but he had not forgotten the
+insulting arrogance of her former reply. While this conference was going
+forward in the tent of the Roman emperor, the troops, who were enraged
+by her long and obstinate resistance, and all they had suffered during
+the siege, assembled in tumultuous bands calling out for vengeance, and
+with loud and fierce cries demanding her instant death. The unhappy
+queen, surrounded by the ferocious and insolent soldiery, forgot all her
+former vaunts and intrepidity; her feminine terrors had perhaps been
+excusable if they had not rendered her base; but in her first panic she
+threw herself on the mercy of the emperor, accused her ministers as the
+cause of her determined resistance, and confessed that Longinus had
+written in her name that eloquent letter of defiance which had so
+incensed the emperor.
+
+Longinus, with the rest of her immediate friends and counsellors, were
+instantly sacrificed to the fury of the soldiers, and the philosopher
+met death with all the fortitude which became a wise and great man,
+employing his last moments in endeavoring to console Zenobia and
+reconcile her to her fate.
+
+Palmyra surrendered to the conqueror, who seized upon the treasures of
+the city, but spared the buildings and the lives of the inhabitants.
+Leaving in the place a garrison of Romans, he returned to Europe,
+carrying with him Zenobia and her family, who were destined to grace his
+triumph.
+
+But scarcely had Aurelian reached the Hellespont, when tidings were
+brought to him that the inhabitants of Palmyra had again revolted, and
+had put the Roman governor and garrison to the sword. Without a moment's
+deliberation the emperor turned back, reached Palmyra by rapid marches,
+and took a terrible vengeance on that miserable and devoted city; he
+commanded the indiscriminate massacre of all the inhabitants--men,
+women, and children; fired its magnificent edifices, and levelled its
+walls to the ground. He afterward repented of his fury, and devoted a
+part of the captured treasures to reinstate some of the glories he had
+destroyed; but it was too late; he could not reanimate the dead, nor
+raise from its ruins the stupendous Temple of the Sun. Palmyra became
+desolate; its very existence was forgotten, until about a century ago,
+when some English travellers discovered it by accident. Thus the blind
+fury of one man extinguished life, happiness, industry, art, and
+intelligence through a vast extent of country, and severed a link which
+had long connected the eastern and western continents of the old world.
+
+When Aurelian returned to Rome after the termination of this war, he
+celebrated his triumph with extraordinary pomp. A vast number of
+elephants and tigers, and strange beasts from the conquered countries;
+sixteen hundred gladiators, an innumerable train of captives, and a
+gorgeous display of treasures--gold, silver, gems, plate, glittering
+raiment, and Oriental luxuries and rarities, the rich plunder of
+Palmyra, were exhibited to the populace. But every eye was fixed on the
+beautiful and majestic figure of the Syrian queen, who walked in the
+procession before her own sumptuous chariot, attired in her diadem and
+royal robes, blazing with jewels, her eyes fixed on the ground, and her
+delicate form drooping under the weight of her golden fetters, which
+were so heavy that two slaves were obliged to assist in supporting them
+on either side; while the Roman populace, at that time the most brutal
+and degraded in the whole world, gaped and stared upon her misery, and
+shouted in exultation over her fall. Perhaps Zenobia may in that moment
+have thought upon Cleopatra, whose example she had once proposed to
+follow; and, according to the pagan ideas of greatness and fortitude,
+envied her destiny, and felt her own ignominy with all the bitterness of
+a vain repentance.
+
+The captivity of Zenobia took place in the year 273, and in the fifth
+year of her reign. There are two accounts of her subsequent fate,
+differing widely from each other. One author asserts that she starved
+herself to death, refusing to survive her own disgrace and the ruin of
+her country; but others inform us that the Emperor Aurelian bestowed on
+her a superb villa at Tivoli, where she resided in great honor; and that
+she was afterward united to a Roman senator, with whom she lived many
+years, and died at a good old age. Her daughters married into Roman
+families, and it is said that some of her descendants remained so late
+as the fifth century.
+
+
+
+
+SIEGFRIED[3]
+
+         [Footnote 3: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By KARL BLIND
+
+(ABOUT 450)
+
+[Illustration: Siegfried.]
+
+
+Siegfried is the name of the mythic national hero of the Germans, whose
+tragic fate is most powerfully described in the "Nibelungen Lied," and
+in a series of lays of the Icelandic Edda. A matchless warrior, a
+Dragon-killer and overthrower of Giants, who possesses a magic sword, he
+conquers the northern Nibelungs and acquires their famed gold hoard. In
+the great German epic he is the son of Siegmund and Siegelinde, who rule
+in the Netherlands. Going Rhine-upward to Worms, to Gunther, the King of
+the Burgundians, he woos and wins Kriemhild, the beautiful sister of
+that king, after having first helped Gunther to gain the hand of
+Bruenhild, a queen beyond sea, in Iceland. No one could obtain that
+valiant virgin's consent to wedlock unless he proved a victor over her
+in athletic feats, and in trials of battle. By means of his own colossal
+strength and his hiding hood, Siegfried, standing invisibly at the side
+of Gunther, overcomes Bruenhild. Even after the marriage has been
+celebrated at Worms, Siegfried has once more to help the Burgundian king
+in the same hidden way, in order to vanquish Bruenhild's resistance to
+the accomplishment of the marriage. When, in later times, Kriemhild and
+Bruenhild fall out in a quarrel about their husbands' respective worth,
+the secret of such stealthy aid having been given, is let out by the
+former in a manner affecting the honor of the Burgundian queen as a
+wife. Thereupon Hagen promises her to effect a revenge. Having deftly
+ascertained from Kriemhild the single vulnerable part of the hero, whose
+skin had otherwise been made impenetrable by being dipped into the
+Dragon's blood, Hagen treacherously murders Siegfried at a chase. The
+gold hoard is then sunk in the Rhine by Hagen, lest Kriemhild should use
+it as a means of bribing men for wreaking her own revenge. She afterward
+becomes the consort of Etzel, the heathen king of the Hiunes (Hunns) in
+Hungary, who resides at Vienna. Thither she allures the Burgundians,
+Hagen alone mistrusting the invitation. In Etzel's eastern land all the
+Burgundian knights, upon whom the Nibelung name had been conferred,
+suffer a terrible death through Kriemhild's wrath. Hagen, who refuses to
+the end to reveal to her the whereabouts of the sunken gold hoard, has
+his head cut off with Siegfried's sword by the infuriated queen herself.
+At last, she, too, is hewn down by the indignant, doughty warrior,
+Hildebrand; and so the lofty Hall, into which fire had been thrown, is
+all strewn over with the dead. "Here," says the poem, "has the tale an
+end. These were the sorrows of the Nibelungs."
+
+In this "Iliad of the Germans," which dates from the end of the twelfth
+century, the Siegfried story is given as a finished epic. But its
+originally heathen Teutonic character is overlaid there with admixtures
+of Christian chivalry. In the Edda and other Scandinavian sources, the
+tale appears in fragmentary and lyrical shape, but in a purer version,
+without additions from the new faith or from mediaeval chivalry. It is in
+the Sigurd-, Fafnir-, Brynhild-, Gudrun-, Oddrun-, Atli-, and Hamdir
+Lays of the Norse Scripture that the original nature of the older German
+songs, which must have preceded the epic, can best be guessed. Rhapsodic
+lays, referring to Siegfried, were, in all probability, part of the
+collection which Karl the Great, the Frankish Kaiser, ordered to be
+made. Monkish fanaticism afterward destroyed the valuable relics.
+Fortunately, Northmen travelling in Germany had gathered some of those
+tale-treasures, which then were treated by Scandinavian and Icelandic
+bards in the form of heroic lyrics. Hence the Eddic lays in question
+form now a link between our lost Siegfried "Lieder" and our national
+epic.
+
+Even as in the "Nibelungen Lied" so also in the "Edda," Sigurd
+(abbreviation for Siegfried) is not a Scandinavian, but a Southern, a
+Rhenish, a German hero. The whole scene of the tragic events is laid in
+the Rhinelands, where the killing of the Worm also takes place. On a
+hill in Frank-land Sigurd frees Brynhild from the magic slumber into
+which Odin had thrown her on a rock of punishment, because she, as a
+Valkyr, or shield-maiden of his, had brought about the death of a Gothic
+king to whom the god of battle had promised victory. In the south, on
+the Rhine, Sigurd is murdered. In the Rhine, Hoegni (Hagen) hides the
+Nibelung treasure. Many German tribes--Franks, Saxons, Burgundians,
+Goths, even a Svava-land, or Suabian land, are mentioned in the "Edda."
+The "Drama of Revenge," after Sigurd's death, though motives of the act
+somewhat different from those stated in the "Nibelungen Lied" are
+assigned, is also localized on the Lower Rhine, in the Hall of Atli, the
+King of the Hunes. In the "Nibelungen Lied," that name appears as Etzel
+(Attila), King of the Hunns.
+
+In the "Edda" and in the "Vilkina Saga," Germans are referred to as
+sources for some details of the Sigurd story. So strong was, in
+Scandinavia, the tradition of the Teutonic origin of the tale, down to
+the twelfth century, that, in a geographical work written in Norse by
+the Abbot Nicolaus, the Gnita Heath, where Sigurd was said to have
+killed the Dragon, was still placed half-way between Paderborn and
+Mainz. Thus it was from Germany that this grand saga spread all over the
+North, including the Faroeer. In the "Hvenic Chronicle," in Danish songs,
+we even find Siegfried as "Sigfred;" Kriemhild as "Gremild;" and she is
+married to him at Worms, as in the "Nibelungen Lied," while in the
+"Edda" Sigurd's wife is called Gudrun, and the remembrance of Worms is
+lost. The scene of the Norse poems is wholly on Rhenish ground.
+
+[Illustration: Siegfried slaying the Dragon.]
+
+Now, in that neighborhood, in the northwest of Germany, a Teutonic tribe
+once dwelt, called Hunes, which is also traceable in Scandinavia. Sigurd
+himself is, in the "Edda," described as a Hunic king. His kith and
+kin dwell in Huna-land. "Hune" probably meant a bold and powerful
+warrior. The word still lingers in Germany in various ways; gigantic
+grave-monuments of prehistoric times are called Hunic Graves or
+"Huenen-Betten," and a tall, strong man a "Huene." In his "Church History"
+the Anglo-Saxon monk Baeda, or Bede, when speaking of the various German
+tribes which had made Britain into an Angle-land, or England, mentions
+the Hunes. In the Anglo-Saxon "Wanderer's Tale" they also turn up,
+apparently in connection with a chieftain Aetla; that is, Atli. In
+Friesland, the Hunsing tribe long preserved the Hunic name. The word
+occurs in many personal and place names both in Germany and in England;
+for instance: Hunolt (a Rhenish hero), Hunferd, Hunlaf, Hunbrecht
+(champions among Frisians and Rhinelanders in the "Beowulf" epic);
+Huneboldt (bold like a Hune); Ethelhun (noble Hune); then there are, in
+German geography, the Hunsrueck Mountain; Hunoldstein, Hunenborn,
+Hunnesrueck, near Hildesheim, etc. Again, in England: Hundon, Hunworth,
+Hunstanton, Huncote, Hunslet, Hunswick, and many other places from Kent
+and Suffolk up to Lancashire and Shetland, where certainly no Mongolic
+Hunns ever penetrated. The Hunic Atli name is also to be found on
+English soil, in Attlebridge and Attleborough.
+
+After the Great Migrations the various tribes and races became much
+intermixed. It was by a misunderstanding which arose then between the
+German Hunes and the Hunns under Attila's leadership, that Kriemhild's
+revenge after the murder of Siegfried was poetically transferred from
+the Rhine to the Danube. The name of the Rhenish Atli, which is
+preserved in the "Edda," and which also occurs as a German chieftain's
+name on the soil of conquered Britain, easily served to facilitate the
+confusion. Even the composition of Attila's army lent itself to this
+transplantation of the second part of the Siegfried story to Danubian
+lands. For, though Attila was overthrown on the Catalaunian fields,
+mainly by Germanic hosts, to which Roman and Gallic troops were added,
+he had a great many Teutonic warriors in his own army. From this
+military intermingling of races so utterly dissimilar in blood and
+speech as the Hunns and the Germans, one of whose tribes were called
+Hunes, it is not difficult to conceive the shifting of the tragic issue
+of the Nibelung story to the East. Attila, the Hunn, slid into the
+previous Teutonic hero-figure of Atli, the Hune. This change will the
+more easily be understood when the deep impression is remembered which
+the terrible Mongolic war-leader had made on the popular mind in
+southern Germany, where the Nibelungen epic was cast into its present
+shape.
+
+The hold which the Siegfried story has had on the German people, through
+ages, can be gathered from the fact of its having kept its place, down
+to our days, in the workman's house and the peasant's hut, first by oral
+tradition, and then by rudely printed and illustrated chap-books ("Die
+Geschichte vom huernenen Siegfried"). In this "Volksbuch" there are
+remarkable details concerning the hero's early life in a smithy and the
+prophecy of his assassination, which are lost in the "Nibelungen Lied,"
+but preserved in the "Edda." This circumstance--overlooked even by
+Simrock, who, like Jacob Grimm, has done much to show the German origin
+of the Norse Sigurd saga--is another curious bit of evidence of the
+undeniable Teutonic source of the corresponding Scandinavian and
+Icelandic stories and poems.
+
+Many attempts have been made to get at the historical kernel of the
+tale. Some would see in it traces of the songs which, according to
+Tacitus, were sung, of old, in honor of Armin (usually, though
+mistakenly, called Hermann), the deliverer of Germany from the Roman
+yoke. It has been assumed that the contents of these songs were combined
+with traditions of the deeds of Civilis, the leader of the Batavian
+Germans against Roman dominion, as well as of the conquest of Britain by
+Hengest. Recently, the Norse scholar, Gudbrand Vigfusson, has once more
+started this "Armin" interpretation of the tale, under the impression
+that he was the first to do so; whereas, in Germany, Mone and
+Giesebrecht had worked out that idea already some sixty years ago. In
+order to support his theory, Vigfusson boldly proposed to change the
+Hunic name of Sigurd, in the Eddic text, into "Cheruskian." He imagined
+the former name to be absurd, because Siegfried was not a Hunn; but
+Vigfusson was unacquainted with the wide historical distribution of the
+Hunic name in Germany and England.
+
+Others saw in the Siegfried story an echo of the overthrow of the
+Burgundian king Gundahari (Gunther), by Attila, on the Rhine. Gundahari,
+who first threw himself with an army of 20,000 men against the Hunnic
+leader, gloriously fell with all his men. In the same way, in the
+"Nibelungen Lied," the Burgundian king, Gunther, is killed, with all his
+men, in the land of Etzel, the ruler of the Hiunes. Again, others have
+pointed to the feats of Theodorick, the king of the Eastern Goths; or to
+the fate of Siegbert, the king of the Austrasian Franks, who was
+murdered at the instigation of Fredegunda; or to the powerful Frankish
+family of the Pipins, from whom Karl the Great hailed, by way of trying
+to explain some parts of the Siegfried story. With the Pipins of
+"Nivella," we come upon a word in consonance with "Nibelung."
+
+Then the wars which the Frankish Kaiser Karl waged against the Saxons of
+Witukind, have been held to be indicated in the war which the Frankish
+Siegfried, in the "Nibelungen Lied," wages against the Saxons. To all
+appearance, however, the tale is a mixture of mythological and
+historical traditions. In the Middle Ages, and still much later,
+Siegfried was looked upon as an undoubtedly historical figure. His
+praise was sung through all Germany. His very tomb, one of his weapons,
+as well as his carved image, were shown under the name of Siegfried's
+grave, Siegfried's spear, and Siegfried's statue. So persistent was this
+belief that when, in the fifteenth century, Kaiser Frederick III. came
+to Worms, he had the alleged grave of "that second Hector and powerful
+giant" opened, to see whether his bones could be found. Only a head and
+a few bones were dug up, "larger than men's heads and bones usually
+are." At Worms, the Siegfried story was pictured, in ancient times, in
+the Town Hall and on the Mint. All round Worms, place-names connected
+with the Nibelung tale occur with remarkable frequency. If the lost
+rhapsodic songs could be recovered, both mythological and historical
+allusions would, in all likelihood, be found in them.
+
+An eminently Frankish tale, the Nibelungen cycle, has arisen in that
+martial German tribe which once held sway in the greater part of Europe.
+In its origin, the tale is considered by many careful investigators--so
+also by Richard Wagner, who founded his famous music-drama on it--to
+have been a Nature myth, upon which real events became engrafted. From
+this point of view, the earliest meaning of Siegfried's victory over the
+Dragon would signify the triumph of the God of Light over the monster of
+the chaotic aboriginal Night. It would be, on German ground, the
+overthrow of Python by Apollon. In this connection it is to be pointed
+out that Sigurd appears in the "Edda" as the hero "with the shining
+eyes," and that, in one of the German Rose Garden tales, twelve swords
+are attributed to him--a description which might be referred to the
+zodiac and to sunshine; so that he would be a solar hero. And even as
+Day is, in its turn, vanquished by Night; as Summer must yield to
+Winter; so also Siegfried falls in the end. The god which he originally
+was thus becomes human; the sad fate of so noble a champion gives rise
+to feelings of revenge for what is held to be an evil and criminal deed;
+and a tragedy is constructed, in which generations appear as actors and
+victims.
+
+A special feature of the Frankish myth is the hoard, the fatal treasure
+which works never-ending mischief. It is said to represent the metal
+veins of the subterranean Region of Gloom. There, as is stated in an
+Eddic record, Dark Elves (Nibelungs, or nebulous Sons of the Night) are
+digging and working, melting and forging the ore in their smithies,
+producing charmful rings that remind us of the diadems which bind the
+brows of rulers; golden ornaments and sharp weapons; all of which confer
+great power upon their owner. When Siegfried slays the Dragon, when
+Light overcomes Darkness, this hoard is his booty, and he becomes master
+of the Nibelungs. But the Dragon's dark heir ever seeks to regain it
+from the victor; so Night malignantly murders the Day; Hagen kills
+Siegfried. The treasure on which Siegfried's power is founded becomes
+the cause of his death; and through Death he himself, albeit originally
+a refulgent God of Light, is turned into a figure of gloom; that is, a
+Nibelung.
+
+There is much in the Norse Skalds which seems to support this
+mythological aspect of the tale. The name of Siegfried's murderer,
+Hagen--who is one-eyed, even as Hoedur, the God of Night, who kills
+Baldur, the God of Light, is blind--has also been adduced for this
+interpretation. Hagen is explained as the Thorn of Death, the hawthorn
+(German Hagedorn), with which men are stung into eternal sleep, or
+rather into a death-like trance. Odin stings Brynhild into her trance
+with a sleeping-thorn. Hagen, in the sense of death, still lingers in
+the German expression, "Friend Hain," as a euphemism for the figure
+which announces that one's hour has come. The hawthorn was the special
+wood used for fire-burial in Germany; hence the figurative poetical
+expression which would make Hagen a synonym for death.
+
+In the German and Norse poems, as we possess them now, myth and
+apparently historical facts are inextricably welded together. A
+powerful representation of the Siegfried tale is given in the series of
+large pictures, at Munich, by the distinguished painter Schnorr von
+Karolsfeld.
+
+[Signature: Karl Blind.]
+
+
+
+
+KING ARTHUR
+
+By Rev. S. BARING-GOULD
+
+(About 520)
+
+[Illustration: King Arthur.]
+
+
+Arthur, king of the Siluri, or Dumnonii--British races driven back into
+the west of England by the Saxons--is represented as having united the
+British tribes in resisting the pagan invaders, and as having been the
+champion not only of his people but also of Christianity. He is said to
+have lived in the sixth century, and to have maintained a stubborn
+contest against the Saxon Cerdic, but the "Saxon Chronicle" is
+suspiciously silent as to his warfare and as to his existence. Indeed,
+the Welsh bards of the earliest period do not assert that he was a
+contemporary, and it is more than doubtful whether he is an historic
+personage. It is worthy of remark that the fame of Arthur is widely
+spread; he is claimed alike as a prince in Brittany, Cornwall, Wales,
+Cumberland, and the lowlands of Scotland; that is to say, his fame is
+conterminous with the Brithonic race, and does not extend to the Goidels
+or Gaels. As is now well known, Great Britain was twice invaded by races
+of Celtic blood and tongue; the first wave was that of the Goidels, and
+after a lapse of some considerable time a second Celtic wave, that of
+the Brithons, or Britons, from the east, overran Britain, and drove the
+Gaels to west and north. Finn and Ossian belong to the mythic heroic
+cycle of the Gaels, and Arthur and Merlin to that of the Britons. These
+several shadowy forms are probably deities shorn of their divinity and
+given historic attributes and position, much as, among the Norsemen,
+Odin, when he ceased to be regarded as the All-father, or God, came to
+be reckoned as an ancestor of the kings.
+
+In the lays of the Welsh bards, supposed to be as early as the sixth and
+seventh centuries (although no MS. is extant of older date than the
+twelfth century), Arthur and his brave companions are celebrated, but
+modestly and without marvels. It is possible that there may have existed
+in the sixth century a prince bearing the already well-known heroic
+name; and if so, about him the myths belonging to the remote ancestor or
+god have crystallized. The legendary additions begin to gather in the
+history of the Britons by Nennius, a writer supposed to have lived at
+the beginning of the seventh century; but Mr. Thomas Wright has shown
+("Biographia Literaria," Saxon period) that his history is a forgery of
+a much later date, probably of the tenth century. Mr. Skene, however
+("The Four Ancient Books of Wales"), makes fight to give Arthur an
+historic place, and we do not deny that there may have been a prince of
+that name. Next in order come the so-called Armoric collections of
+Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford (latter part of eleventh century), from
+which Geoffrey of Monmouth professes to translate, and in which the
+marvellous and supernatural elements largely prevail. Here for the first
+time the magician Merlin comes into association with Arthur. According
+to Geoffrey, Arthur's father, Uther, conceiving a passion for Igerna,
+wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, is changed by Merlin into the
+likeness of Gorlois, and Arthur is the result. After his father's death
+Arthur becomes paramount leader of the British, and makes victorious
+expeditions to Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, and also to France,
+where he defeats a great Roman army. During his absence his nephew,
+Modred, revolts, and seduces Prince Arthur's wife, Gweniver
+(Gwenhwywar). Arthur returning, falls in a battle with his nephew, and
+is carried to the Isle of Avalon to be cured of his wounds. Geoffrey's
+work apparently gave birth to a multitude of fictions, which came to be
+considered as quasi-historical traditions. From these, exaggerated by
+each succeeding age, and recast by each narrator, sprung the famous
+metrical romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, first in
+French and afterward in English, from which modern notions of Arthur are
+derived. In these his habitual residence is at Caerlon, on the Usk, in
+Wales, where, with his beautiful wife, Guinevere, he lives in splendid
+state, surrounded by hundreds of knights and beautiful ladies, who serve
+as patterns of valor, breeding, and grace to all the world. Twelve
+knights, the bravest of the throng, form the centre of this retinue, and
+sit with the king at a round table, the "Knights of the Round Table."
+From the court of King Arthur knights go forth to all countries in
+search of adventure--to protect women, chastise oppressors, liberate the
+enchanted, enchain giants and malicious dwarfs, is their knightly
+mission.
+
+The earliest legends of Arthur's exploits are to be found in the bardic
+lays attributed to the sixth and seventh centuries ("Myoyrian Archaeology
+of Wales," 1801). A Welsh collection of stories called the "Mabinogion,"
+of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and translated into English
+by Lady Charlotte Guest in 1849, gives further Arthurian legends. Some
+of the stories "have the character of chivalric romances," and are
+therefore probably of French origin; while others "bear the impress of a
+far higher antiquity, both as regards the manners they depict and the
+style of language in which they are composed." These latter rarely
+mention Arthur, but the former belong, as Mr. Skene puts it, to the
+"full-blown Arthurian romance." Chretien de Troies, the most famous of
+the old French trouveres in the latter part of the twelfth century, made
+the Arthur legend the subject for his "Romans" and "Contes," as well as
+for two epics on Tristan; the Holy Grail, Peredur, etc., belonging to
+the same cycle. Early in the same century the Arthurian metrical romance
+became known in Germany, and there assumed a more animated and artistic
+form in the "Parzival" of Wolfram of Eschenbach, "Tristan und Isolt" of
+Gottfried of Strasburg, "Erec and Iwein" of Hartmann, and "Wigalois" of
+Wirnt. The most renowned of the heroes of the Arthurian school are
+Peredur (Parzival or Perceval), Tristan or Tristram, Iwein, Erec,
+Gawein, Wigalois, Wigamur, Gauriel, and Lancelot. From France the
+Arthurian romance spread also to Spain, Provence, Italy, and the
+Netherlands, even into Iceland, and was again transplanted into England.
+One of the publications that issued from the press of Caxton (1485) was
+a collection of stories by Sir Thomas Malory, either compiled by him in
+English, from various of the later French prose romances, or translated
+directly from an already existing French compendium. Copland reprinted
+the work in 1557, and in 1634 the last of the black-letter editions
+appeared. A reprint of Caxton's "Kynge Arthur," with an introduction and
+notes by Robert Southey, was issued in 1817--"The Byrth, Lyfe, and Actes
+of Kyng Arthur." The most complete edition is that by Thomas Wright,
+from the text of 1634.
+
+The name of King Arthur was given during the Middle Ages to many places
+and monuments supposed to have been in some way associated with his
+exploits, such as "Arthur's Seat," near Edinburgh, "Arthur's Oven," on
+the Carron, near Falkirk, etc. What was called the sepulchre of his
+queen was shown at Meigle, in Strathmore, in the sixteenth century. Near
+Boscastle, in Cornwall, is Pentargain, a headland called after him
+"Arthur's Head." Other localities take his name in Brittany. In the
+Middle Ages, in Germany, Arthur's Courts were buildings in which the
+patricians assembled. One such still remains at Danzig. There was one
+anciently at Thorn, about which a ballad and legend exist. Milton was
+meditating an Arthurian epic in 1639; and in our own day the interest of
+the legends about King Arthur and his knights has been revived by
+Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" and some of Wagner's operas. We must not
+omit to note the magnificent life-sized ideal bronze figure of Arthur,
+cast for the monument of Maximilian I., now in the Franciscan church at
+Innsbruck, and regarded as the finest among the series of heroes there
+represented.
+
+[Illustration: The Ruins of King Arthur's Castle.]
+
+
+
+
+ROLAND
+
+(740-778)
+
+  "O, for a blast of that dread horn,
+  On Fontarabian echoes borne
+      That to King Charles did come,
+  When Rowland brave, and Olivier,
+  And every paladin and peer
+      On Roncesvalles died!"--_Marmion._
+
+  "When Charlemain with all his peerage fell,
+      By Fontarabbia."--_Paradise Lost._
+
+[Illustration: Roland.]
+
+
+"A Roland for an Oliver!" Saving the passing reference by Scott and
+Milton, quoted above, Roland and Olivier are almost unknown to English
+readers, and yet their once familiar names, knit together for centuries,
+have passed into a proverb, to be remembered as we remember the
+friendship of David and Jonathan, or to be classed by the scholar with
+Pylades, and Orestes of classic story, or with Amys and Amylion of
+romance.
+
+The "Song of Roland" might be called the national epic of France. It
+corresponds to the "Mort d'Arthur" of England, the "Cid Chronicles" of
+Spain, the "Nibelungen Lied" of Germany, and the Longobardian legends of
+North Italy. Italian mediaeval literature is rich in the Roland romances,
+founded on the fabulous "Chronicle of John Turpin" and the "Chansons de
+Gestes," of which the "Song of Roland" is one. Of the Italian romances
+the "Morgante Maggiore" of Pulci was published as early as 1488,
+Boyardo's "Orlando Innamorata" in 1496, and Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso"
+in 1515. English versions of Boyardo and Ariosto have since been
+translated into the rhyming couplets of Hoole, and as late as 1831 into
+the _ottava rima_ stanzas of W. S. Rose. It was not, however, till
+April, 1880, that a full English translation of the original "Song of
+Roland," from MSS. written in the old _langue d'oil_ of Northern France,
+was published by Kegan, Paul & Co., from the pen of Mr. O'Hagan, Q.C.,
+of Dublin. Most probably it was a curtailed version of this romance that
+is referred to by Wace in his "Roman le Rou," when he records how, as
+the Normans marched to Senlac Hill, in 1066, the minstrel Taillefer
+sang,
+
+  "Of Roland and the heroes all
+   Who fell at fatal Roncesvall."
+
+Turning to the historical data on which the romance is based, it will be
+found that in the year 778 A.D. Charlemagne, accompanied by his nephew,
+Count Roland of Bretagne, and the flower of Frankish chivalry, made a
+raid across the Spanish border. Abdalrahman, the first of the great
+Spanish caliphs of Cordova, was engaged in putting down the rebellious
+chiefs who had refused to own their allegiance to the new caliphate. The
+frontier was therefore comparatively unprotected. The Spanish
+Christians, who maintained a precarious independence among the Asturias
+and Pyrenees, and who found it the wisest policy to be at peace with the
+Mohammedan rulers, were not strong enough to resist Charlemagne.
+Accordingly the Franks advanced nearly to Saragossa. On returning to
+France laden with spoil through the winding defile of Roncesvalles (the
+valley of thorns or briers), their rear-guard was cut off by a band of
+Basques or Gascons and Spanish-Arabians, and their leader, Roland,
+slain. To the presence of these Spanish Christians in the Moorish army
+must be attributed the origin of the many Spanish ballads on the
+victory, in which all the glory is due to the prowess of the national
+hero, Bernardo Del Carpio, "the doughtiest lance in Spain." It is
+curious also to note, on the other hand, that the Arabians themselves in
+their chronicles, translated by the Spanish historian Conde, make little
+of this victory, merely mentioning the fact. The Saracen King Marsil, or
+Marsilius, of Saragossa, so often referred to in this and other
+Carlovingian romances, is identified by Conde with the Mohammedan Wali,
+or Governor of Saragossa, Abdelmelic, the son of Omar, called by the
+Christians Omarus Filius, hence the corruption Marsilius.
+
+With these brief outlines of the history of Roncesvalles before us it is
+interesting to observe the grandiloquent strain of the old Norman
+_rymours_, the fearless exaggerations, and the total ignorance of the
+actual state of affairs in Spain under the enlightened and accomplished
+Arabians.
+
+  _"Carles li reis nostre emperere magnes,
+    Set anz tut pleins ad estet en Espaigne."_
+
+Our great emperor Charles the King had been for seven full years in
+Spain, so runs the chronicle; castle and keeper alike had gone down
+except Saragossa, the mountain town, where King Marsil held his court,
+surrounded by 20,000 Mohammedan nobles. At their council it was agreed
+to accept Spain as a fief from the emperor, and ten knights set out with
+golden bridles and silver saddles,
+
+  "And they ride with olive boughs in hand,
+   To seek the lord of the Frankish land."
+
+Near the pass of Roncesvalles, one of the Pyrenean "gates" of Spain,
+sits the emperor upon a throne of beaten gold. His form is tall and
+majestic, and his long white beard flows over his coat of mail. 'Tis
+whispered, too, that he is already two hundred years old, and yet, there
+he is in all his pride. Beside him stand his nephew Roland, the Lord
+Marquis of the marches of Bretagne; Sir Olivier; Geoffrey of Anjou, the
+progenitor of the Plantagenets; "and more than a thousand Franks of
+France." The Moslem knights are introduced to this council of war, King
+Marsil's offer is accepted, and Sir Ganelon is sent to Saragossa to
+represent the emperor. Jealous of Roland's military glory, and envious
+of the stores of pagan gold, the false Ganelon conspires with King
+Marsil to put the all-powerful Roland to death. King Marsil is assured
+that on receipt of the golden tribute, Charlemagne will be persuaded to
+leave Spain, while by the traitor's advice Roland will be appointed to
+remain behind and guard the rear of the retiring hosts. The scheme
+succeeded. Ganelon returned to the Frankish camp with the tribute-money
+for the emperor, and the traitor's gold for himself. The Franks begin
+their homeward march. They are now descending the mountains into their
+own fertile Gascon plains, and their hearts beat lightly, for
+
+  "They think of their homes and their manors there,
+   Their gentle spouses and damsels fair."
+
+But their great chief is silent and gloomy. Roland, the bravest of the
+brave, has been left behind with all the paladins, save Ganelon, beyond
+the gates of Spain. Last night the emperor dreamed he seemed to stand by
+Cizra's pass in Roncesvalles, when Ganelon appeared before him, wrenched
+the emperor's spear from out his hand, waved it on high, then dashed it
+in pieces. What did it mean? He remembered the ominous words of his
+peers, "Evil will come of this quest, we fear," and Ganelon's strange
+reply, "Ye shall hear."
+
+Meanwhile Sir Roland was far behind in Roncesvalles. He rode his gallant
+steed Veillantif; his white pennon, fringed with gold and set with
+diamonds, sparkled in the sunshine; and by his side he wore his famous
+sword Durindana, with its hilt of gold shaped like a cross, on which was
+graven the name of "Jesus." What a glorious picture of the Christian
+hero of mediaeval times! With him were Olivier, the good Archbishop
+Turpin, and the remaining knights who made up the Order of the Paladins
+of Charlemagne, together with an army of 20,000 men.
+
+The drums beat to arms in Saragossa's town, the tambours roll, the
+tabors sound, and 400,000 men attend the call of King Marsil. From a
+neighboring height Sir Olivier observes this countless host approaching.
+He calls to Roland to blow his ivory horn and bring back the emperor.
+Roland refuses, and the Franks prepare to fight; not, however, before on
+bended knee they receive the archbishop's benediction and a promise of
+paradise to all who die in this holy war against the pagan foe. With the
+old French battle-cry, "Mont-joie! Mont-joie!" the Christians dash the
+rowels into their steeds and close with the enemy. Homer does not relate
+a bloodier fight than that which follows, and which takes eighty-six
+stanzas, or fifty of Mr. O'Hagan's pages, to describe. Again and again
+the Christians charge the Saracens. What deeds the great sword Durindana
+did that day! The slain lie in thousands; the Saracens flee; and in the
+pursuit all are killed save _one_, who reaches Saragossa. The triumph,
+however, is short-lived; Ganelon had decreed that Roland must die, and
+so a mightier army than before marches forth to exterminate Roland's
+handful, now reduced to 300.
+
+During this battle a terrible storm passes over France,--thunder and
+whirlwinds, rain and hail, there came.
+
+The people thought that the end of the world had come, but this was only
+a foreshadowing of Roland's death. At last all the nobles are killed
+except Roland, Olivier, the archbishop, and sixty men. Then only will
+Roland deign to blow his horn. Charlemagne hears it thirty leagues away,
+and orders his army to return to Roncesvalles. Ganelon alone seeks to
+dissuade him, and is put in chains by the desire of the nobles, who
+suspect him. The army of Charles hurries back, but all too late. They
+will not arrive in time. Away in the Pass of Cizra, Roland looks around
+on his dead comrades and weeps. He returns to Olivier's side, who is
+engaged in a hand-to-hand encounter with King Marsil's uncle, the Moslem
+prince, Algalif, from whom he receives his death-wound. Olivier reels in
+his saddle, his eyes are dimmed with blood, and as he strikes madly
+about with his spear, he smashes Roland's helmet. The friend of Olivier
+is astonished, but soft and low he speaks to him thus:
+
+  "'Hast thou done it, my comrade, wittingly?
+    Roland who loves thee so dear am I.
+    Thou hast no quarrel with me to seek?'
+    Olivier answered, 'I hear thee speak,
+    But I see thee not; God seeth thee.
+    Have I struck thee, brother, forgive it me?'
+   'I am not hurt, O Olivier;
+    And in sight of God, I forgive thee here.'
+    Then to each other his head hath laid,
+    And in love like this was their parting made."
+
+With hands clasped Sir Olivier cries to God for admittance into
+Paradise, and for a blessing on "King Karl and France the fair," and
+above all on his brother Roland. Then his hands fall, his head sinks on
+his breast, and he passes away. Filled with grief, Roland murmurs:
+
+  "So many days and years gone by
+   We lived together.
+   And thou hast never done me wrong.
+   Since thou art dead, to live is pain."
+
+Once more Roland turns to where Count Walter of Hum and the archbishop
+alone stand at bay:
+
+  "And the heathen cries, 'What a felon three!
+   Look to it, lords, that they shall not flee.'"
+
+[Illustration: Roland at Roncesvalles.]
+
+Count Walter falls at last, just as they hear the welcome sound of
+Charlemagne's trumpets, at which the Saracens flee, leaving Roland and
+the archbishop unconquered. But their end is near. Roland swoons, and
+the good archbishop, in attempting to bring water in the famous horn
+for the dying Paladin, falls from loss of blood. Roland recovers only in
+time to see him die; then, as he feels that death is near him also, he
+looks once more on his goodly sword Durindana, and as he looks he cries:
+
+  "Oh fair and holy, my peerless sword,
+   What relics lie in thy pommel stored--
+   Tooth of St. Peter, Saint Basil's blood,
+   Hair of St. Denis beside them strewed,
+   Fragment of Holy Mary's vest--
+  'Twere shame that thou with the heathen rest,
+   Thee should the hand of a Christian serve,
+   One who should never in battle swerve."
+
+In despair lest it fall into pagan hands he tries to break it in pieces,
+and the mighty slashes he made in the rocks are still pointed out as the
+"Breche de Roland." You remember Wordsworth's lines:
+
+                    "the Pyrenean breach,
+  Which Roland clove with huge two-handed sway,
+  And to the enormous labor left his name,
+  Where unremitting frost the rocky crescents bleach."
+
+Surely Roland might now rest from his labors, amid the "flowerets of
+Paradise." But no; he had yet to smash the head of a prowling Saracen
+who thought him an easy prey. In doing so he spoiled forever the ivory
+horn, his only weapon. Not till then could he clasp his hands as he went
+to rest, and not till then did
+
+  "God from on high send down to him
+   One of His angel cherubim."
+
+St. Michael it was, who with St. Gabriel bore his soul to Paradise.
+
+It would be too long a story to tell of the vengeance of the Emperor
+Charles, how _the sun stood still_ till the Franks had killed every one
+of the Saracens; how Ganelon was accused of treachery, tried by combat,
+and sentenced to be torn to pieces by wild horses. The story is a true
+tragedy, terrible as the tragedy of Oedipus. From another source we
+gather the mournful sequel.
+
+Long before the battle of Roncesvalles Roland and Olivier had met in
+single combat on a quiet island in the Rhone. Toward even a fleecy cloud
+hovered over them, and from its midst an angel "wrapped in rosy light"
+separated the combatants, bidding them be friends, and telling them to
+turn their swords against the enemies of the Faith. The heroes shook
+hands, the angel vanished, and from that day there were no truer friends
+than Roland and Olivier. Their union was further cemented by the
+betrothal of Roland to the Lady Alda, Sir Olivier's sister, a maiden who
+had already, in Roland's presence, proved herself as bold in war as she
+was loving in peace.
+
+
+
+
+ROLLO THE GANGER[4]
+
+         [Footnote 4: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN
+
+(860-932)
+
+[Illustration: Rollo the Ganger.]
+
+
+When King Harold the Fair-haired, in 872 A.D., had united all the
+scattered earldoms of Norway under his own sway, he issued a stringent
+order forbidding pillaging within his kingdom under penalty of outlawry.
+The custom of sailing out into the world as a viking and plundering
+foreign lands, was held to be a most honorable one in those days; and
+every chieftain who wished to give his sons the advantages of "a liberal
+education" and foreign travel, strained his resources in order to equip
+them for such an expedition. But the Norwegians of the ninth century had
+as yet no national feeling; and they regarded King Harold's prohibition
+against plundering their own shores as absurd and arbitrary. Rollo or
+Rolf, the son of the king's best friend, Ragnvald, Earl of Moere,
+undertook to disregard the order. Coming home from a cruise in the
+Baltic and being short of provisions, he landed in the south of Norway
+and made havoc among the coast dwellers. The king, determined to make an
+end of the nefarious practice, kept his word and outlawed him.
+
+Rollo, being unequal to a struggle with the king, betook himself to the
+Hebrides, where a number of other Norse chieftains had sought a refuge
+from similar persecutions. His great strength and sagacity, no less than
+his distinguished birth, secured him a favorable reception and much
+influence. He was so tall that no Norwegian horse could carry him, for
+which reason he was compelled always to walk, and was surnamed Rollo the
+Ganger, or Walker. Though not formally recognized as chieftain, he seems
+gradually, by dint of his eminence, to have assumed command over the
+Norse exiles; and it was probably at his advice that they resolved to
+abandon the bleak and barren Hebrides, and seek a more congenial home in
+a sunnier clime. At all events a large expedition was fitted out and set
+sail for the south, early in the tenth century. It landed first in
+Holland, but finding that all-too-accessible country already devastated
+by other vikings, they proceeded to the coast of France and entered the
+mouth of the river Seine. Charles the Simple, a feeble, foolish, and
+good-natured man, was then king of France, but utterly unequal to the
+task of defending his territory against foreign invaders or domestic
+pretenders. The empire of Charlemagne had been broken up and divided
+among his grandsons; and the fraction which was to be France, was then
+confined between the Loire and the Meuse.
+
+Here was a golden opportunity for Rollo the Ganger and his vikings.
+Meeting with no formidable opposition, they sailed up the Seine and cast
+anchor at the town of Jumieges, five leagues from Rouen. This ancient
+city, which had suffered much from recent sieges and invasions, was in
+no condition to defend itself. It was of slight avail that the priests
+chanted in the churches, with the fervor of despair: "Deliver us, oh
+God, from the fury of Norsemen!" The vikings continued to pillage the
+surrounding territory, and were daily expected to sack the city. In this
+dire dilemma the Archbishop of Rouen offered himself as an ambassador to
+the pagans, in the hope that perhaps he might become an instrument in
+the hand of God to avert the impending doom. But if, as seemed more
+probable, martyrdom was in store for him, he was ready to face death
+without flinching. Rollo, however, who could honor courage even in an
+enemy, received him courteously, and after a brief negotiation pledged
+himself, in case the city surrendered, to take peaceful possession of it
+and to molest no one. This pledge he kept to the letter. His ships
+sailed up the river, and the tall chieftain, at the head of his band of
+yellow-haired warriors, made his entry into Rouen, without a sword being
+drawn or a torch lighted. He inspected the fortifications, the water
+supply, and all points of strategic interest, and finding everything
+tolerably satisfactory, resolved to remain. Making Rouen his
+headquarters and base of supplies, the Norsemen made expeditions up the
+Seine and established a great fortified camp near the confluence of the
+Seine and the Eure. Hither a French army, under the command of Regnault,
+Duke of France, was sent to drive them out of the country. But before
+risking a battle Regnault chose to negotiate. He sent a certain Hasting,
+Count of Chartres, to Rollo in order to find out what was the aim and
+object of his invasion. This Hasting was himself a Norseman, and had,
+twenty years before, proved himself so formidable a foe, that the King
+of France had been compelled to buy his friendship by a concession of
+land and a noble title, in return for which favors Hasting had become a
+Christian and a vassal to the king. It was doubtful, perhaps, if this
+man, even though he may have acted in good faith, was the best
+ambassador to his countrymen. For he was himself a living example of
+what might be gained by audacity and a shrewd use of one's advantages.
+
+The following conversation is reported to have taken place between the
+Count of Chartres and the Norwegian vikings:
+
+"Gallant soldiers!" shouted Hasting, from afar, "what is your
+chieftain's name?"
+
+"We have no lord over us," they replied; "we are all equal."
+
+"For what purpose have you come to France?"
+
+"To drive out the people who are here, or make them our subjects, and
+win for ourselves a new country. But who are you? How is it that you
+speak our tongue?"
+
+"You know the story of Hasting," the count made answer; "Hasting, the
+great viking, who scoured the seas with his multitude of ships, and did
+so much damage in this kingdom?"
+
+"Ay, we have heard of that; but Hasting has made a bad end to so good a
+beginning."
+
+"Will you submit to King Charles?" was the ambassador's next query.
+"Will you give your faith and service, and receive from him gifts and
+honor?"
+
+"No, no," they cried back; "we will not submit to King Charles. Go back
+and tell him so, you messenger, and say that we claim the rule and
+dominion of whatever we win by our own strength and our swords."
+
+Hasting lost no time in communicating this message to the French and in
+urging a compromise. But Regnault called him a traitor, and would have
+none of his advice. He promptly attacked Rollo and his Norsemen, but
+suffered an overwhelming defeat. His army was cut to pieces, and he
+himself slain by a fisherman of Rouen who had attached himself to the
+invading force. Rollo followed up his victory by sailing up the river
+and laying siege to Paris; but the capital of France proved too strong
+for him and he had to retire to Rouen, whence he continued to havoc the
+surrounding country. He conquered the city of Bayeux and slew its ruler,
+Count Berenger, whose beautiful daughter, Popa, he married. Instead of
+organizing mere plundering expeditions, Rollo gradually changed his
+tactics and took permanent possession of the towns that fell into his
+hands. The peasants, too, who lived in the open country, found that it
+was their best policy to seek his friendship and pay him tribute, rather
+than rely upon the uncertain protection of the King of France. They had
+discovered before this that Rollo was a man whose word could be
+trusted--a lord of mighty will, who had a ruthless way of enforcing
+obedience, but was open-handed and generous withal to those who would
+serve his purposes.
+
+It could no longer be said with truth, as the vikings had said to
+Hasting, that they had no lord over them. Rollo, whose chieftainship had
+hitherto been based upon his genius for ruling, was now formally chosen
+king--a title which he later exchanged for that of Duke of Normandy. In
+Norway, previous to the conquests of Harold the Fair-haired, each
+province had had its king, who was not always hereditary, but was often
+chosen by the peasants themselves, because he possessed the qualities
+required of a leader. It was in accordance with the same custom that
+they now conferred kingship upon Rollo, whose valor, sagacity, and
+firmness of purpose had been amply proven. It was the power of the
+man--the weight and force of his personality--which they respected, no
+less than his clear-sightedness, his readiness of resource, and his
+skill in the rude statecraft of his age.
+
+[Illustration: Rollo the Ganger attacks Paris.]
+
+Encouraged by his previous successes, Rollo now made larger plans, and
+with the view to carrying them out, formed an alliance with some Danish
+vikings who had managed to effect a lodgement and maintain themselves
+for some years at the mouth of the Loire. Together they started upon an
+extensive campaign, the objective point of which was again Paris. But
+the powerful fortifications baffled the Norsemen, who possessed no
+machinery of destruction fit to cope with such defences. The siege had
+therefore to be abandoned. Dijon and Chartres also made a successful
+resistance. But a long chain of smaller cities surrendered, and the
+country was ravaged far and wide. The peasants took to the woods and
+refused to sow their fields, knowing that there was small chance of
+their reaping them. So desperate became the situation that nobles and
+peasants alike entreated the king to make peace with the Norsemen on
+whatever terms he could procure. The king was not unwilling to listen to
+such prayers. It occurred to him that in making a treaty with Rollo he
+would be killing two birds with one stone. He would not only be ridding
+France of a dangerous foe, but he might secure for himself a powerful
+friend who might help him keep the unruly nobles in order, and secure
+him in the possession of his shorn and reduced kingdom. With this end in
+view he invested Rollo with the sovereignty of his northern province,
+named after the Norsemen, Normandy, and conferred upon him the title of
+duke (912 A.D.). Rollo was to recognize Charles as his overlord, and
+defend him against external and internal foes; and he was to become a
+Christian and marry the king's daughter, Gisla. It is told, however,
+that when Rollo was required to kneel down and kiss the royal foot in
+token of fealty, he stoutly refused.
+
+"I will never bend my knee before any man," he said, "nor will I kiss
+anyone's foot."
+
+After much persuasion however, he permitted one of his men to perform
+the act of homage in his stead. His proxy stalked sullenly forward, and
+pausing before the king, who was on horseback, seized his foot and
+raised it to his lips. By this manoeuvre, the king came to make a
+somersault, at which there followed a great and disrespectful burst of
+laughter from the Norsemen.
+
+Shortly after the conclusion of this treaty Rollo was baptized, and his
+marriage to the Princess Gisla was celebrated with great pomp in the
+city of Rouen. His previous marriage to Popa does not seem to have
+caused him any scruple, though, as a matter of fact, he continued to
+regard the latter as his wife, and when Gisla died he resumed his
+marital relations with her, if indeed they had ever been interrupted.
+The princess had been to him nothing but a hostage from the king and a
+pledge of his good faith. But Popa, who was the mother of his son
+William, surnamed Longsword, he loved, and we do not hear that the fact
+that he had killed her father caused any serious trouble between them.
+
+As Duke of Normandy, Rollo exhibited a political insight and a genius
+for administration which in those turbulent days was certainly
+remarkable. He had the true welfare of his people at heart, and with a
+firm hand he maintained justice, protecting the weak, and restraining
+the strong. The laws which he made he enforced with stern impartiality,
+and no man could plead birth or privilege before him, if he wantonly
+offended. The farmers were Rollo's special care; for warrior though he
+was, he well knew that war is destructive, and that the prosperity of a
+land must be founded upon productive labor. The peasantry of Normandy
+were not slow to discover that they were better off under their new
+ruler than they ever had been under the old; and they rewarded Rollo
+with a sincere loyalty and devotion. Their confidence in his power to
+right wrong, became in the course of time half superstitious; and if any
+of them was in peril or suffered at the hands of his enemy, it became
+the fashion to shout: "Ha, Rou!"--Rou being a corruption of Raoul, the
+French form of Rolf or Rollo. Then it was the duty of everyone who heard
+this cry, to hasten to the aid of the sufferer or to pursue his
+assailant. It has been asserted that our "hurrah" is derived from this
+Norman shout, but I hold this to be more than doubtful.
+
+That Normandy was prosperous under the reign of Rollo, and that its
+people were contented, seems, however, to be well established. According
+to the legend, so great was the public security that property left on
+the highway could be found untouched after days and weeks; the farmer
+left his implements in the field without fear of losing them; and theft
+and robbery became comparatively rare. In a great measure this was, no
+doubt, due to the strict organization which Rollo introduced, and his
+insistence upon the personal accountability of each one of his subjects
+to himself. For he had learned one most important lesson from his enemy,
+Harold the Fair-haired. This king was the first to establish in Europe
+what is called the feudal system of land-tenure. He declared all land to
+be the property of the crown, and merely held in fief by the nominal
+owners. In recognition of the king's proprietorship, the latter,
+therefore, pledged themselves to pay a certain tribute, and to support
+the king in case of war, with a given number of armed men, in accordance
+with the size and value of their holdings. This same system Rollo is
+said to have introduced into Normandy, whence it spread over all Europe.
+Though we have now no more use for it, it proved a great and important
+element in the progress of civilization.
+
+Rollo the Ganger must have been nearly eighty years old when he died in
+927. His son, William Longsword, who succeeded him as Duke of Normandy,
+was a man of gentler disposition and in vigor and sagacity inferior to
+his father. Rollo's descendant in the fifth generation was William the
+Conqueror, who inherited in a larger measure the qualities of his great
+ancestor.
+
+[Signature: Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen.]
+
+
+
+
+LEIF ERICSON[5]
+
+         [Footnote 5: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN
+
+(About 1000)
+
+[Illustration: Leif Ericson.]
+
+
+The story of the Finding of Wineland the Good is contained, in somewhat
+differing versions, in two parchment books, the one belonging to the
+first, and the other to the last, quarter of the fourteenth century.
+Both agree in attributing the discovery to Leif the Lucky, the son of
+Eric the Red; though the Flatey Book says that he was induced to
+undertake this voyage by a certain Bjarne Herjulfson, who, having been
+driven out of his course by storms, had seen strange lands, but had not
+explored them.
+
+Leif's father, Eric the Red, was, like most Norsemen of his day, an
+unruly and turbulent man, whose sword sat loosely in its sheath. He was
+born about the middle of the tenth century at Jaederen, in Norway, but
+was outlawed on account of a manslaughter, and set sail for Iceland,
+where he married a certain Thorhild, the daughter of Jorund and
+Thorbjorg the Ship-chested. But the same high temper and quarrelsome
+spirit which had compelled him to leave Norway got him into trouble also
+in his new home. He was forced by blood-feuds and legal acts of
+banishment to change his abode repeatedly, and finally he was declared
+an outlaw. Knowing that his life was forfeited, Eric, as a last
+desperate chance, equipped a ship, and sailed "in search of that land
+which Gunbjoern, the son of Ulf the Crow, had seen when he was driven
+westward across the main;" and promised, in case he found it, to return
+and apprise his friends of the discovery. Fortune favored him, and he
+found a great, inhospitable continent, which (in order to allure
+colonists) he called Greenland; "for," he said, "men would be more
+easily persuaded thither, if the country had a good name." He landed in
+three or four places, but, being dissatisfied, broke up and started in
+search of more favorable localities. At the end of three years he
+returned to Iceland fought his foes and was defeated, but finally
+succeeded, by the backing of friends, in effecting a reconciliation with
+them. He spent the winter in Iceland, and sailed the following spring
+for Greenland, where he settled at a place called Brattahlid (Steep Lea)
+in Ericsfirth. Thirty-five ship-loads of people followed him, but only
+fourteen arrived safely. The remainder were shipwrecked, or driven back
+to Iceland.
+
+The interest now shifts from Eric to his son, Leif the Lucky, who
+becomes the hero of the Saga. Sixteen years after his father's
+settlement in Greenland, Leif, as behooved the son of a chieftain,
+equipped a ship and set out to see the world, and gather fortune and
+experience. He must then have been between twenty and twenty-five years
+old. He arrived in Drontheim, Norway, in the autumn, and met there King
+Olaf Tryggveson. The king, who had been baptized in England, was full of
+zeal for the Christian faith, and was employing every means in his power
+to christianize the country. But the peasantry, who were worshippers of
+Odin and Thor, refused to listen to him, and even compelled him to eat
+horse-flesh and participate in pagan rites. Under these circumstances it
+is not to be wondered at that he took kindly to the handsome young
+Icelander who displayed such an interest in the new religion, and
+listened attentively while the king expounded the faith to him. For Leif
+was a courteous and intelligent man, of fine presence, good address, and
+indomitable spirit. The king, says the Saga, "thought him a man of great
+accomplishments." It was not long before he concluded to accept
+Christianity, whereupon he was baptized, with all his shipmates. King
+Olaf then charged him to return to Iceland and induce the people to
+abandon idolatry and accept the true faith. Leif, knowing how deeply
+attached the Icelanders were to their old gods, was very reluctant to
+undertake this mission, but finally yielded to the king's persuasions,
+"provided the king would grant him the grace of his protection."
+
+He accordingly put to sea; but encountered heavy weather and was driven
+out of his course. For a long while he was tossed about by the tempest,
+until he came upon "lands of which he had previously no knowledge. There
+were self-sown wheat-fields and vines growing there. There were also
+those trees which are called _masur_ (maples?). And of all these things
+they took samples."
+
+The other version to which I have alluded is much more explicit, and
+recounts how Leif went to Greenland to visit his father, Eric the Red,
+and how there he heard the account of Bjarne Herjulfson's voyage, and of
+the unknown lands to the westward which he professed to have seen. The
+people, we read, blamed Bjarne for his lack of enterprise in failing to
+explore the territories of which he had caught glimpses, "so as to be
+able to bring some report of them." Leif, being of an adventurous
+spirit, was fired by this talk, and resolved to accomplish what the
+incurious Bjarne had left undone. He gathered together a crew of
+thirty-five men, and invited his father to command the expedition. Eric
+at first declined, saying that he was well stricken in years, and unable
+to endure the exposure of such a voyage. Leif insisted, however, that
+"he would be most apt to bring good luck," and the old man, yielding to
+his son's solicitation, mounted his horse and rode forth at the head of
+the ship-crew. But when he was nearing the beach, the horse stumbled and
+Eric was thrown and wounded his foot. This was held to be a bad omen,
+and as he was trying to rise, he exclaimed:
+
+"It is not destined that I shall discover any more lands than the one in
+which we are now living; nor can we now continue longer together."
+
+Leif, knowing persuasion to be vain, pursued his way alone, and embarked
+with his thirty-five shipmates.
+
+"When they were ready, they sailed out to sea and found first that land
+which Bjarne and his shipmates found last."
+
+It is not stated how long they had been at sea when this land was found.
+The account goes on as follows:
+
+"They sailed up to the land and cast anchor, and launched a boat and
+went ashore, and saw no grass there. Great ice mountains lay inland,
+back from the sea, and it was as a [table land of] flat rocks all the
+way from the sea to the ice mountains; and the country seemed to them to
+be entirely devoid of good qualities. Then said Leif: 'It has not come
+to pass with us in regard to this land as with Bjarne, that we have not
+gone upon it. To this country I will now give a name and call it
+Helluland' (_i.e._, The Land of Flat Rocks).
+
+"They returned to the ship and put out to sea, and found a second land.
+They sailed again to the land, came to anchor, launched a boat, and went
+ashore. This was a level wooded land, and there were broad stretches of
+white sand, where they went, and the land was level by the sea. Then
+said Leif: 'This land shall have a name according to its nature, and we
+will call it Markland' (_i.e._, Wood Land). They returned to the ship
+forthwith and sailed away upon the main, with northeast winds, and were
+out two 'doegr' before they sighted land. They sailed toward this land
+and came to an island which lay to the northward off the land. There
+they went ashore and looked about them, the weather being fine, and they
+observed that there was dew upon the grass; and it so happened that they
+touched the dew with their hands, and touched their hands to their
+mouths; and it seemed to them that they had never tasted anything so
+sweet as this. They went aboard their ship again, and sailed into a
+certain sound, which lay between the island and a cape which jutted out
+from the land on the north, and they stood in westering past the cape.
+At ebb-tide there were broad stretches of shallow water there, and they
+ran their ship aground; and it was a long distance from the ship to the
+ocean. Yet were they so anxious to go ashore that they could not wait
+until the tide should rise under their ship, but hastened to the land,
+where a certain river flows out from a lake. As soon as the tide rose
+beneath their ship, however, they took the boat and rowed to the ship,
+which they towed up the river, and then into the lake, where they cast
+anchor and carried their hammocks ashore, and built themselves booths
+there. They afterward determined to establish themselves there for the
+winter, and they accordingly built a large house. There was no lack of
+salmon either in the river or in the lake, and larger salmon than they
+had ever seen before. The country thereabouts seemed to be possessed of
+such good qualities that cattle would need no fodder there during the
+winter. There was no frost there during the winter, and the grass
+withered but little. The days and the nights were of more nearly equal
+length than in Greenland or Iceland."
+
+Now follows an account of the exploring parties which Leif sent out,
+some of which he joined, while at other times he remained behind to
+guard the house. Here occurs, with curious abruptness, this graphic bit
+of characterization: "Leif was a large and powerful man, and of most
+imposing bearing, a man of sagacity, and a very just man in all things."
+
+A very pretty incident is now related of the German Tyrker, who had been
+one of the thralls of Eric the Red, and of whom Leif was very fond. It
+was the custom in the households of Norse chiefs to give children into
+the special charge of a trusted thrall, who was then styled the child's
+foster-father. Sometimes the thrall was presented to the child as a
+"tooth-gift," _i.e._, in commemoration of its cutting its first tooth.
+
+"It was discovered one evening that one of their company was missing;
+and this proved to be Tyrker, the German. Leif was sorely troubled by
+this; for Tyrker had lived with Leif and his father for a long time, and
+had been very devoted to Leif when he was a child. Leif severely
+reprimanded his companions and prepared to go in search of him. They had
+proceeded but a short distance from the house when they were met by
+Tyrker, whom they received most cordially. Leif observed at once that
+his foster-father was in lively spirits.... Leif addressed him and
+asked: 'Wherefore art thou so belated, foster-father mine, and astray
+from the others?'
+
+"In the beginning Tyrker spoke for some time in German, rolling his
+eyes, and grinning, and they could not understand him. But after a time
+he addressed them in the Norse tongue.
+
+"'I did not go much farther [than you]; yet I have something novel to
+relate. I have found grapes and vines.'
+
+"'Is this indeed true, foster-father?' asked Leif.
+
+"'Of a certainty it is true' replied he; 'for I was born where there is
+no lack of either grapes or vines.'
+
+"They slept the night through, and on the morrow Leif said to his
+shipmates:
+
+"'We will now divide our labors; and each day will either gather grapes,
+or cut vines, or fell trees, so as to obtain a cargo of these for my
+ship.'
+
+"They acted upon this advice, and it is said that their after-boat was
+filled with grapes. A cargo sufficient for the ship was cut, and when
+the spring came they made their ship ready and sailed away. And from its
+products Leif gave the land a name and called it Wineland.
+
+"They sailed out to sea and had fair winds until they sighted Greenland,
+and the fells below the glacier; then one of the men spoke up and said:
+'Why do you steer the ship so close to the wind?' Leif answered: 'I have
+my mind upon my steering and upon other matters as well. Do you not see
+anything out of the common?' They replied that they saw nothing unusual.
+'I do not know,' says Leif, 'whether it is a ship or a skerry that I
+see.' Now they saw it, and said that it must be a skerry. But he was so
+much more sharp-sighted than they, that he was able to discern men upon
+the skerry. 'I think it best to tack,' says Leif, 'so that we may draw
+near to them and be able to render them assistance, if they stand in
+need of it. And if they should not be peaceably disposed, we shall have
+better command of the situation than they.'
+
+[Illustration: Leif Ericson off the Coast of Vineland.]
+
+"They approached the skerry, and lowering their sail, cast anchor and
+launched a second small boat, which they had brought with them.
+Tyrker inquired who was the leader of the party. He replied that his
+name was Thare, and that he was a Norwegian. 'But what is thy name?'
+Leif gave his name. 'Art thou a son of Eric the Red, of Brattahlid?'
+says he. Leif replied that he was. 'It is now my wish,' Leif continued,
+'to take you all into my ship, and likewise as much of your possessions
+as the ship will hold.'
+
+"This offer was accepted, and [with their ship] thus laden, they held
+their course toward Ericsfirth, and sailed until they arrived at
+Brattahlid. Having discharged his cargo, Leif invited Thare, with his
+wife, Gudrid, and three others to make their home with him, and procured
+quarters for the other members of the crew, both for his own and Thare's
+men. Leif rescued fifteen men from the skerry. He was from that time
+forth called Leif the Lucky."
+
+The time of Leif's voyage to Wineland has been fixed at 1000 A.D. For we
+learn that it took place while Olaf Tryggveson (995-1000 A.D.) was king
+in Norway; and scarcely less than four or five years could have elapsed
+since Leif's first meeting with the king in Drontheim, shortly after the
+death of his predecessor, Earl Hakon.
+
+The remainder of the Saga of Eric the Red is occupied with an account of
+the successive Wineland voyages of Thorwald Ericson, the brother of
+Leif, Thorfinn Karlsefne, and of Leif's sister, Freydis, who was as
+quarrelsome, proud, and pugnacious as her father. The Indians (called by
+the Norsemen Skrellings), who had failed to disturb Leif, made
+demonstrations of hostility against Thorfinn Karlsefne, and after the
+loss of several of his men, compelled him to abandon the attempt at a
+permanent settlement.
+
+The tradition of these Wineland voyages continued, however, to be
+transmitted from generation to generation in Iceland, and in the early
+part of the fourteenth century was committed to writing.
+
+It will be seen that the saga to which I have referred was not written
+primarily with a view to establish Leif's claim to be the discoverer of
+Wineland. In the first place the story, in the shape in which we have
+it, is more than a century and a half older than the Columbian
+discovery, and there could, accordingly, be no great glory in having
+found a country which had since been lost. Secondly, the saga is (like
+most Icelandic sagas) a family chronicle, purporting to relate all
+matters of interest pertaining to the race of Eric the Red. The Wineland
+voyages are treated as remarkable incidents in this chronicle, but they
+hardly occupy any more space than properly belongs to them in a family
+history which is concerned with a great many other things besides. The
+importance of this as corroborating the authenticity of the narrative,
+can scarcely be over-estimated.
+
+[Signature: Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen.]
+
+
+
+
+HAROLD, KING OF ENGLAND
+
+(1022-1066)
+
+[Illustration: Harold, King of England.]
+
+
+Harold II., the last of the native English kings, was the second son of
+Earl Godwin by his Danish wife Gytha, the sister of Earl Ulf, and was
+born about 1022. At an early age he was made Earl of the East Angles and
+he shared his father's outlawry in 1051, finding a refuge in Ireland.
+Next year, together with his brother Leofwin, he crossed the Channel
+with nine ships, defeated the men of Somerset and Devon at Porlock, and
+ravaged the country, next joined his father at Portland, and shared the
+triumph of his return. Harold was at once restored to his earldom, and
+next year (1053) succeeded to his father's earldom of the West Saxons.
+Henceforward he was the right hand of King Edward, and still more after
+the deaths of the old Earls Leofric and Siward, he directed the whole
+affairs of the kingdom, with an unusual union of gentleness and vigor.
+His brother Tostig succeeded Siward as Earl of the Northumbrians in
+1055, and two years later two other brothers were raised to earldoms:
+Gurth to that of the East Anglians, Leofwin to one formed out of Essex,
+Kent, and the other shires round about London. Meantime Harold drove
+back the Welsh marauders of King Griffith out of Herefordshire, and
+added that post of danger to his earldom. The death in 1057 of the
+AEtheling Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside, who had been brought back
+from Hungary as heir to the throne, opened up the path for Harold's
+ambition, and from this time men's eyes rested on him as their future
+king. And nature had equalled fortune in her kindness, for his handsome
+and stalwart figure and his gentle and conciliatory temper were kingly
+qualities that sat well upon his sagacity, his military skill, and his
+personal courage. Harold's policy throughout was thoroughly English,
+contrary to the predominant French influences that had governed the
+early part of Edward's reign. He was English in everything, even to his
+preference for secular priests to monks. He made his pilgrimage to Rome
+in 1058, and after his return completed his church at Waltham, known
+later as Waltham Abbey. In 1063, provoked by the fresh incursions of
+Griffith, he marched against him, and by making his men put off their
+heavy armor and weapons, and adopt the Welshmen's own tactics, he was
+able to traverse the whole country, and beat the enemy at every point.
+Griffith was killed by his own people, whereupon Harold gave the
+government to the dead king's brothers, Bleddyn and Rhiwallon, who swore
+oaths of fealty both to King Edward and to himself.
+
+It is impossible to say exactly at what date occurred that famous visit
+of Harold to the court of Duke William, in Normandy, of the results of
+which the Norman writers make so much, although with many
+contradictions, while the English writers, with the most marked and
+careful unanimity, say nothing at all. It seems most likely that Harold
+did make some kind of oath to William, most probably under compulsion,
+when he had fallen into his hands after being shipwrecked on the coast
+of Ponthieu, and imprisoned by its Count Guy. Mr. Freeman thinks the
+most probable date to be 1064. It is at least certain that Harold helped
+William in a war with the Bretons, and in the Bayeux tapestry we see his
+stalwart form lifting up two Normans at once when they were in danger of
+being swept away by the river Coesnon, which divides Normandy from
+Brittany. The Norman writers make Harold formally swear fealty to
+William, promising to marry one of his daughters, and we are told that
+additional sanctity was given to this oath by its being made upon a
+chest full of the most sacred relics.
+
+In 1065, the Northumbrians rebelled against the rule of Tostig, and
+Harold found himself compelled, between policy and a sense of justice,
+to side with them, and to acquiesce in their choice of Morcar and the
+banishment of Tostig. At the beginning of 1066 King Edward died, his
+last breath being to recommend that Harold should be chosen king. He was
+crowned on January 6th, and at once set himself with steadfast energy to
+consolidate his kingdom. At York he won over the reluctant men of
+Northumbria, and he next married Ealdgyth, Griffith's widow, in order to
+secure the alliance of her brothers, Morcar and Edwin. His short reign
+of forty weeks and one day was occupied with incessant vigilance against
+the attacks of two formidable enemies at once. Duke William lost no time
+in beginning his preparations for the invasion of England, and Tostig,
+after trying the Normans and the Scots, and filibustering along the
+coasts on his own account, succeeded in drawing to his side the famous
+Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. In the month of September the two
+reached the Humber, and Harold marched to meet them, resting neither day
+nor night. The Icelandic historian, Snorro, in his dramatic narrative of
+the fight, tells how Harold rode out accompanied with twenty of his
+housecarls to have speech with Earl Tostig, and offer him peace; and
+when asked what amends King Hardrada should have for his trouble in
+coming, replied, "Seven feet of the ground of England, or more
+perchance, seeing he is taller than other men." At Stamford Bridge
+Harold overtook his enemy, and after a bloody struggle won a complete
+victory (September 25, 1066), both Tostig and Harold Hardrada being
+among the slain. But four days later Duke William landed at Pevensey.
+Harold marched southward with the utmost haste, bringing with him the
+men of Wessex and East Anglia, and the earldoms of his brothers; but the
+two earls, Edwin and Morcar, held aloof and kept back the men of the
+north, although some of the men of Mercia, in the earldom of Edwin,
+followed their king to the fatal struggle which was fought out from
+nine in the morning till past nightfall, on October 14, 1066. The
+English fought with the most stubborn courage, and the battle was only
+lost by their allowing the pretended flight of the Normans to draw them
+from their impregnable position on the crest of the hill, ringed with an
+unbroken shield wall. On its slope, right in front of the Norman army,
+waved the golden dragon of Wessex, as well as the king's own standard, a
+fighting man wrought upon it in gold. Here Harold stood with his mighty
+two-handed axe, and hewed down the Normans as they came. Before
+nightfall he fell, pierced through the eye with an arrow. His housecarls
+fought where they stood till they fell one by one; his brothers, Gurth
+and Leofwin, died beside him. The king's body was found upon the field,
+recognized only by a former mistress, the fair Eadgyth Swanneshals
+("Edith of the swan's neck").
+
+At first, William ordered it to be buried on the rocks at Hastings, but
+seems after to have permitted it to be removed to Harold's own church at
+Waltham. Than Harold, no braver or more heroic figure ever filled a
+throne; no king ever fought more heroically for his crown. If he failed,
+it was because he had to bow his head to fate, and in his death he saved
+all the honor of his family and his race. His tragic story has given a
+subject for a romance to Lytton, and for a stately drama to Tennyson.
+
+[Illustration: Edith searching for the Body of Harold.]
+
+
+
+
+THE CID
+
+By HENRY G. HEWLETT
+
+(1026-1099)
+
+[Illustration: The Cid.]
+
+
+The narratives concerning the life and exploits of the Cid are, to a
+great extent, merely poetic. Yet it has been wisely said, that much
+which must be rejected as not fact may still be accepted as truth; that
+is, there is often to be found under the husks of legend and myth, a
+sound kernel of historical reality. This may be the case with respect to
+the Cid, who probably was a warrior so remarkable for genius or bravery
+above his fellows that he gathered up in a single fame the reputation of
+many others, with whose deeds he was credited, and whom, as a class, he
+accordingly represents in history.
+
+Spain, long one of the most flourishing provinces of the Roman Empire,
+was among the first to fall under the sway of the Visigoths, a warlike
+but enlightened race, which soon embraced Christianity. For three
+centuries the country remained under Gothic rule, but fell, in 712,
+by the invasion of the Arabian conquerors of Africa--a remnant of
+Christians only preserving an independent monarchy in the mountains of
+Asturia. This little seed of freedom grew and bore fruit. France proved
+a formidable barrier against further invasion; and in Spain itself
+internal jealousies among the Arab families weakened the Moslem and
+strengthened the Christian power. In the eleventh century there were
+several states in Spain wholly unfettered by a foreign yoke. The enmity
+between the two races and creeds was bitter, and war raged perpetually.
+Yet it often happened that, at the prompting of private revenge or
+family quarrels, alliances were made between kingdoms thus naturally
+opposed to each other. A recollection of this fact is essential to a
+clear understanding of Spanish history at this period.
+
+At the commencement of the eleventh century the chief Christian states
+of Spain became, through divers marriages, united under one king,
+Sancho, who died in 1034 dividing his territories among his three sons:
+of whom Garcia took Navarre, Ferdinand, Castile, and Ramirez, Aragon.
+Leon, the remaining Christian monarchy, was ruled by Bermudez III.,
+whose sister Ferdinand of Castile had married. Just as this apparent
+junction of interest occurred among the warriors of the Cross, the
+greatest confusion prevailed among those of the Crescent. The mighty
+house of the Ommiades--perhaps the most illustrious of the factions into
+which the successors of the Prophet were divided--no longer commanded
+the allegiance of the Arabs of Spain. Its last prince fled, and the
+chief cities fell into the hands of independent lords, who constituted
+themselves petty Emirs in their own dominions. Instead, however, of
+taking full advantage of this state of anarchy to extend their united
+power, the Christian kings weakened each other by unnatural and deadly
+quarrels. Ferdinand, King of Castile, seems to have been the principal
+aggressor. His great captain in his wars, both with Moslem and Christian
+states, was Rodrigo Laynez, who was called also by the Spaniards Ruy
+Diaz de Rivar, from the name of his birthplace, and by the Arabs _El
+Sayd_ (Lord), which has been altered into Cid. He was probably born
+about the year 1026, or rather later, at the Castle of Rivar, near
+Burgos, in Old Castile, of a noble but not wealthy family. He joined the
+army of Ferdinand, and rose by his talents, strength, and courage to the
+highest place in that king's service. Among the romantic stories told of
+his early career is one concerning his marriage, which forms the subject
+of a popular ballad. The father of Rodrigo, having been injured by a
+Count Gomez, the young knight defied the latter to a duel and slew him.
+The count's daughter, Ximena, in a storm of grief and rage, flew to the
+king, and cried for vengeance on Rodrigo, who met her face to face, and
+awaited the result of her entreaties.
+
+No one, however, was hardy enough to offer himself as the damsel's
+champion against so doughty a warrior, and Rodrigo calmly retired. His
+manly bearing and fame won him a place in the very heart which he had so
+deeply offended; and, with truly Spanish impetuosity, Ximena gave him,
+not only pardon, but love. She again repaired to the king and asked
+leave to bestow her hand upon the knight, urging the curious plea that
+she foresaw he would one day be the most powerful subject in the realm.
+Informed of this request, of which the king approved, Rodrigo consented
+to the marriage, as an act of obedience to his sovereign and of justice
+to the lady. The meeting of this strangely matched pair is thus
+described in the ballad (Lockhart's translation):
+
+  "But when the fair Ximena came forth to plight her hand,
+   Rodrigo, gazing on her, his face could not command:
+   He stood, and blushed before her: thus at the last said he,
+  'I slew thy sire, Ximena, but not in villany:
+   In no disguise I slew him; man against man I stood;
+   There was some wrong between us, and I did shed his blood:
+   I slew a man; I owe a man; fair lady, by God's grace,
+   An honored husband shalt thou have in thy dead father's place.'"
+
+It is unfortunate that this charming story is supposed to have but
+little foundation in fact. Many of Rodrigo's legendary exploits are
+still less authentic; but history and fable unite in declaring him a
+warrior of no common stamp. His master, King Ferdinand, as we have said,
+invaded the territories of his brothers and friends, besides those of
+his enemies. Garcia, Ramirez, and Bermudez successively fell before his
+attacks, which Rodrigo, in the true spirit of knightly obedience to his
+lord, did not hesitate to lead. Sancho, the king's eldest son, was
+Rodrigo's most intimate friend; and on the accession of the prince to
+his father's throne on the death of Ferdinand, in 1065, Rodrigo became
+Campeador (or, as the Arabs call him, _El Cambitur_); that is, head of
+the army. The new king followed in his father's courses of injustice,
+and drove his brother, Alfonso, King of Leon, into exile.
+
+[Illustration: The Cid ordering the Execution of Ahmed.]
+
+In 1072 Sancho besieged Zamora, which one of his sisters, whom he had
+likewise despoiled, held out against him. The king was killed during the
+siege, and, as it was suspected, by the agency of his exiled brother,
+Alfonso, who succeeded to the throne. Rodrigo felt his friend's death
+deeply, and did not scruple to avow his suspicions of Alfonso. Before
+promising allegiance, the Campeador insisted that the king should
+cleanse himself by an oath of the accusation which popular rumor had
+brought against him. To this Alfonso, whether innocent or guilty, not
+unnaturally demurred; but the powerful warrior was firm, and the king at
+last yielded. When the appointed day arrived, Alfonso made his
+appearance, surrounded by his courtiers, all obsequiously vying in
+praise of his glory and virtue, and contemptuous denunciations of his
+daring accuser. Rodrigo stood alone and gazed on the king sternly. Some
+of the nobles endeavored to dissuade him from holding this attitude of
+opposition, and to induce him to forego the demand which he had made;
+but he put them aside and repeated his challenge. Alfonso dared not
+refuse to accept, and accordingly recited aloud the form of oath
+prescribed on such occasions, affirming, in the presence of his maker
+and the saints of heaven, that he was guiltless of the death of his
+brother. He had no sooner concluded than all eyes were turned upon the
+Cid, who, in deep, solemn tones, and with the most impressive
+earnestness of manner, imprecated on the head of his king every curse
+that heaven or hell could inflict, if, in taking that oath, he had
+committed perjury. The awed assembly then broke up. Rodrigo, from that
+hour, was hated by the king and shunned by the court.
+
+Yet, aware of the Cid's value, Alfonso seems to have concealed his
+resentment for some time, and even endeavored to win the affection of
+his great subject by allying him in marriage with one of the royal
+family. Rodrigo's wife was now dead, and he consented to marry the
+princess proposed to him, whose name was also Ximena. The marriage took
+place in 1074. It had not the effect, however, of uniting the king and
+the Cid. After having achieved a brilliant success over the Arabs of
+Granada, who were at war with two other Moslem states in alliance with
+Castile, and having signalized his humanity by releasing all his
+prisoners, the great Campeador was disgraced and banished by his
+ungrateful master. At the court of the Emir of Saragossa the exile found
+a ready welcome, and was appointed to a high post in the government of
+the kingdom. He did not bear arms against his own sovereign, but headed
+the Arabs in several battles with the Christians of Aragon and other
+states. The invasion of a Moorish host in Spain, under the eminent
+Caliph Jusef Ben Taxfin, chief of the Almoravides and conqueror of
+Morocco; the rapid subjugation of the independent Emirs, and the defeat
+of Alfonso's army at the battle of Zalaka, in 1087, recalled the
+Castilians to a sense of Rodrigo's worth. He was invited to return by
+Alfonso, and with great generosity consented, bringing with him a large
+body of men raised by his own exertion and cost. For two years he made
+his name terrible to the Moors, as the great Christian champion.
+
+But even this fame was not sufficient to secure his influence at court,
+and about the year 1090 he was once more banished, and his estates were
+seized. He appears from this time to have commenced a life of
+adventurous and independent warfare with the Moors. He besieged Alcocer,
+a strong Moorish fortress on the borders of Aragon, and finally took it.
+With a band of determined warriors of his own stamp he ravaged,
+consumed, and spoiled all the Moslem territories which he invaded,
+making a castle on a rock in Ternel his chief stronghold, and thence
+sallying out in forays. The place has been ever since called the Rock of
+the Cid.
+
+The last and greatest achievement of this hero was the taking of
+Valencia. This city was in the hands of a Moslem prince, Alcadir by
+name, who had refused to acknowledge the authority of Jusef and the
+Almoravides over Spain, which they were attempting to subdue. The Cid,
+either as an ally of Alcadir, or from motives of policy, assisted him in
+the defence of the city; but it was taken through the treachery of its
+Cadi, Ahmed. For this service, the traitor was made governor in the room
+of Alcadir, who fell fighting bravely. A kinsman of the betrayed king
+determined to avenge his death, and asked the Cid's aid, which was
+promptly given. The Arabian historians relate that Ahmed yielded after a
+brief siege, on conditions of safety for himself and family. It is
+further related that this promise was faithlessly broken, and the guilty
+Ahmed sentenced by Rodrigo to be burned alive for his crimes. The
+Christian historians happily acquit the Cid's memory of this barbarity;
+but all unite in recording the successful siege of the city, which he
+took in 1094. While he lived, the Moors vainly tried to retake it; but
+on his death, which is supposed to have occurred in 1099, Valencia again
+fell. Romance has colored with glowing tints this scanty historic
+outline of the Cid's life. Spanish literature, for two or three hundred
+years after his death, is almost confined to epic or ballad poetry, of
+which he is the hero. To acquire such a fame demanded a force of
+character, which, if not accurately painted by these loving and fanciful
+narrators, cannot have fallen far short of the glory with which the
+world will forever associate the name of the Cid Campeador.
+
+
+
+
+ST. BERNARD
+
+By HENRY G. HEWLETT
+
+(1091-1153)
+
+[Illustration: St. Bernard.]
+
+
+In 1091, when the career of the Cid was drawing to a close in Spain, a
+yet greater Christian champion was born in France; greater, if only in
+this, that the weapons of his warfare were not carnal. That the work was
+good in itself, we think will be clear from a perusal of the life of the
+warrior-monk, St. Bernard.
+
+His birthplace was Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy; his father,
+Tecelin, a knight of honorable reputation, and so absorbed in his
+profession that he was compelled to leave the care of his seven sons, of
+whom Bernard was the third, to his wife Aleth. She was a pious and
+gentle woman, strictly attached to the duties of religion, and anxious
+for the spiritual rather than the temporal welfare of her children, whom
+she therefore devoted to the cloister. A dream, it is said, had
+indicated to her the future fame of her third son, before his birth. He
+rapidly displayed signs of possessing no ordinary character. His
+education was undertaken by the then celebrated school of Chantillon and
+the University of Paris, where he remained some years, actively pursuing
+his studies. His mother died soon after his return home, and he then
+proceeded to fulfil her wish, which accorded with his own, of becoming a
+monk. His father and friends endeavored to dissuade him from this step,
+but instead, he persuaded five of his brothers and twenty-five other
+friends to join him in the career which he had chosen. His father and
+remaining brothers subsequently followed him, and the whole family took
+monastic vows. Bernard did not select for his abode one of those
+monasteries whose wealth and splendor had corrupted the intention of
+their founders, and softened the severity of the original discipline.
+His motive was truly religious, and took the superstitious form then
+almost inseparable from earnest piety. He and his comrades entered the
+poor convent of Citeaux, near Dijon, where the rules of life enjoined by
+St. Benedict in the sixth century were observed with great rigor.
+Frequent watchings, fasts, bleedings, and scourgings, for the purpose of
+mortifying the body; abstinence from conversation or laughter; habits of
+perpetual devotion, laborious exertion, and humble obedience to the
+abbot, were the main features of the system. Bernard undertook the
+duties of his office with such incessant zeal, and displayed such
+amazing control over his appetites, that he seriously weakened his
+health, but at the same time enlarged his reputation to such an extent
+that the convent became overcrowded with the number of those whom he had
+attracted thither. He was therefore appointed, after three years'
+residence at Citeaux, to head a colony of monks which was to be fixed in
+the valley of Clairvaux--a desolate though beautiful spot in the
+bishopric of Langres. The tears of their brethren accompanied the
+departure of Bernard and the twelve others who composed the band. It was
+in the year 1115, and at the age of twenty-six, that he was made Abbot
+of Clairvaux. His appearance at the consecration is described as that of
+a corpse rather than a man, so emaciated with the rigors of devotion had
+he become. He had frequent visions, perhaps from his weakness, in one of
+which he imagined that the Virgin Mary herself appeared to him. The
+privations of the members of his little colony were most severe. The
+season for sowing had been spent in building the convent, and when the
+winter came they were reduced to little better than starvation. Coarse
+bread and beech-leaves steeped in salt were their only food. This scanty
+sustenance, together with the strict adherence to the Benedictine rule,
+in which Bernard still persisted, so shattered his health, that the
+bishop of the diocese, who was his personal friend, at last interfered,
+and released him from the active duties of abbot. But as soon as a brief
+respite had restored his strength, Bernard renewed his self-mortifying
+practices. A fresh attack of illness followed, and he was obliged
+permanently to relax his habits. In after-years he lamented the error
+into which his early enthusiasm and mistaken zeal had led him, the
+effects of which greatly marred his future influence for good.
+
+Though debarred from laboring in his own sphere, Bernard's energetic
+mind would not let him rest, and he began from this time to exercise
+the power which his reputation for sanctity had brought him, in
+political life. He well knew the nature of the position which he was
+thus enabled to take, and did not shrink from its perils. "Bernard!
+wherefore art thou here on earth?" is said to have been his
+constant self-appeal. Poor and unarmed, a priest or monk in those
+days had nothing wherewith to oppose the tyranny of the powerful
+nobility, save the weapons of religion and intellect. How
+righteously they could be used we shall see in the case of Bernard.
+In repeated instances he interposed the weight of his authority
+between the anger of a king or noble and the weakness of a subject
+or tenant, and scarcely ever failed in his object. One of the most
+remarkable examples of this kind was his conduct toward the Count of
+Aquitaine. This nobleman, a man of immense strength of will no less
+than body, and violent and despotic beyond his fellows, having
+espoused the cause of one rival Pope against another, dismissed from
+their sees several excellent bishops in his territory who were
+adverse to his views, and supplied their places without regard to
+fitness of character. Bernard, having twice remonstrated in vain,
+after the last interview held a solemn mass in the church near the
+count's castle, at which that nobleman, as excommunicated, could not
+be present, but stood outside. The consecration of the wafer was
+duly performed, and the blessing bestowed upon the people, when
+Bernard suddenly made his way through the crowd, bearing in his hand
+the Host on its paten (or plate), and confronted the astonished
+count as he stood at the church door amid his soldiery. With pale,
+stern face, and flashing eyes, the daring monk thus addressed the
+haughty chief: "Twice have the Lord's servants entreated you, and
+you have despised them. Lo! now the blessed Son of the Virgin--the
+Head and Lord of that Church which you persecute--appears to you!
+Behold your Judge, to whom your soul must be rendered! Will you
+reject Him like His servants?" A hush of awe and expectation among
+the bystanders followed these words, broken by a groan from the
+conscience-stricken count, whose imagination was filled with such
+lively terror of Divine wrath that he fell fainting to the ground.
+Though raised up by his men, he again fell speechless. Bernard,
+seizing the opportunity, called to his side one of the deposed
+bishops, and on the count's recovery ordered that the kiss of
+reconciliation should be bestowed, and the exile restored. The
+effect of this scene was not transient, for the proud spirit had
+been subdued in the count's heart, and he performed penance for his
+offences by going on pilgrimage.
+
+[Illustration: The Vision of St. Bernard.]
+
+Various other instances of Bernard's boldness in rebuking kings, nobles,
+and even Popes, might be adduced. His most remarkable appearance as a
+political peace-maker was in the dispute which took place after the
+death of Pope Honorius II., as to the succession to the popedom. Two
+rival factions at Rome contended for the claims of separate candidates:
+one a wealthy and worldly, the other a learned and pious, cardinal.
+Bernard, as we may suppose, supported the cause of the latter, who took
+the name of Innocent II. At the council of Etampes, where Louis VI. of
+France and his nobles were assembled, the monk's eloquence prevailed
+over all the arguments of diplomacy, and the influence of France was
+pledged to the side of Innocent. Bernard next engaged aid from Henry I.,
+of England, and Lothaire, the Emperor of Germany. He then proceeded to
+Milan, where the party of the rival Pope, Anaclete, and his supporter,
+Conrad, Duke of Suabia, Lothaire's antagonist, was strongest. Bernard's
+fame was so great, and the imaginations of those who beheld him so
+fascinated by his force of will, that on his way the sick were carried
+forth to meet him, and numerous miracles were said to be wrought by the
+touch of his garments. In Milan, through his eloquence, Anaclete's party
+was completely vanquished, and the Milanese so impressed that they
+offered to displace their archbishop in Bernard's favor. But on this and
+other occasions he steadily refused any such rank, content to live and
+die in a sphere where he could be more useful, if less exalted. He
+returned to France, after a lengthened absence, in 1135, meeting on his
+way with a royal reception.
+
+He was once more absorbed in the duties of his office, as Abbot of
+Clairvaux, when again summoned to Italy by Innocent II., to oppose the
+power of Roger, the Norman King of Sicily, whose aid Anaclete had
+obtained. Bernard first passed into Germany, and successfully mediated
+between the emperor and the Suabian princes, inducing the latter to
+relinquish their rebellion. Lothaire was then prevailed upon to aid
+Innocent by force of arms, while Bernard proceeded to employ force of
+intellect in the same service. He first won over by his arguments many
+of Anaclete's chief supporters, and then accepted a challenge which King
+Roger threw out, to dispute publicly in the Court of Salerno as to the
+claims of the rival Popes, with Anaclete's champion, Cardinal Pietro di
+Pisa. At this public contest Bernard not only confuted, but converted,
+the cardinal, and reconciled him to Innocent. With Roger, Bernard was
+not so successful, and a battle ensued between the armies of the
+contending Popes. Innocent was captured, but contrived to make favorable
+terms with Roger; and a peace was agreed to, which was finally ratified
+by the death of Anaclete, in 1138. Another anti-pope having been set up,
+Bernard used his personal influence with the pretender, and induced him
+to yield. Thus the schism in the Church was healed, and the good abbot
+returned to Clairvaux.
+
+In 1146 he was mainly instrumental in promoting the second crusade. News
+reached Europe that, two years before, the Christian state of Edessa
+(which, as we have already seen, was founded by Baldwin, brother of
+Godfrey de Bouillon) had, through the weakness of its government, fallen
+into the hands of the Sultan of Bagdad, and Jerusalem was again in
+peril. Inflamed with enthusiasm, Bernard stirred up the hearts of his
+countrymen to zeal in the cause of the Cross. Louis VII., of France, was
+readily persuaded to undertake the crusade as a penance for his crimes;
+but the Emperor Conrad, of Germany, was indisposed to exertion; and to
+him, therefore, Bernard hastened, rousing the people of France and
+Germany as he travelled through. The frozen reluctance of the monarch
+could not withstand the fiery earnestness of the monk. Conrad is said to
+have dissolved into tears at the discourse, and eagerly accepted the
+cross which was offered. While in Germany Bernard showed his liberality
+of thought--rare in those days--by sternly rebuking the ignorance of a
+monk who was denouncing the Jews as the cause of the recent calamities.
+At the council of Vezelay (in Burgundy), held in 1146, Bernard's
+eloquence was as exciting in its influence on his hearers as that of
+Pope Urban had been on a previous occasion. As the speaker, at the end
+of his oration, held up the cross which was to be the badge of the
+enterprise, Louis VII. threw himself at the feet of his subject, and the
+whole assembly thronged round him, shouting the old war-cry, "It is
+God's will!" Bernard distributed to thousands of eager hands all the
+crosses which he had brought with him; and finding these insufficient
+for the demand, took off the Benedictine robe which he wore, and tore it
+into cross-shaped pieces. So impressed were the chiefs of the crusading
+army with his power over the people, that at a subsequent assembly they
+even offered the command of the expedition to him--an unwarlike monk.
+
+He declined the post on the ground of unfitness, but had he accepted it,
+the issue of the crusades might have been different from what it was.
+His authority would at least have kept in check the discords, perfidies,
+and excesses to which he, probably with justice, afterward attributed
+the failure of the enterprise. From these causes, together with a fatal
+incapacity on the part of the French and German generals, the second
+crusade resulted in nothing but the wholesale massacre of the Christian
+armies by the Turks. Bernard, who had predicted the success of the
+expedition, was deeply distressed at the unfortunate result; the more
+as, with great injustice, the weight of popular indignation fell upon
+him and seriously damaged his influence. This disappointment, however,
+did not discourage him, and only served to concentrate his attention for
+the rest of his life on the more immediate duties of his calling.
+
+These he had never neglected, even while immersed in religious politics.
+By advice and example he greatly reformed the discipline of monastic
+life. He continually preached in his own convent; and, either personally
+or through agents, is said to have founded upward of sixty monasteries
+in alliance with Clairvaux. Among them the Hospice of Mount St. Bernard,
+in Switzerland, has distinguished itself by loving deeds worthy of its
+founder. Bernard was an eminent theologian, both in theory and practice,
+and many of his works are extant. They disclose very forcibly his strong
+intellect and warm heart. Many of his opinions were most liberal for his
+age, and he rejected several tenets, on which the Roman Catholic Church
+has since insisted, with a decision which would have ranked him among
+heretics had he lived a few centuries later. He manifested,
+nevertheless, a want of freedom in his conduct toward the great Abelard,
+who in that age represented the true Protestant spirit of inquiry into
+the received doctrines of the Church. Against this daring thinker
+Bernard unjustifiably employed the weight of authority which he
+possessed, to silence what he deemed a dangerous boldness of opinion.
+Toward Abelard personally, however, he displayed nothing but generous
+and respectful courtesy, even in the heat of controversy; and it is
+satisfactory to know that a cordial interchange of kindly feeling passed
+between these two eminent men long before their deaths.
+
+Many of Bernard's wise and good deeds are recorded, which cannot be
+noticed here. We may refer to but one, which greatly influenced the
+world for centuries after his death; namely, the sanction and aid which
+he gave to the establishment of the Knight-Templars, a body of
+soldier-priests, who devoted their lives to the preservation of the
+Holy Places and the protection of pilgrims. Had they faithfully adhered
+to the statutes which he drew up for their conduct, the exhibition of
+zeal which they were designed to make might have been as blessed to
+Christendom as their arrogance was cursed.
+
+A few years before his death, Bernard had the gratification of seeing
+one of his own disciples raised to the papal chair, as Pope Eugenius
+III. The new pontiff recognized his master's authority no less than
+before his accession, and Bernard's counsel and influence were
+repeatedly used in his behalf. But the over-activity of the good abbot
+too soon decayed the slender strength which his firm will had wrested,
+as it were, from death in a hand-to-hand struggle that lasted for more
+than forty years. Always sickly, frequently reduced to the brink of the
+grave, yet perpetually at work, his constitution gave way in 1155, at
+the age of sixty-three. His last act was worthy of his life. He was on a
+dying-bed when a discord broke out between the nobles and the burghers
+of the town of Mentz. Bernard rose, and once more entered the arena of
+strife with the olive-branch of peace in his hand. The proud barons and
+the angry citizens listened humbly to his gentle words, and shrank from
+the mild glances of those eyes which his biographers scarcely ever
+mention without calling _dove-like_. The turbulence of passion was
+hushed, and Bernard returned to die. The filial tears of his disciples
+at Clairvaux, and the regrets of all the nation, followed him to the
+grave. About twenty years after his death a decree of canonization
+awarded him the title of Saint, which, considering how it has been
+disgraced by unholy bearers, will not seem so fitly to recognize his
+merit as that name which the reverence of the Church has further
+bestowed on him--the _last_ of the Fathers.
+
+
+
+
+FREDERICK BARBAROSSA
+
+By Lady LAMB
+
+(1121-1190)
+
+
+It seems almost incredible that no history should exist of the childhood
+and early life of an emperor of such note as "Barbarossa;" yet, in spite
+of most diligent search, we have been compelled almost to renounce one
+of the most pleasing tasks of a biographer, which consists in making
+acquaintance with a hero in his infancy, and through childhood and youth
+following his career to fame and glory. So far as we have been able to
+discover, no trace, except a few dry data, exists of "Frederick of the
+Red Beard," until we find him setting out with his uncle, Conrad III.,
+in the spring of 1147, to join the second crusade against the Saracens.
+The date of his birth is given as 1121, his father being Duke Frederick
+of Hohenstauffen (surnamed "le Borgne") and his mother Judith, daughter
+of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria; opinions are divided on the
+subject of his birthplace, some writers mentioning the castle of
+Veitsberg, near Ravensburg, others the town of Weiblingen, in Nuremburg;
+but since the main interest of his history does not begin until his
+succession to the paternal duchy of Swabia, and his departure for the
+Holy Land in 1147; his marriage with Adelaide, daughter of Theobald,
+Margrave of Vohburg, in 1149; and finally his accession to the imperial
+throne in 1152, we must resign ourselves to silence on the subject of
+his earlier years, and take up his history from the death of Conrad
+III., and that monarch's choice of him as a successor, to the exclusion
+of his own son.
+
+[Illustration: Frederick Barbarossa.]
+
+From every possible point of view, Frederick of Hohenstauffen justified
+his uncle's choice: endowed with the most brilliant qualities of heart
+and mind, he had already earned the suffrages of a great portion of his
+new subjects by the manner in which he had distinguished himself during
+the above-mentioned campaign in the Holy Land; moreover, as the son of
+Frederick of Hohenstauffen and Judith, daughter of Henry the Black, Duke
+of Bavaria, Ghibelline by his father and Guelph on his mother's side,
+there seemed good ground for the hope that in him might terminate the
+differences of the two contending factions. The election diet was
+accordingly assembled at Frankfort, and it being there decided to
+confirm Conrad's choice and to invest Frederick with the imperial
+insignia, he was proclaimed King of the Romans and of Germany, and
+anointed at Aix-la-Chapelle on March 5, 1152, the ceremony being
+performed by Arnoul de Gueldre, Archbishop of Cologne. Not lightly or
+eagerly did the new emperor accept these dignities, but after mature and
+careful consideration of his capacity to undertake the responsibility of
+guiding Germany through shoals and quicksands which had little by
+little enveloped the fair countries won three hundred years before by
+the valiant Charlemagne.
+
+Tidings of ever-recurring disturbances determined Frederick to make an
+expedition into Italy, as soon as affairs in Germany would admit of his
+absence; but there was much to be done first--many princes to be dealt
+with, who, from different motives viewing his election with
+dissatisfaction, would take immediate advantage of his departure to
+bring all the horrors of civil war into his dominions. Bavaria, for
+example, had been wrested from Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, during
+his minority, by Conrad III., and now he conjured Frederick, with tears
+and threats, to restore it to him. This, by dint of much diplomacy,
+Frederick effected, and the result was that for some years he gained a
+stanch ally, instead of a designing enemy.
+
+Having decided this quarrel and several others, into which we need not
+enter, Frederick prepared for that first expedition into Italy which, as
+we have seen, he had resolved on from the commencement of his reign.
+
+At the head of a numerous army he passed into Switzerland, and encamped
+near the lake of Constance; when, under the banner of Count von
+Lenzburg, the inhabitants of the three "cents" or cantons of Schwyz,
+Uri, and Unterwalden came to do homage and offer their feudal service in
+the field. At the same time, and while still engaged in assembling the
+forces with which to march into Italy, deputies from the city of Lodi
+arrived, and throwing themselves at his feet, besought his interference
+against the oppressions of the Milanese, who had declared for Adrian
+IV., and whose town was indeed the very hot-bed of the papal faction.
+The emperor instantly sent letters commanding the Milanese to make full
+reparation to their unfortunate neighbors; but on perusal of his behests
+they tore the missives in a thousand pieces, and flung them in the faces
+of the messengers, sending back by them as their sole answer an open
+defiance of his authority. Enraged at this insolence, Frederick crossed
+the Alps, but, too prudent to risk an immediate attack on Milan,
+strongly fortified and well garrisoned as it was, he sought rather to
+weaken it through the other towns with which it was in league, and
+accordingly besieged in turn Rosate, Cairo, and Asti, which all fell
+into his hands, and ended with the total demolition of the city of
+Tortona, which he reduced to ashes, afterward even levelling the ground
+upon which it had stood. This last victory proved the accuracy of
+Barbarossa's judgment, as regarded the remainder of the fifteen towns of
+the so-called "Lombard League," most of which, intimidated by his
+energetic measures, sent ambassadors to do homage on their account. He
+now seized the iron crown of Lombardy; was crowned at Pavia and again at
+Monza, after which he entered into negotiations with Adrian IV. for the
+performance of the coronation ceremony at Rome.
+
+We now come to the second marriage of our hero, when Beatrix, the only
+child and heiress of Reinold of Burgundy, became his bride; and an echo
+of the old romantic halo which surrounds that incident in Barbarossa's
+life reaches us, even in this prosaic age, as we picture to ourselves
+the gallant, handsome Frederick riding off with his trusty knights to
+deliver the fair heiress of Count Reinold from the gloomy prison in
+which her uncle, Count William, had confined her in order to appropriate
+the rich domains of "Franche-Comte." Over hill and dale sped the
+chivalrous band till the grim castle was reached; a halt was ordered,
+and an envoy sent to summon Count William to yield both his fortress and
+the fair prisoner. At first the count meditated resistance, but on
+looking out and investigating the number of Frederick's followers, he
+decided to submit, and congratulated himself on his determination when
+Frederick's messenger said, on behalf of his master, that if the castle
+were not given freely it would be taken by force, the fair Beatrix
+released, and her gloomy prison walls be prevented from hiding any other
+like iniquity by being razed to the ground. Prudence, we hear, is the
+better part of valor, and evidently Count William shared in the opinion,
+for we learn that he promptly let down the drawbridge, over which
+Frederick and his followers passed, and whence they presently issued,
+bearing in their midst the quondam prisoner, the lovely Beatrix, whose
+eyes, moist with tears of gratitude, looked trustingly in the handsome
+face of her deliverer. So now, away, away to the old church at
+Wurtzburg! deck the streets, ring the bells, bid priests don their
+vestments and burghers their best, and fall in merrily with the gay
+procession that comes to do honor to Barbarossa and his fair bride!
+
+Thus far the little romance of our emperor and Beatrix; now to return to
+the sober and solemn statement of facts. During 1157 and the next year,
+Frederick busied himself with a campaign against Poland, and compelled
+Boleslaw, the king, to acknowledge the supremacy of the head of the
+German Empire, and to take the oath of fealty, barefoot and with his
+naked sword hung round his neck; after which he bestowed the kingdom
+upon Wladislaw of Bohemia, whom he had appointed regent of the German
+states during his absence, and whom he now took this opportunity to
+reward. New disputes began to arise between Pope Adrian and Frederick;
+and when at Besancon some indiscreet remarks of His Holiness as to
+having "conferred the imperial crown" on, and "accorded it by favor" to
+Frederick, were mentioned, that monarch waited no longer, but collected
+a fresh army, and marched into Italy to chastise the pontiff, who, on
+hearing of his approach, and scared at the prospect of such a calamity,
+hastened to explain away his words as best he might. The emperor
+accepted his excuses, but as he was so far on the road, determined to
+attack Milan, whose inhabitants had increased the anger he already felt
+for them by rebuilding Tortona (which, as we know, he had totally
+destroyed), and expelling the inhabitants of Lodi from their dwellings
+for having called him to mediate on the subject of their wrongs. With
+100,000 men (for almost all of the Lombard cities had, either willingly
+or by force, contributed their militia) and 15,000 cavalry, he advanced
+toward Milan and laid siege to it. The inhabitants made a most obstinate
+resistance, and were at length only vanquished by the impossibility of
+finding food for the vast population within the walls. A capitulation
+was effected, by which the emperor contented himself with very moderate
+conditions, the most severe being that which condemned the city to the
+loss of her privileges; but when the chief nobles came to deliver the
+keys, barefooted and with every token of humility, he forgot their
+former insolence, and only required, in return for his clemency, a
+renewal of the oath of fealty and their promise to rebuild the town of
+Lodi.
+
+To put an end to these ever-recurring disputes Frederick called together
+a diet at Roncaglia, to which each of the Italian towns was commanded to
+send its representative; the four most learned jurists from the
+university of Bologna being also requested to attend, for the purpose of
+drawing up a document which should conclusively define the relations
+between himself, as head of the empire, and the vassals and imperial
+cities of Italy. But when the learned quartet had heard all the points
+of dispute, and were in possession of the facts, their decision gave
+such almost limitless power to Frederick that several of the towns, and
+more especially Milan, refused to abide by it and prepared for further
+resistance.
+
+Frederick had not been idle all the time these schisms were raging; on
+the contrary, he had made a third expedition to Italy, from which he had
+been compelled to return, leaving the flower of his army lying dead,
+stricken down with pestilence. The next six years were spent in settling
+various disputes and complications which had arisen in Germany during
+his absence; in causing his son Henry, a child of only five years of
+age, to be crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle; and in keeping some sort of check
+on his vassal, Henry the Lion, who, now that he had increased his power
+by a marriage with Matilda, daughter of Henry II. of England, was no
+unimportant person in the empire, and moreover one extremely liable to
+become sulky and unmanageable if he had a chance, or the smallest
+grievance to complain of.
+
+The news now spread through Europe of the reconquest of Jerusalem by
+Saladin. These tidings effaced every other thought; the new Pope, Urban,
+forgot the thunders of the Church which he had been keeping, like a
+second sword of Damocles, suspended over Frederick's head; the emperor
+buried his resentment; a general peace was concluded, and Barbarossa,
+then in his seventieth year, gave the regency of his dominions to his
+son Henry, and joyfully taking up the cross--accompanied by his son
+Frederick, the flower of German chivalry, and an army of 100,000
+men--marched by way of Vienna to Presburg, and thence through Hungary,
+Servia, and Roumelia.
+
+Isaac Angelus, the Greek emperor, who had promised to furnish the German
+troops with provisions and assist Frederick in all ways, with the
+proverbial duplicity of his nation, broke his word, harassed him on his
+march, and threw Count von Diez, his ambassador, into prison; which
+treachery greatly incensed the emperor, and caused him to give
+permission to his soldiers to plunder; the results being that the
+country soon bore sad traces of their passage, and that the two
+important towns of Manioava and Philippopolis were completely destroyed.
+This reduced Isaac, professedly, to a state of contrition; and when
+Barbarossa advanced toward Constantinople, the Greek emperor, anxious to
+conciliate him, placed his entire fleet at his disposal for the
+transport of the German army. Scarcely had they entered Asia Minor
+before Isaac's good resolutions abandoned him, and leaguing himself with
+another faithless ally of Frederick, the Sultan of Iconium, they beset
+the German troops, and did everything they possibly could to make the
+march more difficult; however, though they tried both fair means and
+foul, their evil practices resulted in their own defeat, and the
+Oriental Christians soon found they had every reason to congratulate
+themselves upon the arrival of such a champion.
+
+The fanaticism of a Turkish prisoner, who, acting as guide, wilfully
+sacrificed his life in order to mislead Frederick's army, involved the
+Germans in almost endless troubles by taking them amidst pathless
+mountains, where the horrors of starvation and the entire lack of water
+added yet more miseries to their condition. Brave where all were
+despairing, encouraging his men with cheering words and hopeful looks,
+their gallant old leader rode on, and footsore, half-starved, thirsty,
+and wretched as they were, the men tried, though tears of agony filled
+their eyes, to raise the notes of their Swabian war-song to please him.
+Frederick, Duke of Swabia, hastened forward with half the remaining
+army, and gaining a victory over a body of Turks, pushed on till he came
+to the town of Iconium; when, scattering the enemy before him, he put
+the inhabitants to the sword, gained a great booty, and, more than all,
+food, drink, and rest for his weary men.
+
+A body of Turks had meanwhile crept round the town, and surrounded the
+columns which were advancing under Barbarossa; worn out with sorrow,
+hunger, and thirst, even his courage gave way for one moment, as he
+thought that this band of Turks had only, in all probability, reached
+him by passing over the dead bodies of his brave son and the gallant
+Swabians; the aged monarch bowed his head, and the scorching tears of
+rage ran down his cheeks; then dashing his hand across his eyes, he
+cried: "Christ still lives! Christ conquers!" and shouting to his
+followers, they fell on the Turks like lions; Barbarossa with his own
+hand sending many a one to his last sleep. Then they marched forward to
+Iconium, where rest and plenty awaited them, and where the old emperor
+doubtless found much cause for thankfulness when he threw himself into
+the arms of his brave son.
+
+At Iconium the army stayed for some time, the soldiers being in sad need
+of repose; and then starting afresh, continued as far as the little
+river Saleph; when, the road being encumbered with cattle, and the
+emperor impatient of delay, he commanded his men to cross the stream and
+plunged into the water. Here this hero of many combats, this brave and
+wise king, was destined to end his long life in an obscure river, of
+which he had probably never heard; the current was too strong for his
+horse, and, nobly as the animal battled against it, both rider and steed
+were drowned.
+
+The Germans, almost frantic with grief and dismay, made frenzied efforts
+to regain the body of their leader; and, when at last they succeeded,
+they conveyed it with much loving care to Antioch, where it was buried
+in St. Peter's Church.
+
+With the history of the crusade after the death of our hero, we have
+nothing to do further than to say that his son, Frederick, took the
+chief command and led the brave followers of his gallant father until a
+pestilence occasioned his death at Acre, in the following year, when the
+remnant of the once formidable army returned to Germany.
+
+[Illustration: The Death of Barbarossa.]
+
+How Barbarossa still lingers in the hearts of his people even now, when
+all these hundreds of years divide his time from theirs, is shown by
+a dozen legends. Most of these profess an utter disbelief in the death
+of their loved emperor; one of them tells how, in a rocky cleft of the
+Klyfhaueser Mountains, Barbarossa still sleeps calmly and peacefully; he
+sits before a marble table into which and through which his red beard
+has grown; his head is bowed on his folded hands, and though he from
+time to time lifts it and opens his eyes, it is but to shut them again
+quickly, for the right time of his awakening is not come; he has seen
+the ravens flying round the mountain, and his long sleep will only end
+when their black forms are no longer visible, when he will step forth
+and avenge the wrongs of the oppressed.
+
+Another story says that he is lying in the Untersberg near Salzburg, and
+that when the dead pear-tree which, thrice cut down, plants itself
+afresh, shall bud forth and blossom, the gallant "Rothbart" will come
+out into the bright daylight, hang his shield on the pink-flowered
+bough, throw down his gauntlet as a gage to all evil-doers, and, aided
+by the good and chivalrous few who will still be inhabitants of this bad
+world, will vanquish cruelty and wickedness, and realize the dream of a
+golden age they have for so long anticipated.
+
+
+
+
+RICHARD COEUR DE LION
+
+(1157-1199)
+
+[Illustration: Richard Coeur de Lion.]
+
+
+Richard I., King of England, surnamed Coeur de Lion, was the third son
+of Henry II. and his queen, Eleanor, and was born at Oxford, in the
+king's manor house there, afterward the monastery of the White Friars,
+in September, 1157. By the treaty of Montmirail, concluded on January 6,
+1169, between Henry and Louis VII. of France, it was stipulated that the
+duchy of Aquitaine should be made over to Richard, who should do homage
+and fealty for it to Louis, and should espouse Adelais, or Alice, that
+king's youngest daughter; and in 1170 King Henry, being taken ill at
+Domfront, in Maine, made a will, by which he confirmed this arrangement.
+In 1173 Richard, with his younger brother, Geoffrey, and their mother,
+joined their eldest brother, Henry, in his first rebellion against their
+father. On the submission of the rebels, in September, 1174, Richard
+received two castles in Poitou, with half the revenue of that earldom,
+and, along with Geoffrey, did homage and swore fealty to their father.
+Nevertheless Richard continued from this time to hold the government of
+the whole of Aquitaine, and to be usually styled, as before, Duke of
+Aquitaine, or Duke of Poitou (which were considered as the same title),
+although it appears that King Henry now looked upon the arrangements
+made at the treaty of Montmirail as annulled, and that dukedom to have
+actually reverted to himself. In 1183 Richard refused, when commanded by
+his father, to do homage for Aquitaine to his elder brother, Henry; on
+which his brothers Henry and Geoffrey invaded the duchy, and a new war
+ensued between them and their father, who was assisted by Richard,
+which, however, was terminated by the death of the eldest of the three
+brothers in June of that same year, when Richard became his father's
+heir-apparent. But at an interview between King Henry and Philip
+Augustus, now King of France, in November, 1188, Richard, apparently
+impelled by a suspicion that his father intended to leave his crown to
+his younger brother, John, and also professing to resent his father's
+conduct in withholding from him his affianced bride, the French king's
+sister, suddenly declared himself the liegeman of Philip for all his
+father's dominions in France; whence arose a new war, in which Philip
+and Richard speedily compelled King Henry to yield to all their demands,
+and a treaty to that effect was about to be signed when King Henry died,
+on July 6, 1189. Richard was present at the burial of his father in the
+choir of the convent of Fontevrault.
+
+Notwithstanding his apprehensions, real or affected, of his brother
+John, Richard made no particular haste to come over to England, but,
+contenting himself with ordering his mother, Queen Eleanor, to be
+liberated from confinement, and to be invested with the regency of that
+kingdom, he first proceeded to Rouen, where he was formally acknowledged
+as Duke of Normandy on July 20th, and it was August 13th before he
+arrived at Portsmouth (or, as others say, at Southampton). His
+coronation, from which the commencement of his reign is dated, took
+place in Westminster Abbey on September 3d. It was on occasion of that
+ceremony that a furious riot broke out among the Jews in London, which
+was in the course of the next six months renewed in most of the great
+towns throughout the kingdom. At York, in March, 1190, a body of 500
+Jews, with their wives and children, having taken refuge in the castle,
+found no other way of saving themselves from their assailants than by
+first cutting the throats of the women and children and then stabbing
+one another.
+
+A short time before his father's death Richard, and his then friend,
+Philip Augustus, had, as it was expressed, taken the cross, that is to
+say, had publicly vowed to proceed to the Holy Land, to assist in
+recovering from the infidels the city and kingdom of Jerusalem, which
+had recently (1187) fallen into the hands of the great Saladin. The
+mighty expedition, in which all the principal nations of Western
+Christendom now joined, for the accomplishment of this object is known
+by the name of the Third Crusade. Leaving the government of his kingdom
+during his absence in the hands of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely and
+chancellor, and Hugh Pudsey, Bishop of Durham and justiciary, Richard
+took his departure from England on December 11th of this same year,
+1189, and proceeding to Normandy, united his forces with those of
+Philip Augustus in the plain of Vezelay on July 1, 1190. The two friends
+proceeded together at the head of an army of more than 100,000 men as
+far as Lyons, where they separated on the 31st; Philip taking the road
+to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles, where he was to meet his fleet.
+The fleet, however, not arriving so soon as was expected, Richard in his
+impatience hired thirty small vessels for the conveyance of himself and
+his suite, and, sailing for Naples, arrived there on August 28th. On
+September 8th he proceeded by sea to Salerno, where he remained till the
+23d, and then sailed for Messina, which port his fleet had reached about
+a week before, with the army, which it had taken on board at Marseilles.
+The French king had also arrived at Messina a few days before his
+brother of England.
+
+The two kings remained together at Messina till the end of March, 1191.
+During their stay Richard compelled Tancred, who had usurped the crown
+of Sicily, to relinquish the dower of his sister Joan, the widow of
+William, the late sovereign, and to pay him besides forty thousand
+ounces of gold. In return he betrothed his nephew, Arthur, the son of
+his next brother, Geoffrey, to Tancred's infant daughter, and formed a
+league offensive and defensive with the Sicilian king--a connection
+which afterward cost him dear, for it was the source of the enmity of
+the Emperor Henry VI., who had married Constantia, the aunt of William,
+and claimed the throne of Sicily in right of his wife. After the dispute
+with Tancred had been settled, the latent rivalry of Richard and Philip
+broke out in a quarrel about the Princess Adelais, whom her brother
+Philip insisted that Richard should espouse, in conformity with their
+betrothment, now that his father no longer lived to oppose their union.
+But if Richard had ever cared anything for the French princess, that
+attachment had now been obliterated by another, which he had some years
+before formed for Berengaria, the beautiful daughter of Sancho VI.
+(styled the Wise), King of Navarre; in fact he had by this time sent his
+mother Eleanor to her father's court to solicit that lady in marriage,
+and, his proposals having been accepted, the two were now actually on
+their way to join him. In these circumstances Philip found himself
+obliged to recede from his demand; and the matter was arranged by an
+agreement that Richard should pay a sum of ten thousand marks, in five
+yearly instalments, and restore Adelais, who had previously been
+conducted into England, and the places of strength that had been given
+along with her as her marriage portion, when he should have returned
+from Palestine.
+
+Richard, having sent his mother home to England, sailed from Messina on
+April 7th, at the head of a fleet of about two hundred ships, of which
+fifty-three were large vessels of the sort styled galleys; his sister,
+the queen dowager of Sicily, and the Princess Berengaria accompanying
+him. The King of France had set sail about a week before. Several
+months, however, elapsed before Richard reached the Holy Land, having
+been detained by an attack which he made upon the island of Cyprus;
+Isaac, the king, or emperor, of which had ill used the crews of some of
+the English ships that had been driven upon his coasts in a storm.
+Richard took Limasol, the capital, by assault; and that blow was soon
+followed by the complete submission of Isaac and the surrender of the
+whole island. Isaac was put into confinement, and remained a captive
+till his death in 1195. Meanwhile the island of Cyprus was made over by
+Richard, in 1192, to Guy of Lusignan, upon his resignation of the now
+merely titular royalty of Jerusalem to his rival Henry of Champagne and
+Guy's posterity reigned in that island till the year 1458.
+
+Having married Berengaria at Limasol, Richard set sail from Cyprus, on
+June 4th (1191), with a fleet now described as consisting of thirteen
+large ships called busses, fifty galleys, and a hundred transports; and
+on the 10th he reached the camp of the crusaders assembled before the
+fortress of Acre, the siege of which had already occupied them not much
+less than two years, and had cost the lives, it is said of nearly two
+hundred thousand of the assailants. But the presence of the English
+king, although he was suffering from severe illness, and had to be
+carried to the trenches on a litter, immediately inspired so much new
+vigor into the operations of the Christian army that, on July 12th, the
+place surrendered, and Saladin, who had been harassing the besiegers
+from the neighboring mountains, withdrew, in conformity with the terms
+of capitulation. This great event, however, was immediately followed by
+an open rupture between Richard and King Philip, whose rivalry had
+already exhibited itself in a variety of ways, and more particularly in
+the support given by Richard to the claim of Guy of Lusignan, and by
+Philip to that of Conrad of Montferrat to the vacant crown of Jerusalem.
+Philip, in fact, took his departure from Palestine on the last day of
+July, leaving only ten thousand men, under the command of the Duke of
+Burgundy.
+
+[Illustration: Richard at the Battle of Arsur.]
+
+Richard performed prodigies of valor in the Holy Land, but, although a
+signal defeat of Saladin on September 7th at Arsur was followed by the
+capture of Jaffa and some other places of less importance, Jerusalem,
+which was the main object of the crusade, so far from being taken was
+not even attacked. Jaffa, however, after it had again fallen into the
+hands of Saladin, was recovered by the impetuous valor of the English
+king. At last, on October 9, 1192, Richard set sail from Acre in a
+single vessel, his fleet, having on board his wife, his sister, and the
+daughter of the captive King of Cyprus, having put to sea a few days
+before. The three ladies got safe to Sicily; but the first land the king
+made was the island of Corfu, which he took about a month to reach. He
+left Corfu about the middle of November with three coasting-vessels
+which he hired there; but after being a few days at sea he was compelled
+by a storm to land on the coast of Istria, at a spot between the towns
+of Aquileia and Venice. After narrowly escaping first from falling at
+Goritz into the hands of Maynard, a nephew of Conrad of Montferrat (to
+whose murder in Palestine Richard, upon very insufficient evidence, was
+suspected to be an accessory), and then at Friesach from Maynard's
+brother, Frederick of Batesow, he was taken on December 21st, at Erperg,
+near Vienna, by Leopold, Duke of Austria (a brother-in-law of Isaac of
+Cyprus), and was by him consigned to close confinement in the castle of
+Tyernsteign, under the care of his vassal, Baron Haldmar. In the course
+of a few days, however, by an arrangement between Leopold and the
+Emperor Henry VI., the captive king was transferred to the custody of
+the latter, who shut him up in a castle in the Tyrol, where he was bound
+with chains, and guarded by a band of men who surrounded him day and
+night with drawn swords. In this state he remained about three months.
+Meanwhile, intelligence of his having fallen into the hands of the
+emperor had reached England, and excited the strongest sensation among
+all ranks of the people. It is sufficient to mention that during his
+absence a struggle for supremacy had for some time been carried on with
+varying success between the king's brother, John, and Longchamp, the
+chancellor, who had acquired the entire regency, and had also been
+appointed papal legate for England and Scotland; and that this had
+resulted, in October, 1191, in the deposition of Longchamp, by a council
+of the nobility held in St Paul's Churchyard, London; after which he
+left the country, and although he soon ventured to return, ultimately
+deemed it most prudent to retire to Normandy. The supreme authority was
+thus left for a time in the hands of John, who, as soon as he learned
+the news of his brother's captivity, openly repaired to Paris, and did
+homage to the French king for the English dominions on the Continent.
+
+[Illustration: Richard Coeur de Lion.]
+
+On returning to England, John raised an army to support his pretensions,
+while his confederate, Philip, took up arms in his behalf in France,
+and, entering Normandy, overran a great part of that duchy, although
+Rouen, the capital, was preserved principally by the exertions of the
+Earl of Essex, lately one of Richard's companions in the Holy Land. In
+England, also, John met with a general opposition to his usurpation of
+the regal authority, which soon compelled him to conclude an armistice
+with a council of regency that had been appointed by the prelates and
+barons. This was the position of affairs when Longchamp, having
+discovered Richard's place of confinement, after much solicitation
+prevailed upon the emperor to allow the royal prisoner to be brought
+before the diet at Hagenau, where, accordingly, he made his appearance
+on April 13, 1193, and defended himself with so much eloquence against
+the several charges made against him in regard to Tancred and the
+kingdom of Sicily, to his conquest of Cyprus, and to the murder of
+Conrad of Montferrat, that Henry found himself compelled by the general
+sentiment of the diet to order his chains to be immediately struck off,
+and to agree to enter upon negotiations for his ransom. Longchamp was
+immediately despatched to England with a letter to the council of
+regency, and the result was, that, notwithstanding the insidious efforts
+both of John and his friend, Philip of France, to prevent the
+conclusion of the treaty, Richard was at last liberated, on February 4,
+1194, after seventy thousand marks had been actually paid to the
+emperor, and hostages given for the payment of thirty thousand more. The
+English king had also engaged to release both Isaac of Cyprus and his
+daughter, and he had besides, at the persuasion, it is said, of his
+mother, Eleanor, the more effectually to conciliate Henry, formally
+resigned his crown into the hand of the emperor, who immediately
+restored it to him to be held as a fief of the empire, and burdened with
+a yearly feudal payment to his superior lord of five thousand pounds.
+This strange transaction rests on the authority of the contemporary
+annalist Hoveden. Richard, descending the Rhine as far as Cologne,
+proceeded thence across the country to Antwerp, and, embarking there on
+board his own fleet, landed at Sandwich on March 13th.
+
+Most of John's strongholds had been wrested from his hands before his
+brother's return, and now the rest immediately surrendered and he
+himself fled the country, and with his principal adviser, Hugh, Bishop
+of Coventry, having been charged with high treason, and not appearing to
+plead after forty days, was outlawed and divested of all his
+possessions.
+
+Meanwhile it was thought necessary that Richard should be crowned again,
+and that ceremony was accordingly performed at Winchester by Hubert,
+Archbishop of Canterbury, on April 17th. Then, leaving Hubert guardian
+of England and grand justiciary, on May 2d, following, having, with his
+characteristic activity employed almost every moment since his arrival
+in raising an army and procuring funds for its maintenance by all sorts
+of exactions and the most unscrupulous use of every means in his power,
+he again set sail from Portsmouth, his whole soul bent on chastising the
+King of France. Owing to adverse winds he was a fortnight in reaching
+Barfleur, in Normandy, where, as soon as he landed, he was met by his
+brother John, who professed contrition and implored his pardon, which,
+on the intercession of his mother, Eleanor, was granted. Richard now
+marched against Philip, and several engagements took place between them,
+in most of which the English king was successful. But the war, though it
+lasted for some years, was distinguished by few remarkable events. A
+truce for one year was agreed to on July 23d, and although hostilities
+were resumed some time before the expiration of that term, a peace was
+again concluded in the end of the following year, which lasted till the
+beginning of 1197.
+
+All this time Hubert, assisted by Longchamp, who had been restored to
+his office of chancellor, is said to have presided over the government
+at home with great ability. Hubert had been educated under the famous
+Glanvil, and he seems, in the spirit of his master, to have exerted
+himself in re-establishing and maintaining the authority of the law, by
+which alone, even if he did no more, he must have materially contributed
+to the revival of industry. The large sums, however, which he was
+obliged to raise by taxation to meet the expenses of the war, in the
+exhausted state to which the country had been reduced provoked much
+popular dissatisfaction; and the third year of the king's absence in
+particular was distinguished by the remarkable commotion excited by
+William Fitz-Osbert, styled Longbeard, a citizen of London, who is
+admitted to have possessed both eloquence and learning, and whose whole
+character and proceedings might not improbably, if he had had his own
+historian, have assumed a very different complexion from what has been
+given to him. Longbeard, who acquired the names of the Advocate and King
+of the Poor, is affirmed to have had above fifty thousand of the lower
+orders associated with him by oaths which bound them to follow
+whithersoever he led. When an attempt was made to apprehend him by two
+of the wealthier citizens, he drew his knife and stabbed one of them,
+named Geoffrey, to the heart, and then took refuge in the church of St
+Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, the tower of which he and his followers
+fortified, and held for three days, when they were at last (April 7,
+1196), dislodged by fire being set to the building. Fitz-Osbert was
+first dragged at a horse's tail to the Tower, and then to the Elms in
+West Smithfield, where he was hanged, with nine of his followers. The
+people, however, long continued to regard him as a martyr.
+
+The war between Richard and Philip broke out again in 1197, and in the
+course of this campaign Richard had the gratification of capturing the
+Bishop of Beauvais, a personage whom he had reason to regard as a main
+instigator of the severities and indignities which he had sustained at
+the hands of the emperor. The bishop was taken armed cap-a-pie and
+fighting, and when Pope Celestine recommended him to the clemency of
+Richard as his son, the English king sent his holiness the bishop's coat
+of mail, with the following verse of Scripture attached to it: "This
+have we found; know now whether it be thy son's coat, or no." This same
+year, too, finished the career of the Emperor Henry, who, in his last
+moments, is said to have expressed the extremest remorse for the manner
+in which he had treated the great champion of the Cross. Richard's other
+enemy, Leopold, Duke of Austria, had been killed by a fall from his
+horse two years before.
+
+A truce, as usual, at the end of the year, again suspended hostilities
+for a space. The war was renewed on its termination, and in this
+campaign (of the year 1198) Richard gained one of his greatest victories
+near Gisors, when Philip in his flight fell into the river Epte, and was
+nearly drowned. After this, by the intercession of the Pope's legate, a
+truce was concluded between the two kings for five years, and they never
+met again in fight; although they probably would, notwithstanding the
+truce, if both had lived. But on March 26th in the following year, 1199,
+as Richard was engaged in reducing the castle of Chaluz, the stronghold
+of one of his Aquitanian vassals, Vidomar, Viscount of Limoges, who it
+seems had refused to surrender a treasure found on his estate, to which
+the king laid claim in right of his feudal superiority, Coeur de Lion
+was struck in the left shoulder by an arrow, aimed from the rampart of
+the castle by a youth named Bertrand de Gurdun. The wound would not have
+been dangerous but for the mismanagement of the surgeon in his attempts
+to extract the arrow-head, which had broken off in the flesh. As it was,
+Richard lived only till Tuesday, April 16th. The shot was a fatal one in
+every way; in the fury into which the wound of the king threw the
+besieging army the castle was taken by storm, and all the persons found
+in it were immediately hanged, as some authorities say, by the king's
+orders, with the exception only of Gurdun. He was brought into the
+presence of his dying victim, when Richard, under the impulse of
+generosity or compunction, gave him his liberty, with a hundred
+shillings to take him home; but after the king's death he was flayed
+alive, and then hanged, by order of Marchadee, the leader of the
+Brabantine mercenaries serving in Richard's army.
+
+The character of Richard is, of course, not to be judged without
+reference to the general manners of the age in which he lived. It is
+probable enough that there was hardly an excess, either of violence or
+licentiousness, into which his impetuous temperament did not
+occasionally precipitate him; but he seems to have had nothing base or
+malignant in his composition; and that he was as capable of acts of
+extraordinary generosity and disinterestedness as of excesses of brutal
+fury or profligacy. Of the courage and strength of will proper to his
+race, he had his full share, with more than his share of their strength
+of thew and sinew; and his intellectual powers, both natural and
+acquired, were also of a high order. He was renowned in his own day not
+only as beyond all dispute the stoutest and most gallant of living
+heroes, but as likewise occupying a place in the foremost rank of those
+who excelled in wit, in eloquence, and in song.
+
+
+
+
+ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI[6]
+
+         [Footnote 6: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP, LL.D.
+
+(1182-1226)
+
+[Illustration: St. Francis of Assisi.]
+
+
+One reason why those beings who are known to us as saints are so little
+understood is, that their lives are usually written in one of two ways,
+both equally unsuited to popular appreciation. Either they are presented
+in a dry, bare, matter-of-fact manner, which requires all the knowledge
+and sympathy of the initiated to give it vital meaning; or else they are
+surrounded with an appanage of portents, visions, miracles,
+legends--spread before the reader without discrimination or
+explanation--which confuse the mind and soul, and absolutely repel all
+who do not share the faith of the subject and the biographer.
+
+As a matter of fact, no Catholic is obliged to accept these legends and
+traditions literally, except in those cases where the authorities of
+the Church, after a scrutiny, which is always deliberate and searching,
+declare that a miracle was wrought. But every Catholic, by the very
+nature of his belief in the actual presence of the Divinity among men,
+must acknowledge and maintain that miracles have been wrought by that
+supernatural power constantly, ever since apostolic times; that they may
+and do occur, through the same power, at any moment to-day; and always
+will occur. In the ordinary gossip of the world, men hold to the maxim
+that if reports are current, all pointing to one particular fact, there
+must be truth in them. "Where there is so much smoke there is sure to be
+some fire." We should at least accord the same, if not a greater, degree
+of probability and of credence to stories of the saints which have been
+carefully, competently examined. "The love of the marvellous," says
+Chavin de Malin, in his book on St. Francis, "is but a remnant of our
+original greatness. Man was created to contemplate the wonders of the
+Divinity; and, until he clearly beholds them, he is borne onward by an
+interior desire to love and admire everything which bears the slightest
+resemblance to them.... _A person utterly ignorant of the practices of a
+spiritual life can no more do justice to the life of a saint, than a
+blind man could adjudicate on the merits or demerits of a painting._" He
+adds that, with regard to the religious occupations of the Middle Ages,
+"the positive bounds of history could not be kept, digressions were made
+on all sides, and thus around the true history of saints, like a poetic
+wreath, wonder and amazement were both entwined. Christianity has had
+its denominated legendary tales, which invariably are based on truth,
+and should not be rejected by the historian without serious reflection
+and profound study."
+
+There is still another way of regarding the saints; the purely material
+view, which denies the immediate action of supernatural power upon the
+details of natural daily life, mental or physical. This view--or rather,
+this abstention from seeing--is futile; because, without a particle of
+actual proof to sustain its negative, it refuses to admit possibilities
+of truth to which the really comprehensive and perceptive mind must
+always hold itself open.
+
+Saint Francis was born at Assisi, in Umbria, in 1182; near the close of
+the twelfth century, which has been called a "century of mud and blood,
+when darkness prevailed over light, evil over good, the flesh over the
+spirit." Umbria was then, as it is now, a beautiful and fertile valley,
+rich in citron, almond, aloe, with forest trees of oak and pine and fir,
+to which long cultivation has added grapevines, engarlanding the elms,
+and orchards of the pale-leaved olive-tree, that give the landscape a
+somewhat transparent, aerial effect. The province is encircled on one
+hand by the yellow Tiber; on the other, by the bluish foot-hills of the
+Apennines; and it is full of ancient little towns, nestled in the vales,
+or perched upon the airy hill-crests, with crenelated towers and
+terraces which command far-reaching and inspiring views. Old Perugia
+guards the northern entrance to this exquisite region; and five leagues
+to the northeast of that town is the saint's birthplace, Assisi.
+
+His father was Peter Bernard of Moriconi, better known as "Bernardone,"
+a rich merchant who carried on extensive business with France. In those
+days Italian merchants maintained a lavish mode of life, resembling that
+of the nobles; and as the disorders of the period and the perils
+attending travel compelled them to send armed escorts with their convoys
+of merchandise, there was something of military daring and display
+mingled with their business and their surroundings. The wife of
+Bernardone, however, whose name was Pica (of the noble Bourlemont family
+of Provence), was remarkable for her piety; the son--in this, as in so
+many historic instances of genius or distinction--inheriting his rare
+quality from the mother's side. She had but one other child, a younger
+son, Angelo, who, notwithstanding his heavenly name, seems to have been
+a boy after Bernardone's own pattern; since he, later on, reviled
+Francis and called him a fool for his piety and self-renunciation.
+Angelo's descendants were still living in Assisi in the latter half of
+the sixteenth century. Whether they shared their ancestor's contemptuous
+opinion of the Saint has not been recorded; but it seems probable that
+the homage of the world, rendered to the poor ascetic for several
+centuries, may have made some impression on their minds, if not their
+souls.
+
+Just before the birth of Francis, his mother suffered greatly. A
+pilgrim, coming to the house for alms, told the servants: "The mother
+will be delivered only in a stable, and the child see the light upon
+straw." This appeared strange and unreasonable enough. Nevertheless his
+advice was followed. Pica was carried to the stable, and there she gave
+birth to her first son, whom she caused to be baptized John, after the
+beloved apostle of Jesus. Her husband, Bernardone, was absent at the
+time on a business tour in France. Upon his return, he was delighted at
+finding that he had a boy; and he insisted on giving him the surname
+Francis, in commemoration of that country with which he drove such a
+flourishing trade. Possibly he was also moved by the thought--albeit the
+chroniclers do not say so--that his wife's family came from Southern
+France. At all events, Francis was the name by which the son came to be
+known throughout his life and in history.
+
+Under priestly teachers he received an education which, for that time,
+was a fairly good one, in Latin, French, and literature. At the age of
+fourteen his father took him into partnership; and for ten years the
+young man bought and sold with him, or travelled for him. But while
+Bernardone was a hard, avaricious man, the son differed from him greatly
+in disposition; being fond of dress, of song, and feasting, gayety, and
+gaming. He was generous even to prodigality, full of wit and
+imagination, very sympathetic withal, and compassionate. Thomas of
+Celano thus describes him: "His figure was above the middle height and
+well set. He was thin, and of a very delicate constitution. He had an
+oval face, broad brow, white, close-set teeth, dark complexion, black
+hair, regular features, expressive countenance, rosy lips, and a
+charming smile." With all his roystering, dissipation, and extravagance,
+however, he was a foe to immorality, always rebuked impurity in severe
+terms, and kept his own purity intact. This lavish and somewhat reckless
+pursuit of other pleasures gave his parents much anxiety; although his
+mother, Pica, said in his defence, "I see in him, even in his
+amusements, a nobility of character which gives me the highest hopes of
+his future." But up to his twenty-fourth year nothing seemed more
+unlikely than that he should have any vocation to a holy life. He was
+called the "flower of the youth" of Assisi, rejoiced in his gay
+leadership of the rich young men of the place, and dreamed of winning
+military glory.
+
+In this capacity of taking the lead, and in the confident belief he
+often expressed that he would one day receive honor from the world, we
+see one natural germ of his later spiritual eminence. Another and more
+potent germ was the love of the poor, and his pity for them, which he
+manifested from childhood. In 1201, taking part as a soldier in a brief
+war between Assisi and Perugia, he was captured, with several of his
+companions, and imprisoned for a year. This experience, his first touch
+of adversity, sobered him a little; opening his eyes to the contrast
+between prosperity, with idle amusement and flattery, on the one hand,
+and on the other, suffering. Soon after his return home, also, he was
+stricken down by a long and painful illness. When he rose from it and,
+as a convalescent, took his first walk into the country, he was
+astonished to find that the beautiful Umbrian landscape which he had
+always so enjoyed, seemed to him cold, discolored, and sombre. A natural
+effect of illness, one may say. Yet it more often happens that when a
+convalescent returns to fresh air and the beauty of the earth, his
+pleasure in them is heightened. At all events Francis was vividly
+impressed with the nothingness of nature, as compared with the eternal
+splendor of God. But presently the passion for warlike renown took
+possession of him again. In 1206 he volunteered to join the Count of
+Brienne, a Guelph champion of Italian national independence, who was
+defending the Two Sicilies against the attacks of the German emperor,
+Frederick II. Announcing to his friends that he was about to become a
+great captain, Francis set out for the field of war, richly apparelled
+and with a brilliant retinue.
+
+In truth he was shortly to become a great captain, though not as he
+expected, in war, but in peace. On the way to Spoleto, southward, a
+voice that seemed to come from heaven sounded in his ears; just as Saul
+was appealed to while on his way to Damascus and was converted by it
+into _St. Paul_. To the young Umbrian, half asleep, the voice said:
+"Francis, which can do thee most good; the master or the servant, the
+rich one or the pauper?" He replied: "The master and the rich one." And
+the voice resumed: "Why, then, leavest thou God, who is both rich and
+the Master, to run after man, who is only the servant and the pauper?"
+Then Francis cried: "Ah, Lord; what willest Thou I should do?" "Go,"
+said the voice, "return to thy native city, for the vision thou hast had
+has a spiritual meaning. It is from God, not men, thou shalt receive its
+accomplishment."
+
+Heedless of whatever taunts might be flung at him, he turned back. But
+the youth of Assisi, though surprised, were rejoiced to see him, and
+begged him to preside once more at their revels. He gave them a final
+magnificent banquet, at which they noticed that he was silent and
+preoccupied. Immediately afterward he retired to a grotto, where he
+passed his days alone, entreating God to pardon the misspent years of
+youth and to direct him in the right way. Here he had a vision of Jesus
+Christ nailed to the cross. It is probably impossible to prove a vision;
+but that this one was real to Francis, at least, we may judge by its
+effects. Thenceforth he devoted himself to a pious life of marvellous
+self-abnegation. Seeing the change that had come upon him, his former
+friends fell away; but he, undisturbed, went on performing works of
+charity; making gifts of money, food, and even his own clothes to the
+poor. Again a voice spoke to him, from the crucifix of the dilapidated
+old church of St. Damien: "Francis, go and repair my house, which you
+see falling into ruins!" The young ascetic obeyed literally, and,
+passing through the streets, begged from all whom he met a stone or two
+to help rebuild the old church. Bernardone had been absent several
+months on one of his business trips; but his home-coming, this time, was
+not so pleasing to him as when his boy had been born. For, seeing the
+young man's complete transformation, all his selfish love of him turned
+into rage. He imprisoned him for a while in his own house; but Pica,
+recognizing that it was useless to oppose her son's religious vocation,
+finally set him free, and Francis took refuge in St. Damien's church.
+His father pursued him there, and brought before the Bishop of Assisi a
+complaint against him, demanding that he should give up all the money in
+his hands. Francis not only surrendered his money, but stripped off his
+clothing and gave it to his father, saying: "Until now I have called
+Peter Bernardone my father. Henceforth I can boldly say, 'Our Father,
+who art in heaven,' in whom I have placed all my treasures and my
+hopes."
+
+The bishop covered him with his mantle and held him clasped in his arms,
+until the by-standers brought Francis the cloak of a poor peasant. "Oh,
+what a grand bankrupt this merchant becomes to-day!" Bossuet wrote of
+him, long afterward. "Oh man worthy of being written in the book of the
+evangelical poor, and henceforward living on the capital of Providence!"
+From that time Francis wore mendicant's garb and begged his food in the
+streets.
+
+What did he accomplish by all this? To begin with, he succeeded in
+rebuilding three churches. But his influence was destined to be much
+more far-reaching than that, and of a very different nature. One day,
+while he was supplicating in church, his brother Angelo passed near him,
+and said to a friend, scoffingly: "Go, ask him to sell you some drops of
+his sweat." "No," said Francis; "I shall not sell my sweat to men. I
+shall sell it at a higher price, to God." He gave his sweat, his toil,
+his sufferings, and his renunciation to God, in exchange for the
+regeneration of men in a corrupt age.
+
+All Europe, at that time the whole civilized world, was suffering. The
+mass of the people were the poor, who were in deep distress, ground down
+by the pride and oppressions of the barons and the rich. The country was
+devastated by wars, large and small. The emperors of Germany were trying
+to establish their dominion over Italy and to control the Pope. The
+Church itself, after emerging from an heroic struggle with centuries of
+barbarism, had been obliged to accept and use the feudal system as a
+means of self-defence; and now the wrongs, the injustices, the
+selfishness of feudal society were beginning to exercise a corrupting
+influence on the exterior of the Church itself. Unselfish and holy men
+in ecclesiastical places, both high and humble, preserved the spirit and
+sanctity of Christian faith, but were not able wholly to counteract the
+evils of pride, wealth, and luxury that invaded the Church from the
+worldly side, and infected its unworthy servants. Francis perceived that
+the only hope or relief possible to that age lay in a decisive spiritual
+revolution, to be effected without violence, which would recall people
+to the primitive simplicity, unselfishness, and absolute devotion of the
+time of Christ and the apostolic period. This revolution could be
+accomplished, he saw, only by a personal example so strong, so
+undeviating, so entirely free from self-seeking, that all men would be
+compelled to pause and consider it, and then to act upon it. He
+therefore sacrificed his whole life for the good of the race. In the end
+he achieved his aim, single-handed, single-souled. No one who believes
+in God and in Christianity throughout, can maintain that Francis of
+Assisi brought about these results by mere unaided human power. The
+human element relies upon will, coercion, manoeuvre, and even intrigue.
+Francis gave up all these means. He first served the lepers for a month,
+living with them and taking care of them. This should especially
+interest us to-day; since Father Damien's self-immolating life among the
+lepers of the Hawaiian Islands in recent years is so well known to us,
+and since the first refuge of Saint Francis from the world was St.
+Damien's church, in Assisi. Portiuncula, "The Little Portion," was one
+of the churches which he had rebuilt, and was his favorite. While he was
+listening to the Gospel there, one day in February, 1209, these words
+were read from the altar: "Do not possess gold nor silver, nor money in
+your purses; nor scrip for your journey, nor two coats, nor shoes, nor a
+staff."
+
+That precept decided him. He saw his vocation as a devotee of holy
+poverty. Straightway he began preaching everywhere the duty of poverty
+and love of the poor; and gradually he drew to himself disciples, until
+they numbered twelve; sometimes accosting his old friends, sometimes
+strangers, who immediately joined him and consented to give up all
+worldly things, for the love of God. Most of them were men of rank and
+wealth, who had never known privation; yet they gave up social positions
+where they had been accustomed to command, accepted dire penury with him
+in a hut at Rivotorto, and submitted themselves to him in entire
+obedience. "Bread begged from door to door is the bread of angels," said
+Francis. They went barefoot, wore a coarse gray tunic with a cincture of
+cord, prayed much, helped the sick and needy, discoursed to and exhorted
+the people, and lived on bread and water chiefly. Amid all these
+austerities they thanked God that they had been chosen to give an
+example of perfect happiness! Their leader insisted upon incessant
+industry and unfailing cheerfulness. "Think of your errors in your
+cells," he commanded. "Weep, kneeling before God. But before others be
+gay, and maintain an air of ease." At first they called themselves
+simply "penitents from Assisi," and for a time they were treated with
+ridicule, scorn, and even violence. But their mission was to suffer
+everything, to rejoice at insults and injuries and, by patience, compel
+recognition of the dignity of every human creature under whatsoever
+guise he might present himself. In this they succeeded.
+
+To a novice he said one day, "Brother, let us go out and preach." Taking
+him along, he went up into Assisi and they walked through the streets
+without saying a word; then returned to the convent. "And our preaching,
+father?" asked the novice. "It is done," replied the Saint; implying
+that a modest, thoughtful exterior and the force of example are often
+the most eloquent kind of preaching. But in 1209 it became clear to him
+by an inward vision in which the Christ came to him as a shepherd, that
+great numbers would flock to follow him; and, though he had not thought
+of founding an Order, he now saw that it would be necessary. He
+therefore drew up a simple Rule in twenty-three chapters; the gist of
+which was that they were to possess no money, no property whatever; that
+they were neither to blame nor to judge any one; were to hold themselves
+profoundly respectful toward all members of the clergy; to say not a
+word against the rich or against luxury; to preach, everywhere, concord
+and the love of God and one's neighbor; to bind themselves to obedience
+and chastity, as well as poverty; to do penance and persist in the
+perfect faith of Christ. Not until sixteen years later did the Lateran
+Council ordain that all religious orders must receive the approval of
+the Holy Father. But Francis did not wait for decrees. His humility,
+obedience, and loyalty to the Vicar of Christ led him to repair to Rome
+with his companions and there ask the permission of Pope Innocent III.,
+which he quickly obtained. The Rule was rewritten in 1619. Some of the
+brethren suggested that he take the advice of a cardinal in formulating
+his rules; but the Saint declared that God had willed that he should
+"appear as a new sort of madman in the world," arresting the attention
+of the people and bringing them to reflect, without qualification, upon
+"the folly of the cross," and that he alone must direct the manner in
+which this was to be done.
+
+[Illustration: The Vision of St Francis.]
+
+His order multiplied rapidly, and convents were established in all parts
+of Europe; although he was inclined to object to costly buildings, and
+was prevailed upon to let them stand on the plea that they were needed
+to shelter travellers and pilgrims. He established also the order of
+Poor Clares, so called from a noble maiden, Clare, who became its first
+superior. This was, for women, what his order of the Friars Minor was
+for men; though the Clares remained strictly enclosed, while the Friars
+went abroad preaching, and established missions in various quarters of
+the globe. Finally, he formed his Third Order, which included laymen and
+laywomen living in the world, who bound themselves by simple vows of
+virtue and charity, while continuing in their accustomed phase of life.
+Thousands joined the Friars; and probably millions were enrolled in the
+Third Order. It has been said that Francis first made known to the
+Middle Ages the power of association among the weak and humble, and that
+from the pages on which he inscribed his institutes sprang modern
+democracy in Italy. Certain it is that the Emperor Frederick II.
+received a letter from some of his Italian feudal supporters, saying:
+"The Friars Minor ... have raised themselves against us. They have
+publicly condemned both our mode of life and our principles, they have
+shattered our rights, and have brought us to nothingness." Yet the
+Franciscan Friars and the Third Order had done this only by the contrast
+of example, of poverty, fasting, prayer, self-denial, and charity of the
+heart as well as of the hands.
+
+The work of Saint Francis did much to undermine feudalism; and it almost
+regenerated the spirit of Christianity in the thirteenth century. "Man
+of the people," writes R. F. O'Connor, "he did more for the people than
+ever yet had been done by any one; whose vocation was to revive in the
+midst of a corrupting opulence the esteem and practice of poverty, which
+he ennobled, ... and, without setting class against class, _or violating
+the least point of the divine or human law_, levelled every social
+barrier and united princes and peasants in a bond of union which neither
+time nor eternity was to sever."
+
+This phase of his influence should interest us of to-day, when the same
+problems of wealth and poverty and of superficiality in religion
+confront our arrogant modern "civilization." That St. Francis was not a
+madman is evident from the orderliness of his work, his clear
+legislative and administrative capacity, his calm, powerful, amiable
+sway over all sorts of people. Yet he was possessed by an absolute
+passion and ecstasy of charity and universal love, which raised him
+above the apprehension of the gross, material mind. It was this
+supremacy of the spiritual in him which enabled him to accomplish
+marvels of practical result. Toward the end of his life, this exaltation
+of the spirit produced upon his body a singular phenomenon. His hands
+and feet appeared to be transpierced by large nails, and a wound opened
+in his side, from which blood frequently flowed. In a word, he bore the
+wounds, or "stigmata" of Christ, on his own body. The nails were
+distinct from the wound, but were apparently blackened flesh; being
+inseparable from the hands and feet. This phenomenon was well attested
+at the time. Within the present century several similar cases have
+occurred, under the observation of modern and approved sceptical men of
+science, who find that they occur when there has been much fasting, loss
+of sleep, and constant meditation upon the Passion of Christ. Their
+testimony states the conditions and verifies the fact, but does not
+explain it.
+
+He died at his convent of St. Mary of the Angels (Portiuncula), October
+4, 1226, in perfect lucidity of mind, with patience and simple
+resignation, while giving good counsel to his brethren. Of death he
+spoke gently as "our sister death;" and when, during his illness, his
+physician was obliged to cauterize him with a red-hot iron, he blessed
+the iron, speaking of it as "our brother fire," and submitted to the
+cauterization, or moxa, without a murmur or sign of pain. One remarkable
+thing about him was his extraordinary recognition of all the powers and
+elements of nature as related to man in one family under God. This was
+the origin of his famous short "sermon to the birds," which has been
+preserved. He talked to them and to all other animals as though he
+firmly believed that they could understand him, and could adore their
+Creator as well as he; though it is not probable that he supposed they
+would understand him precisely as men would, or adore in the same way.
+It is clear that St. Francis had a great influence over animals, even
+over wolves.
+
+Nowadays we have many lion-tamers and tiger-tamers, who rely simply upon
+human will and craft. Therefore it is not astonishing that St. Francis,
+who relied upon Divine power, should have been able to tame beasts. What
+is surprising is, that he should have been able to control men, who are
+so much harder to tame.
+
+The poems of St. Francis--his "Canticle of the Sun," "Canticle of Love,"
+and "Canticle of Charity"--exemplify the immense and tender scope of his
+exquisite love and good-will. His Order continues, and has given rise to
+subsidiary organizations such as the Recollects and the Capuchins.
+Thousands of people in common life belong to his Third Order, now, and
+continue his work unostentatiously. His spirit is alive and operative in
+the world to-day, nearly six hundred and seventy years since he left
+this earth.
+
+[Signature: George Parsons Lathrop.]
+
+
+
+
+ST. LOUIS
+
+By HENRY G. HEWLETT
+
+(1215-1270)
+
+[Illustration: St. Louis.]
+
+
+The most striking features of the political history of France during the
+tenth and eleventh centuries are the conflict of the feudal aristocracy
+on the one hand, with monarchical and democratical power on the other,
+and the influence exerted by the Crusades on both.
+
+[Illustration: The Education of Louis IX.]
+
+The Crusades aided much in the accomplishment of the final result, the
+destruction of the power of the nobility. In the first place, they
+glorified the character of feudalism by enforcing the principles of
+chivalry. To be a "true knight," a man must be devout, just, merciful,
+and pure. Many Crusaders, indeed, fell far short of this high ideal; but
+there can be no doubt that, on the whole, it elevated the standard of
+morality, and checked the rampant tyranny which had previously
+prevailed. Founded on a principle of sincere though mistaken piety, the
+Crusaders recognized all who took the cross as brethren; hence the
+meanest serf became, in some measure, free; and the same benign
+sentiment extended its effect to all classes. The attraction of a common
+cause in foreign lands further contributed to wean the Crusaders from
+the class quarrels and domestic feuds which occupied them at home.
+During their absence the crown was enabled to acquire a strength which
+had previously been spent in the repression of constant rebellions. And
+the need of money for the expedition obliged many feudal lords to
+contract with the communes for the sale of lands or liberties.
+
+Such was the condition of France at the commencement of the thirteenth
+century. The balance of power, however, was only sustained by the
+activity of all the parties concerned. The slightest wavering on the
+part of the crown would be fatal, the least opportunity seized. A wise,
+sincere, and humane ruler was needed to confirm and enlarge the vantage
+ground which law and order had already obtained; and such a ruler rose
+in the person of Louis IX., who ascended the throne in 1226.
+
+His father, Louis VIII., was a man of weak character, whose reign was
+chiefly signalized by the horrible persecution of the Protestant
+Albigenses of Provence, which, under the sanction of Innocent III., and
+later Popes, had been carried on by Simon de Montfort and other
+fanatics, since 1209. Louis himself had died of fever when about to
+commence the siege of Toulouse.
+
+The Queen Dowager, Blanche, of Castile, was a woman of great energy, and
+during the minority of her son she bravely contested her claims to the
+regency of the kingdom against those of Philip, her husband's brother,
+whom Henry III., of England, supported. She appealed, not in vain, to
+the gratitude of the metropolis, which the Capetian kings had
+befriended; and at her call a large force of citizens joined her. With
+their aid she defeated Philip and other nobles, who opposed her son's
+coronation, and by two treaties, in 1229 and 1231, she both extended the
+limits of her kingdom and put an end to civil war. Over Louis, who was
+but eleven years old when his father died, she exercised a somewhat
+rigorous, but a holy and prudent discipline, to which he was much
+indebted for strengthening his moral and mental constitution. He was
+educated at the Abbey of Royaumont by Vincent de Beauvais, and though
+not remarkable for talents, possessed considerable decision of
+character, and a large share of personal courage. It is, however, by the
+piety, purity, and benevolence of his soul that he stands forth so
+prominently in the history of Europe. The year of his coronation all the
+jails of the kingdom were thrown open by the royal command. A nature
+more truly loving and lovable has rarely been bestowed on any member of
+the human family. Yet, with all these paramount excellences, his life
+presents a tragedy--the fatal consequences of unreasoning faith. All his
+errors--we cannot justly call them faults--proceeded from this prolific
+source. Before recording these, it will be gratifying to point out the
+happier results of those noble and wise qualities which have consecrated
+his name.
+
+After the treaty of 1231, France remained at peace for some years,
+during which time Louis married Margaret of Provence, a princess only
+inferior in worth to himself. Soon after attaining his majority he was
+called upon to contend with the Count of Brittany and other nobles who
+resisted his authority. At the head of his vassals Louis marched against
+the rebels, and was so prompt and energetic in his measures that the
+count was forced to yield and sue for pardon in the attitude of a
+criminal, with a rope round his neck. Henry III. crossed the channel
+with an army to support the rebellion, and recover, if possible, the
+possessions which King John had surrendered to King Philip. The armies
+met at Saintes, in 1242, where the French were victorious, the rebels
+subsequently submitting, and Henry returning home.
+
+In 1244 Louis had a severe illness, which was attended with danger to
+his life. During the progress of it, he vowed to undertake a new crusade
+should he recover. The fulfilment of this vow was opposed by Blanche of
+Castile (who still had great influence over her son) and many of his
+best counsellors; but Louis was inflexible where religion and honor
+demanded a sacrifice.
+
+In 1248 he collected a large army, and prepared to start by way of
+Sicily, the nearest route to Palestine, when he remembered that the
+island belonged to Frederick II., of Germany, who was under
+excommunication by the Pope. All attempts to shake the decision of
+Innocent IV. failed; and yielding to the pious weakness of fearing to
+rest in an excommunicant's territory, Louis changed his plans, and
+determined to pass by way of Cyprus and Egypt--a route which proved the
+ruin of the expedition. He committed the regency of France to his
+mother, assumed the staff of pilgrimage, and accompanied by his wife and
+brothers, left Paris on June 12, 1248. He stayed for several months in
+Cyprus, until his armament amounted to 50,000 men, and then sailed for
+Egypt.
+
+Arrived at the port of Damietta, he caused the oriflamme (the national
+standard of France) to be waved above his head; and, arrayed in complete
+armor, he unsheathed his sword, and leaped into the sea, followed by the
+knights. The inhabitants fled, and the French took possession of the
+city. The inundation of the Nile prevented their further movements for
+several months. Licentiousness and disease were fostered by this delay,
+in spite of the king's remonstrances; and their unopposed success made
+the Crusaders careless as to the tactics of the enemy.
+
+On the subsidence of the Nile, Louis fortified Damietta, and left his
+queen and her ladies there, while he, with the main army, advanced on
+Cairo, the metropolis of Egypt, where the sultan resided. Near
+Mansourah, the Crusaders became perplexed by the intricacy of the
+canals, and a hasty dash across one of these, made by the king's
+brother, the Count of Artois, with 2,000 men, led to a calamitous
+result. Mansourah was apparently deserted, and the count's troops, who
+preceded their comrades at some distance, commenced pillaging the
+houses. The inhabitants, who were only concealed, showered down stones
+from the roofs; and at the same moment, a large body of the sultan's
+army made an attack in front. Louis reached Mansourah in time to save a
+few of his men, but found his brother and several others slain. The
+Moslem camp was captured, but proved a doubtful prize. The plains were
+barren and scorching, and the harassing assaults of the Egyptians, who
+poured "Greek fire" (missiles filled with combustible materials) on
+their foes, rendered the situation more intolerable still. Pestilence
+broke out, and the king himself fell dangerously ill. He then ordered a
+retreat to Damietta, whither the sick were to be conveyed in galleys.
+These were intercepted, and the sick murdered by the Egyptians; while,
+at the same time an attack was made on the Christian camp.
+
+[Illustration: St. Louis.]
+
+Louis was so weak that he could scarcely ride, but nevertheless would
+not desert his post. He rode between the ranks, encouraging his men,
+till he fainted and was obliged to withdraw from the field. His quaint
+and affectionate biographer, the Lord of Joinville, who was with him in
+this expedition, thus describes the scenes which ensued: "Of all his
+men-at-arms there was only one with him, the good knight, Sir Geoffrey
+de Sargines; and who, I heard say, did defend him like as a faithful
+servant doth guard his master's cup from flies--for every time that the
+Saracens did approach the king he defended him with vigorous strokes of
+the blade and point of his sword, and his strength seemed doubled. At
+last he brought the king to a house where there was a woman from Paris;
+and laying him on the ground, placed his head on the woman's lap,
+expecting every moment that he would breathe his last." In this
+half-dying condition a body of Egyptians found him, and bore him to the
+tent of the sultan. The defeat of the Christians, who were weakened by
+the climate, disease, and want of food, was general; many fell by the
+sword, and the rest were taken prisoners with their king.
+
+In captivity Louis showed a noble resignation and courage amid the
+apostasy of many. He won the respect of the sultan, who treated him with
+generosity, and listened to the terms of ransom which he proposed. The
+queen remained at Damietta, which was strongly garrisoned. Fearful,
+nevertheless, of falling into the hands of the Moslems, who would have
+carried her into the sultan's harem, she prayed an old knight in her
+suite to slay her with his sword, should there be any danger of that
+event. "I had determined on so doing, madam," was the answer. Margaret's
+heroism was not put to this severe test, for the surrender of Damietta
+was one of the conditions of her husband's release; and after paying in
+addition a sum of 400,000 livres, Louis was on the point of being set
+free. An insurrection, however, suddenly arose among the Mamelukes, or
+Tartarian troops, in whose hands the real power of the state was placed,
+and the sultan was murdered. A party of the assassins, it is said,
+entered the chamber of Louis with their scimitars drawn, but his calm
+dignity saved him, and the treaty was carried out by the new sultan.
+
+Many of the French nobles returned home, but the king, faithful to his
+vow, proceeded to Syria, and spent four years in strengthening the
+fortresses of Tyre and other Christian towns, redeeming many Crusaders
+from slavery, and reducing to order the disturbed condition of the
+country.
+
+The death of the Queen Dowager Blanche, who had governed France wisely
+during her regency, recalled him in 1254, after an absence of six years.
+He still wore the cross upon his shoulder, as a token that his oath as a
+Crusader was not yet fulfilled; but he never once neglected the more
+pressing and necessary duties which devolved on him as a monarch. His
+immediate work was to supersede the arbitrary legislation which the
+nobles exercised in their manorial courts over their tenants. He
+accordingly introduced into general use the famous code of Roman laws
+known as the Pandects of Justinian, and constituted the chief civil
+lawyers, who had studied its contents and were best acquainted with its
+principles, into a Parliament, or Court of Justice. The nobles and the
+clergy were duly represented in this assembly; but its clerks, or
+lawyers, were especially favored by the king, who seconded their own
+efforts to absorb the business of the court as much as possible. Louis
+further mediated between the tyranny of the nobles and the weakness of
+their tenants, by encouraging the practice of appealing to the crown in
+case of injustice. This he even extended to ecclesiastical matters; a
+bold step for one so devoted to the Church. The prohibition of the
+barbarous custom of duelling to decide personal quarrels was another of
+his humane laws. These, and divers other ordinances, founded in a like
+spirit of equity, are known in a collected shape as the _Institutes of
+St. Louis_. His enactment touching appeals from the Church to the Crown,
+and the prohibition which he likewise issued against the levying of
+money in France for the use of the Pope without the king's license, are
+known as a _Pragmatic Sanction_--a term applied to any especially
+important national decree. Louis set the example of enforcing the laws
+personally, and none was fitter to administer them than he. Under an oak
+in the forest of Vincennes, near Paris, often sat the good king to hear
+appeals and petitions from his poor subjects. His social and foreign
+relations were as fully attended to as his political reforms. He first
+placed the French navy on a substantial footing. To him Paris owed a
+public library, a hospital for the blind, and the establishment of a
+body of police. Under his sanction, also, his confessor, Robert de
+Sorbon, founded the famous theological college called by his name. So
+scrupulously just and honorable was Louis, that he appointed a
+commission to ascertain what restitution of territory should be made to
+nations which had been mulcted by the conquests of his predecessors, and
+he thus more than once sacrificed extensive possessions for the sake of
+a principle. By a treaty in 1255, made with Henry III., Louis restored
+to the English crown the provinces of which Philip Augustus had deprived
+it, and obtained in return the surrender of Henry's rights in Normandy
+and other fiefs. The reputation which Louis thus acquired among his
+fellow-monarchs led to his being asked to act as mediator in several
+quarrels, and gave him many opportunities of exhibiting his peaceful and
+loving policy.
+
+[Illustration: Louis IX. opens the Jails of France.]
+
+The mental blindness of which we have spoken led him to commit errors,
+which, if his misled conscience had not sanctioned them, would deserve
+the name of crimes. Toward Jews and heretics he showed no mercy,
+issuing severe and unjust laws against them "for the good of his soul."
+The duty of the historian is to record these failings of a noble nature
+as impartially as its beauties; but the evil must, in all fairness, be
+credited to the Church and system which taught, and not to the believer
+who practised.
+
+In 1270 the affairs of the East again attracted the attention of Europe,
+and recalled Louis to the fulfilment of his vow, which he had only
+postponed. The Greeks had retaken the city of Constantinople from the
+French and Venetian Crusaders some years previously, yet the
+reconstitution of the Christian Empire of the East had not availed to
+check the aggressions of the Moslem in Palestine. Benocdar, the Sultan
+of Egypt, had already taken Caesarea and Jaffa; and news now came that
+Antioch had fallen, 100,000 Christians having been massacred in the
+siege. The seventh and last Crusade was at once set on foot by outraged
+Europe, and Louis led the expedition, in which France was, as usual,
+foremost. He raised an army of 6,000 horse and 30,000 foot, and was
+accompanied by his three sons, the King of Navarre, and several nobles
+of high rank. His brother, Charles of Anjou (the new King of Naples),
+and Edward I., of England, (then prince), were to join the French in the
+course of the year. Some romantic intelligence that the Moslem King of
+Tunis was desirous of being baptized, induced the pious Louis again to
+try the African, instead of the Asiatic, route to Palestine. He narrowly
+escaped with his life, in a tempest which overtook the fleet in the
+Mediterranean, but landed in Sardinia, and after recruiting here again
+set sail, and anchored off Carthage. He met with opposition, instead of
+welcome, from the inhabitants of the coast, and was obliged to besiege
+Tunis. The excessive heat of the climate and the unhealthiness of the
+soil proved a second time fatal to the army. Plague at last broke out,
+and Louis was himself seized. Finding himself dying, he sent for Philip,
+his eldest son and successor. Placing in his hand a written paper, the
+good king prayed his son to follow the directions which it
+contained--directions for the conduct of his life, as king and
+individual; enforcing those principles of love to God and man which had
+guided his own career. Then, requesting to be lifted from his bed, Louis
+instructed his attendants to strew the floor of his tent with ashes and
+place him thereon, that he might die as he had lived, in an attitude of
+humiliation and penitence toward his creator. This was done, and shortly
+afterward, as though in vision fulfilling the vow which he was not
+permitted to realize, he uttered, "I will enter thy house--I will
+worship in thy sanctuary!" and expired. His age was but fifty-four.
+
+A few hours elapsed, and the sound of a trumpet echoed through the
+plague-stricken and half-deserted camp. It was the note of Charles of
+Naples, whose fleet had just arrived off the coast. Meeting with no
+response, he rode rapidly toward the tent of the king, and on entering
+saw his body lying still warm upon the ashes. The rites of burial were
+not performed with the usual formalities, his remains being distributed
+among his relatives. The flesh was kept by Charles, who buried it, on
+his return to Sicily, in the great Abbey of Monreale, at Palermo. The
+bones and other parts were conveyed back to France. Those who have
+visited Paris will not forget the exquisite Gothic structure known as
+the "Sainte Chapelle," which is attached to the Palais de Justice,
+containing the courts of law. It was erected by Louis as a receptacle
+for certain supposed relics of Christ. The windows of the chapel are
+entirely composed of stained glass, and as the sunbeams strike upon
+them, their tints of crimson, blue, and orange blend into a rainbow-like
+harmony of glowing and lustrous color, which recalls the heart of Louis
+IX., enshrined within those walls, as its fitting human antitype. He was
+canonized about thirty years afterward, under the title of St. Louis.
+
+
+
+
+MARCO POLO[7]
+
+         [Footnote 7: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By NOAH BROOKS
+
+(1256-1324)
+
+[Illustration: Marco Polo.]
+
+
+In the month of November, in the year 1295, there appeared in the
+beautiful city of Venice three strangers, who were clothed in an
+outlandish and shabby garb of a Tartar cut. They claimed to be of
+Venice, but, according to one of their biographers, one Ramusio,
+"through the many worries and anxieties they had undergone, they were
+quite changed in aspect, and had got a certain indescribable smack of
+the Tartar both in air and accent, having, indeed, all but forgotten
+their Venetian tongue." They went to the house of the Polo family,
+demanding entrance and claiming to be Nicolo Polo, Maffeo, his brother,
+and Marco, son of the elder of the two brothers, Nicolo. They were
+laughed to scorn as pretenders and impostors; for the three missing
+members of the Polo family had been gone away from Venice some
+twenty-odd years; it was in 1271 that the Polos were last heard from,
+then at Acre, journeying into the Far East.
+
+But the three somehow gained access to their own house, then in the
+possession of one of their relations. And the news of their home-coming
+was presently noised abroad throughout the city of Venice; so much so
+that the people for days talked of little else save the reappearance in
+the land of the living of the long-lost travellers. Many, however,
+doubted if these really were the brothers Polo and young Marco; this
+last was a mere lad of seventeen when he went away, and now was grown to
+be a portly man of forty-odd years. So incredulous were the townsfolk
+that the brothers hit upon a scheme to convince the doubting ones. They
+made a grand feast to which all the gentry were invited, for the Polo
+family were of noble birth and had held station in the state. The
+entertainment was served in great splendor with gold and silver dishes,
+and the three travellers, when they sat down, were dressed in robes of
+the richest crimson satin flowing down to the ground. After some of the
+courses had been eaten, they retired to their chamber and came forth
+again dressed in other robes of crimson silk damask, very rich, and the
+satin garments were cut up and divided among the servants. Again, later
+on in the repast, they retired, and when they came again to the table
+they wore other robes, of the richest crimson velvet, and the second
+garments were cut up and divided as the others had been. When the dinner
+was over they took off the velvet robes, and these were disposed of in
+like manner. "These proceedings," says the honest Ramusio, "caused much
+wonder and amazement among the guests," which we can well imagine.
+
+Next, dismissing all the servants, the younger one of the three, Marco
+Polo, went to an inner chamber and brought forth to the table the coarse
+and shabby dresses in which the three had arrived in Venice. Then,
+taking sharp knives, the travellers ripped open the seams and welts of
+the garments, and shook from them a vast profusion of diamonds, rubies,
+sapphires, carbuncles, emeralds, and other precious stones. The guests
+were dumfounded and amazed. "And now," says Ramusio, "they recognized
+that in spite of all former doubts, these were in truth those honored
+and worthy gentlemen of the Casa Polo that they claimed to be; and so
+all paid them the greatest honor and reverence." Furthermore, we are
+told that when the story got wind in Venice, straightway the whole city,
+gentle and simple, flocked to the house to embrace the three travellers,
+and to make much of them with every conceivable demonstration of
+affection and respect.
+
+This was the wonderful home-coming of the three Polos, who for
+twenty-four years had been wandering in the East, and who, when they set
+out on their homeward journey, a journey beset with untold difficulties
+and dangers, took the precaution to conceal in their garments, as above
+told, the wealth which they had accumulated while they were at the court
+of the Great Khan of Tartary. It reads like a romance, a story out of
+"The Arabian Nights' Entertainments." But it is all true, and the
+archives of Venice corroborate pretty nearly all the details herein set
+forth. Indeed, as a prophet is not without honor save in his own country
+and among his own kindred, it must be said that the later generation of
+Venetians found less difficulty in believing the tales of the three
+travellers than did those who first heard them. In telling these tales,
+they had frequent occasion to use the word "millions," a word not then
+common among the Venetians, as to say that the Great Khan had revenues
+amounting to ten or fifteen _millions_ of gold, and so on. And the
+people gave Marco, who seems to have been the story-teller of the party,
+the nickname of Messer Marco Millioni. Curiously enough, this name
+appears in the public records of old Venice.
+
+Of the final exit of the elders of the Polo family, Nicolo and Maffeo,
+we have no trustworthy account. As they were well stricken in years when
+they returned from their long sojourn in Cathay, we may suppose that
+they did not live long after their return to Venice. But the younger
+Marco had a busy and stirring life. At that time the republics of Venice
+and Genoa were rivals for the ruling of the seas and the monopoly of
+maritime trade everywhere. A Venetian galley could not meet one from
+Genoa without a fight, and the fleets of the two states were continually
+at war.
+
+Marco, being one of the representatives of the noble Venetian families
+who were required to come to the support of the state with at least one
+galley, entered the naval service of Venice in command of a war galley,
+and was engaged in the great battle between Venice and Genoa near
+Curzola, off the Dalmatian coast, in 1298, three years after his return
+from Cathay. The Venetians were beaten ignominiously, and 7,000 of them
+were taken prisoners and carried to Genoa. It was a lucky thing for the
+world that Marco Polo was thus put into enforced idleness, and that he
+had for a companion in confinement an educated gentleman, one
+Rusticiano, of Pisa. Otherwise, most likely we never would have heard of
+the travels of Marco Polo, whom some of the later chroniclers have
+likened to Columbus, the discoverer of America.
+
+To beguile the tedium of their imprisonment, Marco was wont to tell his
+traveller's tales to his companion, Rusticiano, and this worthy
+gentleman conceived the notion of writing out the marvellous adventures
+and observations of his fellow-prisoner. We must bear in mind that the
+Italian gentry of that time did not hold in high esteem the art of
+writing, and although Marco was not inferior to any man in daring or
+adventurousness, he was willing to leave to the scriveners the task of
+writing about such matters. But, in the end, the advice of Rusticiano
+prevailed, and the Pisan gentleman set down from the dictation of Marco
+"The Book of Ser Marco Polo Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the
+East." This was, up to that time, the most important book of travels and
+voyages ever written. Indeed, it was the most important book of any kind
+written during the Middle Ages.
+
+The book contributed more new facts toward a knowledge of the earth's
+surface, says one skilled authority, than any book that had been written
+before. The writer was the first to describe China, or Cathay, in its
+vastness of territory, its wonderfully rich and populous cities, and the
+first to tell of Tartary, Thibet, Burmah, Siam, Cochin-China, the Indian
+Archipelago, the Andaman Islands, of Java and Sumatra, of the fabled
+island of Cipangu, or Japan, of Hindustan, and that marvellous region
+which the world learned to know as Farther India. From far-voyaging
+sailors he brought home accounts of Zanzibar and Madagascar, and the
+semi-Christian country of Abyssinia, where some accounts located that
+mysterious potentate called Prester John. He had traversed Persia and
+had picked up a vast amount of information concerning the country of
+Siberia, with its polar snows and bears, its dog-sledges, and its almost
+everlasting winter. He traversed the entire length of Asia.
+
+Surely, Europe might well be dazed when this account of regions, until
+then unknown, was unrolled before the scholars and explorers who could
+read the few precious books then in circulation. For it should be
+remembered that the art of printing was then unknown, and only in
+manuscript did any book make its appearance. Rusticiano wrote in a very
+poor sort of French; for then, as now, that language was commonest in
+all the cities of Europe. How much of the language of the book of Marco
+Polo's travels was Marco's, and how much was the worthy Rusticiano's, we
+are unable to decide. The facts in that famous book were duly vouched
+for by Marco. The opening chapter, or prologue, inflated and wordy,
+after the fashion of the times, was undoubtedly Rusticiano's. He began
+thus: "Great Princes, Emperors, and Kings, Dukes and Marquises, Counts,
+Knights, and Burgesses! and People of all degree who desire to get
+knowledge of the various races of mankind and of the diversities of the
+sundry regions of the World, take this Book and cause it to be read to
+you. For ye shall find therein all kinds of wonderful things, and the
+divers histories of the Great Hermenia, and of Persia, and of the Land
+of the Tartars, and of India, and of many another country of which our
+Book doth speak, particularly and in regular succession, according to
+the description of Messer Marco Polo, a wise and noble citizen of
+Venice, as he saw them with his own eyes."
+
+This portentous prologue ends with these great swelling words: "And I
+may tell you that in acquiring this knowledge he spent in those various
+parts of the World good six-and-twenty years. Now, being thereafter an
+inmate of the Prison at Genoa, he caused Messer Rusticiano, of Pisa, who
+was in the same Prison likewise, to reduce the whole to writing; and
+this befell in the year 1298 from the birth of Jesus."
+
+One year later, in the summer of 1299, Marco Polo was set at liberty and
+returned to Venice, where he died peacefully in 1324. His last will and
+testament, dated January 9, 1323, is preserved among the archives of
+Venice, and a marble statue in his honor was set up by the Venetians, in
+the seventeenth century, and may be seen unto this day in the Palazzo
+Morosini-Gattemburg, in the Campo S. Stefano of that city.
+
+How came Marco Polo to be drawn so far into the vague and shadowy East?
+Somewhere about the middle of the thirteenth century, certain members of
+the Polo family had established a trading-house in Constantinople, then
+pretty near the end of the world from Europe. These adventurous
+Venetians, in 1260, sent the two brothers, Nicolo and Maffeo, still
+further to the eastward on a trading journey to the Crimea. Led on by
+one adventure and another, and lured by the hope of new and greater
+gains, they ascended the Volga northward and eastward, crossed Bokhara,
+and finally broke into one of the northwestern provinces of China, or
+Cathay, then faintly known in Europe by various names, the most classic
+of which was Seres.
+
+Here they made their way to the capital city of the Great Mongol Empire,
+the seat of government where ruled the Great Khan, a very mighty
+potentate, Kublai Khan, grandson of the famous conqueror, Ghenghis Khan.
+Kublai Khan resided at the wonderful city of Cambuluc, which we now know
+as Pekin. North of the Great Wall, and some one hundred and eighty miles
+from Cambuluc, was the Great Khan's summer palace, one of the wonders of
+the world, reading of which in Purchas' account of Marco Polo's
+travels, it is said that Coleridge fell asleep and dreamed the famous
+poem beginning:
+
+  "In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
+     A stately pleasure dome decree,
+   Where Alph, the sacred river, ran,
+   Through caverns measureless to man,
+     Down to a sunless sea."
+
+These Polo brothers were the first Europeans that the Great Khan had
+ever seen; but before this time, Friar Plano Carpini, in 1246, and Friar
+William Rubruquis, in 1253, had penetrated into Mongolia on some errand
+not now distinctly understood, but far enough to learn that a great and
+civilized country existed somewhere in the eastern extremity of Asia.
+They also learned that beyond this extremity of the continent there was
+a sea; people had until then believed that the eastern end of Asia
+disappeared in a vast and reedy bog, beyond which was deep and
+impenetrable darkness. More exact knowledge of that far eastern sea was
+subsequently acquired by the Venetian travellers. From these wandering
+friars the Great Khan had heard, at second-hand, doubtless, of European
+princes, potentates, and powers, and of the Pope of Rome.
+
+He was mightily taken with the noble Venetians, and we are told that he
+treated them with every courtesy and consideration. He was anxious to
+secure through them the aid of the Sovereign Pontiff, of whose functions
+he entertained high respect, in the civilizing of the hordes that had
+lately been added to the Mongol Empire by wars of conquest. And he
+entreated the good offices of the polished and cultivated Venetians in
+securing for him the good offices of the Pope for that end. Accordingly,
+the two brothers, after satisfying to some degree their curiosity, set
+out for home, full of tales of their strange adventure, we doubt not;
+and they reached Venice in 1269, only to find that the Pope Clement IV.
+was dead, and that no successor had been chosen in his place.
+
+There was a long interregnum, and the brothers, taking with them the son
+of Nicolo, the young Marco, then a stout lad, began to retrace their
+steps to Cathay, despairing of being able to enlist the one hundred
+priests which the Great Khan had asked them to borrow for missionary
+purposes from the Pope.
+
+At Acre, then held by European powers that had been engaged in the
+crusades for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, they took counsel with
+one Tebaldo Visconti, an eminent prelate, who was Archdeacon of Liege
+and a person of great consequence in the Eastern church. At their
+request, he wrote letters to the Great Khan, authenticating the causes
+of their failure to fulfil the wishes of the Khan in the matter of
+obtaining the missionaries whom he desired. Then they pushed on toward
+the farther East, and while waiting for a vessel to sail from the port
+of Ayas, on the Gulf of Scanderoon, then the starting-point for the
+Asiatic trade, they were overtaken by the news that their friend the
+Archdeacon Tebaldo had been chosen Pope, under the title of Gregory X.
+They at once returned to Acre, and were able to present to the newly
+elected pontiff the request of the Great Khan and get a reply. But
+instead of one hundred teachers and preachers, they were furnished with
+only two Dominican friars; and these lost heart and drew back before the
+journey was fairly begun. It may be said here that the Great Khan, being
+disappointed by the Roman Church, subsequently applied to the Grand
+Llama of Thibet, and from that source secured the teachers whom he so
+greatly desired. The Great Khan appears to have been an enlightened and
+liberal sovereign, and, according to his lights, was willing to furnish
+to his people the best form of religion that was to be had. He preferred
+the religion of the elegant and polished Italians, but, failing to get
+this, he naturally turned his eyes in the direction of Thibet, then an
+unknown land to all Europeans, but regarded in Mongolia as a region of
+some considerable civilization.
+
+The three members of the Polo family finally set out on their return to
+Cathay, leaving Acre in November, 1271. They proceeded by the way of
+Ayas and Sivas to Mardin, Mosul, and Bagdad to Hormuz, at the mouth of
+the Persian Gulf. Here they met with some obstacle and turned from
+Hormuz, and traversed successively Kerman and Khorassan, Balkh, and
+Badakhshan, by the way of the upper Oxus, to the plateau of Pamir;
+thence crossing the steppes of Pamir, the three travellers descended
+upon Kashgar, whence they proceeded by Yarkand and Khotan to the
+vicinity of Lake Lob; and, crossing the desert of Gobi, they reached the
+province of Tangut in the extreme northwestern corner of China, or
+Cathay. Skirting the northern frontier, they finally reached the actual
+presence of the Great Khan, who was then at his summer palace of
+Kaipingfu, before spoken of, situated at the base of the Khingan
+Mountains, fifty miles north of the Great Wall. One may form some idea
+of the difficulties of Asiatic travel in those days, as well as the
+leisurely habits of the time, by considering that this journey occupied
+the three Venetians three years and a half. They arrived at the palace
+of the Khan about May, 1275.
+
+The Polos were very cordially and gladly received by the potentate, then
+ruling over a territory so vast that it has been well said that, "In
+Asia and Eastern Europe scarcely a dog might bark without Mongol leave,
+from the borders of Poland and the coast of Cilicia to the Amoor and the
+Yellow Sea." Kublai Khan regarded the young Marco with especial favor,
+and soon began to employ him in errands and commissions of importance.
+"The Young Bachelor," as he is called in his book, took pains to acquire
+at once an acquaintance with the Chinese alphabet, and to learn the
+languages and dialects of the countries in which he found profitable and
+interesting employment.
+
+It appears that the Khan had been greatly annoyed by the stupidity of
+his own officials and agents. They attended only to the errands on which
+they were sent, and brought back absolutely no knowledge of the distant
+countries that they visited, except that which they were specially
+directed to fetch. Very different was the conduct of the young Venetian.
+He was shrewdly observant, of a lively disposition, and given to
+inquiring into the strange and wonderful things which he beheld in those
+remote parts of the world, hitherto secluded from the observation of
+Europeans. He made copious and minute notes of all that he saw and
+heard, for the benefit of his imperial master. These notes afterward
+served him a good purpose, as we shall see; for they were the basis of
+the book that has made the name of Marco Polo famous throughout the
+world. When he returned to the imperial court, we can imagine the
+satisfaction with which the picturesque and intelligent narrations of
+what he had seen and heard were received by the Great Khan.
+
+In the records of the Mongol dynasty has been found a minute setting
+forth the fact that a certain Polo, undoubtedly young Marco, was
+nominated a second-class commissioner attached to the privy council of
+the Empire, in the year 1277. His first mission appears to have taken
+him on public business to the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, Sechuen and
+Yunnan, in the southern and southwestern part of China, and east of
+Thibet. Even now, those regions are comparatively unknown to the rest of
+the world; and one must needs admire the intrepidity of the young
+Venetian who penetrated their wild mountain fastnesses, traced their
+mighty rivers, and carried away for the delight of the Great Khan, much
+novel information concerning the peoples that so numerously flourished
+in that cradle of the human race.
+
+In his book Marco Polo does not greatly magnify himself and his office,
+and it is only incidentally, as it were, that we know that he was for
+three years governor of the great city of Yangchau. Following the
+details laid down in his book, the accuracy of which we have no reason
+to doubt, we find him visiting the old capital of the Khans, in
+Mongolia, employed in Southern Cochin-China, and on a mission to the
+Indian Seas, when he visited some of the states of India, of which
+Europeans at that time had only dimly heard the most fabulous and vague
+accounts. That the Polos were all favorites of the Great Khan is
+sufficiently evident; but it does not appear that any but Marco was in
+the employment of the Khan. All three of them doubtless made hay while
+the sun shone, and gathered wealth as they could, trading with the
+people and making use of their Venetian shrewdness in dealing with the
+natives, who were no match for the cunning traders from the Rialto.
+
+Naturally, they longed to carry their wealth and their aged heads--for
+the two elders were now well stricken in years--safely back to their
+beloved Venice on the Adriatic, so far away. But Kublai Khan would not
+listen to any of their suggestions, and turned a deaf ear to their
+hints. A happy chance intervened to bring them out of the wild,
+mysterious realm of the Great Khan. Arghun, Khan of Persia, a
+great-nephew of Kublai, had lost by death his favorite wife, who was of
+one of the Mongol tribes, and who, dying in 1286, laid a parting
+injunction on the Khan that he should wed none but a Mongol princess.
+Sorely mourning her, the Persian Khan sent an embassy to the court of
+Kublai Khan to solicit a suitable bride for him. The Lady Kuchachin, a
+damsel of seventeen, beautiful and virtuous, was selected by the Court
+and was made ready to be sent to Tabriz, then the capital of the Persian
+Empire. The overland journey was highly dangerous, as it lay through
+regions tenanted by hostile and warlike tribes, besides being
+portentously long to be undertaken by a delicate young princess. The
+Persian envoys, accordingly, entreated the Great Khan to send with them
+by sea the three foreigners, of whose seamanship they undoubtedly held
+high opinion, especially as the young Marco had just returned from his
+distant and venturous voyage to the Indian Seas. With much reluctance
+the Khan consented, and the argosy set forth.
+
+Having given leave for the three Venetians to sail, the Great Khan
+fitted them out nobly and endowed them with handsome presents at
+parting. They sailed, so far as we can now make out, from the port of
+Zayton, better known as Chinchau, in Fokien, at the beginning of the
+year 1292, two hundred years before Columbus set forth upon his voyage
+across the Ocean Sea.
+
+It was an ill-starred and unfortunate voyage for the three Polos and
+their precious charge, although all escaped with their lives and
+treasure. They were detained five months on the coast of Sumatra, and
+there were even longer detentions off the southern coast of India, so
+that more than two years had passed since their departure from Fokien,
+when they arrived at the camp of the then reigning prince of Persia. The
+Khan of Persia, they found, had died before they set sail from China,
+and his son, Ghazan Khan, reigned in his stead.
+
+After the custom of the times and the people, however, the princess was
+married without ado to the successor of the royal person to whom she had
+been betrothed before leaving far-off Cathay. It is related that she
+took her leave of the three noble Venetians, to whom she had become like
+a daughter and sister, with many tears and protestations of affection;
+for they had been very choice in their care of her, and she lamented
+their departure with sincere sorrow and many tears.
+
+Leaving the princess at the camp of the Khan (for he was now at war),
+the Venetians pushed on to Tabriz, where they made a long halt, resting
+and refreshing themselves after their long and wearisome journey. Then
+they again took up their line of march westward, and reached Venice, as
+we have seen, in November, 1295, only to find their identity denied and
+their stories disbelieved, until, by an artifice, they made themselves
+truly known to their fellow-townsmen, who had long since given them up
+for dead.
+
+Marco Polo's book, dictated by him in prison, is remarkable for its
+reserve and its scantiness of all semblance of ornament in its literary
+style. Messer Marco evidently did not greatly affect the arts and graces
+of fine writing. Like most of the Italian gentlefolk of his day and
+generation, he held the business of writing in low esteem. Some of his
+chapters are very brief indeed, the text being no greater in bulk than
+the headings which his amanuensis put over them of his own motion. Of
+the original manuscript, written in French, copies were made for the use
+of the learned, the art of printing being as yet not invented. There are
+now in existence no less than eighty of these manuscripts, in various
+languages, more or less differing from each other in unimportant
+details; but all substantially verifying the facts of the wonderful
+history of Messer Marco Polo as here set forth. The most precious of
+these is known as the Geographical text, and is preserved in the great
+Paris Library; from it was printed, in 1824, one of the most valued of
+the texts now in existence. But the most useful and satisfactory of all
+the printed editions is that edited and annotated by Colonel Henry Yule,
+and printed in London in 1871. The first printed edition of Marco Polo's
+book was in the German text, and was published in 1477.
+
+Many writers have dwelt long on the question, Did Columbus gather any
+information from the book of Marco Polo that aided him in forming his
+theory, that one could reach India and Cathay by sailing westward from
+Spain out into the Sea of Darkness? We cannot satisfactorily answer that
+question. But we do know that all Europe, at the time of Marco Polo's
+adventurous journey eastward, resolutely turned its back upon the
+Atlantic, and looked toward Cathay and the Far Orient for a road to the
+fabulous diamond mines and spice islands that were believed to exist
+somewhere in the vague and mysterious East. Many philosophers, among
+whom was Columbus himself, thought the globe much smaller than it really
+is; but it was Columbus who was apparently charged with a divine mission
+to teach the world that sailing due westward from the Pillars of
+Hercules would bring the voyager to the dominions of Prester John, the
+Indies, and Cipangu.
+
+When Columbus set sail for his hazardous venture into the Sea of
+Darkness, he was armed with letters to Prester John, the traditional
+Christian prince of the Far East; and his first landfall, as we know
+now, was by him supposed to be an outlying portion of that vast region
+vaguely known to the explorers who followed Marco Polo, as Farther
+India. But centuries rolled away before the world saw the facts of
+geography as we know them, or learned to accept as true the marvellous
+stories of Marco Polo, whose priceless legacy was first dimly known to
+the few, and was dubbed the Romance of the Great Khan.
+
+[Signature: Noah Brooks.]
+
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM WALLACE
+
+(1270-1305)
+
+
+The life and exploits of this most popular national hero of the Scots
+have been principally preserved in a legendary form by poetry and
+tradition, and are only to a very small extent matter of contemporary
+record, or illustrated by authentic documents. There is no extant
+Scottish chronicler of the age of Wallace. Fordun, the earliest of his
+countrymen from whom we have any account of him, is his junior by nearly
+a century. Wyntoun, the next authority, is still half a century later.
+His chief celebrator is the metrical writer Blind Harry, or Harry the
+Minstrel, whose work confesses itself by its very form to be quite as
+much of a fiction as a history, and whose era, at any rate, is supposed
+to be nearly two centuries subsequent to that of his hero. Some few
+facts, however, may be got out of the English annalists Trivet and
+Hemingford, who were the contemporaries of Wallace.
+
+[Illustration: Sir William Wallace.]
+
+There are contradictory statements of the year of his birth, but it is
+probable he was born about 1270. His family was one of some distinction,
+and he is said to have been the younger of the two sons of Sir Malcolm
+Wallace, of Elderslie and Auchinbothie, in the neighborhood of Paisley.
+His mother, who according to one account was Sir Malcolm's second wife,
+is stated by the genealogists to have been Margaret, daughter of Sir
+Raynald or Reginald (other authorities say Sir Hugh) Crawford, who held
+the office of Sheriff of Ayr.
+
+The history of Wallace down to the year 1297 is entirely legendary, and
+only to be found in the rhymes of Harry the Minstrel; though many of the
+facts which Harry relates still live as popular traditions in the
+localities where the scenes of them are laid, whether handed down in
+that way from the time when they happened, or only derived from his
+poem, which long continued to be the literary favorite of the Scottish
+peasantry. Harry, who, it may be observed, professes to translate from a
+Latin account written by Wallace's intimate friend and chaplain, John
+Blair, makes him to have been carefully educated by his uncle, a wealthy
+churchman who resided at Dunipace, in Stirlingshire, and to have been
+afterward sent to the grammar-school of Dundee. Here his first memorable
+act is said to have been performed; his slaughter of the son of Selby,
+the English governor of the castle of Dundee, in chastisement of an
+insult offered him by the unwary young man; Wallace with his dagger
+struck him dead on the spot. This must have happened, if at all, in the
+year 1291, after Edward I. of England had obtained possession of all the
+places of strength throughout Scotland on his recognition as Lord
+Paramount by the various competitors for the crown, which had become
+vacant by the death of the infant Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, in
+September, 1290.
+
+This bold deed committed by Wallace, who in making his escape is
+asserted to have laid several of young Selby's attendants as low as
+their master, was immediately followed by his outlawry. He now took to
+the woods, and gifted as he was with eloquence, sagacity, and other high
+mental powers and accomplishments (to this the testimony of Fordun is as
+express and explicit as that of his poetical biographer), not less than
+with strength and height of frame and all other personal advantages, he
+soon found himself at the head of a band of attached as well as
+determined followers, who under his guidance often harassed the English
+soldiery, both on their marches and at their stations, plundering and
+slaying, as it might chance, with equally little remorse. Particular
+spots in nearly every part of Scotland are still famous for some deed of
+Wallace and his fellow-outlaws, performed at this period of his life;
+but for these we must refer to the Blind Minstrel. The woods in the
+neighborhood of Ayr would seem to have been his chief haunt; and some of
+his most remarkable feats of valor were exhibited in that town, in the
+face and in defiance of the foreign garrison by which it was occupied.
+Both his father and his elder brother are said to have fallen in
+_rencontres_ with the English during this interval. It was now also that
+he fell in love with the orphan daughter of Sir Hew de Bradfute, the
+heiress of Lamington, having, it is said, first seen her at a church in
+the neighborhood of Lanark. The Scotch writers affirm that this lady,
+whom he appears to have married, and who at any rate bore him a
+daughter, a year or two after forming her connection with Wallace fell
+into the hands of his enemies, and was barbarously executed by order of
+Hazelrig, the English Sheriff or Governor of Lanark, while her husband,
+or lover, was doomed to witness the spectacle from a place where he lay
+in concealment. Such private injuries were well fitted to raise his
+hatred to an unextinguishable flame.
+
+How far the guerilla warfare maintained by Wallace and his associates
+contributed to excite and spread the spirit of resistance to the English
+government, we have scarcely the means of judging; but it seems probable
+that it aided materially in producing the general insurrection which
+broke out in the spring of 1297. The accounts we have of the
+commencement of that movement represent Wallace at its head, in command
+of a considerable force, and in association with some of the most
+distinguished persons in the kingdom, such as the Steward of Scotland
+and his brother, Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow, Sir William Douglas, etc.
+Soon after this he was joined by the younger Robert Bruce (afterward
+King Robert I.) who had hitherto, as well as his father, who was still
+alive (the son of the original competitor for the crown), professed to
+adhere to the English king.
+
+This, however, appears to have been but an ill-cemented confederacy.
+When the force despatched by Edward to quell the revolt presented itself
+before the Scottish army posted near Irvine, in Ayrshire, the leaders of
+the latter, throwing off the authority of their nominal chief, could no
+more agree what to do than whom to obey: and the result was that Bruce,
+the Steward, Douglas, and others of them, availing themselves of the
+diplomatic talents of the Bishop of Glasgow, concluded a treaty on July
+9th, by which they agreed to acknowledge Edward as their sovereign lord.
+All the rest ultimately acceded to this arrangement, except only Wallace
+and his friend, Sir Andrew Moray, of Bothwell. The treaty of Irvine,
+which is printed by Rymer, is, we believe, the first of the few public
+documents in which mention is made of Wallace; to the instrument (which
+is in French) are subjoined the words, "Escrit a Sir Willaume," the
+meaning of which Lord Hailes conceives to be, "that the barons had
+notified Wallace that they had made terms of accommodation for
+themselves and their party." The words, moreover, on the supposition
+that they refer to Wallace, of which there seems to be little doubt,
+show that he had before this date obtained the honor of knighthood. It
+had probably been bestowed upon him (as was then customary) by some
+other knight, one of his companions in arms, since his elevation from
+being the captain of a band of outlaws to be the commander-in-chief of
+the national forces.
+
+Wallace now retired to the north, carrying with him, however, a
+considerable body of adherents, to whom additional numbers rapidly
+gathered, so that he soon found himself in a condition to recommence
+aggressive operations. Directing his force to the northeastern coast, he
+surprised the castle of Dunottar, cleared Aberdeen, Forfar, Brechin, and
+other towns of their English garrisons, and then laid siege to the
+castle of Dundee. While he was engaged in this last attempt, news was
+brought that the English army was approaching Stirling; upon which,
+leaving the siege to be carried on by the citizens of Dundee, he
+hastened to meet the enemy in the field. The result was the complete
+defeat and rout of the English, at the battle of Stirling Bridge, fought
+on September 11, 1297--a battle which once more, for the moment,
+liberated Scotland. The English were immediately driven or fled from
+every place of strength in the country, including Berwick itself.
+
+Availing himself of this panic and of the exhilaration of his
+countrymen, Wallace pursued the fugitives across the border; and putting
+himself at the head of a numerous force, he entered England on October
+18th, and, remaining till November 11th, wasted the country with fire
+and sword from sea to sea, and as far south as to the walls of
+Newcastle. It was during this visitation that the prior and convent of
+Hexham obtained from him the protection preserved by Hemingford. It is
+dated at Hexildesham (Hexham), November 7th, and runs in the names of
+"Andreas de Moravia, et Wilhelmus Wallensis, duces exercitus Scotiae,
+nomine praeclari principis Joannis, Dei gratia, Regis Scotia illustris,
+de consensu communitatis regni ejusdem," that is, "Andrew Moray and
+William Wallace, commanders-in-chief of the army of Scotland, in the
+name of King John, and by consent of the community of the said kingdom."
+The John here acknowledged as King of Scotland was Baliol, now in the
+hands of Edward, and living in a sort of free custody in the Tower of
+London. Wallace's associate in the command was the young Sir Andrew
+Moray, son of his faithful friend of that name, who had retired with him
+from the capitulation of Irvine, and who had fallen at the battle of
+Stirling Bridge.
+
+One of the most curious of the few public papers in which the name of
+Wallace occurs was a few years since discovered by Dr. Lappenburg, of
+Hamburg, in the archives of the ancient Hanseatic city of Luebeck. It is
+a letter, in Latin, addressed to the authorities of Luebeck and Hamburg,
+informing them that their merchants should now have free access to all
+ports of the kingdom of Scotland, seeing that the said kingdom, by the
+favor of God, had been recovered by war from the power of the English.
+The letter is dated "apud Badsing tonam" (the true word, it has been
+suggested, is probably Haddingtonam), October 11, 1297, that is, a few
+days before the invasion of Cumberland and Northumberland. It is in the
+name of "Andreas de Moravia et Willelmus Wallensis, duces exercitis
+regni Scotiae, et communitas, eiusdem regni"--like the Hexham
+protection--but without any mention of King John.
+
+After his triumphal return from his incursion into England, Wallace
+assumed the title of Guardian of the Kingdom in the name of King John,
+whether formally invested with that dignity or only hailed as such by
+the gratitude of his countrymen. In a charter, printed in Anderson's
+"Diplomata," conferring the constabulary of Dundee on Alexander
+Skirmischur (Scrimgeour) and his heirs, and dated at Torphichen (in the
+county of Linlithgow) March 29, 1298, he styles himself, "Willelmus
+Walays miles, Custos Regni Scotiae, et ductor exercituum ejusdem, nomine
+praeclari principis Domini Johannis, Dei gratia Regis Scotiae illustris,
+de consensu communitatis ejusdem." The grant is stated to have been made
+with the consent and approbation of the nobility ("per consensum et
+assensum magnatum dicti regni.")
+
+But this supreme elevation did not last long. Supported only by his own
+merits and the admiration and attachment of his humbler
+fellow-countrymen, Wallace, a new man, and without family connection,
+would probably have found it difficult or impossible to retain his high
+place, even if he had had nothing more to contend with than domestic
+jealousy and dissatisfaction. Fordun relates that many of the nobility
+were in the habit of saying, "We will not have this man to rule over
+us." Meanwhile the energetic English king, who had been abroad when the
+defeat of Stirling Bridge lost him Scotland, had now returned home, and
+was already on his march toward the borders at the head of a powerful
+army. A body of English, which had landed in the north of Fife, led by
+Aymer de Vallois, Earl of Pembroke, is said by the Scottish authorities
+to have been attacked and routed by Wallace on June 12, 1298, in the
+forest of Blackironside, in that county; but when the two main armies
+met on July 22d, in the neighborhood of Falkirk--the Scots commanded by
+Wallace, the English by their king in person--the former, after a
+gallant and obstinate resistance, were at last forced to give way, and
+the battle ended in a universal rout accompanied with immense slaughter.
+
+This defeat did not put an end to the war; but it was taken advantage of
+by the Scottish nobility to deprive Wallace of his office of guardian or
+chief governor of the kingdom. The Scottish accounts say that he
+voluntarily resigned the supreme power; it is certain, at any rate, that
+Bruce, his rival Comyn, and Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrew's, were now
+appointed joint guardians of Scotland, still in the name of Baliol. For
+some years after this our accounts of Wallace are slight and obscure;
+but he appears to have returned with a chosen band of followers to the
+practice of the desultory warfare in which he had originally
+distinguished himself. The legendary histories continue to detail his
+deeds of prowess performed in harassing the enemy both on their marches
+and in their camps and strongholds. And to fill up the story, they also
+make him to have paid two visits to France--the first in 1300, the
+second in 1302. The next well-ascertained fact regarding him is that
+when the Scottish leaders were at last obliged to submit to Edward at
+Strathorde, on February 9, 1304, Wallace was not included in the
+capitulation, one of the clauses of which (printed in the original
+French in Ryley's "Placeta Parliamentaria") is to the effect that as for
+Wallace (Monsieur Guillaume de Galeys), he might, if he pleased, give
+himself up to the king's mercy ("quil se mette en la volunte et en la
+grace nostre seigneur le Roy, si lui semble, que bon soit"). He was soon
+after summoned to appear before a parliament or convention of Scotch and
+English nobility, held at St. Andrew's; and upon their not presenting
+themselves, he and Sir Simon Frisel, or Fraser, were pronounced outlaws.
+For some time his retreat remained undiscovered, although his active
+hostility still continued occasionally to make itself felt. A principal
+person employed in the attempts to capture him appears to have been
+Ralph de Haliburton; but how he was actually taken is not known. Sir
+John Menteith (a son of Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith), to whose
+treachery his delivery to the English king is attributed by Blind Harry
+and popular tradition, appears to have really done nothing more than
+forward him to England after he was brought a prisoner to Dumbarton
+Castle, of which Menteith was governor under a commission from Edward.
+
+On being brought to London, Wallace was lodged in the house of William
+Delect, a citizen, in Fenchurch Street; and on the next day, being the
+eve of St. Bartholomew, he was brought on horseback to Westminster, and
+in the hall there, "being placed on the south bench," says Stow,
+"crowned with laurel for that he had said in times past that he ought to
+bear a crown in that all," he was arraigned as a traitor, and on that
+charge found guilty, and condemned to death. After being dragged to the
+usual place of execution--the Elms, in West Smithfield--at the tails of
+his horses, he was there hanged on a high gallows, on August 23, 1305,
+after which he was "drawn and quartered." His right arm was set up at
+Newcastle, his left at Berwick; his right leg at Perth, his left at
+Aberdeen; his head on London Bridge. Wallace's daughter, by the heiress
+of Lamington, married Sir William Bailie, of Hoprig, whose descendants
+through her inherited the estate of Lamington.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT BRUCE
+
+By Sir J. BERNARD BURKE, LL.D.
+
+(1274-1329)
+
+
+Robert Bruce was born in the year 1274, on the Feast of the translation
+of St. Benedict, being March 21st, and was undoubtedly of Norman origin.
+In an annual roll containing the names of those knights and barons who
+came over with William the Conqueror, we find that of Brueys; and from
+the Domesday Book it appears that a family of the same name were
+possessed of lands in Yorkshire. Coming down to a later period, 1138,
+when David I. of Scotland made his fatal attack upon England--fatal,
+that is, to himself and his people--the English barons, previous to the
+battle of Cutton Moor, near Northallerton, sent a message to the
+Scottish king, by Robert Bruce, of Cleveland, a Norman knight, who
+possessed estates in either country. Upon his death, this knight
+bequeathed his English lands to his eldest son, and those in Annandale
+to his younger, who received a confirmation of his title by a charter of
+William the Lion. From this root sprung Robert Bruce, the competitor for
+the crown with Baliol, whose grandson was the more celebrated Robert
+Bruce, the younger, Earl of Carrick in virtue of his mother's title, and
+afterward King of Scotland. He was the eldest of three brothers and
+seven sisters, whose marriages with some of the leading families of
+Scotland proved an important element of success to the future hero. His
+earliest years were passed at the castle of Turnberry, where his mother
+resided; but as he grew older, his father, who considered himself an
+English baron, thought proper that he should be removed to the English
+court. The friendship subsisting between Edward the First and the Earl
+of Carrick induced the former to adopt the earl's son; so that the
+confiding monarch trained up his mortal enemy in the use of those arts
+and weapons which were one day to be turned against himself.
+
+[Illustration: Robert Bruce.]
+
+The family of Bruce, as we have already noticed, were competitors for
+the Scottish throne with Baliol, in whose favor an award was pronounced
+by Edward, when called upon to arbitrate between them. At this time the
+elder Bruce was far advanced in years; his son, the Earl of Carrick, was
+still in the prime of life, and his grandson, Robert Bruce was eighteen
+years of age. Upon the old man being required to do homage for his lands
+in Scotland to the new monarch of that country, he indignantly refused,
+exclaiming, "I am Baliol's sovereign, not Baliol mine; and rather than
+consent to such a homage, I resign my lands in Annandale to my son, the
+Earl of Carrick." But Carrick was not less proud, or averse to anything
+that might call in question his claim to the crown of Scotland, and in
+like manner refused to hold any lands of Baliol. As, however, according
+to the feudal law, he must either divest himself of his estate, or do
+homage for it, he adopted the former alternative, and resigned the lands
+of Annandale in favor of his son, Robert. The young baron, less
+scrupulous than his relatives, did not hesitate to accept his father's
+gift, which, upon feudal principles, carried with it the title of Earl
+of Carrick, and did homage for the same to Baliol. By his father's
+death, in 1304, he became possessed of the family estates in England.
+
+From this time Bruce played his part with skill, though in justice it
+must be allowed that his patriotism was not altogether without the alloy
+of a selfish ambition; and perhaps it would be expecting too much from
+human nature, even in its best and highest forms, to look for anything
+else. Neither can we free him from the charge of dissimulation in that
+he swore a fealty to Baliol, which it is plain he never intended to
+observe, and affected gratitude and attachment for the English monarch,
+while in secret he was preparing to undermine him. An excuse for this
+has been sought by his more partial admirers in the necessity of the
+case, arising from the well-known sagacity of Edward, who would
+otherwise have penetrated his purposes and crushed them in the bud
+without scruple. Nor was this the only obstacle in his path to empire.
+Upon the failure of Baliol and his only son, Edward, the ancient and
+powerful family of the Comyns were ready to dispute his title to the
+crown, which they claimed for themselves. John, commonly called the Red
+Comyn, who had been the determined opponent of Wallace, possessed, in
+the event of the monarch dying without issue, the same right to the
+throne which was vested in Bruce himself. He, too, had connected himself
+by marriage with the royal family of England, and was at this time one
+of the most powerful subjects in Scotland. When Baliol leagued with
+Comyn to throw off the supremacy of Edward, whose hand, whether justly
+or not, had raised him to the Scottish throne, the Bruces and their
+party, tempted by the promise of a crown, lent their best aid to the
+English monarch. Upon the termination of the campaign the elder Bruce
+demanded the fulfilment of Edward's promise, to which the latter
+indignantly replied that he had not come into Scotland to conquer a
+kingdom for him; so that Bruce reaped nothing else at the time from his
+service, than the satisfaction of seeing his rival, Baliol, dethroned,
+and the influence of the Comyns effectually diminished.
+
+In 1296 Edward held a parliament at Berwick, compelling the Scotch
+barons to do him homage, and the young lord of Carrick concurred in the
+national submission. But notwithstanding this outward show of fealty, he
+became, in the time of Wallace's success, suspected of entertaining
+designs upon the crown. At first, indeed, he had joined against Wallace,
+and wasted the lands of his adherent, Douglas, with fire and sword; yet,
+soon after his return home, he summoned the Annandale men, who were the
+vassals of his father, then in the service of Edward, and thus addressed
+them: "You have already heard, without doubt, of that solemn oath, which
+I lately took at Carlisle, and I cannot deny the fact; but the oath was
+a foolish one, and exacted by fear; it was my body that took the oath,
+and not my mind; but its having been taken at all is now to me the cause
+of much remorse and sorrow; yet erelong I hope to be absolved from it by
+our Holy Father. In the meanwhile, I am resolved to go and join my
+fellow-countrymen, and assist them in their efforts to restore to its
+liberty the land of my nativity, for none, as you know, is an enemy of
+his own flesh, and as for me, I love my people. Let me beseech you,
+then, to adopt the same resolution, and you shall ever be esteemed my
+most dear friends and approved counsellors."
+
+To this request the men of Annandale deferred giving any answer till the
+morning, and took advantage of the night to retire, so that Bruce could
+only join the insurgents with his own vassals of Carrick.
+
+The first disappointment might have taught Bruce to desist from his
+design, for which the time was not yet ripe; but blinded by ambition, he
+entered into a strict alliance with Wishart, the Bishop of Glasgow, and
+the Steward of Scotland, the principal leaders of the insurrection. Upon
+joining his new associates, he found their purposes utterly incompatible
+with his views upon the crown. Wallace, the soul of the party, had ever
+supported the claims of Baliol, and his great supporter, Sir Andrew
+Moray, a near connection of the Comyns, had the same object. During the
+campaign, therefore, of 1298, which concluded with the battle of
+Falkirk, Bruce shut himself up in his castle of Ayr, maintaining a
+cautious neutrality, while his father continued to reside in England and
+to serve Edward in his wars. The king, however, did not admire this cold
+system of neutrality. He in consequence determined to attack the castle
+of Ayr, and Bruce, dreading the consequences, razed it to the ground,
+and sought an asylum in the mountain fastnesses of Carrick.
+
+In the following year, when Wallace had resigned the regency, John
+Comyn, of Badenoch, and Sir John de Soulis, were chosen governors of the
+kingdom, and the party of Bruce availed themselves of the opportunity to
+advance his influence by opposition to those in power, and by defeating
+every measure taken for the public benefit. An attempt was made by those
+who really wished well to the national cause, or who dreaded that their
+disunion might be fatal to all alike, to reconcile the contending
+factions; with this view they elected Bruce, and Lamberton, Bishop of
+Glasgow, joint regents in the name of Baliol; but this ill-assorted
+coalition soon fell to pieces, as might have been expected, where the
+views which one party entertained in secret were so utterly opposed to
+the avowed purposes of all.
+
+The policy which actuated Bruce on this occasion may be easily
+explained. It was clear that Edward would never consent to the
+restoration of Baliol, then in exile, and the Comyns had taken so
+decided a part against him, that it seemed most improbable he would ever
+consent to raise one of that family to the throne. Continuing,
+therefore, the same line of duplicity with which he had commenced, and
+which he had only abandoned for a single instant in the vain hope of
+persuading the party of Wallace to openly adopt his claims, he now
+endeavored by submission and affected attachment to win the favor of the
+English monarch. Edward, he well knew, had the power, could he be
+brought to entertain the inclination, to place him on the Scottish
+throne, and if this point were once attained, Bruce trusted that means
+would afterward occur of shaking off all dependence upon his benefactor.
+In these designs he to a certain extent succeeded, but not in his main
+object. If he was crafty, Edward was yet craftier. He had fallen into
+the same error that his father had, in 1296, and was outwitted by the
+superior political ability of him whom he had intended to deceive, and
+who, it must be confessed, was equally insincere. Edward cheated both
+father and son, by holding out to them the hope of a crown he never
+meant them to attain, his object being to unite the two countries; an
+excellent purpose in itself, if we could only bring ourselves to
+overlook the fraud and violence by which it was to be accomplished.
+When, therefore, the Comyns submitted, in 1304, and he proceeded to the
+settlement of his new dominions, the Earl of Carrick found that his only
+gain was the being employed among the commissioners in organizing a
+system of government. He had, however, reaped no little advantage from
+his dissimulation. While Baliol was an exile and Comyn in disgrace, he
+had preserved his estates, and won the king's confidence without losing,
+but rather augmenting, his influence with the Scotch. At the same time
+he saw that Comyn was still powerful; his claims to the throne were more
+generally admitted by the people, and without his concurrence nothing
+could be effected. Thus situated, Bruce submitted to his rival this
+alternative: "Give me your land, and I shall bind myself to support your
+title to the kingdom, and, when we have expelled our enemies, to place
+the crown upon your head; or, if thou dost not choose to assume the
+state of the kingdom, here am I ready to resign to you my estates, on
+condition that you second me in my efforts to regain the throne of my
+fathers." Comyn accepted the latter alternative, but immediately
+betrayed the design to Edward, and sent him the letter, or indenture, by
+which Bruce had bound himself. But the latter, when suddenly charged
+with it, denied his hand and seal with a coolness that could only belong
+to one long practised in the arts of dissimulation, and demanded time to
+prove his innocence. Arch-deceiver as the English king himself was, he
+yet allowed himself to be duped by this specious effrontery, and Bruce
+escaping into Scotland, murdered Comyn in the church of the Grey Friars,
+at Dumfries. Soon afterward he was crowned at Scone, and the revolution
+spread far and wide; upon hearing which, Edward sent an invading army
+into Scotland. Superiority of force and military skill soon compelled
+Bruce to retreat to the mountain fastnesses, that offered a better place
+of security than the strongest castle, for castles might be stormed; but
+here, if danger threatened him at one point, he had only to retreat to
+one more remote and more rugged, and thus at any time was enabled to
+baffle his pursuers when he found them too powerful to be resisted. A
+series of fights--battles they could hardly be called--and adventures
+now ensued which have all the coloring of romance, but which entailed so
+much of hardness and privation upon his followers, that after a while it
+became evident he would not be able much longer to keep them from
+abandoning a cause so desperate. Then, again, a spark of hope was
+kindled by the disaffection growing out of the severity which Edward
+exercised upon all who had been in arms to resist him. Numbers in
+consequence flocked to Bruce, and fresh adventures succeeded of a yet
+more romantic nature than those already mentioned; the fortunes of the
+wanderer seeming now to be at the lowest ebb, and then again rising into
+a prosperous flood, which as rapidly subsided, making it a matter of
+some difficulty for him to escape being stranded by the falling waters.
+It was during this season that Douglas disgraced himself and the
+Scottish name by barbarities that have never been surpassed, and rarely
+even equalled.
+
+The death of the great Edward--for great he was, in spite of all his
+faults--and the accession of his son, the feeble Edward II., left an
+open field to Bruce, who was as much superior to those that now opposed
+him, as he had been overcrowned by the genius of his late adversary. He
+marched from victory to victory, and would, no doubt, have brought the
+contest to a happy termination, had he not been seized by an alarming
+sickness. At first, it threatened to be fatal; things were again
+beginning to look gloomy for Scotland; but in the moment of extreme
+peril, he shook off his disease by a strong effort, and once more led
+his followers through a series of triumphs, which were crowned by the
+great battle of Bannockburn. Though we cannot allow the ambition which
+seeks a crown to pass for patriotism, it is impossible to deny the
+highest praise to the courage, firmness, and ability displayed by Bruce
+through the whole of this trying period. None may deny that he deserved
+a crown, and when once obtained, it acquired a lustre from the talents
+of him who wore it.
+
+Bruce soon found himself in a condition to assist his brother Edward in
+the attempt to drive the English out of Ireland. But here the usual good
+fortune of the Scotch abandoned them. After a hard-fought campaign,
+attended by many vicissitudes, his sagacity saw that the attempt was
+hopeless, and he returned to Scotland. Shortly afterward, the turbulent
+and aspiring Edward Bruce was slain in battle.
+
+His wonted success attended Bruce in the field, in the midst of which,
+however, a plot was formed against his life and government. Fortunately
+it was revealed in time by the Countess of Strathearn, to whom the
+conspirators had the weakness to confide their intentions; and soon
+afterward, to crown his prosperity, Edward II. was compelled by a series
+of defeats to conclude a peace. But Bruce's health began to be impaired,
+and when war again broke out between the countries, upon the deposition
+of Edward II. and the succession of his son, Edward III., he was unable
+to lead his projected expedition against England. It ended in failure,
+if not in defeat.
+
+A short interval of health and hope gleamed upon him after this attack,
+and peace was concluded between the two countries, greatly to the
+dissatisfaction of the English, who, justly enough, considered
+themselves sacrificed to the ambition of the queen-mother, Isabella, and
+of her favorite, Mortimer. But this momentary promise of health and
+vigor soon passed away, and it became plain to all that the life of this
+brave and sagacious monarch was drawing rapidly to a close. In
+expectation of the final event he had given orders to have a magnificent
+tomb made at Paris; which was brought to Bruges, thence through England
+into Scotland, and on its arrival erected in the church of the
+Benedictines at Dunfermline.
+
+Bruce died in his fifty-fifth year, and was buried in the abbey-church
+of Dunfermline, as he had desired.
+
+In the prime of his life Bruce was upward of six feet high; his
+shoulders were broad, his chest full and open; the cheek-bones strong
+and prominent, and the muscles of the back and neck of great size and
+thickness; his hair curled short over a broad forehead, and the general
+expression of his face was calm and cheerful; yet, when he pleased, he
+could assume a character of stern command. Such, at least, Bruce has
+been described by the old historian, and we may easily believe it, since
+the outward semblance agrees so well with what is recorded of his life
+and actions.
+
+
+
+
+ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED
+
+(DIED, 1386)
+
+[Illustration: Arnold von Winkelried.]
+
+
+The incident with which this name is connected is, after the purely
+legendary feat of Tell, the best known and most popular in the early
+history of the Swiss Confederation. We are told how, at a critical
+moment in the great battle of Sempach, when the Swiss had failed to
+break the serried ranks of the Austrian knights, a man of Unterwalden,
+Arnold von Winkelried by name, came to the rescue. Commending his wife
+and children to the care of his comrades, he rushed toward the
+Austrians, gathered a number of their spears together against his
+breast, and fell pierced through, having opened a way into the hostile
+ranks for his fellow-countrymen, though at the price of his own life.
+But the Tell and Winkelried stories stand in a very different position
+when looked at in the dry light of history; for, while in the former
+imaginary and impossible men (bearing now and then a real historical
+name) do imaginary and impossible deeds at a very uncertain period, in
+the latter we have some solid ground to rest on, and Winkelried's act
+might very well have been performed, though, as yet, the amount of
+genuine and early evidence in support of it is very far from being
+sufficient.
+
+The Winkelrieds of Stanz were a knightly family when we first hear of
+them, though toward the end of the fourteenth century they seem to have
+been but simple men without the honors of knighthood, and not always
+using their prefix "von." Among its members we find an Erni Winkelried
+acting as a witness to a contract of sale on May 1, 1367; while the same
+man, or perhaps another member of the family, Erni von Winkelried, is
+plaintiff in a suit at Stanz, on September 29, 1389, and in 1417 is the
+landamman (or head-man) of Unterwalden, being then called Arnold
+Winkelriet. We have, therefore, a real man named Arnold Winkelried
+living at Stanz, about the time of the battle of Sempach. The question
+is thus narrowed to the points, was he present at the battle, and did he
+then perform the deed commonly attributed to him? The determination of
+this question requires a minute investigation of the history of that
+battle, to ascertain if there are any authentic traces of this
+incident, or any opportunity for it to have taken place.
+
+1. EVIDENCE OF CHRONICLES.--The earliest known mention of the incident
+is found in a Zurich chronicle (discovered in 1862 by Herr G. von Wyss),
+which is a copy, made in 1476, of a chronicle written in, or at any rate
+not earlier than, 1438, though it is wanting in the sixteenth century
+transcript of another chronicle written in 1466, which up to 1389
+closely agrees with the former. It appears in the well-known form, but
+the hero is stated to be "ein getruewer man under den Eidgenozen," no
+name being given, and it seems clear that his death did not take place
+at that time. No other mention has been found in any of the numerous
+Swiss or Austrian chronicles, till we come to the book "De Helvetiae
+Origine," written in 1538 by Rudolph Gwalther (Zwingli's son-in-law),
+when the hero is still nameless, being compared to Decius or Codrus, but
+is said to have been killed by his brave act. Finally we read the full
+story in the original draft of Giles Tschudi's chronicle, where the hero
+is described "as a man of Unterwalden, of the Winkelried family," this
+being expanded in the first rescension of the chronicle (1564) into "a
+man of Unterwalden, Arnold von Winkelried by name, a brave knight;"
+while he is entered (in the same book, on the authority of the
+"Anniversary Book" of Stanz, now lost) on the list of those who fell at
+Sempach, at the head of the Nidwald (or Stanz) men, as "Herr Arnold von
+Winkelried, ritter," this being in the first draft "Arnold Winckelriet."
+
+2. BALLADS.--There are several war songs on the battle of Sempach
+which have come down to us, but in one only is there mention of
+Winkelried and his deed. This is a long ballad of sixty-seven
+four-line stanzas, part of which (including the Winkelried section)
+is found in the additions made between 1531 and 1545 to Etterlin's
+chronicle by H. Berlinger of Basel, and the whole in Werner
+Steiner's chronicle (written 1532). It is agreed on all sides that
+the last stanza, attributing the authorship to Halbsuter, of
+Lucerne, "as he came back from the battle," is a very late addition.
+Many authorities regard it as made up of three distinct songs (one
+of which refers to the battle and Winkelried), possibly put together
+by the younger Halbsuter (citizen of Lucerne in 1435, died between
+1470 and 1480); though others contend that the Sempach-Winkelried
+section bears clear traces of having been composed after the
+Reformation began, that is, about 1520 or 1530. Some recent
+discoveries have proved that certain statements in the song, usually
+regarded as anachronisms, are quite accurate; but no nearer approach
+has been made toward fixing its exact date, or that of any of the
+three bits into which it has been cut up. In this song the story
+appears in its full-blown shape, the name of Winckelriet being
+given.
+
+[Illustration: Arnold Winkelried At Sempach.]
+
+
+
+
+JOAN OF ARC[8]
+
+         [Footnote 8: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
+
+(1412-1431)
+
+[Illustration: Joan of Arc.]
+
+
+In the history of the world since the dawn of time, there is no other
+character so remarkable to me as that of Joan of Arc.
+
+You have but to think of any young girl of your acquaintance, seventeen
+years old, and try to imagine her leading an army to battle, storming a
+fort, or planning a campaign, in order to realize in a measure the
+astounding qualities possessed by this wonderful being.
+
+Not only did she do all this as wisely as the most astute general who
+ever lived, but she succeeded in liberating France from the hands of the
+English, where we have very good reason to think it might have otherwise
+remained to this day; for the English were gaining ground steadily, and
+the French dauphin was utterly discouraged, and had ceased to make an
+effort to maintain his rights, when Joan of Arc came to his rescue.
+
+The English king, Henry V., had died in the midst of his triumphs. Two
+months later, imbecile Charles VI., of France, passed away also, and
+Henry VI., of England, was proclaimed king of both nations; while at the
+same time the dauphin was hailed King of France by his few followers.
+But his fortunes were at the lowest ebb, his small army, stationed at
+Orleans, was in need of food. Four thousand of his men went out to
+search for provisions, and encountered half that number of English
+soldiers. A battle ensued, and five hundred of the bravest French
+soldiers were left dead on the field of strife. Despite their bravery,
+hunger and fatigue had unfitted them to combat with their well-fed
+adversaries.
+
+The dauphin had shut himself in the castle of Chinon, with fair women
+and gay comrades, while the siege was raging before the walls of
+Orleans. He was at that time a weak and vacillant youth, given over to
+the same pleasures and vices which drove his father mad and caused his
+brother's death. He had no pride in rescuing his crown from the English,
+and it must be confessed that the treatment he had received from his own
+mother and his own countrymen, who sold him to the enemy, was sufficient
+to dishearten a stronger nature than his. Added to this, he was doubtful
+of his legitimate right to the throne, owing to his mother's depraved
+career. But when, in the midst of his orgies, the news was brought to
+him, in the castle of Chinon, that his army was defeated before the
+walls of Orleans, what little hope or courage he had left seemed to
+desert him and he sank into a state of despair.
+
+And far away on the frontier, in the little village of Domremy, a young
+girl watched her flocks, and wept over the fate of her beloved country;
+and weeping, prayed that God would save France from the oppressor. How
+earnestly she prayed, and how well God listened, history has recorded in
+a tale more wonderful than any story ever conceived by the imagination
+of man, and sadder than any other save the story of the Nazarene upon
+the Cross of Calvary.
+
+The end of France as a nation seemed at hand. The nobility had been led
+into captivity and sold to an invading enemy; the clergy had seen its
+altars defamed by arrogant strangers. Industry had been ruined by civil
+wars during the long imbecility of Charles VI., and the succeeding
+ravages made by the English. Villages were depopulated, homes desolated,
+and look where they might, the people of France saw no hope of aid, save
+from on high.
+
+Of this epoch Henry Martin says, "The people expected nothing from human
+sources; but a sentiment of indestructible nationality stirred in their
+hearts and told them that France could not die. Hoping nothing from
+earth, they lifted their souls to heaven; an ardent religious fervor
+seized upon them, which had no part with clergy or creed. It rose from
+the extremity of their need, and fixed its root in an old oracle of the
+Middle Ages, which had predicted that France should be 'lost through a
+woman and saved by a virgin.'"
+
+France had certainly been lost through its wicked queen; that part of
+the old prophecy had been fearfully fulfilled; the remaining clause was
+yet to be verified. The people, excited to a religious frenzy by their
+desperate straits and their faith in the old superstition, prayed more
+fervently with each day; and their prayers rose like great white eagles
+and settled upon the heart of that strange divine child, who was weeping
+over the fate of France while she watched her sheep on the plains of
+Domremy.
+
+A humbly born girl was Joan of Arc, unable to read or write; women who
+could do more than that were rare in those days, so she was not despised
+on account of her ignorance, but highly respected for her industry and
+piety. An enthusiastic Catholic, she added to her church duties by
+active benevolence and kindness to the sick and poor in her native town.
+Often she was seen to kneel in the fields and pray; and there was a
+chapel some miles from Domremy to which she used to make a pilgrimage
+every Sunday and offer prayers to the Virgin. There was, too, in the
+forest of Bois Chemin a famous beech-tree under which a stream of clear
+water flowed; and a superstition prevailed among the people of Domremy
+that fairies had blessed this tree and bestowed healing properties upon
+the waters of the stream. The priest and the villagers marched about the
+sacred tree once each year singing solemn chants, and the young people
+hung its boughs with garlands, and danced under its shading branches.
+Joan dearly loved this spot, and it became her favorite haunt. The
+echoes of war reverberated even to this quiet frontier hamlet, and in
+her hours of reverie she dwelt sadly upon the stories of bloodshed and
+suffering which she heard her elders repeat.
+
+She was twelve years old when the dauphin was proclaimed king by his few
+followers; and in all his flight from province to province, fleeing
+before the usurpers of his throne, no heart in all France suffered more
+keenly than the heart beating in the breast of this humble shepherd
+girl. The misfortunes of the dauphin, the woes of her country, took
+complete possession of her expanding mind. Her pure young soul yearned
+toward the Infinite in one ceaseless prayer; and when any soul is so
+lifted up above all thought of self, praying for the good of others, a
+response never fails to come. It is only selfish prayers which remain
+unanswered. Joan's beautiful nature was like the sensitive plate
+prepared to receive the impression; and while she prayed the angels to
+save France, the angels prepared her to become the saviour.
+
+One summer day, when she was in her fourteenth year, she was running in
+the fields with her companions, when, as she afterward declared, "she
+felt herself lifted as by an invisible force and carried along as if she
+possessed wings." Her companions gazed upon her with astonishment,
+seeing her fly beyond their reach. Then she heard a voice, which
+proceeded from a great light above her; and the voice said, "Joan, put
+your trust in God, and go and save France."
+
+This strange experience filled her with terror; but ere many days she
+heard the voice again, and this time she saw the figure of a winged
+angel. "I am the Archangel Michael," the voice said, "and the messenger
+of God, who bids you to go to the aid of the dauphin and restore him to
+his throne."
+
+Overcome with fear, she fell on her knees in tears; but the angel
+continued to appear to her, accompanied with two female forms, and
+always urging her to go to the aid of her country. Fear gave place to
+ecstacy, and in the heart of this divine child awoke the audacious idea
+whose climax astounded the whole world.
+
+At first she reasoned with the voices, telling them "she was but a poor
+girl, who knew nothing of men or war." But the voices replied, "Go and
+save France; God will be with you, and you have nothing to fear."
+
+During three years she listened to these voices, which made themselves
+heard by her two or three times each week. She seemed consumed by an
+inward fever, and strange words escaped her. One day she said to a
+laborer, that "midway between Coussi and Vaucouleurs there lived a maid
+who should bring the dauphin to his throne."
+
+These words were repeated to her father and they alarmed him; and we
+cannot wonder that they did. How could he think otherwise than that his
+little girl was losing her senses? How could he dream of the divine and
+superhuman powers that had descended upon her from a higher world? He
+told her brother that if Joan should attempt to follow the army, as he
+feared she might, "he would rather drown her with his own hands." Her
+parents set a watch upon her movements, and decided to marry her to a
+young man who was secretly enamored of her. They connived with this
+admirer to swear before an officer of the law that Joan had promised him
+her heart; but she so strenuously denied the assertion before the judge
+that she gained her case.
+
+Just at this epoch the people of Domremy were obliged to fly before an
+invading troop of soldiers. When they returned to their village they
+found their church burned and their homes pillaged. Joan regarded this
+as a direct punishment for her hesitation in heeding the "voices." She
+would hesitate no longer, and after repeated delays and disheartening
+rebuffs, she succeeded in winning her way, with a few believers in her
+mission, to the king's castle.
+
+When Charles finally consented to an interview, he disguised one of his
+courtiers as king, and he was disguised as a courtier; but Joan was not
+deceived by clothing; she fell at his feet, clasped his knees, and
+exclaimed, "Gentle king, God has taken pity on you and your people; the
+angels are on their knees praying for you and them."
+
+The king was impressed with her lofty enthusiasm, and plied her with
+questions. Her responses astonished him. One reliable authority tells us
+that she revealed to him something known only to himself--and answered a
+question which he had that day demanded of God in the privacy of
+prayer--the question of his legitimate right to the throne. Joan told
+him that he had asked this question of God, and that she was able to
+reply to it in the affirmative.
+
+The king was so astonished and overjoyed at this proof of the maiden's
+powers, that he expressed belief in her divine mission; but he quickly
+relapsed into doubt again, and Joan was obliged to endure a very
+critical examination before a parliament, where she confused and
+confounded the learned doctors by her simple words: "I know not A or B,
+but I am commanded by my voices to raise the siege of Orleans and crown
+the dauphin at Rheims." When one aggressive doctor, with a bad accent,
+asked sarcastically; "what language her voices spoke," she replied,
+"Better than yours, sir," which brought the laughter of the whole
+parliament upon him. A messenger sent to Domremy, to ascertain the early
+conduct of the maid, returned with accounts of her piety and
+benevolence. All this worked in her favor, together with the strong
+faith which the masses reposed in her; for the people remembered the old
+prophecy and believed that the maiden had come to deliver France.
+
+Even the doctors of theology were affected by this prophecy, and the
+result was the final equipment of Joan for battle. When arrayed in a
+knight's armor she refused to accept a sword. "The voices told me," she
+said, "that in the church vault at Fierbois there lies a sword marked
+with five crosses which I must carry, and no other."
+
+A messenger was sent, who found the sword exactly as she had described
+it. This naturally swelled the faith of the people in her divine
+mission. She ordered a white banner made, covered with the lilies of
+France, and with the inscription, "Jesus Maria," emblazoned upon it. At
+the end of two months she entered the town of Blois, where the army was
+stationed, seated upon a fine horse, her head bare, her dark curls
+streaming in the wind, an air of triumph and joy on her face. Six
+thousand soldiers were drawn up to receive her. But the pleasure-loving
+young dauphin, be it said to his shame, was enjoying himself in his
+castle and was not there to meet her. Nothing had yet been decided about
+the position Joan was to occupy, but the wild enthusiasm of the army at
+once made her its leader.
+
+The very first act of this pure being was an attempt to uplift the moral
+status of the army. Women of evil repute were sent away with good
+advice, and the men were called to battle by prayer and confession.
+Coarse soldiers followed her to mass, fascinated by her peculiar spell,
+and rough language was silenced in her presence. Remarkable as has
+seemed Joan's career up to this point, it was simple compared to the
+miracles which ensued. Modest as the simplest maiden in private life,
+gentle as a child in all matters pertaining to herself, utterly devoid
+of self-seeking interests, she was yet enabled to plan campaigns, direct
+attacks and lead armies with all the skill of any world-renowned
+general. In the dead of night, with a band of 200 men, she entered the
+beleaguered city of Orleans in the face of the English enemy. The
+inhabitants crowded about her, regarding her rightly with wonder and
+awe. Her first act was to hasten to a cathedral where the Te Deum was
+being chanted by torch-light. She then selected her home with a lady of
+spotless reputation, in order that all her hours of repose might be
+guarded from suspicions of evil. The following day she directed a letter
+of warning to be sent to the English, urging them to retreat before
+compelled to do so by the "fire of Heaven." She then reconnoitred the
+city, determining in her mind where to begin the attack; and as she saw
+no signs that the English had taken heed of her letter, she finally
+mounted the walls of the town, and in a loud voice warned the English to
+depart before overtaken with the shame and disaster in store for them.
+To this the English responded with insults and ribald words, and told
+her to "Go home and keep her cows." Joan wept at their insults to her
+modesty, and would have at once opened an attack, had she not been
+dissuaded by her generals, who begged her to await the arrival of her
+army.
+
+Despite their bold words, the English were so influenced by Joan's
+peculiar power, that they allowed her army to enter Orleans with a
+convoy of provisions, and made no resistance. They seemed to be
+paralyzed with fear, and many of them expressed a belief that she was
+aided by the devil. Although the maid was immensely popular with the
+army, a lurking secret jealousy of her was already at work in the
+breasts of some of her officers; and these men chose an hour when she
+was taking a brief repose, to open an attack upon the English, hoping to
+take the glory of a conquest to themselves. But Joan's Voices awoke her,
+and told her the blood of France was being spilled; and seizing her
+white banner, she mounted her horse, and rushed into the strife, turning
+the tide of battle at once in favor of the French army, which had
+already suffered loss. Wherever the white flag was seen, a superhuman
+strength seemed to take possession of the men; and after a fierce battle
+of three hours, the bastile of St. Loup was won by the French.
+
+The bastile des Augustins fell next, and here Joan was slightly wounded
+in the foot; but she resolved to attack the only remaining hold of the
+English the following day. Her officers counselled together and reported
+themselves unfavorable to this project, as the bastile des Tournelles
+was very strong, and filled with the bravest of the English army. But
+Joan replied, "I, too, have been at council with God, and we shall fight
+to-morrow."
+
+They did fight, the English with fury, the French "as if they believed
+themselves immortal." After three hours of warfare Joan saw her men
+hesitate under the fierce attack of the enemy. She seized a ladder,
+planted it against a wall, and began to ascend it. At that moment an
+English arrow struck her between the neck and shoulder, and she fell to
+the ground. The disheartened soldiers bore her from the field, and
+dressed her wound, from which she extracted the arrow with her own hand,
+shedding womanly tears meanwhile. After the wound was dressed, a vision
+came to her, and with sudden strength she remounted her horse and rode
+back to battle.
+
+The English, believing her nearly dead from her wound, were terrified to
+see her return, and lost courage from that moment; while the French,
+electrified by her unexpected presence, fought with such zeal that
+before nightfall the maid led her army into Orleans crowned with
+triumph. It was only seven days since she had entered the city, and Joan
+had already verified her assertion that she could and would "raise the
+siege of Orleans."
+
+The indolent and unworthy dauphin, however, refused to go to Rheims and
+be crowned and so fulfil the second part of Joan's mission. He said
+there were ports along the Loire which needed to be taken first so the
+girl general laid out her campaign and added Beaugency and Jargeau to
+her other conquests. The English had become filled with superstitious
+fear of her power, attributing it to the devil. But the Dauphin of
+France still dallied with light women in his castle, and treated Joan
+with coldness and suspicion. The army now became so unanimous in the
+desire that the king should go to Rheims, that he finally, with
+reluctance, consented. On July 16th, after having taken Troyes and
+Chalons on the way, the French army entered Rheims; and there, on the
+following day, the dauphin was anointed with holy oil and received the
+crown of France.
+
+Happy, but modest and humble in her happiness, rejoicing only in the
+prosperity of the king and the country, the sublime saviour of her land
+knelt before her sovereign after the ceremonies were concluded and said,
+"Gentle king, I wish now that I might return toward my father and my
+mother, to keep my flocks and my herds as heretofore." Alas for the
+happiness of the poor girl and the honor of two countries, that her
+request was not granted!
+
+Joan's father was present on this occasion, and the inn where he lodged
+at the king's expense, and the cathedral where the dauphin was crowned,
+still exist in Rheims.
+
+[Illustration: Joan of Arc.]
+
+During all Joan's life as a soldier and general, she exhibited a most
+touching humanity toward the conquered enemy. She would spring from her
+horse to sooth the wounds of a suffering English soldier, and it is
+recorded of her that she carried a dying enemy in her arms to a
+confessor, and remained with him till his soul took flight. The people
+adored her, the soldiers of her army idolized her, and the king realized
+that she was of too great value to him to permit her to go in peace to
+her old humble home. So Joan remained, asking that the king would
+remove all impost from the village of Domremy, in place of bestowing a
+title upon her family as he offered to do. For three hundred years her
+request was obeyed. From this time to the tragic end, the story of
+Joan's life is a hard one to relate. Although we are nearing the fifth
+centennial of her birth, the recital of her sufferings and death must
+still wring tears from every heart which is not made of stone. The
+feeling of jealousy which great success, of even the most worthy and
+noble souls, arouses in meaner natures, had already sprung up against
+Joan. This feeling increased as the days passed by and she added more
+and more to her glory by the conquest of Laon, Soissons, Compiegne, and
+Beauvais. Paris was next besieged, and here Joan was seriously wounded,
+an event which depressed the king and the army.
+
+Her wound disabled her from action, and she was left lying on the field
+until evening, neglected, and seemingly forgotten. Already conscious of
+the growing sentiment of jealousy among her officers, this final proof
+of their indifference to her fate must have been more painful to her
+pure and lofty mind than the physical agony she was enduring. But even
+lying there, wounded, she cheered on the men as they passed her in the
+combat, and revived their failing courage.
+
+She was enabled to resume action the next day; her plans were all
+perfected, and judging from her past triumphs we can but suppose victory
+would have attended her, had not that most remarkable mandate arrived
+from the king, commanding the French army to retreat to Saint-Denis.
+
+To the undying shame of his memory be it said that Charles VII. entered
+into a plot, with jealous enemies of Joan, to force failure upon her.
+The people and the soldiers had grown to believe her infallible; the
+king and his favorites determined that she should be proven fallible.
+They deemed the country sufficiently safe, the army sufficiently strong,
+to enable them to go on now and claim victories of their own, without
+having their divine deliverer share the glory.
+
+Next to the crime of Isabel, who sold her son and her country to the
+enemy, this base act of Charles VII. stands unparalleled in infamy. So
+discouraged and heart-broken was Joan over the conduct of the king,
+although she did not understand the deep-laid plot against her, that she
+resolved to abandon the life of a soldier and enter the church of
+Saint-Denis. She hung up her armor and her sword, but when the king
+heard of this he sent for her to return to the army. He was not yet sure
+of himself, and he wanted her where he could call upon her if need be.
+
+Joan returned with reluctance; "her Voices" counselled her to keep to
+her resolution; but she was so accustomed to obey the king, that for the
+first time she allowed an earthly voice to overrule the counsels of her
+heavenly guides. And from this hour her star set; from this hour her
+path led into darkness. Soon after her return to the army she broke the
+magic sword with which she had achieved so many conquests; the Voices,
+too, were silent, and all this troubled her. The king kept her away from
+all active warfare, and she grew restive and impatient with her life of
+inaction. The army, which under her influence had been reformed of half
+its vices, now separated from her by the king's orders and fell into
+the most wild excesses. Joan prayed and pleaded to be allowed to go
+again into combat, and finally the king allowed her to do so; but such
+success attended her, and such enthusiasm seized upon her soldiers, that
+the jealous favorites of the king were alarmed. They resolved to prevent
+any further triumphs for her, but to pretend great friendship and
+admiration meanwhile.
+
+The king was influenced to bestow honors and titles upon her family, and
+to present her two brothers, who had fought in the army, with swords of
+silver; all of which Joan received coldly and with indifference, for
+meantime she was suffering such agony as only so brave and valiant a
+soul could suffer in being kept from her duty.
+
+After four months of this galling life, Joan could not fail to see that
+she was the victim of a jealous plot. What suffering to a nature so
+honest and self-sacrificing as hers, to discover that the king for whom
+she had achieved such miracles, was a coward and a hypocrite, unworthy
+of her respect and faith.
+
+But it was surely this knowledge which actuated Joan to take a few brave
+men, and without orders from the king, to go in aid of William de Flavy,
+commander of the fortress of Compiegne, who was in distress. She set
+out, and on the evening of May 24th, headed an attack upon the English.
+She fought nobly and well, but before the close of the combat, she was
+obliged to sound a retreat, and as she was attempting to escape through
+the half-closed city gate, an English archer came up behind and pulled
+her to the ground.
+
+Joan of Arc was a prisoner. The joy of the English was overwhelming--the
+despair of the French correspondingly great; and that despair gave place
+to anger when it was learned that William de Flavy, the man whom she had
+tried to defend, had betrayed her into the hands of the English because
+he was jealous of her. This man's wife slew him when she learned of his
+base act, and was pardoned for the crime when she told its cause. In all
+the cities which Joan had delivered from English control, public prayers
+and processions were ordered; people walked barefooted and bareheaded,
+chanting the _Miserere_, in the streets of Tours. She was imprisoned
+first at Beaurevoir, then in the prison of Arras, and from there she was
+taken to Le Crotoy.
+
+It was customary in those days to exchange prisoners taken in arms, or
+to ransom them; but the English had suffered such loss and defeat
+through Joan that they determined she should die.
+
+Their only way to do this without publicly dishonoring themselves, was
+to accuse her of being a witch, and to compel the "religious" tribunal
+of her own land to become her murderer.
+
+During the first six months of her captivity Joan was treated humanely;
+but the defeat of the English at Compiegne awoke anew the superstitions
+of the English, who believed that, though a prisoner, she exercised her
+spell upon the army; and she was taken to Le Crotoy, and cast into an
+iron cage with chains upon her wrists and ankles. After being starved,
+insulted, and treated with the most hellish brutality in prison for
+nearly ten months, the saviour of France was brought before a tribunal
+of men, all of them her enemies. There were three days of this shameful
+pretence of a trial, and the holy maid, deserted by those whom she had
+crowned with glory and benefits, was trapped into signing a paper which
+she supposed only a form of abjuration, but which proved to be a
+confession of all the crimes with which she was charged; and after she
+was returned to her dungeon this was exhibited to the people to convince
+them of her guilt and turn the tide of public sympathy. The Bishop of
+Beauvais then sentenced her to prison for the rest of her life, on
+condition that she resume woman's apparel; yet one morning she woke to
+find no dress in her prison but the clothes she had worn in battle. No
+sooner had she donned these than the bishop appeared, and accused her of
+disobedience to the orders of the Church, and he fixed her execution for
+the next day.
+
+When the horrible fact was made known to her that she was to be burned
+at the stake in the market-place of Rouen, before a multitude of people,
+she burst into piercing cries of agony. Her physical strength, courage,
+and brain-power were all impaired by the months of abuse she had
+endured, and her very soul was torn by the neglect and indifference
+which the base king manifested toward her. Up to the very last hour she
+had believed deliverance would come, but it came only through death.
+Never since that spectacle of the bleeding Nazarene upon the Cross of
+Calvary, has the world beheld so terrible a picture of crucified
+innocence and purity as that of Joan of Arc, the saviour of France,
+burning in the market-place of Rouen. With her dying breath she cried
+out that the Voices were real, and that she had obeyed God in listening
+to their counsels.
+
+Her last word was the name of--Jesus.
+
+[Signature: Ella Wheeler Wilcox.]
+
+
+
+
+HANS GUTENBERG
+
+By ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
+
+(1400-1468)
+
+
+Hans Gensfleisch Gutenberg von Sorgeloch was a young patrician--born at
+Mainz, a free and wealthy city on the banks of the Rhine, in the year
+1400. His father, Friel Gensfleisch, married Else von Gutenberg, who
+gave her name to her second son John.
+
+It is probable that if Mainz, his country, had not been a free city,
+this young gentleman would have been unable to conceive or to carry into
+execution his invention. Despotism and superstition equally insist upon
+silence; they would have stifled the universal and resistless echo which
+genius was about to create for written words. Printing and liberty were
+both to spring from the same soil and the same climate.
+
+[Illustration: Hans Gutenberg.]
+
+Mainz, Strasburg, Worms, and other municipal towns on the Rhine, then
+governed themselves, under the suzerainty of the empire, as small
+federal republics, like Florence, Genoa, Venice, and the other states of
+Italy. The nobility warlike, the burgesses increasing in importance, and
+the laboring population vacillating between these two classes, who
+alternately oppressed and courted it, from time to time, here as
+everywhere, fought for supremacy. Outbursts of civil war, excited by
+vanity or interest, and in which the victory remained sometimes with the
+patricians, sometimes with the burgesses, and at others with the
+artisans, made them alternately victors, conquered, and proscribed. This
+is the history of all cities, of all republics, and of all empires.
+Mainz, was a miniature of Rome or Athens, only the proscribed party had
+not the sea to cross to escape from their country; they went outside the
+walls, and crossed the Rhine; those of Strasburg going to Mainz, and
+those of Mainz to Strasburg, to wait until their party recovered power,
+or until they were recalled by their fellow-citizens.
+
+In these intestine struggles of Mainz, the young Gutenberg, himself a
+gentleman, and naturally fighting for the cause most holy in a son's
+eyes--that of his father--was defeated by the burgesses, and banished,
+with all the knights of his family, from the territory of Mainz. His
+mother and sisters alone remained there in possession of their property,
+as innocent victims on whom the faults of the nobility should not be
+visited. His first banishment was short, and peace was ratified by the
+return of the refugees. A vain quarrel about precedence in the public
+ceremonies on the occasion of the solemn entry of the Emperor Robert,
+accompanied by the Archbishop Conrad, into Mainz, refreshed the
+animosity of the two classes in 1420, and young Gutenberg, at the age of
+nineteen, under went his second exile.
+
+The free city of Frankfort now offered itself as a mediator between the
+nobles and plebeians of Mainz, and procured their recall on condition of
+the governing magistracy being equally shared between the high classes
+and the burgesses. But Gutenberg, whether his valor in the civil war had
+rendered him more obnoxious and more hostile to the burgesses; whether
+his pride, fostered by the traditions of his race, could not submit
+patiently to an equality with plebeians; or whether, more probably, ten
+years of exile and study at Strasburg had already turned the bent of his
+thoughts to a nobler subject than the vain honors of a free city,
+refused to return to his country. His mother, who watched over her
+son's interest at Mainz, petitioned the republic to allow him to receive
+as a pension a small portion of the revenues of his confiscated
+possessions. The republic replied that the young patrician's refusal to
+return to his country was a declaration of war, and that the republic
+did not pay its enemies. Gutenberg, persisting in his voluntary exile
+and in his disdain, lived on the secret remittances of his mother.
+
+But at Strasburg he already enjoyed so great a popularity for his
+disposition and his acquirements, that one day, when the chief
+magistrate of Mainz was passing the territory of Strasburg, he was
+arrested by the friends of Gutenberg, shut up in a castle, and did not
+recover his liberty until the city of Mainz had signed a treaty which
+restored the exile his patrimony. Thus this youth, the great tribune of
+the human mind, whose invention was destined to destroy forever the
+prejudices of race, and to restore, in after-times, liberty and civil
+equality to all the plebeians of the world, began his life, as yet
+unrecognized, at the head of the patrician party of his country, in
+these struggles between the privileged castes and the people. Fortune
+seemed to delight in the contrast. But Gutenberg's wisdom, increasing
+with his age, was afterward destined to reunite the people and nobility,
+who looked on each other as enemies.
+
+The restoration of his goods allowed young Gutenberg to satisfy his
+literary, religious, and artistic tastes, by travelling from town to
+town to study monuments, and visit men of all conditions celebrated for
+their science, their art, or even their trade. The artisans of Germany
+then held nearly the same rank as the artists. It was at the time when
+the trades, scarcely known, were confused with the arts, and when the
+most humble professions produced their earliest masterpieces, which, on
+account of their novelty, were looked upon as prodigies. Gutenberg
+travelled alone, on foot, carrying a knapsack containing books and
+clothes, like a mere student visiting the schools, or a journeyman
+looking for a master. He thus went through the Rhenish provinces, Italy,
+Switzerland, Germany, and lastly, Holland, not without an object, like a
+man who lets his imagination wander at the caprice of his footsteps, but
+carrying everywhere with him a fixed idea, an unchanging will led by a
+presentiment. This guiding star was the thought of spreading the word of
+God and the Bible among a vaster number of souls.
+
+Thus it was religion which, in this young wandering apostle, was seeking
+the soil wherein to sow a single seed, of which the fruit hereafter was
+to be a thousand various grains. It is the glory of printing that it was
+given to the world by religion, not by industry. Religious enthusiasm
+was alone worthy to give birth to the instrument of truth.
+
+What mechanical processes Gutenberg may until then have revolved in his
+mind, remains unknown. Whatever they were, chance effaced them all, and
+brought him at once upon his great discovery. One day, at Haarlem, in
+Holland, the verger of the cathedral, named Lawrence Koster, with whom
+he had established friendly relations, showed him in the sacristy a
+Latin grammar, curiously wrought in engraved letters on a wooden board,
+for the instruction of the seminarists. Chance, that gratuitous teacher,
+had produced this approach to printing.
+
+The poor and youthful sacristan of Haarlem was in love. He used to walk
+on holydays to the spring outside the town, and sit under the willows by
+the canals, to indulge in his day-dreams. His heart full of the image of
+his bride, he used to amuse himself, in true lover's fashion, by
+engraving with his knife the initials of his mistress and himself,
+interlaced, as an emblem of the union of their hearts and of their
+interwoven destinies. But, instead of cutting these ciphers on the bark,
+and leaving them to grow with the tree, like the mysterious ciphers so
+often seen on the trees in the forests and by the brooks, he engraved
+them on little blocks of willow stripped of their bark, and still
+reeking with the moisture of their sap; and he used to carry them, as a
+remembrance of his dreams and a pledge of affection, to his lady-love.
+
+One day, having thus cut some letters on the green wood, probably with
+more care and perfection than usual, he wrapped up his little work in a
+piece of parchment, and brought it with him to Haarlem. On opening it
+next day to look at his letters, he was astonished to see the cipher
+perfectly reproduced in brown on the parchment by the relieved portion
+of the letters, the sap having oozed out during the night and imprinted
+its image on the envelope. This was a discovery. He engraved other
+letters on a large platter, replaced the sap by a black liquid, and thus
+obtained the first proof ever printed. But it would only print a single
+page. The movable variety and endless combinations of characters
+infinitely multiplied, to meet the vast requirements of literature, were
+wanting. The invention of the poor sacristan would have covered the
+surface of the earth with plates engraved or sculptured in relief, but
+would not have been a substitute for a single case of movable type.
+Nevertheless, the principle of the art was developed in the sacristy of
+Haarlem, and we might hesitate whether to attribute the honor of it to
+Koster or Gutenberg, if its invention had not been with one the mere
+accidental discovery of love and chance, and, in the other, the
+well-earned victory of patience and genius.
+
+At the sight of this coarse plank, the lightning from heaven flashed
+before the eyes of Gutenberg. He looked at the plank, and, in his
+imagination, analyzed it, decomposed it, put it together again, changed
+it, divided it, readjusted it, reversed it, smeared it with ink, placed
+the parchment on it, and pressed it with a screw. The sacristan,
+wondering at his long silence, was unwittingly present at this
+development of an idea over which his visitor had brooded in vain for
+the last ten years. When Gutenberg retired, he carried a new art with
+him.
+
+On the morrow, like a man who possesses a treasure, and knows neither
+rest nor sleep until he has hidden it safely, Gutenberg left Haarlem,
+hastened up the Rhine until he reached Strasburg, shut himself up in his
+work-room, fashioned his own tools, tried, broke, planned, rejected,
+returned to his plans, and again rejected them, only to return to them
+again; and ended by secretly executing a fortunate proof upon parchment
+with movable wooden types, bored through the side with a small hole,
+strung together and kept close by a thread, like square beads on a
+chaplet, each with a letter of the alphabet cut in relief on one
+side--the first printer's alphabet, coarse, but wonderful--the first
+company of twenty-four letters, which multiplied like the herds of the
+patriarchs, until at last they covered the whole earth with written
+characters, in which a new and immaterial element--human thought--became
+incarnate.
+
+Gutenberg, perceiving at the first glance the immense social and
+industrial bearing of his invention, felt that his weak hand, short
+life, and moderate property would be spent in vain on such a work. He
+experienced two opposite wants--the necessity of associating with
+himself persons to assist in meeting the expenses and in executing the
+mechanical labor, and the necessity of concealing from his assistants
+the secret and real object of their labors, for fear lest his invention
+might be divulged and pirated, and the glory and merit of his discovery
+taken from him. He cast his eyes on the nobility and rich gentry of his
+acquaintance at Strasburg and Mainz. He probably met with rebuffs from
+all quarters, on account of the prejudice then prevailing that
+handicrafts were derogatory to a gentleman. He was, therefore, obliged
+to sink his rank, become a workman, associate with artisans, and mix
+with the people, in order to raise the people to the high level of
+morality and intelligence.
+
+Under the pretence of working together at _a new and marvellous craft_,
+such as jewelry, clock-making, and grinding and setting precious stones,
+he entered into a deed of partnership with two wealthy inhabitants of
+Strasburg, Andrew Dritzchen and Hans Riffe, bailiff of Lichtenau; and
+afterward with Faust, a goldsmith and banker of Mainz, whose name,
+confounded with that of Faustus, the wondrous sorcerer of German fable,
+the master of mystery, and the friend of the Evil One, caused the
+invention of printing to be attributed to magic; and, lastly, with
+Hulmann, whose brother had just established the first paper-mill at
+Strasburg.
+
+In order the more effectually to conceal from his partners the real
+object of his pursuit, Gutenberg joined them in several artistic and
+secondary enterprises. Continuing in secret his mechanical researches on
+printing, he employed himself publicly in these other occupations. He
+taught Dritzchen the art of cutting precious stones. He himself polished
+Venetian glass for mirrors, or cut pieces of it into facets, setting
+them in copper frames ornamented with wooden figurines representing
+personages from history or fable, from the Bible or the Testament. These
+articles, which found sale at the fair of Aix-la-Chapelle, kept up the
+funds of the association, and assisted Gutenberg in the secret expenses
+reserved for accomplishing and perfecting his design.
+
+To conceal it the better also from the restless curiosity of the public,
+who began to circulate a suspicion of witchcraft against him, Gutenberg
+left the town, and established his workshop in the ruins of an old
+deserted monastery, called the Convent of St. Arbogast. The solitude of
+the place, only inhabited by the houseless poor of the suburbs, covered
+his first attempts.
+
+In a corner of one of the vast cloisters of the monastery, occupied by
+his partners for their less secret labors, Gutenberg had reserved for
+himself a cell, always closed with lock and bolt, and to which none but
+himself ever had access. He was supposed to go there to draw the
+designs, arabesques, and figurines for his jewelry and the frames of his
+glasses; but he passed his days and sleepless nights there, wearing
+himself out in the pursuit of his invention. There it was that he
+engraved his movable types in wood, and projected casting them in metal,
+and studied hard to find the means of inclosing them in _forms_, whether
+of wood or of iron, to make the types into words, phrases, and lines,
+and to leave spaces on the paper. There it was that he invented colored
+mediums, oleaginous and yet drying, to reproduce these characters,
+brushes and dabbers to spread the ink on the letters, boards to hold
+them, and screws and weights to compress them. Months and years were
+spent, as well as his own fortune and the funds of the firm, in these
+persevering experiments, with alternate success and disappointment.
+
+At length, having made a model of a press, which seemed to him to
+combine all the requirements of printing, according to his ideas at that
+time, he concealed it under his cloak, and walking to the town, went to
+a skilful turner in wood and metal, named Conrad Saspach, who lived in
+the Mercer's Lane, asking him to make the machine of full size. He
+requested the workman to keep it secret, merely telling him that it was
+a machine by the help of which he proposed to produce some masterpieces
+of art and mechanism, of which the marvels should be known in due time.
+
+The turner, taking the model in his hands, and turning it backward and
+forward with the smile of contempt that a skilful artist usually puts on
+when looking at a rough specimen, said, somewhat scornfully, "But it is
+just simply a press that you are asking me for, Master Hans!"
+
+"Yes," replied Gutenberg, with a grave and enthusiastic tone, "it is a
+press, certainly, but a press from which shall soon flow in
+inexhaustible streams the most abundant and most marvellous liquor that
+has ever flowed to relieve the thirst of man! Through it God will spread
+his Word. A spring of pure truth shall flow from it; like a new star, it
+shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore
+unknown to shine among men." He retired. The turner, who understood not
+these words, made the machine, and delivered it at the monastery of
+Arbogast.
+
+This was the first printing-press.
+
+As soon as he was in possession of his press, Gutenberg began printing.
+Little is known of the first works which he sent out; but the strongly
+religious disposition of the inventor leaves no doubt concerning the
+nature of the labors to which he devoted the first-fruits of his art.
+They were, to a certainty, religious books. The art invented for the
+sake of God, and by his inspiration, began with his worship. His later
+publications at Mainz are a proof of it; the divine songs of the
+Psalmist, and the celebrated Latin Bible, were the first works issued at
+Mainz from the machine invented by Gutenberg, and applied to the use of
+the most sacred powers of man, lyrical praise of his Maker, and
+lamentation for the woes of earth. Under the hands of this pious and
+unfortunate man, praise and prayer were the first voices of the press.
+The press ought ever to be proud of it.
+
+[Illustration: Gutenberg's Invention.]
+
+But great tribulation awaited him after his triumph. We have seen that
+the necessity of procuring funds obliged him to take partners. The
+necessity that subsequently arose of getting assistance for the
+multifarious labor of a great printing establishment obliged him to
+confide his occupation, and even the secret of his process, to his
+partners and to a number of workmen. His partners, tired of supplying
+funds to an enterprise which, for want of perfection, was not then
+remunerative, refused to persevere in the ungrateful occupation.
+Gutenberg begged them not to abandon him at the very moment that fortune
+and glory were within his grasp. They consented to make fresh advances,
+but only on condition of sharing completely his secret, his profits, his
+property, and his fame.
+
+He sold his fame to procure success to his work. The name of Gutenberg
+disappeared. The firm absorbed the inventor, who soon became a mere
+workman in his own workshop. It was a parallel to the case of
+Christopher Columbus brought back in irons on board his own vessel, by a
+crew to whom he had opened a new world.
+
+This was not all. The heirs of one of the partners brought an action
+against him to contest his invention, his property, and his right of
+carrying on the work. They compelled him to appear before the judges at
+Strasburg, to make him submit to some more complete and more legal
+spoliation than the voluntary abandonment he had himself acknowledged.
+His perplexity before the court was extreme. To justify himself, it was
+necessary to enter into all the technical details of his art, which he
+did not as yet wish to make completely public, reserving to himself, at
+least, the secret of his hopes. The judges, being inquisitive, pressed
+him with insidious questions, the answers to which would have exposed
+the secret of all his processes. He evaded them, preferring an adverse
+decision to the publication of his art. To succeed in penetrating the
+secret of the discovery which filled people's imaginations, the judges
+summoned his most confidential workmen, and required them to give
+evidence of what they knew. These men, simple-minded, yet faithful and
+strongly attached to Gutenberg, refused to reveal anything. Their
+master's secret was safer in their hearts than in the breasts of his
+more grasping associates. None of the great mysteries of the art
+transpired. Gutenberg, ruined, condemned, perhaps banished, retired
+alone and in poverty to Mainz, his native place, to recommence his
+labors and begin his life and fame anew.
+
+He was still young, and the report of his lawsuit at Strasburg had made
+his fame known all over Germany, but he returned a workman to a city
+which he had quitted as a knight. Humiliation, poverty, and glory
+contended with each other in his fate and in the behavior of his
+fellow-citizens. Love alone recognized him for what he had been, and for
+what he was one day to become.
+
+On his return to Mainz, having been relieved from degradation and ruin
+by the woman he loved, as Mohammed was by his first wife, Gutenberg gave
+himself entirely up to his art, entered into partnership with Faust and
+Schoeffer, Faust's son-in-law; established offices at Mainz, and
+published, still under the name of the firm, Bibles and Psalters, of
+remarkable perfection of type.
+
+Schoeffer had for a long time carried on the business of a scrivener,
+and a trade in manuscripts in Paris. His travels, and his intimacy with
+the artists of that town, had made him acquainted with mechanical
+processes for working in metals, which he adapted, on his return to
+Mainz, to the art of printing. These new means enabled him to cast
+movable leaden types in a copper matrix, with greater precision than
+before, and thus to give great neatness to the letters. It was by this
+new process that the Psalter, the first book bearing a date, was printed
+in 1457. Soon afterward the Mainz Bible, recognized as a masterpiece of
+art, was produced under the direction of Gutenberg, from types founded
+by Peter Schoeffer's process.
+
+The tendency of the new art, which began by cheapening sacred books
+under the auspices of the Church alone, escaped, during the first years
+of its existence, the notice of the Roman court, which saw an auxiliary
+in what it afterward considered as an opponent.
+
+"Among the number of blessings which we ought to praise God for having
+vouchsafed during your pontificate," says a dedication in the time of
+Paul II., "is this invention, which enables the poorest to procure
+libraries at a low price. Is it not a great glory to your Holiness, that
+volumes which used to cost _one hundred pieces of gold_ are now to be
+bought for four, or even less, and that the fruits of genius, heretofore
+the prey of the worms and buried in dust, begin under your reign to
+arise from the dead, and to multiply profusely over all the earth?"
+
+Meanwhile, Faust the banker, and Schoeffer the workman, Gutenberg's new
+partners, were not long in giving way, like his former partner, one
+Mentel or Metelin at Strasburg, to the temptation of absorbing by
+degrees Gutenberg's glory, the most tempting of all possessions, because
+of its immortality. Like many others, they hoped to deceive posterity,
+if not their own contemporaries. After recognizing, in the Epistle
+Dedicatory prefixed to the German translation of Livy, printed by Hans
+Schoeffer, and addressed to the Emperor Maximilian, "that the art of
+printing was invented at Mainz by that sublime mechanician Hans von
+Gutenberg," they forgot this confession, and seven years later assumed
+to themselves all the merit and honor of the discovery.
+
+A short time afterward, the Emperor Maximilian, erecting the printers
+and compositors into a species of intellectual priesthood, relieved them
+by the nobility of their occupation from all degradation of rank. He
+ennobled the art and the artists together; he authorized them to wear
+robes embroidered with gold and silver, which nobles only had a right to
+wear, and gave them for armorial bearings an eagle with his wings spread
+over a globe, a symbol of the flight of written thoughts, and of its
+conquest of the world.
+
+But Gutenberg was no longer upon earth to enjoy the possession of that
+intellectual world, religious and political, of which he had only had a
+glimpse, like Moses, in the vision of his dream in the monastery of St.
+Arbogast. Despoiled by his partners of his property and of his fame;
+expelled again, and for the last time, from his country by poverty, his
+only consolation being that he was followed by his wife, who remained
+faithful through all his troubles; deprived by death of all his
+children; advanced in years, without bread, and soon afterward, by his
+wife's decease, a widower, he was received by the Elector of Nassau,
+the generous Adolphus. The elector created him his counsellor of state
+and chamberlain, in order to enjoy in an honorable familiarity the
+conversation of this surpassing genius, who was afterward to hold
+converse with all times and all places. This shelter afforded to
+Gutenberg sheds everlasting lustre on Nassau and its prince. We meet in
+history with instances where a generous hospitality has given happiness
+and immortal fame to the most insignificant potentates and to the
+smallest of states.
+
+Gutenberg continued printing with his own hands, at Nassau, under the
+eyes of his Maecenas, the elector, during several years of peace and
+quiet. He died at the age of sixty-eight, leaving his sister no
+inheritance, but bequeathing to the world the empire of the human mind,
+discovered and achieved by a workman.
+
+"I bequeath," he says in his will, "to my sister all the books which I
+printed at the monastery of St. Arbogast." The poor inventor's only
+legacy to his surviving relative was the common property of almost all
+inventors like himself--wasted youth, a persecuted life, a name
+aspersed, toil, watchings, and the oblivion of his contemporaries.
+
+
+
+
+WILLIAM CAXTON
+
+(1412-1491)
+
+[Illustration: William Caxton.]
+
+
+William Caxton, to whom England owes the introduction of printing, was
+born, according to his own statement, in the Weald of Kent. Of the date
+of his birth nothing is known with certainty, though Oldys places it in
+1412. Lewis and Oldys suppose that between his fifteenth and eighteenth
+years he was put apprentice to one Robert Large, a mercer or merchant of
+considerable eminence, who was afterward, successively, sheriff and lord
+mayor of London, and who upon his death, in 1441, remembered Caxton in
+his will by a legacy of 20 marks. Caxton at this time had become a
+freeman of the Company of Mercers. His knowledge of business, however,
+induced him, either upon his own account or as agent of some merchant,
+to travel to the Low Countries for a short time. In 1464 we find him
+joined in a commission with one Robert Whitehill, to continue and
+confirm a treaty of trade and commerce between Edward IV. and Philip,
+Duke of Burgundy; or if they find it necessary, to make a new one. They
+are styled in it ambassadors and special deputies. This commission at
+least affords a proof that Caxton had acquired a reputation for
+knowledge of business. Seven years afterward Caxton describes himself as
+leading a life of ease, when, "having no great charge or occupation," he
+set about finishing the translation of Raoul le Fevre's "Recueil des
+Histoires de Troye," which he had commenced two years before, in 1469.
+The original was the first book he printed, and this translation the
+third. Of Caxton's pursuits and travels abroad, we know little more than
+that in his peregrinations he confined himself, for the most part, to
+the countries of Brabant, Flanders, Holland, and Zealand, and finally
+entered into the service, or at least the household, of Margaret,
+Duchess of Burgundy, who encouraged him to finish his translation of Le
+Fevre's "History of Troy," assisted him with her criticisms upon his
+English, and amply rewarded him upon the completion of his labor. From
+the prologues and epilogues of this work we discover that he was now
+somewhat advanced in years, and that he had learnt to exercise the art
+of printing, but by what step he had acquired this knowledge cannot be
+discovered; his types only show that he acquired it in the Low
+Countries. He does not appear to have seen any of the beautiful
+productions of the Roman, Venetian, and Parisian presses before he had
+caused his own font of letters to be cut.
+
+The original of Raoul's "History," the "Oration of John Russell on
+Charles, Duke of Burgundy, being created a Knight of the Garter," and
+the "Translation" of Raoul, were, as far as we know, Caxton's first
+three works; the last finished in 1471. A "Stanza," by Wynkyn de Worde,
+notices an edition of "Bartholomoeus, de Proprietatibus Rerum," as
+printed by Caxton at Cologne (about 1470), but the actual existence of
+this edition is unknown. Nor has more certain information yet been
+obtained of the exact period of Caxton's return to his native country.
+The usual supposition has been that he brought the art of printing into
+England in 1474, and this date is indicated by the figures which are
+united in the centre of his device as a printer. In 1477, however, he
+had undoubtedly quitted the Low Countries and taken up his residence in
+the vicinity of Westminster Abbey, where and in which year he printed
+his "Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers." Stowe says he first
+exercised his business in an old chapel near the entrance of the abbey;
+but a very curious placard, a copy of which, in Caxton's largest type,
+is now at Oxford in the late Mr. Douce's library, shows that he printed
+in the Almonry. It is as follows: "If it plese any man spirituel or
+temporel to bye ony Pyes of two and thre comemoracions of Salisburi vse
+emprynted, after the forme of this present lettre whiche ben wel and
+truly correct, late hym come to Westmonester in to the Almonesrye at the
+reed pole and he shal have them good chepe. Supplico stet cedula."
+According to Bagford, Caxton's office was afterward removed to King
+Street.
+
+[Illustration: The First Sheet from Caxton's Press.]
+
+From the evidence of Wynkyn de Worde, in the colophon of his edition of
+"Vitae Patrum," 1495, it appears that these "Lives of the Fathers" were
+"translated out of French into English by William Caxton, of
+Westminster, lately dead," and that he finished the work "at the last
+day of his life." His death, however, seems fixed, by two or three
+entries in the parish accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, to the
+year 1491 or 1492, in which we read, "Item: atte bureyng of William
+Caxton for iiij, torches vj^s viij^d. Item: for the belle at same
+Bureyng vj^d." Wynkyn de Worde no doubt referred to this time.
+
+Caxton, Mr. Warton observes, by translating, or procuring to be
+translated, a great number of books from the French, greatly contributed
+to promote the state of literature in England. In regard to his types,
+Mr. Dibdin says he appears to have made use of five distinct sets, or
+fonts, of letters, which, in his account of Caxton's works, he has
+engraved plates in fac-simile. Edward Rowe Mores, in his "Dissertation
+upon English Typographical Founders and Foundries," says Caxton's letter
+was originally of the sort called Secretary, and of this he had two
+fonts; afterward he came nearer to the English face, and had three fonts
+of Great Primer, a rude one which he used anno 1474, another something
+better, and a third cut about 1482; one of Double Pica, good, which
+first appears 1490; and one of Long Primer, at least nearly agreeing
+with the bodies which have since been called by those names. All of
+Caxton's works were printed in what are called black letter.
+
+
+
+
+CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS[9]
+
+         [Footnote 9: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By A. R. SPOFFORD, LL.D.
+
+(1436-1506)
+
+[Illustration: Christopher Columbus.]
+
+
+The discovery and the discoverer of America have furnished an almost
+inexhaustible theme for the critic, the biographer, and the historian.
+In the year 1892 there was celebrated an event which has come by common
+consent to be regarded as a world-famous epoch, worthy to be held in
+everlasting remembrance. We commemorated the man whose discovery almost
+doubled the extent of the habitable globe.
+
+The life, the voyages, the brilliant triumphs, and the mournful end of
+Columbus are already familiar to most readers. To recount them at length
+would be here a needless repetition. Let us rather attempt to glance at
+some of the historic disputes involving the character and acts of the
+great discoverer, to sketch briefly the sources of information about
+him, and to characterize some of the more important writings upon the
+subject.
+
+There is no lack of biographical material concerning the discoverer of
+America. He has left memorials of his personality and life-history more
+abundant than most of the men who have influenced their age. There are
+more than sixty authentic letters of Columbus in existence. There are
+long narratives of his expeditions and discoveries, by persons who knew
+him more or less intimately. There is an extended biography of him
+written by his own son, Ferdinand Columbus, or from materials furnished
+by him. There are numerous documents and state papers authenticating his
+acts, his privileges, and his dignities. And yet, with all the wealth of
+material, so copious upon his character and his career, it would seem,
+from recent developments, that the true discoverer of America is yet to
+be discovered.
+
+Among the many lives of Columbus that have been written, there exist
+some twenty-five in the English language. Of these two or three only
+have any historical or critical value. The mass of biographies, both
+English and American, are mere echoes or abridgments, in other forms of
+language, of the great work of Washington Irving, first published in
+1828. This book was written in Spain, and based upon collections of
+documents (manuscript and printed) not previously used by biographers.
+Hence its value as the most copious and systematic life of Columbus
+which had appeared in any language. The finished and graceful style
+which characterizes all the works of its accomplished author gave it a
+high place in literature, which it has maintained for more than half a
+century, being constantly reprinted.
+
+Next in point of time to Irving, though treating Columbus with less
+fulness of detail, came the polished historian Prescott, whose "History
+of Ferdinand and Isabella" was published in 1837. This ardent and
+laborious scholar was, like Irving, constitutionally inclined to the
+optimistic view of his leading characters. To magnify the virtues and to
+minimize the faults of their heroes has always been the besetting sin of
+biographers. The pomp and picturesque circumstance of the Spanish court,
+the splendid administrative abilities of Ferdinand, the beauty,
+amiability, and devoted piety of Isabella, are depicted in glowing
+colors, but the crimes and cruelties which they sanctioned, while
+condemned upon one page, are softly extenuated upon others. Columbus
+appears as a romantic figure in history, the glory of whose successful
+discovery atones for his many failings.
+
+Of the original sources of information about Columbus the most important
+are:
+
+1. The great collection of original documents printed in Spanish by
+Navarrete, in 1825-37, in five volumes, and partly reprinted in a French
+translation in 1828. These contain the precious letters of Columbus,
+many of which have been translated and recently published in English.
+
+2. The "Historia general de las Indias," of Oviedo, first published in
+1535.
+
+3. The "Historia de las Indias," of the Spanish Bishop Las Casas,
+composed in 1527 to 1561, which remained in manuscript until 1875, when
+it was printed from the original Spanish.
+
+4. The "Letters and the Decades of Peter Martyr," written in part
+contemporaneously with the discovery of America, and printed in Latin in
+1530, and in English in 1555.
+
+5. The "Historia de las Reyes Catolicos," of Andres Bernaldez.
+
+6. The "Life of the Discoverer," by Ferdinand Columbus, first published
+in 1571 at Venice, in Italian.
+
+The last five writers had personal knowledge or intercourse with
+Columbus, while Las Casas, Oviedo, and Ferdinand had the advantage of
+residence in America, and intimate knowledge of the aborigines, and of
+the men and events of the period.
+
+Almost every item involved in the checkered and eventful life of
+Columbus has afforded a fruitful theme for controversy. His birth, even,
+is disputed, under stress of evidence, as falling anywhere between 1435
+and 1447--a discrepancy of twelve years. His birthplace is claimed by
+more towns than that of Homer, although his own statement, that he was a
+native of Genoa, has met general concurrence. His knowledge of
+geography, astronomy, and navigation is asserted and denied with various
+degrees of pertinacity. His treatment by the sovereigns of Portugal,
+Castile, and Aragon is so far in question that irreconcilable
+differences of opinion exist. How much Columbus really owed to the aid
+of the crown, and how much to private enterprise, in fitting out his
+expeditions of discovery, cannot be definitely ascertained. How far he
+was hindered by the bigotry, or helped by the enlightenment of powerful
+ecclesiastics, as at the council of Salamanca, is a theme of perennial
+controversy.
+
+The island where he first landed is so far from being identified, that
+many books have been written to prove the claims of this, that, or the
+other gem of the sea to be the true land-fall of Columbus. His treatment
+of the natives has been made the subject of unsparing denunciation and
+of undiscriminating eulogy. His conduct toward his own, often mutinous,
+crews is alternately lauded as humane and generous, or denounced as
+arrogant and cruel, according to the sympathies or the point of view of
+the critic. His imprisonment and attempted disgrace have been made the
+theme of indignant comment and of extenuating apology. His moral
+character and marital relations are subjects of irreconcilable
+differences of judgment. His deep religious bias, so manifest in nearly
+all his writings, has been praised as a mark of exalted merit by some
+writers, and stigmatized by others as cant and superstition. The last
+resting-place of his bones, even, is in doubt, which it required an
+elaborate investigation by the Royal Academy of History of Madrid to
+solve in favor of Havana, as against the cathedral of Santo Domingo;
+though its report is still controverted, and M. A. Pinart has proved to
+the satisfaction of many that a misprision took place and that the true
+remains of Columbus still rest at Santo Domingo. The movement to
+canonize the great discoverer has been championed with more zeal than
+discretion by some over-ardent churchmen, while the too-evident human
+frailties of the proposed candidate for the honors of sainthood have
+inspired an abundant caution in the councils of the Vatican.
+
+On a subject fraught with so much inherent difficulty, contradictory
+evidence, and conflict of opinion, he is on the safest ground who
+candidly holds his judgment in reserve. In the light of the
+keenly-sifted evidence which modern critical study has brought to bear,
+the laudatory judgments of Irving and Prescott, rendered sixty years
+ago, cannot stand wholly approved.
+
+Neither can a discerning reader accept the fulsome laudations of his
+principal French biographer, Roselly de Lorgues, whose rhetorical
+panegyrics and pious eulogies place its author in the front rank of the
+canonizers.
+
+On the other hand, those who have taken the unfavorable view of
+Columbus, have done their utmost to divest him of most of the honors
+which the general voice of history has assigned him as America's
+greatest discoverer. The established fact that parts of North America
+were seen centuries before, though no permanent settlement nor
+continuity of intercourse ensued, has been used to discredit him, though
+he was undeniably the pioneer who set out with a plan to discover, and
+did discover by design, what others found only by accident. His
+geographical ideas were derived, they say, from Behaim and Toscanelli;
+his nautical skill from Pinzon; his certainty of finding new lands from
+Alonzo Sanchez; his courage and daring from some of his fellow-voyagers.
+
+We are pointed to his double reckoning on his first voyage, by which he
+deceived his sailors as to their true distance from Spain, as evidence
+of a false nature. He is charged with ambition, cupidity, and arrogance,
+in demanding titles, dignities, and money as fruits of his discoveries.
+He was, we are told, a fanatic, a visionary, a tyrant, a buccaneer, a
+liar, and a slave-trader. He was proud, cruel, and vindictive.
+
+What manner of man, then, was this Columbus, with whose name the trump
+of fame has been busy so long? As to his person, we have no verified
+portrait, while the likenesses (of all periods) claiming to represent
+his features, present irreconcilable differences. But here is the
+description of him given by Herrera: "Columbus was tall of stature,
+long-visaged, of a majestic aspect, his nose hooked, his eyes gray, of a
+clear complexion, somewhat ruddy. He was witty and pleasant, well-spoken
+and eloquent, moderately grave, affable to strangers, to his own family
+mild. His conversation was discreet, which gained him the affection of
+those he had to deal with, and his presence attracted respect, having an
+air of authority and grandeur. He was a man of undaunted courage and
+high thoughts, patient, unmoved in the many troubles and adversities
+that attended him, ever relying on the Divine Providence." Gomara
+describes him as "a man of good height, strong-limbed, with a long
+countenance, fresh and rosy in aspect, somewhat given to anger, hardy in
+exposure to fatigues."
+
+Benzoni says that Columbus was "a man of exalted intellect, of a
+pleasant and ingenuous countenance."
+
+Bernaldez, the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella, who knew him
+intimately in his later years, says "he was a man of very lofty genius,
+and of marvellously honored memory."
+
+[Illustration: Columbus ridiculed at the Council of Salamanca.]
+
+With these personal characteristics, Columbus united a restless spirit,
+a firm will, and a singularly enthusiastic temperament. The latter
+faculty gave him a consuming zeal for his undertakings, which was as
+rare as it proved ultimately successful in compassing his great
+discovery. He was discouraged by no rebuffs, would take no denials. His
+motto seemed to be never to despair, and never to let go. His spiritual
+nature was as remarkable as his intellectual. Here, his imagination was
+the predominant faculty. He firmly believed himself divinely
+commissioned to find out the Indies, and to bring their inhabitants into
+the fold of the true faith. He had early vowed to devote the profits of
+his enterprise, if successful, to rescue the tomb of Christ from the
+infidels. Himself a devout son of the Church, he fervently believed that
+he had miraculous aid on many perilous occasions of his life. Humble
+before God, he was sufficiently proud and independent before men. He
+insisted upon conditions with the haughty sovereigns of Spain which they
+deemed exacting, but the high views and tenacity of Columbus carried the
+day, and his own terms were granted at last. He never forgot, in all his
+subsequent trials and humiliations, that he was a Spanish admiral, and
+Viceroy of the Indies.
+
+Such was the character of Columbus. Let us now look at his environment,
+which in all men contributes so much to make or modify character. Born
+in Genoa, the headquarters in that day of navigation, Columbus early
+imbibed a passion for maritime affairs. His youthful days and nights
+were given to the study of astronomy and of navigation. He was a trained
+sailor and map-maker from his boyhood. He brooded over the problems
+involved in the spherical form of the earth. He caught up all the hints
+and allusions in classical and mediaeval writers that came in his way, of
+other lands than those already known. The Atlantis of Plato, and the
+clear prediction in Seneca of another world in the west, fired his
+imagination. He himself tells us that he voyaged to the Ultima Thule of
+his day, which was Iceland, besides various expeditions in the Atlantic
+and Mediterranean.
+
+The early fancies of isles in the western sea loomed up before his eyes,
+and repeated themselves in his dreams. These visions were heightened by
+that vague sense of wonder that is linked with the unknown. No wonder,
+then, that Columbus, with a bent almost preternatural toward the
+undiscovered regions of the globe, should dream of new lands, new men,
+new scenery, and new wealth. But to his vivid imagination dreams became
+realities, until he believed with all the force of his ardent nature
+that he was divinely commissioned to be a discoverer. Hitherto the
+Portuguese voyages familiar to Columbus had only skirted the coast of
+Africa, and discovered the Cape Verde Islands and the Azores. It was not
+till 1486, years after the idea of his western voyage took firm root in
+his mind, that the Cape of Good Hope was at last doubled by Vasco da
+Gama. All voyages prior to his had been only tentative and brief, slowly
+creeping from headland to headland, or else finding new islands by being
+drifted out of courses long familiar to mariners.
+
+It was the supreme merit of Columbus that he was the first to cut loose
+from one continent to find another, and to steer boldly across an
+unknown sea, in search of an unknown world. We need not belittle (still
+less need we deny) the finding of Greenland and of other parts of North
+America by the Norsemen in the ninth and tenth centuries. We may hail
+Eric the Red and his stout son, Leif Ericson, as pioneers in what may be
+termed coasting voyages of discovery. But the story of America gains as
+little from these shadowy and abortive voyages as civilization has
+gained from their fruitless results.
+
+On the first voyage of Columbus, he was more fortunate in the uncertain
+elements which always affect sea voyages so overpoweringly than in some
+of his later ones. His own vessel, with single deck, was about ninety
+feet long, by a breadth of twenty feet. The Pinta, a faster sailer, and
+the Nina (or "baby") were smaller caravels, and without decks, commanded
+respectively by the brothers Martin and Vicente Pinzon. The three
+vessels carried ninety persons, sailing September 6, 1492, running first
+south to the Canaries, and then stretching straight westward on the
+twenty-eighth parallel for what the admiral believed to be the coast of
+Japan. Delightful weather favored the voyagers, but when, on the tenth
+day out from Spain, the caravels struck into that wonderful stretch of
+seaweed and grass, known as the Sargasso Sea, fear lest they should run
+aground or soon be unable to sail in either direction took possession of
+the crews. In five days the caravels ran into smooth water again. But as
+their distance from Spain grew greater, the spirit of protest and mutiny
+grew louder. Columbus needed all of his invincible constancy and
+firmness of purpose to quell and to animate his despairing crews. At
+last, October 21, 1492--day ever memorable in the annals of this
+world--the unknown land rose from the bosom of the water. It was named
+by its pious discoverer San Salvador--Holy Saviour. The charm of climate
+and of landscape enchanted all, and fear and despondency gave way to
+delight and joy and the most extravagant anticipations. The subsequent
+history of this first voyage, the wreck of the admiral's flag-ship Santa
+Maria, the base desertion of Pinzon, and his baffled attempt to
+forestall Columbus in the credit of the discovery, the triumphal honors
+paid to the successful admiral, and the pope's bull conferring upon
+Spain all lands west of a meridian one hundred leagues from the
+Azores--all this is familiar to most readers. The actual discoveries of
+the first voyage included Cuba and Hispaniola (or Haiti), with some
+little islands of the Bahama group, of small importance.
+
+On his second voyage Columbus found no difficulty in collecting
+seventeen ships and 1,500 adventurers, so popular had the new way to the
+Indies become when the way was once found. He set sail six months after
+his return to Spain, or on September 15, 1493. He returned in June,
+1496, after three years of explorations, interrupted by a long illness,
+and having discovered Jamaica, Porto Rico, Santa Cruz, Antigua,
+Montserrat, Dominica, and Guadaloupe.
+
+The third voyage began May 30, 1498, and embraced six vessels and 200
+men. Columbus struck southwestward from the Cape Verde Islands and ran
+nearly to the equator, into a region of torrid heat, discovering
+Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, and the Gulf of Paria, and making his first
+landing on the continent, at the Pearl Coast, near the mouth of the
+Orinoco, in what is now Venezuela. This voyage witnessed many
+disasters--the rebellion of Roldan, the severe prostration of the
+admiral by fever, and his seizure and imprisonment in chains by the
+infamous Bobadilla.
+
+The fourth and last voyage of Columbus, with four small caravels and 150
+men, was begun May 11, 1502. On this voyage he discovered Martinique and
+the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Veragua, on the mainland,
+returning to Spain, after untold disasters and miseries, on November 7,
+1504. Then followed the weary struggle of the infirm old voyager to
+secure justice and a part of his hard-earned benefits from the crown.
+But Isabella had died, and Ferdinand, under the influence of the
+hard-hearted and cruel bigot, Fonseca, postponed all the claims of
+Columbus. He who had given a world died in poverty, a suppliant for the
+means of an honorable existence.
+
+It is easy enough for the writers of the nineteenth century to criticise
+the actors of the fifteenth; and learned scholars, sitting in luxurious
+easy-chairs in great libraries, can pass swift and severe judgment upon
+the acts and motives of Columbus. But let them go back four hundred
+years, and divest themselves of the bias which the science of to-day
+unconsciously inspires; let them quit the age of steam-engines,
+telegraphs, democratic governments, printing-presses, and
+Sunday-schools; let them orient themselves, and become Spaniards of
+1492, instead of Americans of 1892; let them take the place of
+Columbus--if they are gifted with imagination enough among their
+manifold endowments to do it; let them think his thoughts, endure his
+trials, cherish his resolves, encounter his rebuffs, overcome his
+obstacles, launch out on his voyage, govern his mutinous crew, deal with
+his savage and hostile tribes, combat the traitors in his camp, suffer
+his shipwrecks, struggle with his disappointments, bear the ignominy of
+his chains, see his visions, and pray his prayers.
+
+Behold him, launched on his uncertain voyage across the "sea of
+darkness," in three little caravels, no larger than the modern yacht,
+and far less seaworthy. Watch his devoted and anxious look, his solitary
+self-communings, his all-night vigils under the silent stars. See his
+motley crew, picked up at random in Palos streets, ignorant,
+superstitious, and full of fears, dreading every added mile of the
+voyage, and alarmed at the prevalent east winds which they thought would
+never permit them to sail back to Spain; so that Columbus, on a contrary
+head-wind springing up, thanked God with all the fervency of his pious
+soul. Pursue his career in his later expeditions, hampered by the
+mutinous vagabonds whom fate had thrust upon him as followers, many of
+them desperadoes just out of jail. See his baffled endeavors to maintain
+order and discipline among such a crew; to restrain their excesses, curb
+their lawless acts of violence, and secure some semblance of decency in
+their conduct toward the natives. Many of them, we read, were so given
+over to idleness and sloth, that they actually made the islanders beasts
+of burden, to carry them on their backs. It is a most unhappy fact that
+the missionaries of the cross were often accompanied by bands of
+miscreants, who wantonly broke every commandment in the decalogue and
+trampled upon every precept of the gospel. See him in his last voyage,
+beating about the rocks and shoals of an unknown archipelago, overtaken
+by West India hurricanes, almost engulfed in waterspouts, scudding under
+bare poles amid perilous breakers, blinded by lightning, deafened by
+incessant peals of thunder, his crazy little barks tossed about like
+cockle-shells in the raging waves, his anchors lost, his worm-eaten
+vessels as full of holes as a honey-comb, two caravels abandoned, and
+the two remaining run ashore at Jamaica, where Columbus built huts on
+their decks to shelter his forlorn crew. See him stranded here, pressed
+by hunger and want, visited by sickness and almost blindness, burning
+with fever under the wilting, fiery heat of the tropics, desolate,
+forsaken, infirm, and old. There he lay a whole year without relief,
+until the cup of his misery was full.
+
+If Columbus was sometimes harsh and cruel, we are to remember that he
+lived in an age when the most cruel and barbarous punishments were
+common. There are numerous instances of his clemency both to natives and
+to his revolted Spaniards, and he more than once jeopardized his own
+life by sparing theirs. Among a treacherous and vindictive race, many of
+whom were continually plotting for his overthrow, the admiral, endowed
+with full power over the lives and acts of his followers, was compelled
+to make examples of the worst, many of whom were criminals released from
+the prisons of Spain. Like other fighters, he met treachery with
+treachery, cruelty with cruelty. He had never learned to love his
+enemies, nor to turn his cheek for the second blow. Show us the man
+invested with absolute power, in that or in any former age, who abused
+it less. Try him by the moral standards, not of our humane and
+enlightened age, but by those of his own. Compared with the deeds of
+darkness that were done by Bobadilla and Ovando, the governors who
+replaced him, the reign of Columbus appears, even at its worst, to have
+been mild and merciful.
+
+By the side of the atrocities and cruel massacres perpetrated under
+Cortes in Mexico, and Pizarro in Peru, the few deeds of blood under
+Columbus appear slight indeed. While we have no right to extenuate his
+errors and his abuses, we have as little right to hold him to a standard
+nowhere set up in his day. He had learned his ethics in a school which
+taught that, for great and pious objects, the end justified the means.
+In the ardor of his zeal for what he deemed the Christian faith,
+Columbus committed many glaring mistakes and errors; but what
+over-zealous apostle or reformer has failed to do the same? Columbus was
+unduly eager after gold, they say; but in our advanced age, when that
+which Virgil called "the accursed hunger for gold" pervades all ranks,
+and our cities are nothing but great encampments of fortune-hunters,
+does it lie in our mouths to condemn him?
+
+The age of Columbus took him as he was--all full of human imperfections
+and frailties, but full also to overflowing with a great idea, and with
+a will, a perseverance, a constancy, and a faith so sublime, as fairly
+to conquer every obstacle, after a weary struggle of eighteen years, and
+to carry forward his arduous enterprise to triumphant success. That the
+great discoverer failed as a governor and administrator makes nothing
+against his merits as a discoverer. That his light at last went out in
+darkness--that the world he discovered brought nothing to Spain but
+disappointment and Dead Sea ashes--that he dragged out a miserable old
+age in rotten and unseaworthy ships, lying ill in the torrid heats of
+the West Indies, racked with excruciating pain, and in absolute penury
+and want--all this but adds point to a life so full of paradox that we
+may almost pardon him for believing in miracles. After so much glory and
+so much fame, his life darkened down to its dreary and pathetic close.
+His ardent soul went at last where wicked governments cease from
+troubling, and weary mariners are at rest. On May 20, 1506, worn out by
+disease, anxieties, and labors, the great discoverer launched forth on
+his last voyage of discovery, beyond the border of that unknown land
+whose boundaries are hid from mortal ken.
+
+His place among the immortals is secure. By the power of the
+unconquerable mind with which nature had endowed him, he achieved a fame
+so imperishable that neither the arrows of malice, nor the shafts of
+envy, nor the keenest pens of critics, nor the assaults of iconoclasts
+can avail to destroy it.
+
+[Signature: A. R. Spofford.]
+
+
+
+
+VASCO DA GAMA[10]
+
+         [Footnote 10: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By Judge ALBION W. TOURGEE
+
+(1460-1525)
+
+[Illustration: Vasco Da Gama.]
+
+
+Vasco da Gama was the pet of fortune. Never did a man win immortality
+more easily. As a discoverer and a navigator he should rank not only
+below Columbus, but also below Bartolemeo Diaz and Cabral among his own
+countrymen, as well as Vespucius and Magellan, who carried the Spanish
+flag, and the Cabots, who established England's claim to the most
+important portions of the New World. As a commander, an administrator,
+and ruler of newly discovered regions, however, he ranks easily above
+them all. He not only led the way to India, but laid securely the
+foundations of Portuguese empire in the East.
+
+Even in the hour of his birth he was fortunate. Prince Henry, surnamed
+"the Navigator," to whose indefatigable exertions for more than forty
+years was due that impulse to maritime achievement of which the
+discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were the result,
+had just died, and his influence hung like an inspiration over the
+little kingdom for which he had wrought with such self-denying
+patience. This grandson of John of Gaunt has received scant credit for
+that wonderful series of discoveries by which the accessible earth was
+more than quadrupled in extent. Yet without him, there is no reason to
+believe that either the coast of Africa would have been explored, the
+Cape of Good Hope passed, or the American continents discovered for a
+century, at least, perhaps for two or three centuries afterward. He was
+the father of discovery, and it was his hand more than any or all others
+that rolled up the curtain of darkness which hid the major part of the
+habitable globe. All the navigators and discoverers of that marvellous
+age were but the agents of his genius and the creatures of his
+indefatigable exertion.
+
+The son of the most noted sovereign of Portugal, and grandson of that
+rugged Englishman from whose loins have sprung so many royal lines, he
+was fitted by descent and training for the heroic part which he
+performed. Distinguished for military achievement before he had come to
+man's estate, urged by four of the leading sovereigns of Europe to take
+command of their armies, and made Grand Master of the Order of Christ
+before he was twenty-five, there is hardly any limit to the military
+distinction he might have won or the power he might have secured, had he
+sought his own advancement.
+
+But he gave himself to Portugal, and determined to raise the little
+kingdom his father had so gallantly held against jealous and powerful
+neighbors, to the rank of a first-class power. To seek to enlarge a
+realm shut in by mountains on one side and the sea upon the other, by
+constant strife with embittered enemies, he saw at once was to invite
+annihilation. The sea afforded the only avenue of hope, the continent of
+Africa, where his father had already gained something from the Moor, in
+battling with whom he had himself won renown, the only visible
+opportunity. So he determined to explore, and finally, to circumnavigate
+Africa, and give to Portugal whatever of power or wealth the ocean or
+the dark continent might hide. He believed that India might be reached
+by sailing round its southern extremity, and he determined to pour the
+wealth of the Orient into the treasury of the kingdom his father had
+established.
+
+In 1418, therefore, he turned his back on personal ambition, laid aside
+the glory of military renown, and sat himself down to a hermit's life
+and a scholar's labors on the promontory of Sagres, in the province of
+Algarve, that point on the coast of Portugal which stretches farthest
+out into the Atlantic in the direction of his hope. Here he built an
+observatory whose light was the last his captains saw as they went
+forth, and the first to greet them on their return. Here he opened a
+school of navigation, and here were trained the discoverers who opened
+the way for all who came afterward. Here was not only nourished the
+impulse which fired the hearts of Columbus and his contemporaries, but
+here was taught the science and here were gathered the facts which
+enabled them to achieve success.
+
+Up to that time, Cape Nun had been the boundary of the modern world to
+the southward. With infinite patience, Prince Henry labored to convince
+his captains that the terrors which they thought lay at the southward of
+this point were wholly imaginary. Little by little his caravels crept
+down the coast of Africa. Every year he sent out two or three.
+Navigators and geographers flocked to his service. In two years he
+re-discovered Madeira and Porto Santo, of which latter he afterward made
+Perestrello, the father of Columbus's wife, the governor. By 1433 his
+ships had reached Cape Bojador; eight years afterward they passed Cape
+Blanco; in 1445 they were at the mouth of the Senegal. Still he urged
+them on toward that "_thesaurus Arabum et divitia Indiae_," to which he
+set himself the task of opening up the way. The crown of Portugal
+assumed all the cost of these expeditions. Gold, ivory, cinnabar,
+dye-woods, spices, and slaves, added to the wealth of the kingdom only
+to furnish forth new ventures.
+
+He died before the end came, but not until many of the most important
+problems of cosmographic condition had been solved. It was known by
+actual experience that the "steaming sea" was a myth. Ships had crossed
+the equator, and their crews came back to tell of southward-stretching
+shadows. Ships were able, it was seen, to sail up the southern slope of
+the world as well as down it. Why they did not fall off into space, none
+knew, but that they did not was proved. Gravitation was a force whose
+laws and character were yet unformulated. The diurnal motion of the
+earth was hardly suspected until a hundred years later. But the facts on
+which these two fundamental truths are based were being gathered for
+Newton and Copernicus. When he died, those whom he had inspired and
+instructed continued the work to which he had devoted himself, under the
+patronage of his brother Alfonso and his nephew Joao II.; until, in
+1486, Bartholomeo Diaz had sailed two hundred miles to the eastward of
+the Cape of Good Hope and returned to assure his sovereign that the way
+to India had at length been found.
+
+It was not, however, until Dom Manoel had succeeded to the throne, in
+1495, that any successful effort was made to follow up the success which
+Diaz had achieved. The way to India was indeed open, but no one seems to
+have had sufficient fortitude to undertake so long a voyage in order to
+reach it by that route. Dom Manoel had, however, but one idea. He was
+not a geographer like his predecessor, Joao, "the perfect," but he was a
+man of action, and determined that the route Prince Henry's navigators
+had opened to India should not remain unused. Vasco da Gama was then in
+his thirty-fifth year, the handsomest man of his age, of ancient family,
+and it is claimed was not without royal blood in his veins. As a soldier
+he was trained in the war with Castile; as a navigator he had served
+under Prince Henry's best captains. Camoens, the historical poet of
+Portugal, declares that he was familiar not only with the recorded
+achievements of his predecessors, but with all the regions they had
+discovered. Dom Joao, on the return of Diaz, selected him to command the
+fleet he meant to send to follow up this discovery. In the ten years
+that elapsed before he actually sailed, it is probable that he had grown
+to be not only a better geographer, but also a stronger, more
+cool-headed, and reliable man. That he was able to command, those
+mutineers who cavilled at his severity during the stormy passage of four
+months from Lisbon to Table Bay, found out when they demanded that he
+give up trying to reach India and return to Portugal as other captains
+had done, at the behest of their crews. He made short work of them, and
+in his whole career, so salutary was the lesson, no one under his
+command ever again refused to obey his orders.
+
+It was July 8, 1497, when he sailed from Lisbon, and it was not until
+December 1st that he left Delagoa Bay, the farthest eastward point which
+Diaz had reached, to pass over the actually unknown water that lay
+between him and India. Even this could hardly be called "unknown water,"
+for Corvilhan, who a dozen years before had made his way overland to
+Aden, had sent back to Dom Joao II. this message:
+
+"Anyone who will persist, is sure to sail around the southernmost point
+of Africa, and can then easily make his way up the eastern shore and
+across the gulf to India."
+
+Literally were his words fulfilled. With favoring breezes, Gama reached
+Malinda early in January, 1498, and securing the services of an Indian
+pilot, who had not only sailed hither from Calicut, but seemed as
+familiar as Gama himself with compass and astrolabe, he set out boldly
+across the Indian Ocean, and in May arrived at Calicut. When we consider
+that this latter part of the voyage was with a pilot accustomed to make
+the trip in the far more fragile crafts of the Arabs, the boldness of
+the undertaking does not seem so apparent to one of our day. Compared
+with the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Vespucius, or Cabral over
+absolutely unknown seas, without pilots or charts of any kind, the
+passage from Aden to India hardly seems remarkable. Yet upon this the
+fame of Gama as an explorer rests, and as has been remarked, "few men
+have won fame so easily." His real merit lay in the fact that he did
+what so few of his predecessors were able to accomplish, controlled the
+mutinous crews, who had after all been the most serious obstacle in the
+path of Portugal to the coveted Indian possessions. It is probable that
+if Prince Henry had encouraged his captains to exercise greater
+severity, the darling object of his life might have been attained before
+his death and the birth of the fortunate explorer, whose cheaply-won
+fame has obscured his own, even with the king-loving Portuguese.
+
+It would seem as if the capacity to control men, which was so prominent
+a characteristic of the "Discoverer of India," was not of a conciliatory
+character, for the Zamorin of Calicut received him but coldly, and
+before his ships were loaded the difference had ripened into a quarrel,
+and he was obliged to cut his way out of the harbor to begin his
+homeward voyage. This lack of complaisance on the part of the Zamorin he
+attributed, not without reason, to the jealousy of the Arab merchants,
+whose swift-sailing dhows crowded the port. Why should they not be
+jealous of him who came to take away their immemorial privilege?
+Theretofore the treasures of the Orient had reached the western world
+only through the hands of the Arab merchants. The dhow and the camel had
+been its carriers. Gama had brought the more capacious caravel to bear
+them over a new highway to the western consumers. His success meant the
+loss of a great part of the business on which the sailors, merchants,
+and camel-drivers of Arabia depended for a livelihood. Why should they
+not conspire to kill him and destroy his fleet?
+
+His homeward passage was as fortunate as the outward one had been. That
+he did not experience the disasters which befell others, was no doubt
+largely due to the fact that he foresaw and avoided peril whenever
+possible. He was one of those men who, while shrinking from no
+unavoidable danger, take no unnecessary risks. He was received with
+unprecedented honors when, after two years and two months' absence, his
+ships were again anchored in the Tagus. Their rich cargo attested the
+rare value of the trade he had opened up. Despite the gold which the
+miners of Espanola were beginning to send to Spain, and the pearls which
+had come from Cubagua, the apparent value of the discoveries of Columbus
+were as nothing to the boundless wealth which Gama's voyage assured to
+Portugal. By the bull of Pope Alexander VI., all lands discovered east
+of the meridian of the Azores belonged to the King of Portugal. It was
+not only half the world, but that half which was of most inexhaustible
+richness, Asia and Africa. Titles and honors and wealth were conferred
+upon the fortunate explorer. In consideration perhaps of his royal
+extraction, he was permitted to affix the kingly title, "Dom," to his
+name. No wonder he was thus honored, when the cargo of one small caravel
+loaded with spices, yielded a greater sum than the whole outfit of the
+fleet Columbus commanded on his first voyage!
+
+In an incredibly short time, thirteen ships were fitted out, and under
+that prince of navigators, Cabral, set sail to secure the results of
+Gama's discovery. On him, too, fortune smiled as it rarely has on them
+that "go down to the sea in ships." Blown out of his course by
+head-winds, his very mishaps ripened into the rarest fortune, for he
+discovered Brazil, and thus added to his master's realm what was
+destined to be one of the richest kingdoms of the world. With the
+instinct of genius, and a courage as rare as it was heroic, he did not
+return to notify his king of the new continent which had risen out of
+the deep before him, but sending back a single caravel with the
+marvellous news, he turned his battered prows to that point of the
+compass where he judged the Cape of Good Hope to be, and after passing
+three thousand miles of water that had never known a keel before, he
+rounded the southern point of Africa and proceeded to carry out his
+orders. He lacked, however, the soldierly qualities and administrative
+power of the "Discoverer of India," who the year after his return was
+sent out to complete his work. This time he had a fleet of twenty sail,
+and from the outset was bent not only on taking permanent possession of
+the countries whose trade it was desirable to secure, but on avenging
+the affront that had before been offered him by the Zamorin of Calicut
+and the Arab traders who had inspired the action.
+
+On his way he founded the colonies of Mozambique and Sofala, and sailed
+to Travancore. During the passage he fell in with a ship which was
+carrying many Indian Mussulmans to Mecca, laden with rich presents for
+the shrine of the Prophet. This he pillaged and burned, with all of her
+300 passengers except twenty women and children, whom he saved more for
+his own pleasure, no doubt, than from any pity for them. He excused this
+act of savagery, so far as any excuse was necessary, on the ground that
+they were paynim Moors, and some among them had incited the attack upon
+him at Calicut on his former voyage. The truth is they were rich; he
+wanted the plunder; and there was less likelihood of trouble if he
+killed them than if they were left alive to publish and avenge their
+losses. It was merely an application of the freebooter's maxim, that
+"dead men tell no tales."
+
+Arriving at Calicut, he found that forty Portuguese who had been left to
+establish a permanent post, had been killed. With unusual deliberation,
+he investigated the matter and demanded reparation, submission, and a
+treaty acknowledging the sovereignty of Portugal over India. This being
+refused, he bombarded the city, burned the ships in the harbor, and
+compelled the Zamorin himself and all the native princes of the region
+to submit and acknowledge themselves feudatories of Portugal. So rapid
+were his movements, and so accurate his calculations, that before the
+close of 1503 he had reached Lisbon again with thirteen vessels laden to
+the gunwale with the plunder of the Orient--by all odds the richest
+argosy that had come to any European port since the days of the Romans.
+
+Da Gama was now forty-three years old, and must have been in the very
+prime of manhood. Why so skilled a navigator, so intrepid a commander,
+so shrewd a negotiator, and so successful an administrator, who had
+established the power of Portugal from Delagoa Bay to Calcutta, should,
+at that period of his life, have been laid upon the shelf for twenty
+years, is a conundrum hard to answer. Knowing the character of Dom
+Manoel, it is not difficult to guess that his sordidness lay somewhere
+at the bottom of the trouble; but it is said to Gama's credit, that he
+neither whined nor remonstrated.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that he was succeeded by one who was
+greatly his superior both as a general, a statesman, and an
+administrator. If Vasco da Gama laid the foundations of Portuguese
+empire in the East, Alfonso d'Albuquerque, "the Great," broadened and
+built upon them as he could never have done. From Aden to Cochin blood
+flowed beneath his blows, but peace followed; and though he was termed
+"the Portuguese Mars," his justice became traditional, and his sagacity
+was shown in the permanence of the settlements he made, even under the
+incompetent viceroys who followed him.
+
+It was twenty years since Vasco da Gama had commanded a ship.
+Albuquerque was dead, and his successors had brought shame and defeat
+upon the Portuguese power in the East. Dom Manoel was dead also, and
+whatever grievance he had against "the Discoverer of India," seems to
+have died with him. His successor, Dom Joao III., casting about for
+someone to bring order out of confusion, success out of failure, and
+honor out of shame, called again into his service the courtly and
+sagacious mariner, now over sixty years of age; and conferring upon him
+the title of viceroy, sent him to retrieve the prestige his successors
+had lost. His high spirit was yet undaunted, and when he neared the
+coast of India and found the waters in a strange ferment for which no
+one could account, as there was neither wind nor tide, he said loftily:
+"The sea beholds its conqueror and trembles before him!" It sounds
+bombastic, but in the mouth of one who had first guided a civilized keel
+over its surface, such arrogance is at least pardonable.
+
+In the few months that intervened before his death he made the power of
+Portugal once more respected in the East. When he died in Cochin, in
+1525, he was mourned by the natives as a just ruler, and by his
+countrymen as one who had saved to Portugal the richest part of the
+national domain. It is not strange, therefore, that when his ashes were
+conveyed to Lisbon, they were received with a pomp almost equal to that
+which greeted him when he came as the discoverer of the Orient and its
+priceless treasures. It is rare in history that one receives two
+triumphs, the one while living and the other when dead, especially in
+connection with the same achievement; but it is rarer still that one who
+has won immortality should leave a record so singularly free from
+bickering and strife as that of the dignified and self-contained
+Portuguese rival of Columbus, Dom Vasco da Gama, the "Discoverer and
+Sixth Viceroy of India, Count of Vidigueira," where he lies entombed.
+Little is known of his private life; but there seems no doubt that it
+was free from the stains that obscure his great rival's fame, from whom
+he also differed in the fact that he neither begged nor boasted, and in
+old age was honored even more than in his prime.
+
+[Signature: Albion W. Tourgee.]
+
+
+
+
+THE CHEVALIER BAYARD
+
+By HERBERT GREENHOUGH SMITH
+
+(1476-1524)
+
+[Illustration: The Chevalier Bayard.]
+
+
+Pierre Du Terrail was born in 1476, at Castle Bayard, in Dauphiny. The
+house of Terrail belonged to the Scarlet of the ancient peers of France.
+The Lords of Bayard, during many generations, had died under the flags
+of battle. Poictiers, Agincourt, and Montlhery had taken, in succession,
+the last three; and in 1479, when Pierre was in his nurse's arms, his
+father, Aymon du Terrail, was carried from the field of Guinegate with a
+frightful wound, from the effects of which, although he survived for
+seventeen years to limp about his castle with the help of sticks, he
+never again put on his shirt of mail.
+
+The old knight was thus debarred from bringing up his son as his own
+squire. But the Bishop of Grenoble, his wife's brother, was a close
+friend of Charles the Warrior, the great Duke of Savoy. When Pierre was
+in his fourteenth year it was proposed that he should begin his knightly
+education among the pages of the duke. The bishop promised to present
+him. A little horse was bought; a tailor was set to work to make a
+gorgeous suit of silk and velvet; and Pierre was ready to set out.
+
+During six months the palace of Charles became his home. The lovable and
+handsome boy soon won all hearts about him. The duke with delight saw
+him leap and wrestle, throw the bar, and ride a horse better than any
+page about the court. The duchess and her ladies loved to send him on
+their dainty missions. His temper was bright and joyous; his only fault,
+if fault it can be called, was an over-generosity of nature. His purse
+was always empty; and when he had no money, any trifling service of a
+lackey or a groom would be requited with a silver button, a dagger, or a
+clasp of gold. And such was to be his character through life. Time after
+time, in after years, his share of treasure, after some great victory,
+would have paid a prince's ransom; yet often he could not lay his hand
+on five gold pieces.
+
+When Pierre had lived at the palace about half a year, the duke made a
+visit to Lyons, to pay his duty to the king. That king was Charles the
+Eighth, then a boy of twenty, who was making his days fly merrily with
+tilts and hawking parties, and his nights with dances and the whispers
+of fair dames. The duke desired to carry with him to his sovereign a
+present worthy of a king's acceptance. A happy notion struck him. He
+resolved to present the king with Bayard and his horse.
+
+King Charles, delighted with his new page, placed him in the palace of
+Lord Ligny, a prince of the great house of Luxemburg, and there for
+three years he continued to reside. During that time his training was
+the usual training of a page. But the child was the father of the man.
+Thoughts of great deeds, of tilts and battle-fields, of champions going
+down before his lance, of crowns of myrtle, and the smiles of lovely
+ladies--such already were the dreams which set his soul on fire.
+
+At seventeen Pierre received the rank of gentleman. Thenceforward he was
+free to follow his own fortune; he was free to seek the glorious
+Dulcinea of his dreams--a fame as bright and sparkling as his sword. And
+thereupon begins to pass before us, brilliant as the long-drawn scenes
+of a dissolving view, the strange and splendid series of his exploits.
+He had not ceased to be a page ten days before the court was ringing
+with his name.
+
+Sir Claude de Vauldre, Lord of Burgundy, was regarded as the stoutest
+knight in France. He was then at Lyons, and was about to hold a tilt,
+with lance and battle-axe, before the ladies and the king. His shield
+was hanging in the Ainay meadows, and beside it Montjoy, the
+king-at-arms, sat all day with his book open, taking down the names of
+those who struck the shield. Among these came Bayard. Montjoy laughed as
+he wrote down his name; the king, Lord Ligny, and his own companions,
+heard with mingled trepidation and delight that Bayard had struck the
+blazon of Sir Claude. But no one had a thought of what was coming. The
+day arrived, the tilt was held, and Bayard, by the voice of all the
+ladies, bore off the prize above the head of every knight in Lyons.
+
+The glory of this exploit was extreme. It quickly spread. Three days
+later Bayard went to join the garrison at Aire. He found, as he rode
+into the little town, that the fame of his achievement had arrived
+before him. Heads were everywhere thrust out of windows, and a band of
+fifty of his future comrades issued on horseback from the garrison to
+bid him welcome. A few days after his arrival he held a tilt in his own
+person, after the example of Sir Claude. The palms were a diamond and a
+clasp of gold. Forty-eight of his companions struck his shield, and rode
+into the lists against him. Bayard overthrew the whole band, one by one,
+and was once more hailed at sunset by the notes of trumpets as the
+champion of the tourney.
+
+It is not in tournaments and tilts, however, that a knight can win his
+spurs. Bayard burned for battle. For many months he burned in vain; but
+at last the banners of the king were given to the wind, and Bayard, to
+his unspeakable delight, found himself marching under Lord Ligny against
+Naples.
+
+The two armies faced each other at Fornovo. The odds against the French
+were six to one, and the fight was long and bloody. When the great
+victory was at last decided, Bayard was among the first of those called
+up before the king. That day two horses had dropped dead beneath him;
+his cuirass and sword were hacked and battered, and a captured standard,
+blazing with the arms of Naples, was in his hand. At the king's order he
+knelt down, and received upon the spot the rank of knight. At one bound
+he had achieved the height of glory--to be knighted by his sovereign on
+the field of battle.
+
+Bayard was not yet nineteen. His figure at that age was tall and
+slender; his hair and eyes were black; his complexion was a sunny brown;
+and his countenance had something of the eagle's.
+
+He was now for some time idle. He was left in garrison in Lombardy. But
+fiercer fields were soon to call him. Ludovico Sforza took Milan. At
+Binasco, Lord Bernardino Cazache, one of Sforza's captains, had three
+hundred horse; and twenty miles from Milan was Bayard's place of
+garrison. With fifty of his comrades he rode out one morning, bent on
+assaulting Lord Bernardino's force. The latter, warned by a scout of
+their approach, armed his party, and rushed fiercely from the fort. The
+strife was fought with fury; but the Lombards, slowly driven back toward
+Milan, at length wheeled round their horses and galloped like the wind
+into the city.
+
+Bayard, darting in his spurs, waving his bare blade, and shouting out
+his battle-cry of "France," was far ahead of his companions. Before he
+knew his danger, he had dashed in with the fugitives at the city gates
+and reached the middle of the square in front of Sforza's palace. He
+found himself alone in the midst of the fierce enemy--with the white
+crosses of France emblazoned on his shield.
+
+Sforza, hearing a tremendous uproar in the square, came to a window of
+the palace and looked down. The square was swarming with the soldiers
+of Binasco, savage, hacked, and bloody; and in the centre of the yelling
+tumult, Bayard, still on horseback, was slashing at those who strove to
+pull him from his seat.
+
+Sforza, in a voice of thunder, bade the knight be brought before him.
+Bayard, seeing that resistance was mere madness, surrendered to Lord
+Bernardino, and was led, disarmed, into the palace. Sforza was a soldier
+more given to the ferocity than to the courtesies of war. But when the
+young knight stood before him, when he heard his story, when he looked
+upon his bold yet modest bearing, the fierce and moody prince was moved
+to admiration. "Lord Bayard," he said, "I will not treat you as a
+prisoner. I set you free; I will take no ransom; and I will grant you
+any favor in my power." "My Lord Prince," said Bayard, "I thank you for
+your courtesy with all my soul. I will ask you only for my horse and
+armor." The horse was brought; Bayard sprang into the saddle, and an
+hour later was received by his companions with raptures of surprise and
+joy, as one who had come alive out of the lion's den.
+
+Milan fell; Sforza was taken; and Bayard went into garrison at
+Monervino. At Andri, some miles distant, was a Spanish garrison under
+the command of Don Alonzo de Sotomayor, one of the most famous knights
+in Spain. Bayard, with fifty men, rode out one morning, in the hope of
+falling in with some adventure. It happened that he came across Alonzo,
+with an equal party, abroad on the same quest. Their forces met; both
+sides flew joyously to battle, and for an hour the victory hung in the
+balance. But at last Bayard, with his own sword, forced Alonzo to
+surrender; and his party, carrying with them a large band of prisoners,
+rode back in triumph to the garrison.
+
+Sotomayor behaved in most unknightly fashion, and after being ransomed,
+accused Bayard of ill-treating him. Bayard sent him the lie, and
+challenging him to a duel to the death, slew him. A few days later, the
+Spaniards, panting for reprisal, proposed to meet a party of the French
+in combat, for the glory of their nations. Bayard received the challenge
+with delight. On the appointed day, thirteen knights of either side,
+glittering in full harness, armed with sword and battle-axe, and
+prepared for a contest to the death, rode forth into the lists.
+
+By the laws of such a tilt a knight unhorsed, or forced across the
+boundary, became a prisoner, and could fight no longer. The Spaniards,
+with great cunning, set themselves to maim the horses; and by these
+tactics, eleven of the French were soon dismounted. Two alone were left
+to carry on the contest, Bayard and Lord Orose.
+
+Then followed such a feat of arms as struck the gazers dumb. For four
+hours these two held good their ground against the whole thirteen. The
+Spaniards, stung with rage and shame, spurred till their heels dripped
+blood. In vain. Night fell; the bugles sounded; and still the
+unconquerable pair rode round the ring.
+
+But great as this feat was, it was soon to be succeeded by a greater. A
+few weeks afterward the French and Spanish camps were posted on opposite
+sides of the river Gargliano. Between them was a bridge, in the
+possession of the French; and some way farther down the river was a
+ford, known only to the Spanish general, Pedro de Paez. He proposed to
+lure the French guards from the bridge, and then to seize it. And his
+stratagem was ready.
+
+Early in the morning the French soldiers at the bridge were startled to
+perceive a party of the enemy, each horseman bearing a foot-soldier on
+his crupper, approach the river at the ford and begin to move across it.
+Instantly, as Paez had intended, they left the bridge and rushed toward
+the spot. Bayard, attended by Le Basque, was in the act of putting on
+his armor. He sprang into the saddle, and was about to spur after his
+companions, when he perceived, across the river, a party of two hundred
+Spaniards making for the bridge. The danger was extreme; for if the
+bridge were taken the camp itself would be in the most deadly peril.
+Bayard bade Le Basque gallop for his life to bring assistance. And he
+himself rode forward to the bridge, alone.
+
+The Spaniards, on seeing a solitary knight advance against them, laughed
+loudly at his folly. Their foremost horsemen were already half-way over
+when Bayard, with his lance in rest, came flying down upon them. His
+onset swept the first three off the bridge into the river, and instantly
+the rest, with cries of vengeance, rushed furiously upon him. Bayard,
+not to be surrounded, backed his horse against the railing of the
+bridge, rose up in his stirrups, swung his falchion with both hands
+above his head, and lashed out with such fury that, with every blow a
+bloody Spaniard fell into the river, and the whole troop recoiled in
+wonder and dismay, as if before a demon. While they still stood,
+half-dazed, two hundred glaring at one man, a shout was heard, and Le
+Basque, with a band of horsemen, was seen approaching like a whirlwind.
+In two minutes the Spaniards were swept back upon the land in hopeless
+rout--and the French camp was saved.
+
+Bayard received for this great feat the blazon of a porcupine, with this
+inscription, _Unus agminis vires habet_--"One man has the might of
+armies."
+
+And still came exploit after exploit in succession--exploits of every
+kind of fiery daring. At Genoa, when the town revolted, Bayard stormed
+the fort of the insurgents, quelled the riot, forced the city to
+surrender, and hanged the leader on a pole. At Agnadello, against the
+troops of Venice, he waded with his men through fens and ditches, took
+the picked bands of Lord d'Alvicino on the flank, scattered them to the
+winds, and won the day. At Padua, during the long siege, he scoured the
+country with his band of horse, and frequently rode back to camp at
+nightfall with more prisoners than armed men. At Mirandola, where he
+faced the papal armies, he laid a scheme to take the Pope himself. A
+snowstorm kept the fiery Julius in his tent, and Bayard lost him. A few
+days afterward the pontiff's life was in his hands. A traitor offered,
+for a purse of gold, to poison the Pope's wine. But it is not the
+Bayards of the world who fight with pots of poison; and the slippery
+Judas had to fly in terror from the camp, or Bayard would infallibly
+have hanged him.
+
+So far, amid his life of perils, Bayard had escaped without a wound. But
+now his time had come.
+
+Brescia was taken by the troops of Venice. Gaston de Foix, the
+thunderbolt of Italy, marched with 12,000 men to its relief. Bayard was
+among them. At the head of the storming-party he was first across the
+ramparts, and was turning round to cheer his men to victory when a pike
+struck him in the thigh. The shaft broke off, and the iron head remained
+embedded in the wound.
+
+Two of his archers caught him as he fell, bore him out of the rush of
+battle, and partly stanched the wound by stripping up the linen of their
+shirts. They then bore him to a mansion close at hand. The master of the
+house, who seems to have been a person of more wealth than valor, had
+disappeared, and was thought to be hiding somewhere in a convent,
+leaving his wife and his two daughters to themselves. The girls had fled
+into a hay-loft, and plunged themselves beneath the hay; but, on the
+thunderous knocking of the archers, the lady of the house came trembling
+to the door. Bayard was carried in, a surgeon was luckily discovered
+close at hand, and the pike-head was extracted. The wound was pronounced
+to be not dangerous. But Bayard, to his great vexation, found he was
+doomed to lie in idleness for several weeks.
+
+According to the laws of war, the house was his, and all the inmates
+were his prisoners. And the fact was well for them. Outside the house
+existed such a scene of horror as, even in that age, was rare. Ten
+thousand men lay dead in the great square; the city was given up to
+pillage, and it is said that the conquerors gorged themselves that day
+with booty worth three million crowns. The troops were drunk with
+victory and rapine. No man's life, no woman's honor, was in safety for
+an instant.
+
+Bayard set his archers at the door-way. His name was a talisman against
+the boldest; and in the midst of the fierce tumult that raged all round
+it, the house in which he lay remained a sanctuary of peace.
+
+The ladies of the house were soon reassured. Bayard refused to regard
+them as his prisoners or to take a coin of ransom. The daughters, two
+lovely and accomplished girls, were delighted to attend the wounded
+knight. They talked and sang to him, they touched the mandolin, they
+woke the music of the virginals. In such society the hours flew lightly
+by. The wound healed, and in six weeks Bayard was himself again.
+
+On the day of his departure the lady of the house came into his
+apartment, and besought him, as their preserver, to accept a certain
+little box of steel. The box contained two thousand five hundred golden
+ducats. Bayard took it. "But five hundred ducats," he said, "I desire
+you to divide for me among the nuns whose convents have been pillaged."
+Then, turning to her daughters, "Ladies," he said, "I owe you more than
+thanks for your kind care of me. Soldiers do not carry with them pretty
+things for ladies; but I pray each of you to accept from me a thousand
+ducats, to aid your marriage portions." And with that he poured the
+coins into their aprons.
+
+[Illustration: Bayard taking Leave of the Ladies of Brescia.]
+
+His horse was brought, and he was about to mount, when the girls came
+stealing down the steps into the castle court, each with a little
+present, worked by their own hands, which they desired him to accept.
+One brought a pair of armlets, made of gold and silver thread; the
+other, a purse of crimson satin. And this was all the spoil that Bayard
+carried from the inestimable wealth of Brescia--the little keepsakes of
+two girls whom he had saved.
+
+The scenes of Bayard's life at which we have been glancing have been
+chiefly those of his great feats of arms. And so it must be still; for
+it is these of which the details have survived in history. And yet it
+was such incidents as these at Brescia which made the fame of Bayard
+what it was and what it is. To his foes, he was the flower of chivalry;
+but to his friends, he was, besides, the most adored of men. It is said
+that in his native province of Dauphiny, at his death, more than a
+hundred ancient soldiers owed to him the roof that covered their old
+age; that more than a hundred orphan girls had received their marriage
+portions from his bounty. But of such acts the vast majority are
+unrecorded; for these are not the deeds which shine in the world's eye.
+
+Gaston de Foix was now before Ravenna. Bayard rode thither with all
+speed; he was just in time. Two days after his arrival came the battle.
+Weak though he still was from his long illness, Bayard on that day was
+seen, as ever, "shining above his fellow-men." He turned the tide of
+victory; he tore two standards from the foe with his own hand; and he
+was first in the pursuit.
+
+Two months after, Bayard was at Pavia. The little troop with which he
+was then serving had there sought refuge under Louis d'Ars. The armies
+of the Swiss burst in upon them. Bayard, with a handful of soldiers in
+the market-place, held, for two hours, their whole force at bay, while
+his companions were retreating from the town across a bridge of boats.
+As he himself was crossing, last of all, a shot struck him in the
+shoulder, and stripped it to the bone. No surgeon was at hand. The
+wound, roughly stanched with moss, brought on a fever, and for some time
+he lay in danger of his life.
+
+And now Bayard was to follow a new master. Louis XII. died; Francis I.
+received the crown; and Bayard, with the young king, marched to Milan,
+which the Swiss had seized and held.
+
+On Thursday, September 13, 1515, King Francis pitched his camp at
+Marignano, before the city of the spires. No danger of attack was
+apprehended; the king sat calmly down to supper in his tent; when all at
+once the Swiss, aroused to madness by the fiery eloquence of Cardinal de
+Sion, broke like a tempest from the city, and fell upon the camp. The
+French, by the red light of sunset, flew to arms, and fought with fury
+till night fell. Both armies sat all night on horseback, waiting for the
+dawn; and with the first streaks of morning, flew again to battle. It
+was noon before the bitter contest ended, and the Swiss, still fighting
+every inch of ground, drew slowly back toward the city. It had been,
+indeed, as Trevulzio called it, a Battle of the Giants. And the greatest
+of the giants had been Bayard and the king.
+
+That evening Francis held, before his tent, the ceremony of creating
+knights of valor. But before the ceremony began, a proclamation by the
+heralds startled and delighted all the camp. Francis had determined to
+receive the rank in his own person. Bayard was to knight the king!
+
+In the days of the primeval chivalry, when even princes were compelled
+to win their spurs, such a spectacle was not uncommon. But not for ages
+had a king been knighted by a subject on a field of battle. Nor was any
+splendor wanting that could make the spectacle impressive. Nowhere in
+Ariosto is a picture of more gorgeous details than is presented by this
+scene of history; the great crimson silk pavilion, the seat spread with
+cloth of gold, the blazoned banners, the heralds with their silver
+trumpets, the multitude all hushed in wonder, the plumed and glittering
+company of knights and men-at-arms. Such were the surroundings amid
+which Francis knelt, and Bayard, with his drawn sword, gave the
+accolade.
+
+The sword with which he had performed the ceremony Bayard kept
+religiously until his death. It was then mislaid, and never
+rediscovered. The loss is a misfortune. For few relics could exist of
+more romantic interest than the sword with which the noblest of all
+knights did honor to the most magnificent of kings.
+
+Bayard's glory had long been at such a height that hardly any exploit
+could increase it. And yet an exploit was at hand at which, even when
+Bayard was the actor of it, all France and Germany were to stand in
+wonder.
+
+The German emperor, marching with a mighty army on Champagne, took
+Monson by surprise, and advanced against Mezieres. If Mezieres were
+taken, the whole province would be in the most deadly peril. And yet
+defence seemed hopeless; the place had no artillery, and the ramparts
+were in ruins. At this crisis Bayard volunteered to hold the crazy city.
+"No walls are weak," he said, in his own noble style, "which are
+defended by brave men."
+
+With a small but chosen band he hastened to Mezieres. Two days after his
+arrival the Count of Nassau, with a vast array of men and cannon,
+appeared before the walls. The siege began--a siege which seemed
+impossible to last twelve hours.
+
+But day after day went by, and still the town was standing. Every day
+the ramparts gaped with cannon-shot; but every night, as if by miracle,
+they rose again. The defenders suffered from wounds, pestilence, and
+famine; but Bayard had put every man on oath to eat his horse, and then
+his boots, before he would surrender. Three weeks passed; and when at
+last the king arrived with forces to relieve the town, he found a few
+gaunt spectres still glaring defiance from the battered ramparts against
+a hundred cannon and more than forty thousand men.
+
+Nothing can more strikingly describe the part of Bayard than the
+testimony of his enemies themselves. Some time after, Mary of Hungary
+asked the Count of Nassau in disdain how it came to pass that with a
+host of troops and guns he could not take a crazy pigeon-house.
+"Because," replied the count, "there was an eagle in it."
+
+It was Bayard's last great exploit. It had been his lifelong wish that
+he might fall upon the field of battle. And so it was to be.
+
+Early in the spring of 1524, the French camp was posted at Biagrasso.
+Lord Bonnivet, who was in command, found himself, after a prolonged
+resistance, at last compelled by famine and sickness to retire before
+the Spaniards. It was Bayard's constant custom to be first in an
+advance and last in retreat, and that day he was, as usual, in the post
+of danger. It was for the last time. Friends and enemies were to hear,
+before night fell, the thrilling tidings that Bayard was no more.
+
+On both sides of the road which the retreating army had to traverse the
+Spaniards had placed in ambush a large force of arquebusiers. It was a
+weapon which Bayard held in detestation; for while skill and courage
+were required to wield a spear or sword, any skulking wretch could pull
+a trigger from behind a stone. From one of these hated weapons he
+received his death. As he was retreating slowly with his face toward the
+foe, a stone from a cross-arquebus struck him on the side. He instantly
+sank forward on his saddle-bow, exclaiming in a faint voice, "Great God!
+I am killed."
+
+His squire helped him from his horse, and he was laid beneath a tree.
+His spine was broken in two places; and he felt within himself that he
+was dying. He took his sword, and kissed the cross-hilt, murmuring aloud
+the Latin prayer, "_Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam
+tuam_."
+
+The Spaniards were approaching. His friends made some attempt to raise
+him and to bear him from the field. But the least movement made him
+faint with agony; and he felt that all was vain. He charged his
+companions, as they loved him, to turn his face toward the enemy, and to
+retire into a place of safety; and he sent, with his last breath, his
+salutation to the king. With breaking hearts they did as he desired, and
+he was left alone.
+
+When the Spaniards reached the spot, they found him still alive, but
+sinking fast. The conduct of Lord Pescara, the Spanish general, toward
+his dying foe, was worthy of a great and noble knight. He bade his own
+pavilion to be spread above him; cushions were placed beneath his head;
+and a friar was brought, to whom he breathed his last confession. As he
+was uttering the final words, his voice faltered, and his head fell. The
+friar looked upon his face--and saw that all was over.
+
+
+
+
+GUSTAVUS VASA[11]
+
+         [Footnote 11: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By CHARLES F. HORNE
+
+(1496-1560)
+
+
+Three or four hundred years ago the little country of Denmark was of
+much greater importance than it is to-day. It had the mightiest navy in
+the world, and its rule over the seas was undisputed. Its appearance on
+the map was also very different then, for it not only extended over much
+of the German territory now surrounding it, but also held all Norway as
+a province. Sweden, too, though often rebelling, and being punished with
+terrible cruelty, was, up to the year 1523, a dependency of the Danish
+crown.
+
+Naturally the Danes rather looked down on the conquered Swedes, and made
+them the subject of many rude jests and taunts. There was in the
+beginning of the sixteenth century at the great Danish university at
+Upsala a Swedish boy, who with the rest of his countrymen must have
+suffered many such insults. His proud, brave, little heart rebelled
+against this treatment; and one day, when his teacher had driven him
+beyond endurance with his severe punishments and bitter sneers, the boy
+snatched out his little sword and plunged it straight through the
+master's book. "I will teach you something, too," he cried; "teach you
+that the Swedes are no cowards, for some day I will gather them together
+and treat every Dane in Sweden as I do your book." Then he rushed out of
+the school, never to return.
+
+[Illustration: Gustavus Vasa.]
+
+Many lads have, in some moment of passion made big boasts of what they
+would do "some day." Few ever made so tremendous a vaunt; fewer still
+ever so completely fulfilled their threats; and, perhaps, no one ever
+struggled so patiently, so nobly, nor against such tremendous obstacles
+before the goal was reached, as did this angry little Swede, known to
+history as Gustavus Vasa. He was born in 1496, and was the oldest son of
+Sir Eric Johansson, governor of a little group of islands in the Gulf of
+Bothnia. Returning home after his precipitate flight from school,
+Gustavus grew up under the eye of his stalwart father, who trained him
+to be not only a strong and a shrewd man, but also a good one.
+
+Sent at the age of eighteen to the court of Svante Sture, the regent
+governing Sweden, he threw himself eagerly into the great war for
+freedom which his countrymen had begun under that mighty leader. This
+struggle was so far successful that four years later King Christian, of
+Denmark, utterly defeated on land and with his fleet in sore danger
+anchored off Stockholm, and proposed a peace. He asked that hostages be
+sent to remain on his ships, while he was on shore arranging the treaty.
+This was readily agreed to, and the hostages went on board without a
+thought of evil, the king having guaranteed their safe return. Young
+Vasa, although only twenty-two, had already gained such prominence among
+the patriots as to be one of those selected for this duty. Just as he
+and his companions reached the ships, the wind, which had hitherto blown
+from such a direction that King Christian was unable to leave the
+harbor, suddenly changed, and the king as promptly changing his plans,
+hoisted sail and fled from Stockholm, carrying with him, as prisoners,
+the hostages whom he was bound in honor to respect. But this grim and
+cruel old king never at any time let himself be checked by his promised
+word; and now he seriously considered slaying these men as rebels and
+traitors. Finally he concluded to hold them as prisoners.
+
+Gustavus was placed for safe keeping in the castle of Eric Bauer, a
+Jutland noble, where he remained for two years. He lived on the very
+poorest food, and far worse, had to endure taunts a hundred times more
+bitter than those of his old school days, from the young nobles about
+him. Worse still, he learned from them that King Christian was gathering
+another and greater army with which to utterly crush the rebellious
+Swedes; and he could neither warn his countrymen nor raise a finger to
+give them help. But his courage and patience never failed him. Through
+all that weary time he was always planning and watching for a chance to
+escape. At last it came. Deceived by his apparent indifference his
+jailers permitted him to ride, and even to hunt with them, but always
+under a careful watch. One day, however, the hunt grew so exciting that
+everyone forgot Gustavus and rode hard and fast after the game. He saw
+his opportunity, and rode hardest and fastest of all. Soon he was first
+in the race; but he did not stop when he reached the captured deer.
+There was no one in sight and he hurried on faster than ever. When his
+horse gave out he pressed forward on foot, and nightfall found him forty
+miles from the castle. He astonished a countryman by trading clothes
+with him; and the next day, thus disguised, he hired himself to a drover
+to help him drive a herd of cattle to the great German city of Lubeck.
+Probably no cattle had ever been so driven before. Our hero knew well
+that the pursuit would be fast and furious, and he kept the herd almost
+on a steady run. The old drover was in a perpetual state of amazement;
+he did not know whether to regard his new assistant as a madman or as
+the most valuable hand he had ever hired. Gustavus never let the poor
+old fellow rest a moment; he had to eat his meals as he walked, and even
+to totter along half asleep. At last animals and men reached Lubeck, all
+badly worn out, but safe, for Lubeck was a free city and a powerful one,
+and when, an hour later, the enraged Eric Bauer galloped up to its great
+gates, he knew that his prisoner was beyond his reach, and that unless
+he could persuade the citizens to give him up there was no chance of
+recapturing him.
+
+The citizens did not give Gustavus up. He and his jailer were brought
+face to face before the City Council to argue their case. When Eric said
+his prisoner had broken his word in escaping, Gustavus related how the
+king had broken his in the capture. When Eric threatened them all with
+his master's wrath, the shrewd old burghers laughed. They knew King
+Christian had other things to keep him busy enough, and that he would
+think twice before attacking their great league of cities. Besides, this
+young man had already shown that he could do great things, and, as one
+of the Council said, "Who knows what he may win if we send him home." So
+Eric was forced to leave without his captive; and after some delay,
+during which he was treated with high honor, Gustavus was sent home by
+the kind Lubeckers with the promise to help him, if need be, with both
+men and money.
+
+Indeed Sweden needed all the help she could get just then; but it did
+not seem as though one man could do much for her. King Christian had
+carried out his threats, and landing with a great army, defeated the
+brave Sture and spread terror and destruction through all the land. The
+tale of his cruelty and treacheries belongs rather to the history of
+Sweden than of Gustavus. Enough to say that, having by promises of
+peace and pardon got all the leading Swedes into his power, he had them
+murdered, and then he and his soldiers went on slaying the common people
+right and left in mere wanton savagery. All the surviving nobles were in
+his pay; the least suspicion of an uprising was crushed with an iron
+hand, the least murmur of discontent brought death. Never had Sweden
+seemed more helpless in the power of the Danes.
+
+To this unhappy country came Gustavus Vasa, and at once he was declared
+an outlaw, and a great price was offered for his head; for the king knew
+that here survived one man whom he could neither terrify nor bribe. One
+castle still held out against the besieging Danes, and for this Gustavus
+set out. But its defenders were disheartened by their hopeless position,
+and were almost on the point of surrender. They answered angrily to his
+brave words, and he left them to try and rouse the peasantry all over
+the land.
+
+Now began for him such a period of danger, sorrow, and privation, as few
+men could have endured and lived. The land was filled with Danes eager
+for his capture. The peasants were timid and disheartened. To his
+passionate patriotic appeal they answered only, "We have salt and
+herring still. If we rebel we will lose them too." Often they drove him
+away with stones. Sometimes his own countrymen would have slain him for
+the promised reward. At length it was no longer possible for him to
+remain in Southern Sweden, and with a single servant he fled to the
+highlands of Dalecarlia, a province in the north. From this on his life
+reads like some wild romance of adventure. He had the grim courage and
+grit and perseverance of a bull-dog. Nothing could dishearten him in his
+seemingly hopeless and insane resolve to raise the Swedes once more
+against Christian.
+
+He found as much devotion in some places, as he did treachery in others.
+Having crossed a ferry in advance of his servant, this latter rode off
+with their small stock of money. Gustavus plunged his horse into the
+river, and riding back after the faithless servitor, pursued him all day
+straight back into the enemy's country, until the terrified thief,
+abandoning horse and money and all, fled into the woods. Gustavus
+recovered his property and pursued his course. The Danes swarmed into
+Dalecarlia after him. He disguised himself as a woodcutter, and lived as
+such. One day he met in the woods a giant Dalesman named Liss Lars, and,
+as they were chatting together, a great bear attacked Gustavus. After a
+fierce battle Lars slew the brute with a blow of his axe. The two
+woodcutters became friends, and Lars got his companion a place under the
+same master as himself, where Gustavus remained a whole winter
+unsuspected. Often he himself was questioned by the Danish spies,
+hunting for the now famous Vasa.
+
+[Illustration: Abdication of Gustavus Vasa.]
+
+Once there was like to have been trouble between the two friends, for
+Lars loved a maiden at the farm, who out of coquetry often smiled at
+Gustavus, until the giant Dalesman became terribly jealous. One day when
+she brought them their noon-day ale, she handed it first to Gustavus,
+who, after drinking, returned it with a pleasant word and a pat on the
+cheek. With a roar like a mad bull, Lars rushed on his comrade and
+seized him in his giant arms. As he did so he saw around his neck the
+embroidered collar worn by the Swedish nobility. The astounded Dalesman
+staggered back, pointing to it. "Either thou art a thief, or the great
+Gustavus himself." "Ay, friend Lars, I am the outlaw Gustavus, son of
+Eric. Now, wilt thou hand me over to the Danes, or smash my head against
+the floor, as just now thou seemedest minded?" "I will swear eternal
+fealty to thee," cried Lars; "and if thou raisest the standard of
+revolt, I will be the first to join."
+
+Soon, however, even this retired spot became too unsafe, and Gustavus
+fled farther north. Once an old schoolmate offered him shelter, and
+then, while Gustavus slept, rode away to get help to capture him. But
+the housewife, suspecting her husband's treachery, roused Gustavus, who
+climbed through a window twenty feet from the ground, and escaped on a
+horse the good woman had provided.
+
+At another time, by burying himself in a load of hay he was carried past
+some Danish soldiers who were searching for him. They thrust their
+spears through the hay and then rode on. One of the spears wounded the
+hidden man, and, seeing the blood trickle down, the soldiers hurried
+back. But the driver had snatched out his knife and given a slight cut
+to one of his horses; and when he pointed to this, charging one of them
+with having done it, they rode away again laughing at their own
+suspicions. In a hundred other equally dangerous situations he escaped
+either by his own courage, or by the ready wit of the brave Dalecarlian
+peasants; and at last the Danish spies gave up the hunt for him, and
+returned to Stockholm.
+
+Then he came forth again, and in ringing words urged the people to
+revolt. But though they loved Gustavus, and loved Sweden, yet they held
+back in doubt and fear from his daring plans; and so the hero left them,
+and went on through the surrounding provinces, telling everywhere of
+King Christian's cruelty, and sowing seed which was to ripen later on.
+Yet nowhere could he rouse the peasants to action, until word came that
+the cruel king had sworn to cut a hand and foot from every man in
+Sweden, that they might never revolt again. Now all felt that there was
+nothing left but fight. In great haste the Dalecarlians sent after
+Gustavus and brought him back. They held a great meeting, and to it came
+Gustavus' wood-cutter friend, Liss Lars. He made a great homely speech,
+saying, "This Gustavus, son of Eric, is a man. He has threshed with me,
+and I know him. We can trust him, and sense has he, more than all of us
+put together. He must be our leader."
+
+All swore fealty to Gustavus; and he bade them make swords and spears
+and arrows on their own anvils, while he went on again to rouse the
+other provinces. King Christian had been called home by a rumor of
+rebellion there, but his lieutenants thought to crush this little
+uprising of the Dalecarlians as easily as they had a few others, and one
+of them marched promptly there with a large force. The brave peasants,
+led by Liss Lars and another, attacked him as he was crossing a river
+and defeated him with great slaughter. Gustavus heard rumors of the
+battle, and that his little army was destroyed. In wild haste he
+galloped back to Dalecarlia to find them celebrating their victory.
+
+Now did the men he had roused in every quarter come pouring in; and he
+drilled them, and trained them, and encouraged them, became head and
+hand and heart for them all, till soon he had such an army that he might
+fairly hope to match any force the Danes could bring against him. Then
+he sent out a proclamation declaring Christian deposed for his cruel and
+bloody tyranny, and calling all true Swedes to join him in making war
+upon the oppressor.
+
+Thus did this young man at twenty-five become the leader of a great
+rebellion, which he himself had created and controlled. He led his men
+against one fortress after another. There were long sieges and terrible
+battles; but Gustavus proved himself as great a general as he was a man;
+and two years later, in 1525, Stockholm, the last town remaining to the
+Danes in Sweden, surrendered to his army. Christian himself had been
+unable to leave Denmark, but he was in constant communication with his
+lieutenants, and wild was his rage at the continued success of his young
+opponent. Gustavus's mother and sister, with many other Swedish ladies,
+had fallen into the king's hands at the time of those wholesale murders;
+and he tried to frighten the hero with threats of what he would do to
+them; but poor Gustavus had learned only too surely that most of them
+were already dead from his cruel treatment. Finally this brute was
+deposed by his own subjects, and a new king chosen. This king made some
+faint attempts to recover Sweden, but he had small chance against such a
+man as Vasa.
+
+The hero and his army entered Stockholm in triumph; and such of the old
+nobles as were left, gathered in a council and offered him the crown
+which he had wrested from Denmark. He refused it, saying he had labored
+for his country, not himself, and bade the nobles choose from among
+themselves some older man. But the whole country cried out that they
+would submit to no man but him; he had freed them, he should rule them.
+So there was, what seldom has been in history, a free choice of a king
+by a united people; and Gustavus, son of Eric, became Gustavus I., King
+of Sweden. Five years before he had been carried off a helpless, almost
+friendless prisoner, by a mighty king. Now they had, by sheer force of
+character, changed places; the king was in a dungeon, Gustavus on a
+throne.
+
+Though the remainder of our hero's life was less adventurous, it was no
+less noble. He made, as all had foreseen, a great king, showing himself
+as wise and high-minded as he had already proven brave and patient. He
+found Sweden a petty province, he left it a mighty kingdom; he found it
+a wilderness, poor, thinly peopled, and semi-barbarous, he left it
+prosperous, populous, and civilized. He himself was the head and centre
+of all this, performing an amount of work which seems almost impossible
+for one man. His letters, some of which remain, are clear, minute in
+detail, and exact. He knew just how he wanted things done, and he had
+them done his way. His own life might be summed up in his advice to his
+two sons, given when, only a few months before his death, he resigned a
+crown grown too heavy for his failing strength. "Think carefully,
+execute promptly, _never give up_, never delay. Resolves not carried out
+are like clouds without rain in times of drought."
+
+
+
+
+MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS
+
+By SAMUEL L. KNAPP
+
+(1542-1587)
+
+[Illustration: Mary, Queen of Scots.]
+
+
+Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was the third child of James V. and his
+wife, Mary of Guise. That lady had borne him previously, two sons, both
+of whom died in infancy. Mary was born on December 7, 1542, in the
+palace of Linlithgow. She was only seven days old when she lost her
+father, who, at the time of her birth, lay sick at the palace of
+Falkland.
+
+The young queen was crowned by Cardinal Beaton, at Stirling, on
+September 9, 1543. Soon after her birth, the Parliament nominated
+commissioners, to whom they intrusted the charge of the queen's person,
+leaving all her other interests to the care of her mother. The first two
+years of her life, Mary spent at Linlithgow, where it is said she had
+the small-pox, but the disease must have been of a particularly gentle
+kind, having left behind no visible traces. During the greater part of
+the years 1545, 1546, and 1547, she resided at Stirling Castle, in the
+keeping of Lords Erskine and Livingstone. She was afterward removed to
+Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the lake of Monteith; after
+remaining there upward of two years, it was thought expedient by those
+who had at the time the disposal of her future destiny, that she should
+be removed to France. She was accordingly, in the fifth year of her age,
+taken to Dunbarton, where she was delivered to the French admiral, whose
+vessels were waiting to receive her; and attended by Lords Erskine and
+Livingstone, her three natural brothers, and four young ladies as
+companions, she left Scotland.
+
+The thirteen happiest years of Mary's life were spent in France. She was
+received at Brest, by order of Henry II., with all the honors due to her
+rank and royal destiny. She travelled by easy stages to the palace at
+St. Germain en Laye; and to mark the respect that was paid to her, the
+prison gates of every town she came to were thrown open, and the
+prisoners set free. Shortly after her arrival she was sent, along with
+the king's own daughters, to one of the first convents in France, where
+young ladies of distinction were instructed in the elementary branches
+of education.
+
+Henry, to confirm the French authority in Scotland, was eager to marry
+Francis, his son, to Mary. Francis, the young dauphin, who was much
+about Mary's own age, was far inferior to her both in personal
+appearance and mental endowments. They had been playmates from infancy;
+they had prosecuted all their studies together; he loved her with the
+tenderest affection; it was not in Mary's nature to be indifferent to
+those who evinced affection for her; and if her fondness for Francis was
+mingled with pity, it has long been asserted that "pity is akin to
+love."
+
+On April 24, 1558, the nuptials took place in the church of Notre Dame,
+with great splendor. Every eye was fixed on the youthful Mary; and,
+inspired by those feelings which beauty seldom fails to excite, every
+heart offered up prayers for her future welfare and happiness. She was
+now at that age when feminine loveliness is perhaps most attractive. It
+is not to be supposed, indeed, that her charms, in her sixteenth year,
+had ripened into that full-blown maturity which they afterward attained;
+but they were on this account only the more fascinating. Some have
+conjectured that Mary's beauty has been extolled far above its real
+merits; and it cannot be denied that many vague and erroneous notions
+exist regarding it. But that her countenance possessed, in a pre-eminent
+degree, the something which constitutes beauty, is sufficiently attested
+by the unanimous declaration of all contemporary writers. Her person was
+finely proportioned, and her carriage exceedingly graceful and
+dignified.
+
+Shortly after the espousals, Mary and her husband retired to one of
+their princely summer residences, where she discharged the duties of a
+wife without ostentation. But the intriguing and restless ambition of
+her uncles could not allow her to remain long quiet. About this time
+Mary Tudor, who had succeeded Edward VI. on the English throne, died;
+and although the Parliament had declared that the succession rested in
+her sister Elizabeth, it was thought proper to claim for Mary Stuart a
+prior right. But it was destined that there was to be another and more
+unexpected death at the French court. Henry II. was killed at a
+tournament by Count Montgomery. Francis and Mary succeeded to the
+throne. Mary was now at the very height of European grandeur, for she
+was queen of two powerful countries, and heir presumptive of a third.
+She stood unluckily on too high a pinnacle to be able to retain her
+position long. Francis died after a short reign of seventeen months, and
+the heir to the throne Charles IX., being a minor, Catharine de Medicis
+became once more virtually queen of France; and from her Mary could
+expect no favors.
+
+In August, 1561, Mary left France with tears, and was received in
+Scotland with every mark of respect. She came, alone and unprotected, to
+assume the government of a country which had long been distinguished for
+its rebellious turbulence. Contrasted, too, with her former situation,
+that which she was now about to fill appeared particularly formidable.
+By whatever counsel she acted, the blame of all unpopular measures would
+be sure to rest with her. If she favored the Protestants, the Catholics
+were sure to renounce her, and if she assisted the Catholics, the
+Protestants would be again found assembling at Perth, listening, with
+arms in their hands, to the sermons of John Knox, pulling down the
+remaining monasteries, and subscribing additional covenants. Is it
+surprising, then, that she found it difficult to steer her course
+between the rocks of Scylla and the whirlpools of Charybdis? If
+misfortunes ultimately overtook her, the wonder unquestionably ought to
+be, not that they ever arrived, but that they should have been guarded
+against so long.
+
+To further their political views, Mary's hand was sought for by princes
+of the several European courts. The princes of the house of Austria,
+apprehensive of the ambition of France, wished a union between the
+Scottish queen and the Archduke Charles. Philip II., envying the
+Austrians so important a prize, used all his influence to procure her
+hand for his son Don Carlos, heir to the extensive domains of the
+Spanish monarchy. Catharine de Medicis, jealous of them both, offered
+the hand of the Duke of Anjou, brother to her former husband, and
+Elizabeth, the artful queen of England, recommended Lord Robert Dudley,
+afterward Earl of Leicester.
+
+Mary shunned all their intrigues, and followed the bent of her own
+inclination in marrying Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, eldest son of the
+Earl of Lennox. Darnley, at this time in the bloom of youth, was
+distinguished for the beauty and grace of his person, and accomplished
+in every elegant art; and he also professed the Catholic religion.
+Darnley's qualifications, however, were superficial, and abandoning
+himself to pleasure and the vices of youth, he became gradually careless
+and indifferent toward the queen, whose disappointments and
+mortifications were in proportion to the fervor of her former
+sentiments. Her French secretary was one David Rizzio, who was possessed
+of musical talents, and to whom she became much attached. Darnley became
+jealous of Rizzio, and he, with a number of conspirators, took
+possession of the palace on March 9, 1566, while the queen was at supper
+with the Countess of Argyle and Rizzio. The latter clung to the queen
+for protection, but he was torn from her and dragged to the next
+apartment, where the fury of his enemies put an end to his existence, by
+piercing his body with fifty-six wounds. The conspirators put Mary under
+guard, but she escaped, and by the aid of Bothwell and others, she was
+soon enabled to put her enemies at defiance. This event served to
+alienate Mary's affections from Darnley.
+
+On June 19, 1566, the queen gave birth to a son; an event more fortunate
+to the nation than to his unhappy mother, whose evil destiny received
+aggravation from a circumstance which appeared so flattering to her
+hopes.
+
+Darnley, neglected by the queen, and despised by the people, remained in
+solitude at Stirling, but alarmed by the rumor of a design to seize his
+person, he thought fit to retire to his father at Glasgow. On his way
+thither he was seized with a dangerous illness. Mary visited him, and
+it is said prevailed on him to be removed to the capital, where she
+would attend on him. Kirk of Field, a house belonging to the provost of
+a collegiate church, was prepared for his reception. The situation, on a
+rising ground and in an open field, was recommended for the salubrity of
+its air.
+
+At two o'clock on the morning of February 10, 1567, the city was alarmed
+by a sudden explosion. The house in which Darnley resided was blown up
+with gunpowder. The dead body of Henry and a servant, who slept in his
+room, were found lying in an adjacent garden, without marks of violence,
+and untouched by fire. Thus perished Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, in his
+twenty-first year, a youth whom the indulgence of nature and fortune had
+combined to betray to his ruin.
+
+This execrable deed gave rise to various suspicions and conjectures,
+which, while they glanced at the queen from her new sentiments with
+regard to her husband, were, with a general consent, directed toward
+Bothwell. A proclamation was issued from the throne, offering a
+considerable reward for the murderer. Neither the power and greatness of
+Bothwell, nor his favor with the queen, secured him from the indignant
+sentiment of the nation. He had a mock trial, in which he was acquitted.
+
+The queen, on a journey from Edinburgh to Stirling, to visit her son,
+was seized by a party of Bothwell's and conducted a prisoner to his
+castle at Dunbar. Here he prevailed on her to marry him, and on her
+subsequent appearance in public she was received with a sullen and
+disrespectful silence by the people.
+
+The transactions which had passed during the last three months in
+Scotland were beheld by Europe with horror and detestation. The murder
+of the king, the impunity with which his assassins were suffered to
+escape, and the marriage of the queen with the man accused of being
+their chief, were a series of incidents, which, for their atrocity and
+rapid succession, were scarcely to be paralleled in the pages of
+history. A general infamy fell upon the Scotch nation, which was
+regarded, from these circumstances, as a people void of decency,
+humanity, and honor.
+
+[Illustration: Mary Stuart and Rizzio.]
+
+The discontented nobles confederated together and flew to arms. Bothwell
+and Mary were unable to stem the opposition; she surrendered to her
+enemies, and was conducted a captive to the castle of Lochleven. Mary
+had for some weeks suffered the terrors of a prison; of her deliverance
+there seemed to be but little prospect; no one had appeared as her
+defender or advocate. Thus solitary, deserted, and distressed, her
+persecutors reckoned on her fears and on her sex. Lord Lindsay, the
+fiercest zealot of the party, was employed to communicate their plan to
+the queen, and to obtain from her a subscription to the papers with
+which he was charged. In the execution of his commission, he spared
+neither harshness nor brutality; certain death was offered to the
+unhappy victim, as the alternative of her refusal. Thus urged, she
+yielded to the pressure of circumstances, and put her signature to the
+papers presented to her by Lindsay. By one of these papers she resigned
+the crown, renounced all share in the government, and consented to
+the coronation of the young king. By another, she appointed Murray to
+the regency, and vested him with the powers and privileges of the
+office. Pierced with grief, and bathed in indignant tears, she signed
+the deed of her own humiliation, and furnished to her adversaries the
+instrument of her abasement.
+
+The people were not generally satisfied with the conduct of Murray, the
+regent, and the scattered party of the queen began gradually to reunite.
+Such was the disposition of the nation when Mary, through the medium of
+George Douglas, a youth of eighteen, contrived to escape from prison.
+She flew on horseback, at full speed, to Hamilton, where, before a train
+of great and splendid nobles, and an army 6,000 strong, she declared
+that the deeds signed by her during her imprisonment, and the
+resignation of her crown, were extorted from her by fear. An engagement
+between her forces and those of Murray took place at Hamilton; her army
+was defeated. She stood on a hill and saw all that passed. In confusion
+and horror she began her flight, and so terrible was the trepidation of
+her spirits, that she stopped not till she reached the abbey of
+Dunrenan, in Galloway, fully sixty Scottish miles from the field of
+battle. In the space of eleven days she had beheld herself a prisoner,
+at the mercy of her greatest enemies; at the head of a powerful army,
+with a numerous train of nobles devoted to her service; and a fugitive,
+at the hazard of her life, driven, with a few attendants, to lurk in a
+corner of her kingdom. Still anxious and agitated in her retreat, she
+was impelled by her fears to an irretrievable step, fatal to all her
+future hopes. In vain her attendants, with the lords Herries and Heming,
+implored her on their knees not to confide in Elizabeth, her resolution
+was not to be shaken, and to England she fatally resolved to fly. No
+longer an object of jealousy, but compassion, Mary trusted in the
+generosity of a sister queen, that she would not take advantage of her
+calamitous situation. She got into a fisherman's boat, and with about
+twenty attendants, landed at Workington, in Cumberland, whence, with
+marks of respect, she was conducted to Carlisle.
+
+She addressed, on her arrival in England, a letter to the queen, in
+which she painted in glowing colors the injuries she had sustained, and
+implored the sympathy and assistance which her present situation so
+pressingly required. Elizabeth and her council deliberated upon the
+course which, in this extraordinary event, it would be proper to pursue;
+and at last determined, in spite of justice and humanity, to avail
+herself of the advantages given her by the confidence of her rival. Mary
+demanded a personal interview with Elizabeth, but this honor she was
+told must be denied to her. She had no intention of acknowledging
+superiority in the queen of England, who, she expected, would, as a
+friend, herself receive and examine her defences. But Elizabeth chose to
+consider herself as umpire between the Scottish queen and her subjects;
+and she prepared to appoint commissioners to hear the pleadings of both
+parties, and wrote to the Regent of Scotland to empower proper persons
+to appear in his name, and produce what could be alleged in vindication
+of his proceedings.
+
+Mary, who had hitherto relied on the professions of Elizabeth, was by
+this proposal at once undeceived, and she was, in despite of her
+remonstrances and complaints, conducted to Bolton, a castle of Lord
+Scroop, on the borders of Yorkshire. Commissioners met on both sides,
+and after protracted deliberations for four months, they left things
+just as they found them.
+
+The last eighteen years of Mary's life were spent in imprisonment, and
+are comparatively a blank in her personal history. She was transported,
+at intervals, from castle to castle, and was intrusted sometimes to the
+charge of one nobleman, and sometimes to another; but for her the active
+scenes of life were past; the splendor and dignity of a throne were to
+be enjoyed no longer; the sceptre of her native country was never more
+to grace her hands; her will ceased to influence a nation; her voice did
+not travel beyond the walls that witnessed her confinement. She came
+into England at the age of twenty-five, in the prime of womanhood, the
+full vigor of health, and the rapidly ripening strength of her
+intellectual powers. She was there destined to feel, in all its
+bitterness, that "hope deferred maketh the heart sick." Year after year
+passed slowly on, and year after year her spirits became more exhausted,
+her health feebler, and her doubts and fears confirmed, till they at
+length settled in despair. Premature old age overtook her before she was
+past the meridian of life; and for some time before her death, her hair
+was white "with other snows than those of age." Yet, during the whole of
+this long period, amid sufferings which would have broken many a
+masculine spirit, and which, even in our own times, have been seen to
+conquer those who had conquered empires, Mary retained the innate grace
+and dignity of her character, never forgetting that she had been born a
+queen, or making her calamities an excuse for the commission of any
+petty meanness, which she would have scorned in the days of her
+prosperity. Full of incident as her previous life had been, brilliant in
+many of its achievements, it may be doubted whether the forbearance,
+fortitude, and magnanimity displayed in her latter years, do not redound
+more highly to her praise than all that preceded. Elizabeth wished for
+some plausible pretext to take away the life of the unhappy Mary, whom,
+though so defenceless, she regarded as a dangerous rival. The Duke of
+Norfolk made offers of marriage to Mary, to which she consented, in case
+she should be liberated. His scheme also was to favor the Catholic
+cause, and on its being discovered he was thrown into prison, where,
+after six months' confinement, he was liberated, on condition of his
+holding no further intercourse with the queen. He was, however, arrested
+the second time, and executed.
+
+A conspiracy soon after took place, through the blind affection of the
+English Catholics for Mary, and their implacable hatred of Elizabeth;
+that, while it proved fatal to the life of one queen, has left on the
+memory of the other an indelible stain. It was a conspiracy of two
+zealous Catholics, to take the life of Elizabeth. The plot was revealed
+in confidence to Anthony Babington, a young gentleman of Derbyshire,
+possessing a large fortune and many amiable qualities, whom the
+Archbishop of Glasgow had recommended to the notice of Mary. The
+conspirators, through treachery, were arrested, and it is said two
+letters from Mary were found with Babington. This was a pretext to
+represent these fanatics as the instruments of the captive queen.
+Determined that no circumstance of solemnity suited to the dignity of
+the person arraigned might be wanting, Elizabeth appointed, by a
+commission under the great seal, forty persons, the most illustrious in
+the kingdom for their rank and birth, together with five judges, for the
+decision of the cause.
+
+On October 11, 1586, the commissioners arrived at Fotheringay, where
+Mary was confined. She solemnly protested her innocence of the crime
+laid to her charge, and having never countenanced any attempt against
+the life of Elizabeth, she refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of
+the commissioners. "I came," said she, "into the kingdom an independent
+sovereign, to implore the queen's assistance, not to subject myself to
+her authority. Nor is my spirit so broken by past misfortunes, or
+intimidated by present dangers, as to stoop to anything unbecoming the
+majesty of a crowned head, or that will disgrace the ancestors from whom
+I am descended, and the son to whom I shall leave my throne."
+
+Mary made her own defence; and her conduct before her judges displayed
+the magnanimity of a heroine, tempered by the gentleness and modesty of
+a woman. The judges were predetermined to find her guilty: the trial was
+a mere pretence to give a sanction to their proceedings; they were
+unanimous in declaring Mary "to be accessory to the conspiracy of
+Babington, and to have imagined divers matters, tending to the hurt,
+death, and destruction of Elizabeth, contrary to the express words of
+the statute made for the security of the life of the queen."
+
+On Tuesday, February 7, 1587, the Earls of Shrewsbury and Kent arrived
+at Fotheringay, and read in Mary's presence the warrant for her
+execution, which was appointed for the ensuing day. "That soul," said
+Mary, calmly crossing herself, "is unworthy the joys of heaven, which
+repines because the body must endure the stroke of the axe. I submit
+willingly to the lot which heaven has decreed for me; though I did not
+expect the Queen of England would set the first example of violating the
+sacred person of a sovereign prince." Then laying her hand on a Bible,
+which happened to be near her, she solemnly protested her innocence.
+
+At the scaffold she prayed for the prosperity of her son, and for a long
+and peaceable reign to Elizabeth. She hoped for mercy, she declared,
+only through the death of Christ, at the foot of whose image she
+willingly shed her blood. With intrepid calmness she laid her neck on
+the block; her hands were held by one executioner, while the other, with
+two blows, dissevered her head from her body. "So perish all the enemies
+of Elizabeth!" exclaimed the dean, as he held up the streaming head.
+"Amen," answered the Earl of Kent alone; every other eye was drowned in
+tears; every other voice was stifled in commiseration. Thus, after a
+life of forty-four years and two months, nineteen years of which had
+been passed in captivity, perished the lovely and unfortunate Mary,
+Queen of Scots.
+
+
+
+
+CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH[12]
+
+         [Footnote 12: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By MARION HARLAND
+
+(1579-1631)
+
+[Illustration: Captain John Smith.]
+
+
+Of the antecedents of John Smith, Esquire, Captain and Knight, little is
+recorded beyond the facts that he was of gentle blood and honorable
+lineage, and that he was born in Lancashire, England, in 1579.
+
+He was still under age when he enlisted as a private soldier and fought
+with "our army" in Flanders. Sigismund Bathor, Duke of Transylvania, was
+warring with the Turks, and young Smith, athirst for adventure, next
+took service under him. Before the Transylvanian town of Regall, he
+killed three Turkish officers in single combat, for which doughty deed
+he was knighted. The certificate of Sigismund's patent empowering the
+Englishman to quarter three Turks' heads upon the family coat-of-arms is
+in the Herald's Office in London.
+
+The tables were turned by his subsequent capture by the Turks. He was
+sent to Tartary as a slave, not a prisoner of war, and compelled to
+perform the most ignoble tasks, until, escaping by killing his brutal
+master, he made his way by his wits to his native country in 1604. He
+was now twenty-five years of age, and emphatically a soldier of fortune.
+The tale of his prowess and adventures had preceded him, and he was
+eagerly welcomed in London by kindred spirits who were preparing to
+emigrate to America to form the colony of Virginia under the grant and
+direct patronage of James I. By the time the enterprise was ripe for
+execution, Smith had made himself so useful in counsel and preparation
+that the king named him as one of the councillors of the prospective
+colony.
+
+The boundary lines of the royal grant were two hundred miles north, and
+the same distance south, of the mouth of the James River, and east and
+west "from sea to sea."
+
+On December 19, 1606, the band of adventurers, 100 in number, embarked
+at Gravesend in three small vessels. Christopher Newport was in command,
+but Smith, and his close allies, Bartholomew Gosnold and George Percy, a
+younger brother of the Duke of Northumberland, were the ruling spirits
+of the voyagers. Carpenters and laborers were oddly jumbled upon the
+list of emigrants with jewellers, perfumers, and gold refiners, and
+"gentlemen" held prominence in numbers and influence. The officers
+outnumbered the privates. The little fleet was hardly out of the offing
+when the struggle for power began. The voyage was not half accomplished
+when John Smith was charged with complicity in a discovered mutiny. He
+had intended, it was alleged, to murder his superiors, seize the fleet,
+and make himself king of Virginia. The "General History of Virginia"
+tells how serious an aspect the affair wore:
+
+"Such factions here we had, as commonly attend such voyages, that a
+paire of gallowes was made, but Captain Smith, for whom they were
+intended, _could not be persuaded to use them_."
+
+He was still under suspicion and arrest when the fleet anchored (May 13,
+1607) in the broad river, Powhatan, to which the English explorers gave
+the name of their king. Their first tents were pitched and first cabins
+built upon a low peninsula flanked by extensive marshes. The settlement
+received the name of Jamestown, in further demonstration of loyalty.
+
+When the king's sealed orders were opened, the name of John Smith
+appeared second upon the roll of seven councillors appointed to govern
+the infant colony. Next to him Gosnold was fittest for the responsible
+position assigned to them. His death within three months after the
+landing, left Smith the object of the envious distrust of Wingfield, who
+had been elected president, and virtually alone in the honest desire to
+found a permanent settlement in Virginia for ends he thus sets forth:
+
+"Erecting towns, peopling countries, informing the ignorant, reforming
+things unjust, teaching virtue and gain to our native Mother Country."
+
+There is a prophetic ring in this remarkable utterance of one whom his
+contemporaries persisted in regarding as a reckless adventurer,
+ambitious and unscrupulous. His frank denunciation of the feeble
+measures of Wingfield and the selfish villainy of Ratcliffe, another
+colleague, had earned the ill-will of the president and the relentless
+hatred of Ratcliffe. Smith, being under arrest, was not allowed to take
+his place among the councillors. He bided the day of justice with
+patience learned from adversity. When the supreme opportunity came he
+grasped it. An attack from hostile Indians proved Wingfield's unfitness
+for the military command, and the alarmed colonists turned instinctively
+to the bravest of their number. Wingfield anticipated the uprising by
+reiterating his intention of sending Smith to England for trial, for the
+double crime of mutiny and treason.
+
+"The restive soldier suddenly flamed out. He would be tried in Virginia
+as was his right--there was the charter! and the trial took place. The
+result was a ruinous commentary on the characters of Wingfield and the
+council. The testimony of their own witnesses convicted them of
+subornation of perjury to destroy Smith. He was acquitted by the jury of
+all the charges against him, and Kendall, who had conducted the
+prosecution, was condemned to pay him L200 damages. This sum was
+presented by Smith to the colony for the general use, and then the foes
+partook of the commission, and the soldier was admitted to his seat in
+the council." (Cooke's "History of Virginia.")
+
+By autumn the settlement was fearfully reduced in numbers and spirits.
+Fever, engendered by marshland malaria and famine, threatened utter
+extinction.
+
+"From May to September, those who escaped lived upon sturgeon and
+sea-crabs; 50 in this time were buried," writes one of the sufferers.
+"The rest, seeing the president's projects to escape these miseries in
+our pinnace by flight (who all this time had neither felt want or
+sickness), so moved our dead spirits as we deposed him and established
+Ratcliffe in his place."
+
+It was an exchange of inefficiency for deliberate wickedness, and in the
+excess of continued misery the more reasonable of the victims arose as a
+man and put Smith at the head of affairs.
+
+The "terrible summer" left hardly ten men who could wield axe or hoe.
+Smith himself was ill with malarial fever, yet nursed the sick, prayed
+with the dying, and kept up the hearts of all by brave words and braver
+action. He bought corn and meat of the Indians when they would sell, and
+when they refused, secured supplies by intimidation. Yet we find him, as
+soon as the immediate peril was over, again the subordinate of envious
+leaders, and volunteering to satisfy malcontents in America and in
+England, by heading a party in mid-December to attempt the discovery of
+the great "South Sea," for so long the _ignis fatuus_ of Western
+adventurers.
+
+The explorers sailed up the James, diverging here and there into the
+tortuous creeks of the Chickahominy. When stopped by shallows, Smith
+procured a canoe and Indian guides and pushed on with but two other
+white men (Robinson and Emry) into the unknown wilderness, teeming with
+spies jealous of the foreign intruders. Attempting to land at
+"Powhatan," one of "the emperor's" residences, he and his guide sank
+into the morass and were fired upon from the shore.
+
+"The salvages ... followed him with 300 bowmen, led by the king of
+Pamunkee, who, searching the turnings of the river, found Robinson and
+Emry by the fire-side. These they shot full of arrowes and slew."
+
+Smith bound the Indian guide to his arm and used him as a shield, thus
+saving his own life. He was, however, captured, lashed to a tree, and
+would have been killed, but for his address in presenting the King
+Opecancanough with "a round ivory double compass Dyall"--his own pocket
+compass--directing the attention of the "salvages" to the movement of
+the needle, and describing the uses of the instrument.
+
+"A month those Babarians kept him prisoner; many strange triumphes and
+conjurations they made of him, yet he so demeaned himself among them as
+he not only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his own
+libertie, and got himself and his company such estimation among them
+that these Salvages admired him as a demi-god."
+
+From the pen of a contemporary we have the account of what led to his
+"libertie." He had killed two of the attacking party, and was condemned
+by Powhatan to die for the offence.
+
+[Illustration: Captain Smith saved by Pocahontas.]
+
+"Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a long
+consultation was held; but the conclusion was, two great stones were
+brought before Powhatan, then, as many as could lay hands on him,
+dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with
+their clubs to beate out his brains, Pocahontas, the king's dearest
+daughter, when no entreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes,
+and laid her owne upon his to save him from death; whereat the emperor
+was contented he should live to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads,
+and copper."
+
+From other pages we get the stage-setting for this, the most dramatic
+incident in colonial history.
+
+The emperor had heard the evidence with a "sour look," sitting in state
+upon a rude dais, covered with mats, his body wrapped in a cloak of
+raccoon skins. His dusky harem was grouped about him, watchful and
+interested. When the trial was over he bade one wife to bring water to
+wash the captive's hands, another a bunch of feathers to dry them upon.
+This was preliminary to the feast.
+
+"So fat they fed Mee," says "A True Relation of Virginia," published by
+Smith in 1608, "that I much doubted they intended to have sacrificed mee
+to the Quioughquosiche, which is a superiour power they worship."
+
+The appointment to the position of armorer in the royal household, and
+trinket-maker to the princess, was one of honor. Smith enjoyed it for a
+month only, but to his residence at Powhatan and intimacy with
+Pocahontas, he was indebted for the familiarity with Indian language and
+customs which was afterward of incalculable benefit to the Virginians.
+He describes Pocahontas in respectful admiration:
+
+"For features, countenance, and expression she much exceeded the rest."
+
+Her gala attire was a doeskin mantle lined with down from the breasts of
+wood-pigeons; bangles of coral bound her brown ankles and wrists, and in
+her hair was a white heron's feather in token of her royal blood. At the
+time of her rescue of Smith she was about thirteen years old.
+
+In January, 1608, the emperor offered Smith a forest principality if he
+would remain with the tribe, but he petitioned to be allowed to return
+to Jamestown. The request was reluctantly granted, and an escort sent
+with him to the "Fort." This returned, bearing gifts for Powhatan and
+his wives, with marvellous stories of the cannon-shot fired into the
+sleety forest at Smith's command. We cannot but wonder what toy or
+ornament went to the petted child whom he had served in glad gratitude
+while a member of her father's household.
+
+He had no time for sentimental musings. Upon the very day of his
+unlooked for return (January 8, 1608), Ratcliffe repeated Wingfield's
+attempt to escape to England in the only vessel left at Jamestown. The
+anchor was actually raised when Smith hastily collected a force and
+hurried to the landing. "With the hazzard of his life, with sakre,
+falcon, and musket shot, Smith forced" (them) "now the third time to
+stay or sinke."
+
+In their sullen rage the foiled conspirators plotted and nearly executed
+a fiendish revenge. Once more we copy from the "General History,"
+written by Smith and his friends.
+
+"Some no better than they should be, had plotted with the president"
+(Ratcliffe) "the next day to have put him" (Smith) "to death by the
+Leviticall law for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending the fault
+was his that had led them to their ends; but he quickly took such order
+with such lawyers that he layd them by the heeles till he sent some of
+them prisoners to England."
+
+The colony was almost destitute of food, and the memories of the famine
+of last year terrified the imaginations of those who had lived through
+it. "Gentlemen" having again predominated in reinforcements sent from
+England, the crops planted and gathered in Smith's absence had been
+meagre, while rats brought over in one of the vessels had wrought havoc
+with stored grain. Like an angel of mercy was the apparition of
+Pocahontas, at the head of a "wild train" of Indians laden with corn and
+game, approaching the fort. "Ever once in four or five days during the
+time of two or three years," the young princess, thus attended, visited
+the fort and succored the needy settlers. Smith declares that "next
+under God she preserved the colony from death, famine, and utter
+confusion." He might have subjoined that, but for himself, not even
+Pocahontas's bounty could have saved the settlement from the
+consequences of misconduct and misrule.
+
+His was the only voice lifted to condemn the mad folly of loading a
+homeward-bound vessel with the glittering mud of a neighboring creek.
+That he was "not enamored of their dirty skill to freight such a drunken
+ship with so much gilded dirt"--was one of the mildest of his phrases,
+as, "breathing out these and many other passions," he harangued those
+who had "no thought, no discourse, no hope, and no work but to dig gold,
+wash gold, refine gold, and load gold."
+
+Before the English assayers confirmed his judgment as to the value of
+this cargo, the intrepid adventurer had sailed, with fourteen others, up
+the Chesapeake into new and wonderful regions. Never losing heart, even
+when he believed himself to be dying from the sting of a poisonous fish,
+he discovered and entered the Potomac, the Rappahannock, and tributary
+creeks, fighting his way when not allowed to proceed peaceably. In July
+(1608) he led another party to the spot now occupied by the city of
+Baltimore, and made friends with a tribe called Susquehannocks, believed
+to be sun-worshippers. Returning from these voyages of three thousand
+miles in all, he drew in masterly style a chart of the countries
+explored, and sent it to England.
+
+Jamestown was still in a state of what he calls "combustion," under the
+tyranny of Ratcliffe. Emboldened by Smith's return, the colonists
+deposed the hated governor, and formally elected Smith Governor of
+Virginia. The winter closed in upon an "affrighted" population.
+Storehouses were nearly empty, agriculture having been neglected in the
+gold fever. As Smith could not be "persuaded to use" the gallows, so he
+now announced that "no persuasion could persuade _him_ to starve." In
+company with George Percy and fifty others, he visited his old ally
+Powhatan, and tried to buy food. A change had come to the emperor's
+heart. He addressed his quondam armorer as a "rash youth;" protested
+that he was afraid of him, and would not treat with the English unless
+they came to him unarmed. Warned by Pocahontas, who stole through the
+woods after dark to apprise Smith that treachery was intended, the
+party lay on their arms all night, and the force sent to surprise them
+retreated. Next day, Powhatan loaded the boats with corn, and Smith
+sailed up the York upon a similar errand to Opecancanough, Powhatan's
+brother. While in audience with him, the Englishmen were surrounded by a
+band of seven hundred armed savages. Seizing the wily chieftain by the
+scalp-lock, Smith held a pistol to his breast, and demanded a cargo of
+corn and safe-conduct for his party to Jamestown. The fifty men, without
+loss of a single life, took back enough food to victual the town.
+
+Early in the spring of 1609, the president thus made known his policy to
+his constituents:
+
+"Countrymen! You see now that power resteth wholly in myself. You must
+obey this now for a law--_he that will not work shall not eat_. And
+though you presume that authority here is but a shadow and that I dare
+not touch the lives of any, but my own must answer for it, yet he that
+offendeth, let him assuredly expect his due punishment.
+
+"I protest by that God that made me, since necessity hath no power to
+force you to gather for yourselves, you shall not only gather for
+yourselves, but for those that are sick. _They_ shall not starve."
+
+Fields were tilled, the fort was repaired, wise Powhatan treated the
+pale-faces kindly for Smith's sake, and the emigrants felt for the first
+time firm ground beneath their feet. They had twenty-four pieces of
+ordnance, and three hundred stand of small-arms; three ships, seven
+boats, a store of more than two months' provisions, six hundred hogs,
+with goats, fowls, and sheep, and an established trading-station with
+the natives.
+
+Like an aerolite from the summer sky came news from England that a fleet
+was to be sent out with a new colony, a new charter, and new officers;
+Smith's old enemy, Christopher Newport, was in command of the
+expedition. Smith had been complained of at home as "dealing harshly
+with the natives and not returning the ships full-freighted." His day
+was over. The king so willed it.
+
+Smith's last official act was the establishment of a colony at Powhatan,
+renamed "Nonsuch," opposite where the city of Richmond was laid out over
+a century later. On his way back to Jamestown, he was cruelly wounded by
+the explosion of a bag of gunpowder. There was no good surgeon in the
+colony. To return forthwith to England was but anticipating by a few
+weeks what must be when the fleet arrived.
+
+He returned to London at the age of thirty. "He had broke the ice and
+beat the path, but had not there" (in Virginia) "one foot of ground, nor
+the very house he builded, nor the ground he digged with his own hands."
+
+In 1614 he returned to America, but now to the northern region assigned
+to the Plymouth Company. He gave name to Boston; explored and made a
+survey of the New England coast. On a second voyage he had a fight with
+a French squadron, was captured, and taken to Rochelle. While there he
+wrote a "Description of New England," for which service James I.
+appointed him "Admiral of New England." He died in London, in 1631, at
+the age of fifty-two, never having revisited Virginia. Upon his tomb, in
+the Church of St. Sepulchre's, London, may be still traced the outlines
+of the Three Turks' Heads and the inscription, beginning:
+
+  "_Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings._"
+
+Any sketch of his life, however brief, would be incomplete that
+contained no reference to the letter written by him to Queen Anne (the
+consort of James I.), in 1616, recommending the Lady Rebecca Rolfe to
+the royal favor.
+
+He would "be guilty of the deadly poison of ingratitude," he wrote, if
+he failed to narrate what he and the colony at Jamestown owed to
+Pocahontas. He besought the queen's kindly consideration for the
+stranger just landed upon her shores, as due to Pocahontas's "great
+spirit, her desert, birth, want, and simplicity." His one call upon the
+wife of John Rolfe, Gentleman, was marked by profound respect on his
+part to one whom he accosted as "Lady Rebecca;" by profound emotion on
+hers.
+
+John Smith's biography and epitaph are best summed up by one of his
+brothers-in-arms:
+
+     "What shall I saye, but thus we lost him that in all his
+     proceedings made justice his first guide and experience his
+     second, ever hating basenesse, sloth, pride, and indignitie more
+     than any dangers; that never allowed more for himself than for
+     his soldiers with him; that upon no danger would send them where
+     he would not lead them himselfe; that would never see us want
+     what he either had or could by any means get us; that would
+     rather want than borrow, or starve than not pay; that loved
+     action more than wordes, and hated falsehood and covetousnesse
+     worse than death; whose adventures were our lives and whose losse
+     our deaths."
+
+[Signature: Marion Harland.]
+
+
+
+
+WILLIAM HARVEY
+
+(1578-1657)
+
+
+William Harvey was born on April 1, 1578, at Folkestone, on the southern
+coast of Kent. He was the eldest of nine children; of the rest little
+more is known, than that several of the brothers were among the most
+eminent merchants in the city of London during the reigns of the two
+first Stuarts. His father, Thomas Harvey, followed no profession. He
+married Joanna Falke, at the age of twenty, and lived upon his own
+estate at Folkestone. This property devolved by inheritance upon his
+eldest son; and the greater part of it was eventually bequeathed by him
+to the college at which he was educated.
+
+At ten years of age he commenced his studies at the grammar school in
+Canterbury; and upon May 31, 1593, soon after the completion of his
+fifteenth year, was admitted as a pensioner at Caius College, Cambridge.
+
+[Illustration: William Harvey.]
+
+At that time a familiar acquaintance with logic and the learned
+languages was indispensable as a first step in the prosecution of all
+the branches of science, especially of medicine; and the skill with
+which Harvey avails himself of the scholastic form of reasoning in his
+great work on the Circulation, with the elegant Latin style of all his
+writings, particularly of his latest work on the Generation of Animals,
+affords a sufficient proof of his diligence in the prosecution of these
+preliminary studies during the next four years which he spent at
+Cambridge. The two next were occupied in visiting the principal cities
+and seminaries of the Continent. He then prepared to address himself to
+those investigations to which the rest of his life was devoted; and the
+scene of his introduction to them could not have been better chosen than
+at the University of Padua, where he became a student in his
+twenty-second year.
+
+The ancient physicians gathered what they knew of anatomy from
+inaccurate dissections of the lower animals, and the slender knowledge
+thus acquired, however inadequate to unfold the complicated functions of
+the human frame, was abundantly sufficient as a basis for conjecture, of
+which they took full advantage. With them everything became easy to
+explain, precisely because nothing was understood; and the nature and
+treatment of disease, the great object of medicine, and its subsidiary
+sciences, was hardily abandoned to the conduct of the imagination, and
+sought for literally among the stars. Nevertheless, so firmly was their
+authority established, that even down to the close of the sixteenth
+century the naturalists of Europe still continued to derive all their
+physiology, and the greater part of their anatomy and medicine, from the
+works of Aristotle and Galen, read not in the original Greek, but
+re-translated into Latin from the interpolated versions of the Arabian
+physicians. The opinions entertained by these dictators in the republic
+of letters, and consequently by their submissive followers, with regard
+to the structure and functions of the organs concerned in the
+circulation, were particularly fanciful and confused; so much so that it
+would be no easy task to give an intelligible account of them that would
+not be tedious from its length. It will be enough to say, that a
+scarcely more oppressive mass of mischievous error was cleared away from
+the science of astronomy by the discovery of Newton, than that from
+which physiology was disencumbered by the discovery of Harvey.
+
+But though the work was completed by an Englishman, it is to Italy that,
+in anatomy, as in most of the sciences, we owe the first attempts to
+cast off the thralldom of the ancients. Mundinus had published a work
+in the year 1315, which contained a few original observations of his
+own; and his essay was so well received that it remained the text-book
+of the Italian schools of anatomy for upward of two centuries. It was
+enriched from time to time by various annotators, among the chief of
+whom were Achillini, and Berengarius, the first person who published
+anatomical plates. But the great reformer of anatomy was Vesalius, who,
+born at Brussels in 1514, had attained such early celebrity during his
+studies at Paris and Louvain, that he was invited by the Republic of
+Venice, in his twenty-second year, to the chair of anatomy at Padua,
+which he filled for seven years with the highest reputation. He also
+taught at Bologna, and subsequently, by the invitation of Cosmo de'
+Medici, at Pisa. The first edition of his work, "De Corporis Humani
+Fabrica" was printed at Basle, in the year 1543; it is perhaps one of
+the most successful efforts of human industry and research, and from the
+date of its publication begins an entirely new era in the science of
+which it treats. The despotic sway hitherto maintained in the schools of
+medicine by the writings of Aristotle and Galen was now shaken to its
+foundation, and a new race of anatomists eagerly pressed forward in the
+path of discovery. Among these no one was more conspicuous than
+Fallopius, the disciple, successor, and in fame the rival, of Vesalius,
+at Padua. After him the anatomical professorship was filled by Fabricius
+ab Aquapendente, the last of the distinguished anatomists who flourished
+at Padua in the sixteenth century.
+
+Harvey became his pupil in 1599, and from this time he appears to have
+applied himself seriously to the study of anatomy. The first germ of the
+discovery which has shed immortal honor on his name and country was
+conceived in the lecture-room of Fabricius.
+
+He remained at Padua for two years; and having received the Degree of
+Doctor of Arts and Medicine, with unusual marks of distinction, returned
+to England early in the year 1602. Two years afterward he commenced
+practice in London and married the daughter of Dr. Launcelot Browne, by
+whom he had no children. He became a Fellow of the College of
+Physicians, when about thirty years of age, having in the meantime
+renewed his degree of Doctor in Medicine, at Cambridge; and was soon
+after elected Physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which office he
+retained till a late period of his life.
+
+On August 4, 1615, he was appointed Reader of Anatomy and Surgery to the
+College of Physicians. From some scattered hints in his writings it
+appears that his doctrine of the circulation was first advanced in his
+lectures at the college about four years afterward; and a note-book in
+his own hand-writing is still preserved at the British Museum, in which
+the principal arguments by which it is substantiated are briefly set
+down, as if for reference in the lecture-room. Yet with the
+characteristic caution and modesty of true genius, he continued for nine
+years longer to reason and experimentalize upon what is now considered
+one of the simplest, as it is undoubtedly the most important known law
+of animal nature; and it was not till the year 1628, the fifty-first of
+his life, that he consented to publish his discovery to the world.
+
+In that year the "Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis" was
+published at Frankfort. This masterly treatise begins with a short
+outline and refutation of the opinions of former anatomists on the
+movement of the animal fluids and the function of the heart; the author
+discriminating with care, and anxiously acknowledging the glimpses of
+the truth to be met with in their writings; as if he had not only kept
+in mind the justice due to previous discoveries, and the prudence of
+softening the novelty and veiling the extent of his own, but had
+foreseen the preposterous imputation of plagiarism, which, with other
+inconsistent charges, was afterward brought forward against him. This
+short sketch is followed by a plain exposition of the anatomy of the
+circulation, and a detail of the results of numerous experiments; and
+the new theory is finally maintained in a strain of close and powerful
+reasoning, and followed into some of its most important consequences.
+The whole argument is conducted in simple and unpretending language,
+with great perspicuity, and scrupulous attention to logical form.
+
+The doctrine announced by Harvey may be briefly stated thus: The blood
+circulates through the body, thereby sustaining life. The heart is
+simply the pump which drives the blood through the arteries, from whence
+it returns impure, and is then forced through the lungs and repurified.
+
+The pulmonary circulation had been surmised by Galen, and maintained by
+his successors; but no proof even of this insulated portion of the
+truth, more than amounted to strong probability, had been given till the
+time of Harvey, and no plausible claim to the discovery, still less to
+the demonstration, of the general circulation has ever been set up in
+opposition to his. Indeed, its truth was quite inconsistent with the
+ideas everywhere entertained in the schools on the functions of the
+heart and other viscera, and was destructive of many favorite theories.
+The new doctrine, therefore, as may well be supposed, was received by
+most of the anatomists of the period with distrust, and by all with
+surprise. Some of them undertook to refute it, but their objections
+turned principally on the silence of Galen, or consisted of the most
+frivolous cavils; the controversy, too, assumed the form of personal
+abuse even more speedily than is usually the case when authority is at
+issue with reason. To such opposition Harvey for some time did not think
+it necessary to reply; but some of his friends in England, and of the
+adherents to his doctrine on the Continent, warmly took up his defence.
+At length he was induced to take a personal share in the dispute in
+answer to Riolanus, a Parisian anatomist of some celebrity, whose
+objections were distinguished by some show of philosophy, and unusual
+abstinence from abuse. The answer was conciliatory and complete, but
+ineffectual to produce conviction; and in reply to Harvey's appeal to
+direct experiment, his opponent urged nothing but conjecture and
+assertion. Harvey once more rejoined at a considerable length; taking
+occasion to give a spirited rebuke to the unworthy reception he had met
+with, in which it seems that Riolanus had now permitted himself to join;
+adducing several new and conclusive experiments in support of his
+theory; and entering at large upon its value in simplifying physiology
+and the study of diseases, with other interesting collateral topics.
+Riolanus, however, still remained unconvinced; and his second rejoinder
+was treated by Harvey with contemptuous silence. He had already
+exhausted the subject in the two excellent controversial pieces just
+mentioned, the last of which is said to have been written at Oxford
+about 1645; and he never resumed the discussion in print. Time had now
+come to the assistance of argument, and his discovery began to be
+generally admitted. To this, indeed, his opponents contributed, by a
+still more singular discovery of their own, namely, that the facts had
+been observed, and the important inference drawn, long before. This was
+the mere allegation of envy, chafed at the achievements of another,
+which, from their apparent facility, might have been its own. It is
+indeed strange that the simple mechanism thus explained should have been
+unobserved or misunderstood so long; and nothing can account for it but
+the imperceptible lightness as well as the strength of the chains which
+authority imposes on the mind.
+
+In the year 1623 Harvey became physician extraordinary to James I., and
+seven years later was appointed physician to Charles. He followed the
+fortunes of that monarch, who treated him with great distinction during
+the first years of the civil war, and he was present at the battle of
+Edgehill, in 1642. Having been incorporated doctor of physic by the
+University of Oxford, he was promoted by Charles to the wardenship of
+Merton College, in 1645; but he did not retain this office very long,
+his predecessor, Dr. Brent, being reinstated by the Parliament after the
+surrender of Oxford in the following year.
+
+Harvey then returned to London, and resided with his brother Eliat at
+Cockaine house, in the Poultry. About the time of Charles's execution he
+gave up his practice, which had never been considerable, probably in
+consequence of his devotion to the scientific, rather than the
+practical, parts of his profession. He himself, however, attributed his
+want of success to the enmity excited by his discovery. After a second
+visit to the Continent, he secluded himself in the country, sometimes at
+his own house in Lambeth, and sometimes with his brother Eliat at Combe,
+in Surrey. Here he was visited by his friend, Dr. Ent, in 1651, by whom
+he was persuaded to allow the publication of his work on the "Generation
+of Animals." It was the fruit of many years of experiment and
+meditation; and, though the vehicle of no remarkable discovery, is
+replete with interest and research, and contains passages of brilliant
+and even poetical eloquence. The object of his work is to trace the germ
+through all its changes to the period of maturity; and the illustrations
+are principally drawn from the phenomena exhibited by eggs in the
+process of incubation, which he watched with great care, and has
+described with minuteness and fidelity. The microscope had not at that
+time the perfection it has since attained; and consequently Harvey's
+account of the first appearance of the chick is somewhat inaccurate, and
+has been superseded by the observations of Malpighi, Hunter, and others.
+The experiments upon which he chiefly relied in this department of
+natural history had been repeated in the presence of Charles I., who
+appears to have taken great interest in the studies of his physician.
+
+[Illustration: Harvey demonstrating the Circulation of the Blood.]
+
+In the year 1653, the seventy-fifth of his life, Harvey presented the
+College of Physicians with the title-deed of a building erected in their
+garden, and elegantly fitted up, at his expense, with a library and
+museum, and commodious apartments for their social meetings. Upon this
+occasion he resigned the professorship of anatomy, which he had held for
+nearly forty years, and was succeeded by Dr. Glisson.
+
+In 1654 he was elected to the presidency of the college, which he
+declined on the plea of age; and the former president, Sir Francis
+Prujean, was re-elected at his request. Two years afterward he made a
+donation to the college of a part of his patrimonial estate, to the
+yearly value of L56, as a provision for the maintenance of the library,
+and the annual festival and oration in commemoration of benefactors.
+
+At length his constitution, which had long been harassed by the gout,
+yielded to the increasing infirmities of age, and he died in his
+eightieth year, on June 3, 1657. He was buried at Hempstead, in Essex,
+in a vault belonging to his brother Eliat, who was his principal heir,
+and his remains were followed to the grave by a numerous procession of
+the body of which he had been so illustrious and munificent a member.
+
+In person he was below the middle size, but well proportioned. He had a
+dark complexion, black hair, and small, lively eyes. In his youth his
+temper is said to have been very hasty. If so, he was cured of this
+defect as he grew older; for nothing can be more courteous and temperate
+than his controversial writings; and the genuine kindness and modesty
+which were conspicuous in all his dealings with others, with his
+instructive conversation, gained him many attached and excellent
+friends. He was fond of meditation and retirement; and there is much in
+his works to characterize him as a man of warm and unaffected piety.
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE CHARLES STUART[13]
+
+         [Footnote 13: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By ANDREW LANG, LL.D.
+
+(1720-1788)
+
+
+Charles Edward Stuart, called the "Young Pretender" by his enemies, the
+"Young Chevalier" by neutrals, "Prince of Wales" and "Prince Regent" by
+his partisans, "Prince Edouard" by the French, "Ned" by his intimates,
+as we read in letters of Oliphant of Gask, and "Prince Charlie" by later
+generations, was born at Rome, December 31, 1720. His father was James
+VIII., of Scotland, and III. of England, according to the Legitimist
+theory; his foes called him "The Pretender," partly on the strength of
+the old fable about the warming-pan, so useful to the Whigs. No sane
+person now doubts the genuineness of James' descent from James II., but
+the nickname of Pretender still sticks, though Boswell tells us that
+George III. particularly disliked an appellation which "may be
+parliamentary, but is not gentlemanly." James III., or the Chevalier de
+St. George, was taken up by Louis XIV. on the death of James II., in
+France. He is said to have displayed courage in several battles in
+Flanders, but his attempt to assert his rights in 1715 was a melancholy
+failure. James showed melancholy and want of confidence; he soon left
+Scotland for the Continent, and the best that can be said for his
+conduct is that he endeavored to compensate the peasants whose houses
+were destroyed in the military operations of "the Fifteen." Unable to
+reside in France, he retired to Rome, a pensioner of the Pope, and
+entertained with royal honors. In 1719 he married Clementina Sobieski, a
+granddaughter of the famous John Sobieski, who delivered Europe from the
+Turks. Their eldest son, Prince Charles, appears to have inherited the
+spirit and daring of his Polish ancestors, which animated him throughout
+his youth, and were extinguished less by Culloden than by the treatment
+which he received from the French court, by his imprisonment in
+Vincennes in 1748, and by the unrelenting animosity of the English
+Government, which made him a homeless exile living mysteriously in
+hiding on the Continent. Heart-broken by these misfortunes and by other
+disappointments, Charles developed an unreasoning and sullen obstinacy,
+which alienated his adherents, while the habit of heavy drinking,
+learned in his Highland distresses, ruined his head and heart, and
+converted the most gallant, gay, and promising of princes into a brutal
+dipsomaniac.
+
+[Illustration: Prince Charles Stuart.]
+
+The education of Charles was casual and interrupted. Now he was in the
+hands of Protestants, now of Catholic governors and tutors, as the
+advice of English adherents, or the wishes of his devout mother, chanced
+to prevail. There were frequent quarrels between James and his wife,
+turning partly on the question of education, more on the jealousy which
+the queen conceived of the Countess of Inverness. The Pope sided with
+the queen in these melancholy broils, and James's private life (which
+was not faultless) was much more subject to criticism and interference
+than that of his at least equally lax rival on the English throne. A
+second son, Henry Benedict, Duke of York, was born in 1725, and, at one
+time, was regarded as of more martial disposition than Prince Charles.
+As the elder, Charles was first under fire, and at the siege of Gaeta,
+in 1734, while a mere boy, he displayed coolness, daring, and contempt
+of danger. Young Henry, aged nine, "was so much discontented at being
+refused the partnership of that glory and that danger, that he would not
+put on his sword till his father threatened to take away his garter
+too," says Murray of Broughton, in a letter dated 1742. In later life
+the Duke of York showed no military aptitude. A kind of progress which
+Charles made through the cities of Italy, aroused his desire to be a
+prince in more than name. The English Government quarrelled with the
+Republic of Venice about the royal honors paid to the prince, and his
+ambition was awakened. His education, we have said, was very imperfect.
+Murray of Broughton, indeed, credits him with Latin, Greek, history, and
+philosophy. But his spelling in both French and English was unusually
+bad, even in an age of free spelling; he wrote _epoles_ for _epaules_,
+"Gems" for "James," "sord" for "sword." He did not neglect physical
+exercise; was wont to make long marches without stockings, to harden his
+feet (as he told a follower during his Highland distresses). He was a
+good shot, fond of hunting, and, about 1742, was probably the first man
+who ever played golf in Italy. Murray describes him as "tall above the
+common stature, his limbs cast in the most exact mould, his complexion
+of an uncommon delicacy, all his features perfectly regular and well
+turned, and his eyes the finest I ever saw." Whether they were blue or
+hazel is undecided; they are hazel in at least one contemporary
+portrait. As a boy, engravings show him pretty, merry, and buoyant; an
+air of melancholy may be remarked as early as 1744. With bright
+nut-brown hair, golden in the sun, and worn long beneath his peruke, he
+certainly justified the endearing name of "Bonny Prince Charlie." The
+distinction of his air could be concealed by no disguise, as his
+followers loved fondly to declare. He certainly had the royal memory for
+faces. At the opera, in 1773, he noticed an English officer opposite,
+whom he sent for. The gentleman visited the royal box, accompanied by a
+Scotch servant. "I have seen you before," said Charles to this man. "You
+once brought me a message at Falkirk, in 1746."
+
+Such was Prince Charles when, in 1742, Murray of Broughton became
+acquainted with the royal exile in Rome, and was appointed secretary for
+Scotland. With Lochiel and others, Murray formed a Jacobite association
+in his native country. Negotiations were begun with the French court,
+which hung off and on, as did the English Jacobites. They would rise, if
+France supplied men, money, and arms. France would do this if
+sufficiently assured of support in England. The king had no enthusiasm
+for the enterprise. He was weary of promises and of leaning on that
+broken reed, Louis XV. Murray intrigued in Scotland, Lord Elcho in
+England, Kelly at the French court. Lord Semple confused all by false
+hopes; Charles was much in the hands of Irishmen--Sheridan, Sullivan,
+O'Brien, and O'Neil; already a "forward," or Prince's party was growing,
+as opposed to the waiting policy and party of the disheartened and
+unambitious James. To what extent English Jacobites were pledged is
+uncertain. There was much discontent with the Hanoverian dynasty in
+England, but the dread of popery was strong among the middle classes.
+The butchers were advised that Catholics ate no meat on Sundays, the
+official clergy preached Protestant sermons, the Jacobite gentry feared
+for their lives and estates in case of failure, and the sagacity of the
+Government has never revealed the extent to which the Duke of Beaufort
+and others were committed to King James. The universities, the sporting
+squires, and the smugglers drank to "The king over the water," but there
+enthusiasm began and ended.
+
+More was expected, and till assured of more, France held aloof, while
+making promises enough. Even the Highland chiefs said that without a
+French army nothing could be done. In 1744 Charles left Rome, under
+pretext of a hunting party, concealed his withdrawal with great skill,
+and reached Paris. He was obliged, however, to be incognito and was not
+received by the king. An invading force was crowded on board ship. The
+chance seemed excellent, England's forces being mainly abroad; but the
+old friends of England, the winds, drove the battered fleet back into
+harbor, and Charles in vain tried to persuade the Earl Marischal to
+accompany him to Scotland in a small fishing vessel.
+
+One result followed the reception of Charles by France, niggardly as
+that reception was--war with England broke out, and the French army of
+invasion was moved from Dunkirk to Flanders. The prince, not permitted
+to serve in the French army, returned to Paris, where he had been
+falsely assured by Semple and AEneas Macdonald that England was ready to
+rise for him. Murray, who visited him in Paris, tried to dissuade him
+from a wild venture; in Scotland he found the chiefs of his own opinion,
+but the letter carrying the news never reached the prince. His Irish
+friends urged him on; "the expedition was entirely an Irish project." He
+borrowed money from his bankers, the Waters, he pawned his share of the
+Sobieski jewels, and, with a privateer man-of-war and a brig, La
+Doutelle, he left Belleisle on July 13, 1745. Neither the French court
+nor his father knew that, attended only by seven men, "The Seven Men of
+Moidart," he had set out to seek for a crown. The day before he embarked
+he wrote to James; he said that no man would buy a horse, nor trust a
+prince, that showed no spirit. "I never intend to come back," he added.
+So, dressed as a student of the Scots College, he started. He lost his
+convoy, the Elizabeth, on the way, after a drawn battle with the Lion
+(Captain Brett). Resisting all advice to turn back, as AEneas Macdonald,
+who accompanied him, narrates, he held on in La Doutelle, and reached
+Erisca, an islet between Barra and South Uist, on August 2, 1745. An
+eagle hovered over his ship, and Tullibardine hailed the royal bird as a
+happy omen. But he found himself unwelcome. Boisdale bade him go home;
+"I _am_ at home," said the prince. He steered for Moidart, the most
+beautiful but the wildest shore of Scotland, a region of steep and
+serrated mountains, of long salt-water straits, winding beneath the
+bases of the hills, and of great fresh-water lochs. Loch Nahuagh was his
+port; here he received Clan Ranald, whose desolate keep, Castle Tirrim,
+stands yet in ruins, since "the Fifteen." Glenaladale (whose descendants
+yet hold their barren acres), Dalilea, and Kinlochmoidart (now, like
+Clan Ranald, landless men) met him with discouraging words. But, seeing
+a flash in the eyes of a young Macdonald, of Kinlochmoidart, Charles
+said, "You will not forsake me?" "I will follow you to death, were no
+other sword drawn in your cause."
+
+The chiefs caught fire, Charles landed, with the seven men of
+Moidart--AEneas Macdonald, the Judas of the cause; the Duke of Athol
+(Tullibardine), who had been out in the fifteen; Sheridan, the prince's
+tutor; Sir John Macdonald; Kelley, a parson who had been in Atterbury's
+affair; Strickland, an Englishman; and Buchanan. Young Lochiel was
+disinclined to join, but yielded to the fascination of the prince. With
+his accession the rising was a certainty. But Duncan Forbes of Culloden,
+the lord president, had influence enough to hold back the Macleods of
+Skye, to paralyze the shifty Lovat, and to secure the Sutherland house
+for the Hanoverian cause. Charles left Boisdale for Kinlochmoidart, "the
+head of Loch Moidart," where an avenue of trees, the prince's walk, is
+still shown, though the old house was burned after Culloden. Keppoch cut
+off a small party of Scots Royal; this was first blood for the Jacobite
+cause. The wounded were hospitably treated by Lochiel; the English
+captain was released on parole. Charles now crossed the steep hills
+between Kinlochmoidart and the long narrow lake of Loch Sheil, there he
+took boat, and rowed past the lands of Glenaladale and Dalilea to
+Glenfinnan, where Tullibardine raised the standard, inscribed _Tandem
+Triumphans_. A statue of the prince, gazing southward, now marks the
+spot. The clans came in, and as Charles marched southeast, each glen
+sent down its warriors to join the stream. The clansmen, as a rule, had
+probably little knowledge of or interest in the cause. They followed
+their chiefs. The surviving Gaelic poetry speaks much of the chieftains;
+of _Tearlach, righ nan Gael_, but little is said. It was the middle of
+August before the rulers of England received the news of the landing.
+They at once set a reward of L30,000 on Charles's head, a proceeding
+"unusual among Christian princes," said Charles, who was compelled by
+his forces, and their threats of desertion, to follow the evil example.
+Sir John Cope was sent with an English army to stop the prince. It
+appeared likely that the armies would meet about Dalwhinnie, now the
+highest and bleakest part of the Highland Railway. The path then led
+over Corryarrack; Charles and his men raced for the summit, but Cope was
+not to be seen. He had marched east and north, to Inverness, and all the
+south of Scotland lay open to the prince. He passed by Killiecrankie and
+Blair Athol to Perth; Cluny came in, with the Duke of Perth, and Lord
+George Murray, Charles's most skilled general, who had been out at
+Glensheil, in 1719, and had learned the lesson of war in the Sardinian
+army. How easily he won Edinburgh, how he held court at Holyrood, how he
+routed Cope (who returned by sea) at Preston Pans or Gladsmuir, is
+familiar to all. His clemency was conspicuous; he wrote to James that he
+would give up Holyrood to the wounded, rather than see them homeless.
+Home, a Whig volunteer, and the author of a Whiggish history,
+acknowledges the nobility of his conduct, and his "foolish lenity" (he
+would not permit the execution of several persons who tried to
+assassinate him) is blamed by the fanatics who, in 1749, issued a wild
+Cameronian manifesto, "The Active Testimonies of Presbyterians." The
+contrast with the savage brutalities of Cumberland is very notable. In
+the battle the chiefs refused to let Charles lead the charge, but he was
+at the head of the second line, "a pistol shot behind" the first.
+Preston Pans was fought on September 21, 1745. That Charles dallied
+before Edinburgh Castle till October 21st was no fault of his. Some of
+his men had gone home with booty, others were to be waited for, many of
+the chiefs were in favor of holding Scotland under James as a separate
+kingdom, and it was only by constant personal appeals that the prince
+persuaded them to push south. Lord George's strategy deceived the
+English, who knew not where to look for the Highlanders. They met at
+Carlisle, took it, passed through Preston and Manchester, gave
+Cumberland the slip, and their advanced posts, six miles south of Derby,
+were within a hundred and twenty miles of London. The army of Finchley
+was unlikely to make a stand, the city was partly Jacobite, the mob were
+ready for anything, when Lord George and the chiefs insisted on retreat.
+Historians doubt which policy was the wiser; it is certain that success,
+if to be attained at all, could only be won by audacity. The chiefs,
+however, declared for a return and a junction with French forces then
+expected. Charles wept and prayed to no avail. His army, as disappointed
+as himself, found their faces set to the north, and the prince, who had
+ever walked among the first ranks, leaving his carriage to old Lord
+Pitsligo, now rode dejected and heart-broken. The retreat was rapid and
+able. At Clifton, Murray turned on the pursuing dragoons, headed a
+claymore charge, and drove them back. A hapless garrison of Lancashire
+volunteers was left to the tender mercies of Cumberland in Carlisle, and
+Charles went by way of Whiggish Dumfries (the house where he lodged is
+now an inn) to Glasgow. To all intents and purposes the end had come.
+Charles had lost faith in the advisers who dragged him back from the
+south, he listened to Murray of Broughton and to his Irishry; he
+suspected, unjustly but not unnaturally, the good faith of Lord George.
+He dallied at Stirling, besieging the castle without proper artillery,
+and Hawley was sent to attack him. On January 17, 1746, the armies met
+at Falkirk. A storm of wind and rain blew at the backs of the
+Highlanders, they charged, scattered the enemy, drove them in flight,
+and cut up the Glasgow volunteers. But, in the dark and the mist they
+scarcely knew their own advantage. The pipers had thrown their pipes to
+their boys, had gone in with the claymore, and could not sound the
+calls. Hawley wrote to Cumberland "My heart is broke ... I got off but
+three cannon of the ten." Hawley retreated to Edinburgh, the Duke of
+Cumberland came to take the command; the Highlanders began to desert
+with their booty, dissensions prevailed, and Charles went on besieging
+Stirling. Again Lord George Murray urged a retreat, Charles dashed his
+head in impotent rage against the wall of his room, but he had to
+follow. With perfect truth he said:
+
+"I cannot see anything but ruin and destruction to us all in case we
+should think of a retreat;" his forces in flight would lose heart, his
+enemies would gain confidence. All this was true, but all this was
+unavailing. Months were spent in unimportant movements. Cumberland,
+meanwhile, instructed his men in the method of meeting a Highland
+charge, and deceiving the parry of the Highland shields. It was known
+that France would lend no substantial aid, and a French subsidy of
+30,000 _Louis d'or_ came too late, after the battle of Culloden, and was
+buried at the head of Loch Arkaig. One last chance Charles had: Lord
+George proposed, and Charles eagerly seconded, a night surprise at
+Nairn. But the delays on the march, and the arrival of dawn, made Murray
+command a retreat, and Charles's faith in him was irretrievably gone for
+the time, though he later expressed in writing a more worthy opinion.
+With 10,000 well-fed men against 5,000 who were starving, Cumberland had
+every chance of victory at Culloden. The Macdonalds, placed on the left
+wing, would not charge. Keppoch's men were discontented because they
+were not allowed to have a Catholic chaplain. Crying out, "The children
+of my clan have forsaken me," Keppoch charged alone, and died the death
+of renown. Beaten and blinded by a storm of snow in their faces, the
+Highland right clove the ranks of Monro and Burrell, only to fall, in
+layers three or four deep, before the fire of Sempill's regiment in the
+second line. The whole English force advanced; Charles rode to his
+second line, and offered to charge with them. His officers told him that
+it was in vain; Highlanders once beaten would not rally. (MS. "Lyon in
+Mourning," and MS. of Stuart Threipland at Abbotsford.) Charles was
+hurried off the field by his Irish tutor, and fled to Lord Lovat's, at
+Gortuleg. A story of his lack of courage, told by Sir Walter Scott on
+the authority of Sir James Stewart Denham's recollections of Lord
+Elcho's MS., is erroneous. Lord Elcho's MS. does not contain the
+statement. What he objects to is Charles's refusal to meet the fragments
+of his army at Ruthven, in Badenoch, whence they hoped to wage a
+guerilla warfare. Lord George Murray himself admits that the project was
+impossible. Charles, however, should have gone to Ruthven, but he
+distrusted Lord George; and his hope of a speedy voyage to France, where
+he expected to receive aid in men and money, was frustrated.
+
+It is needless to repeat the tale of Cumberland's almost incredible
+butcheries, cruelties, and robberies, or to tell of the executions
+accompanied by the torture of disembowelling the living man. The story
+of Charles's wanderings and distresses is narrated best in the MS. "Lyon
+in Mourning," partly printed by Robert Chambers, in "Jacobite Memoirs."
+No words can overpraise the loyalty of the starving Highlanders; neither
+English tortures, nor the promise of L30,000, ever moved one man or
+woman from their constant faith. Only one hungry boy whom Charles had
+fed, attempted to betray him, but was not believed. As for the prince,
+he is briefly described by a companion as "the most prudent man not to
+be a coward, the most daring not to be foolhardy, whom he had ever
+known." He showed a constant gayety, singing and telling tales to
+hearten his followers. His resource was endless; he was by far the best
+cook and the least fastidious eater of his company. He could cook a dish
+of cow's brains, or swallow raw oatmeal and salt-water. Surrounded by
+English _cordons_, through which he slipped at night up the bed of a
+burn, when the sentinels had reached their furthest point apart, Charles
+led a little expedition which cut off the cattle intended for the
+provender of his enemies. (MS. "Lyon in Mourning.") He would not even
+let a companion carry his great-coat. He knew every extremity of hunger,
+thirst, and cold; and perhaps his most miserable experience was to lurk
+for many hours, devoured by midges, under a wet rock. Unshorn, unwashed,
+in a filthy shirt, his last, he was yet the courteous prince in his
+dealings with all women whom he met, notably with Flora Macdonald, the
+stainless and courageous heroine of loyalty and womanly kindness. At
+last, late in September, 1746, Charles, with Lochiel and many others,
+escaped in a French barque from Loch Nahuagh, where he had first landed.
+It has been said of him by his enemies, especially by Dr. King, a
+renegade, that he was avaricious and ungrateful. Letters and receipts in
+the muniment room of a Highland chief show him directing large sums,
+probably out of the Loch Arkaig treasure, to be paid to Lochiel, to
+"Keppoch's lady," and to many poor clansmen. The receipts, written in
+hiding, and dried with snuff or sand, attest that the money came to the
+persons for whom it was intended.
+
+Charles' expedition could only be justified by success. That it failed
+was due to no want of courage, or audacity, or resolve on his part, but
+to the very nature of a Highland army, to the jealousies of Irish and
+Scotch, to the half-heartedness of his English partisans, and to the
+English horror of his father's religion. By his own creed he held very
+loosely.
+
+[Illustration: The First Meeting of Prince Charles with Flora MacDonald.]
+
+In France Charles was a popular hero, and adored by ladies. His
+appearance at court was magnificent, and for him the Princesse de
+Tallemant made every sacrifice. But the Government was deaf to his
+appeals, a journey to Spain was fruitless; worst of all, his brother
+Henry, to whom he had been tenderly devoted, accepted a cardinal's hat,
+on July 3, 1747. This was fatal. The English would never forgive a son
+of their so-called king who became a Romish priest; and the shadow of
+the hat fell on Charles. From letters of James to the prince, it is
+plain that, for some reason, the Duke of York could not look forward to
+marriage and to continuing the Stuart family. The young man, therefore,
+having also a vocation withal, accepted ecclesiastical rank, and a
+cluster of rich benefices. A breach between Charles and James followed,
+which was never healed, despite the touching letters of the king to his
+"dearest Carluccio." Charles betook himself to adventurous and secret
+projects. In the Highlands he had learned to seek the consolation of the
+poor, and to forget hunger, cold, misery, and sorrow in drink. He drank
+"our best bowlsman," says an islander, under the table. The habit soon
+dominated him, and--with his disgraceful arrest and imprisonment, when
+he refused to acknowledge the peace of Aix la Chapelle and to withdraw
+from France--soured his character and ruined his life. Released from
+Vincennes, he hurried to the then Papal city of Avignon, where he
+introduced boxing-matches. England threatened to bombard Civita Vecchia,
+and Charles had to depart. Whither he went no man knows. There is a
+Jacobite tract of 1750, purporting to be written by his equerry, Henry
+Goring. According to this, Charles, Goring, and a mysterious Comte de la
+Luze (Marshal Keith?), went to Lyons, Dijon, Strasbourg. Here Charles
+rescued a beautiful girl from a fire, and honorably declined to take
+advantage of her manifest passion for her preserver. The party was
+attacked by assassins, Charles shot two of them, La Luze and Goring
+accounted for others. They took ship from some northern coast, were
+tempest-driven to an unfriendly port, visited, apparently, Frederick the
+Great, spent some time in Lithuania, and there are hints of a love
+affair, though Charles had already proclaimed that he would never
+marry to beget royal beggars. He certainly visited Sweden; there was
+talk of him as a candidate for the Polish crown. For many years
+(1749-1755) neither James nor the English Government knew where Charles
+really was. Grimm says that for three years he lay hidden in the house
+of a lady in Paris, a friend of the Princesse de Tallemant. A sportsman
+and a lover of the open air is not likely to have loitered so long with
+Armida in a secret chamber. There is tattle about him in D'Argenson's
+"Memoirs;" a disguised shabby prince appears now and then, none knows
+whence, and vanishes. In the papers of Charles Stuart, Comte d'Albanie,
+one finds a trace of a visit paid by the prince to Ireland. There is
+evidence, in the State Papers, that he was not far from Paris, in June,
+1749. We have it under his own hand, in the Stuart Papers at Windsor,
+that he visited London on September 5, 1750, returning to Paris on
+September 13th. Here, as we know from the document left by Archibald
+Cameron, Lochiel's brother, the last man executed for the rising, or
+rather for a later plot, Charles renounced the Catholic faith. Charles
+himself gives 1750 as the date of this conversion. It came five years
+too late, and he recanted his recantation. He was in England again later
+(1752), and held his last council in Merriworth Castle in Kent. There is
+a legend of his ghost haunting a house in Godalming, which probably
+comes from a tradition of his residence there. Since 1750 or
+thereabouts, a Miss Clementina Walkinshaw, of Barrowfield, had been his
+mistress. He is said to have met her near Glasgow, and flirted with her;
+when or where she fled to him on the continent is obscure. Mr. Ewald
+supposes her to have been with him in Paris before the affair of
+Vincennes (1748). The writer, however, has seen a letter from Paris to a
+sister of Miss Walkinshaw describing the arrest at the Opera House,
+without the most distant allusion to Clementina, about whom her sister
+would be concerned. Clementina, judging by a miniature, was a lady with
+very large black eyes; a portrait in oil gives a less favorable view of
+her charms. In 1754 Charles was again in England, and in Nottingham. He
+actually walked in Hyde Park, where someone, recognizing him, tried to
+kneel to him. He therefore returned at once to France. He is reported to
+have come back in 1755 or 1756, braving the reward of L30,000 for his
+head. The Jacobites now requested him to dismiss Clementina Walkinshaw,
+whose eldest sister was a lady housekeeper in the Hanoverian family. A
+scrap in Charles's hand at Windsor proves that he regarded some lady as
+a possible traitor, but he declined to be dictated to, in his household
+matters, by his adherents. This gave the English Jacobites an excuse for
+turning their coats, of which they availed themselves. Sir Walter Scott
+makes the romance of "Redgauntlet" hang on the incident. About this time
+jottings of Charles prove that he fancied himself a Republican. He hated
+Louis XV., and declined on one occasion to act as a bug-bear
+(_epouvantail_), at the request of France. He had already struck a medal
+in honor of the British Navy and contempt of the French. He is now lost
+sight of till 1760, when Miss Walkinshaw, with his daughter, left his
+protection for that of a convent. This lady, in some letters, now
+unluckily lost, endeavored to persuade her family that she was married
+to the prince. A later myth averred that her daughter (the Duchess of
+Albany) had been secretly married, and a General Stuart, claiming, on
+this evidence, to be a legitimate descendant of the prince, died about
+1852. As Charles, late in life, legitimatized his daughter by Clementina
+Walkinshaw (a thing needless had he been married to her mother), and
+made affirmation that he never had any other child, all these legends
+are manifestly absurd. (The affirmation is among documents in possession
+of Lord Braye, and is published by the Historical MSS. Commission.)
+
+From this point there is little historical or personal interest in the
+life of Charles. His father, James III., died in 1766, and was buried as
+a king. Charles hurried from Bouillon to Rome; his brother, the
+cardinal, tried to secure his recognition by the Papal Court, but the
+Pope dared not, and no other government chose to defy the English
+Ministry. Charles's life was spent, now in seclusion, now in society; he
+still was fond of shooting, of music, and the drama; he still retained
+his grace of demeanor when he happened to be sober. Late in 1771 he went
+in disguise to Paris, where he accepted a pension from France, and a
+beautiful bride, Louise, Princess of Stolberg, descended from the Earl
+of Ailesbury into whose arms Charles II. fell under the stroke of his
+fatal illness. The ill-matched pair were married on Good Friday, April
+17, 1772. At first Charles behaved with more sobriety and good humor
+than usual. A child of the marriage was expected, at least by the Scotch
+Jacobites, in 1773. There is a legend that a child was actually born,
+was intrusted to Captain John Carter Allen, was brought up by him as his
+own, and this infant, grown to manhood, became the father of two
+gentlemen calling themselves John Sobieski Stolberg Stuart and Charles
+Edward Stuart, Counts of Albany. They lived till late in the present
+century, were picturesque figures in society, and writers of some spirit
+and vigor. For long they were much cherished by some noble Highland
+families. Charles, the younger, has left descendants. It is needless to
+discuss here the authenticity of these claims.
+
+Charles's relations with his wife were on the pattern of his relations
+with his mistress. He was jealous, and brutal beyond description; she
+was courted by Alfieri, the poet, and, after fleeing from her husband to
+a convent, she united her fortunes with Alfieri's. On his death she
+chose a young French painter, Fabre, as his successor, and to him she
+left her rich collection of relics, spoils of the poet and the king. A
+beautiful, witty, and engaging woman, she was long a centre of society
+in Italy. She died in 1824. In 1784 Charles sent for his daughter by
+Miss Walkinshaw. Both had long been maintained by the cardinal. He made
+her Duchess of Albany, medals were designed, if never struck,
+representing her as _spes ultima et exigua_, "the last frail hope," of
+the Stuarts. For the last time, in conversation with a Mr. Greathead,
+the old spirit blazed out. His face brightened, he began the tale of his
+campaign, but, when attempting to narrate the butcheries of Cumberland,
+the cruel executions in London, he fell on the floor in convulsions. He
+used to solace himself by playing on the pipes, and at the sound of the
+martial music which he had heard on three stricken fields, he was able
+to live in the past. On January 31, 1788, the anniversary of the death
+of Charles I., Charles Edward passed away from earth. His daughter did
+not long survive him; she was killed by a fall from her horse. Henry now
+took the title of Henry IX. "by grace of God, not by the will of men."
+He died in 1806; the French had stripped him of all his property, even
+the famous Sobieski rubies were gone, and he was in receipt of a pension
+from the English Government. In 1819 George IV. erected a monument by
+Canova, in St Peters at Rome, to "James III., son of James II., King of
+Great Britain, to Charles Edward, and Henry, his sons, the last of the
+Royal Stuart line. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Sir Walter
+Scott visited this alone of Roman sights, in 1832, just before he came
+home to die.
+
+Had Charles fallen at Culloden, history could find no blot on his name,
+no stain on the white rose. Surviving, as he did, a broken-hearted
+exile, with no home, no chance of a career, "eating his own heart,
+shunning the paths of men," as Homer says of Bellerophon, he fell a
+victim to the habit which has ever the same wretched results, which
+turns a hero to a coward, a gentleman to a brute. Yet, in his one year
+of brilliance, he won immortal love. Scott had seen strong men, the
+prince's ancient comrades, weep at the mention of his name. No man, in
+any age, ever inspired such a large, such a gallant, such a tender and
+melancholy body of song. Even now as one hears the notes of
+
+  "Will ye no come back again,
+   Better lo'ed ye canna be,"
+
+sung by the lads of a Scotch village, one feels that Charles Stuart did
+not wholly fail; the song outlives the dynasty, and relics of Prince
+Charlie are fondly cherished, while no man cares a halfpenny for his
+Hanoverian rivals.
+
+The best life of Prince Charles is that by Mr. Ewald (London, 1875). Mr.
+Ewald alone has used the State Papers at the Record Office. Lord
+Stanhope's and Mr. Chambers's "Histories of the Forty-five" are also
+excellent; as are "Jacobite Memoirs," selected from Bishop Forbes's MS.
+"Lyon in Mourning." These works, with the contemporary tracts, and some
+MSS., with Lord Stanhope's "Decline of the Last Stuarts," and the Stuart
+Papers at Windsor, as given in Browne's "History of the Highland Clans,"
+have been consulted in compiling this study of Prince Charles.
+
+[Signature: Andrew Lang.]
+
+
+
+
+CAPTAIN JAMES COOK[14]
+
+         [Footnote 14: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By OLIVER OPTIC
+
+(1728-1779)
+
+[Illustration: Captain James Cook.]
+
+
+As an example of the self-made man without fortune or the prestige of a
+distinguished family to assist him, perhaps there is none better and
+more instructive than the career of Captain Cook, the great English
+navigator and discoverer. At his birth, in 1728, his father was a
+farm-laborer, and his mother belonged to the same grade of society. They
+lived in the north of England, and were people of excellent character.
+On account of his honesty, industry, and skill in farming, his father
+was promoted to the place of head servant on a farm some distance from
+where he had been working; but it does not appear that he ever made any
+further advancement. James learned to read and write, and was instructed
+in some of the simpler rules of arithmetic, which was the extent of his
+school learning, a very slender outfit for one of the distinction to
+which he attained in a lifetime of fifty years.
+
+At the age of thirteen James was bound as an apprentice to a dry-goods
+dealer in a small way in a considerable fishing town. The business did
+not suit the youth at all, for he had before cherished the idea of going
+to sea, and his surroundings in a seaport doubtless increased his
+yearnings in that direction. A disagreement between the apprentice and
+his employer enabled him to procure his discharge, and he engaged his
+services to the Messrs. Walker, a couple of Quakers, who owned two
+vessels employed in the coal trade. He passed the greater portion of his
+term, and a considerable period after its expiration, as a common sailor
+on board of the ship Free Love, where he obtained a thorough knowledge
+of seamanship. From this humble sphere he was promoted to be mate of one
+of the Walker ships. His life in this capacity was uneventful, though he
+was all the time learning navigation and storing his mind with the
+information which was to enable him to distinguish himself in later
+years.
+
+In 1755, when Cook was twenty-seven years old, war broke out between
+England and France, and there was a great demand for seamen for the navy
+of England. At that time the system of impressment was in vogue, and
+when Britain wanted sailors she took them, wherever and whenever she
+could find them. Press-gangs were sent out, under one or more officers,
+by ships of war in port needing more men. They visited the
+drinking-places and taverns of the town and captured all the seamen
+they could find, usually more or less intoxicated, and compelled them to
+go on board of the man-of-war. They were forced to do duty. Sometimes
+the unlucky tars were taken from the vessels to which they belonged,
+whether in port or at sea. This impressment was not always confined to
+British seamen, and this system was one of the causes which led to the
+war of 1812 between England and the United States. Though the law
+sanctioning this abuse was never repealed, press-gangs became obsolete
+half a century ago.
+
+Cook's ship was in the Thames at this time, and he was liable to
+impressment, for mates were not exempt, though captains were. Like all
+British seamen, he had a dread of being forced into the naval service,
+oftener because they were forced than for any other reason. He concealed
+himself, and used all the precautions he could to avoid such a calamity,
+as he then regarded it. But he faithfully reconsidered the subject, and
+concluded to enter the navy by voluntary enlistment, thus escaping
+impressment, which would be an outrage upon his manhood. He began his
+service on board the Eagle, a sixty-gun ship, which was soon after
+commanded by Captain Palliser. Cook was not only an able and skilful
+seaman, but he diligently and faithfully performed every duty, so that
+he soon attracted the attention of his officers.
+
+His friends at home had endeavored to do something for him, and his
+commander received a letter from a member of Parliament commending the
+seaman to his favor. The captain acknowledged the merit of Cook in his
+reply, but stated that he had been in the navy for so brief a period
+that he could not be made a commissioned officer, but in due time, if he
+proved worthy, a master's warrant might be obtained for him. Four years
+after he entered the service a strong interest secured this promotion
+for him. In this capacity he was assigned to the frigate Mercury, which
+was ordered to North America, where she became one of the fleet that
+operated in connection with the army of General Wolfe in the siege of
+Quebec.
+
+The navigation of this portion of the St. Lawrence River was difficult
+and dangerous then to the English; they were comparative strangers
+there, and the French had removed the channel buoys. It was necessary to
+make a survey, and Captain Palliser recommended Master Cook for the
+service. The locality was exposed to the enemy, and for several nights
+he conducted the work till he had about completed it, when his
+operations were discovered by the French. A force of Indians was sent to
+capture the surveyor, and they surrounded him in the darkness in their
+canoes, and Cook made his escape only by leaping ashore, to which his
+barge had been directed, near the English hospital, while the Indians
+were boarding the boat over the stern. But he had performed the duty
+intrusted to him, and from his measurements constructed a perfect chart
+of the channel.
+
+He was a very skilful draughtsman, though he had educated himself in the
+art, as well as an expert surveyor, and he was employed by the admiral
+in making surveys of other portions of the river. His charts of the
+locality were published, with soundings and sailing directions; and they
+were so correct that no others were needed for at least a hundred
+years. He piloted the boats of the squadron in the attack upon
+Montmorency, and superintended the landing of the troops for the assault
+on the Plains of Abraham, where both Wolfe and Montcalm were mortally
+wounded.
+
+For four years Cook had been an acting master, but in 1759 he was fully
+confirmed in his rank and appointed to the flag-ship of Lord Colvill,
+passing the following winter at Halifax. This was a season of leisure
+from active professional occupation, and the master employed it in
+studying geometry, astronomy, and mathematics generally, fitting himself
+for the highest positions in the navy. For the next ten years he was
+largely engaged in surveying in Newfoundland, and was present at its
+capture from the French. Returning to England he was married, but was
+soon sent back to the field of his recent labors, as marine surveyor of
+the coasts, by the influence of his constant friend, now Sir Hugh
+Palliser. He was busily employed in this capacity, rendering valuable
+service to his country, and especially to the king's ministers in
+arranging the terms of peace with France. During his absence he observed
+an eclipse of the sun, which was so well done that his results were
+published in the "Philosophical Transactions," adding greatly to his
+reputation as an astronomer.
+
+At this period the spirit of discovery was reanimated in England, and an
+expedition was fitted out, at the instance of the Royal Society,
+primarily to observe a transit of Venus across the disk of the sun,
+which could only be done in some parts of the Pacific Ocean. Sir Hugh
+Palliser was again his friend, and Cook, raised to the rank of
+lieutenant, was appointed to the command. He selected a ship of three
+hundred and seventy tons, called the Endeavor, for the purpose, and
+accompanied by several eminent scientists, he sailed in 1778. In
+addition to its astronomical task, the expedition was to make
+discoveries and explorations in the Pacific.
+
+It would be impossible to follow Lieutenant Cook in the details of his
+three notable voyages of discovery in anything less than a volume, so
+full are they of interesting incidents. He proceeded first to Madeira,
+and then across the Atlantic to Rio Janeiro, where he made a
+considerable stay to obtain supplies, and improve the condition of his
+crew. Passing through the Strait of Le Maire, he went around Cape Horn,
+and in April of 1769 the Endeavor arrived at Otaheite, now called
+Tahiti, in the Society Islands, where the transit was to be observed.
+The observations required a considerable stay in Matavia Bay, and as
+soon as he had made his preparations on shore for the work, the
+commander established regulations for intercourse between his people and
+the natives who crowded in multitudes around their strange visitors.
+
+No man in his day and generation ever had more extensive dealings with
+the uncivilized tribes of the earth than Captain Cook, and none ever
+treated them with more enlightened humanity, or with more even-handed
+justice. His treatment of the aborigines of the vast number of islands
+and other regions he visited, is in remarkable contrast with that of the
+early explorers of the Western Continent. By the latter the natives were
+remorselessly slain, enslaved, and even tortured. They were regarded as
+pagans, with no natural rights, whose territories, families, and persons
+were the legitimate spoils of the conquerors. On the contrary, Cook,
+with the means in his possession to overawe, subdue, and subjugate them,
+always extended to them the utmost consideration in his power. He could
+be severe when necessity required, but his forbearance was almost
+unlimited.
+
+The first of a series of rules he established and enforced was: "To
+endeavor, by every fair means, to cultivate a friendship with the
+natives, and to treat them with all imaginable humanity." He was largely
+dependent upon the resources of the islands he visited for the
+sustenance of his people; but nothing, except in dire necessity, was
+ever taken from the natives by force. Persons were appointed to trade
+with them, and no others were allowed to barter or exchange goods with
+them, and a proper equivalent was always to be given. His own men were
+put under the strictest discipline in order to control their relations
+with the natives who constantly surrounded them. Generally the most
+friendly spirit prevailed on both sides. The inhabitants of all the
+islands seemed to have a natural inclination to steal, and most of the
+trouble with them grew out of this tendency. Cook judiciously repressed
+theft from the beginning, and almost invariably compelled the
+restoration of the property.
+
+On the other hand, his own men were sometimes tempted to desert; but he
+hunted them down, secured one or more chiefs as hostages, or by some
+common-sense method recovered the absentees. At some of the islands Cook
+was extremely popular with the inhabitants, and was regarded as a
+superior being, even a demigod, in many of them. When he was compelled
+to resort to extreme severity, he did not begin with cannon, loaded with
+grape, but trusted first to the loud report, terrific to the savages,
+fired over their heads, or had the muskets loaded with small shot which
+would hurt, but did not kill. No slaughter that could possibly be
+avoided was permitted. If he erred at all it was on the side of
+humanity, and if he had been less forbearing he might have added more
+years to his length of days.
+
+The astronomical work at Otaheite was successfully accomplished, and in
+July Captain Cook departed, taking with him Tupia, a native of some
+distinction, who proved to be valuable to him as an interpreter, and for
+his general knowledge. During this voyage he visited many of the islands
+of the Pacific, including New Zealand, where he encountered no little
+hostility, so that it was often difficult and sometimes impossible to
+establish friendly relations with the natives. But he obtained what he
+needed, and proceeded on his voyage. He gave names to islands, bays,
+straits, and harbors, some of which seem strange at the present day, but
+most of them were suggested by the circumstances of the visit. Of many
+of the islands he took possession in the name of his sovereign, leaving
+memorials of his landing.
+
+Sailing to the westward, he examined the east coast of New Holland, as
+it was then called, Australia, at the present time, charted the coast,
+as he had done throughout the voyage, and took possession of the country
+in the name of England. The existence of a Southern Continent had long
+been a mooted question, and in this and subsequent voyages Captain Cook
+searched unsuccessfully for it. He passed through Torres Strait, and
+thus proved that New Guinea was not a part of Australia, as some
+claimed. Continuing his voyage, he went around the Cape of Good Hope,
+and reached England in the middle of 1771. The results of his cruise of
+nearly four years were exceedingly important to his country. His
+reputation was largely increased, and he was promoted to the rank of
+commander in the navy.
+
+So well approved was the conduct of Captain Cook on his first voyage
+around the world, that he was appointed to the command of another
+similar expedition, consisting of two ships, the Resolution and the
+Adventure, and after about a year on shore, he sailed again in 1772. He
+went around the Cape of Good Hope, and cruised in the Southern Pacific,
+discovering and taking possession of New Caledonia, visiting islands
+where he had landed before, and exploring and charting the New Hebrides.
+His instructions particularly required him to circumnavigate the earth
+in the highest practicable southern latitude in search of the unknown
+continent still supposed to be there. He used the southern summer for
+this purpose; but he found no land he was willing to call a continent.
+Though large bodies of land have since been discovered in that region,
+the question is still an open one.
+
+Adapting his operations to the varying climate of the north and the
+south, Captain Cook continued his explorations, encountering many
+hardships and perils in unknown seas, from hostile savages, and in the
+icy realms of the extreme south.
+
+He returned to England in 1775 after an absence of three years. The
+commander had always taken excellent care of the health of his men, for
+in voyages of the description he had undertaken the mortality was always
+considerable, and sometimes terrible. One of the most noticeable
+features of his second expedition was that it returned with a record of
+only one death in both ships; and the details of the means he used to
+secure a good sanitary condition among his crews are very interesting.
+
+On his return Cook was immediately raised to the rank of post-captain,
+and was also appointed a captain in Greenwich Hospital, which secured to
+him an honorable retirement, and reward for his important labors. He was
+elected a member of the Royal Society, which also bestowed upon him a
+gold medal in recognition of his contributions to the science of the
+period. The passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific by the north coast
+of America was exciting a great deal of attention at this time, and
+Captain Cook was sent upon an expedition to continue his explorations in
+the Pacific, and then to investigate the mystery of a northwest passage.
+He sailed in the Resolution in 1776, and was followed by Captain Clerke
+in the Discovery. He proceeded, after his arrival at the Cape of Good
+Hope, to Tasmania, visited New Zealand again, and passed the following
+year in explorations in the Pacific.
+
+[Illustration: Death of Captain Cook.]
+
+In the first month of 1778 he discovered the Sandwich Islands, to which
+he gave this name in honor of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, then
+the first Lord of the Admiralty. Obtaining the supplies he needed, the
+commander proceeded to explore the northwest coast of America, which he
+followed inside of Behring Strait, till the ice and cold compelled him
+to seek a more southern latitude, which he found in the genial airs of
+the Sandwich Islands.
+
+During his former visit he had found the natives to be friendly and
+generally well disposed, though more addicted to thieving than the
+people of any other islands the explorer had visited. For some
+unexplained reason they were in a different frame of mind on his second
+visit. A boat belonging to the expedition had been stolen by the
+savages, and Captain Cook proceeded, in his usual vigorous manner, to
+recover it. He sent a boat on shore for this purpose, and then landed
+himself with another party, intending to capture a certain chief, to be
+exchanged for the boat. An immense crowd gathered around him, and were
+hypocritically friendly at first; but it was soon observed that they
+were arming themselves. The commander asked Kariopoo, the chief he had
+selected, to go with him, and he made no objection. The captain had
+ordered the marines to be drawn up on the shore, and leading his
+prisoner by the hand he approached the boat, the natives opening a
+passage for him.
+
+The chief's family and friends interposed to save him, declaring that he
+would be killed if he went on board of the ship. The captain
+expostulated with them and the tumult increased. The lieutenant of
+marines wanted to fire, but Cook refused the pet mission. The tumult
+soon became a battle, and then he ordered his men to fire. As he was
+trying to save his party he was struck with a club, which partially
+stunned him, and then he was stabbed in the back of the neck by an iron
+dagger. He fell into shallow water, and the savages threw themselves
+upon him. A struggle ensued, and he was hauled on the beach by his foes,
+where they stabbed him in turn in their barbarous rage. His body lay on
+the beach, and it might have been recovered, but it was not. Only a
+portion of his remains were obtained, and they were buried at sea.
+
+Thus perished Captain James Cook, and all England mourned him.
+
+[Signature: William S. Adams.]
+
+
+
+
+JOHN HOWARD[15]
+
+         [Footnote 15: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By HARRIET G. WALKER
+
+(1726-1790)
+
+[Illustration: John Howard.]
+
+
+John Howard was born in Hackney, Middlesex County, England, September 2,
+1726. The only existing record of this fact is the inscription upon his
+monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. His parentage came through a
+somewhat obscure family, his father being sometimes mentioned as an
+upholsterer and sometimes as a merchant of moderate means. Of his mother
+we know only her name--Chomley--and that she died when her second child,
+and only son, was an infant. The father was a strict, sturdy, honest,
+severe Puritan, the marks of whose character ever remained on the
+character of the son.
+
+The motherless boy seems to have passed unnoticed through the weary days
+of a sickly childhood, and the usual martyrdom of the "dullest boy in
+the school," under first one tutor and then another, to his sixteenth
+year, when he left school and books, as he afterward testifies, "not
+thoroughly knowing any one thing." How much does any boy or girl
+thoroughly know of any one thing at sixteen? Surely not enough to
+warrant his removal from school.
+
+But not so reasoned the father of John Howard, for we find him at this
+age apprenticing his only son to Alderman Newham, a wholesale grocer on
+Watling Street, London.
+
+That this was not a change made from pecuniary necessity is evidenced by
+the liberal provision made for the boy. We are told that his father paid
+L700 for his fee of apprenticeship, and provided him a separate suite of
+apartments, a servant, and a pair of saddle-horses! The inference is
+that young John's progress in school was not such as to warrant his
+continuance at his books.
+
+His letters and manuscripts still in existence reveal a lamentable
+deficiency in orthography and the handling of the king's English.
+
+Some of Howard's biographers attempt to attribute his methodical
+businesslike habits in later life to the experience gained while in the
+service of this wholesale grocer. But when we consider that his stay was
+far less than one year, we may fairly be allowed to conclude that more
+was due to an inherited temperament for slow methodical action.
+
+Before reaching his seventeenth year, the death of his father released
+him from the grocery business, for which he had evidently no affection,
+and left him in possession of L7,000 in ready cash, beside land, plate,
+house, etc.
+
+This fortune was left under the management of guardians, it being his
+father's wish that he should not control it until his twenty-fourth
+year. But his course of life goes to show that he had wonderfully easy
+trustees, as he immediately bought himself off the grocery business, and
+made a long tour of the Continent for the benefit of his health.
+Returning to England, he dropped into the little village of Stoke
+Newington, a mere hamlet, where he had some possessions.
+
+That a young man of wealth and free from all ties of family or business,
+should have voluntarily chosen such a home, and been contented to remain
+there, in a state of idle inactivity, for the space of seven or eight
+years, can be accounted for only by remembering his feeble health.
+
+When twenty-five, his health entirely failed, and he was prostrated by a
+severe fit of illness, through which he was nursed by his landlady, Mrs.
+Loidore. Upon his recovery he made her his wife, in testimony of his
+gratitude, though history records that she had neither beauty, money,
+nor health, having been an invalid for twenty-two years, and was
+twenty-seven years his senior.
+
+Two or three years after this seemingly ill-suited marriage, which,
+strange to say, seems to have been a not unhappy one, Mrs. Howard died.
+Immediately Mr. Howard, then twenty-eight or nine years of age, again
+left England for a second extended tour. This being the year of the
+great earthquake of Lisbon, he naturally turned his steps thitherward.
+
+Setting sail from England for Spain, he was captured on the high seas by
+a French privateer, and for two months suffered the hardships and
+indignities of prison life in those times. Upon his release he used all
+his influence to secure the exchange of the remainder of his vessel's
+company, and was successful. This prison experience he never forgot.
+
+Three years later (1758) he married Henrietta Leeds, a lady of fine
+character, and one to whom he was sincerely attached. Indeed, so fearful
+was he that their married life might not be entirely without jars, that
+he made a bargain with her, in advance of their marriage, that on all
+disputed points the adjustment should be according to his judgment. One
+is at a loss which member of a couple the most to admire, the man who
+could make such a proposition, or the woman who would bind herself with
+such bonds! But, like his first marriage, his strange contract with his
+second wife seems to have led only to happy results.
+
+They settled in Cardington, upon the Howard estate, and for the next
+seven years led the uneventful life of landed gentry of the times. The
+husband and wife were united in their efforts to improve the morals and
+general condition of their tenantry. Rightly believing that the
+beginning of all reform was to improve the physical condition, Howard
+spared no expense in rearing new cottages upon new and improved plans,
+held his tenants removable at will, and through their improved
+conditions ruled over them with an almost despotic sway, tempered and
+made bearable in that all his restrictions and requirements were on the
+line of their temporal and spiritual advancement.
+
+How strange is the making of history! Had the gentle, loving,
+well-governed, dependent Mrs. Howard lived on, this would no doubt have
+been the continuation, the aim, and the end of John Howard's life--to
+constantly advance and improve the interests and condition of his
+tenantry, and to wisely govern and administer his estate. But it was not
+so to be. The happy home must be broken up, and the man whom God needed
+must, through the sting of his own sorrow, be sent out again upon his
+wanderings to do the work reserved for him in the broad field not of his
+own choosing. The birth of the only child, a son, preceded the death of
+its mother by but a few days, and Howard was again alone. To the end of
+his life he remained a sincere and constant mourner for the wife to whom
+he owed the happiest, if not the most useful, seven years of his life.
+It is said by some of his biographers that he always kept the
+anniversary of her death as a solemn day of fasting and prayer.
+
+Come we now to the point in his career where, all unknown to himself,
+Howard took up the work which was to startle the whole civilized world,
+and place his name in the roll of those whose memories die not.
+
+But first let us remember the son whose life began where his mother's
+ended, and ended where it was well his mother had not lived to see it.
+
+It would seem that the loss of his beloved wife and the sad recollection
+of his own motherless unloved boyhood, would have made of John Howard a
+tender and pitiful, as well as devoted father. Such was not the case, if
+we may judge from the vehemence with which some of his biographers deny
+the charges of undue severity to the infant, and forgetfulness and
+neglect of the growing-up boy, and the silence of others on the same
+subject.
+
+The real truth probably was, so far as we can judge, that the man had
+nothing in his stiff nature and puritanical education, certainly nothing
+in his own early life, to make him respond to the uninteresting
+helplessness of infancy.
+
+So we find him doing his duty by the crying infant of a few months, in a
+manner which would be amusing if it were not pathetic. He takes him from
+the nurse, lays him across his knees, and sits unmoved and unmovable
+until the tempest exhausts itself, and the child is silent from
+exhaustion, when he hands him solemnly back to the nurse, and feels
+that, by so much at least, has he cast out of the young child the spice
+of Old Adam, which is the birthright of us all! A few such experiences,
+we are told, and the child would at once cease its struggles and be
+silent. One would surely think it would!
+
+But the silent, lonely man, bereft of the loving companionship of the
+gentle wife, who would so differently have soothed and silenced the
+crying infant, could not long bear the solitude of his broken home, and
+so began the years of wanderings, which lasted as long as his life, and
+through which he seems so largely to have lost sight of his young son at
+his most impressionable age, save to provide for his material wants,
+and to some extent, also, his education. When with him in later years he
+appears to have enjoyed his society, or at least the evidences which he
+gave of implicit, unreasoning obedience, illustrated by his remark, "I
+believe if I told the boy to put his hand in the fire he would obey me."
+
+At four the boy was put into a boarding-school, and the home was broken
+up. The later glimpses which we get of his career are vague,
+unsatisfactory, or decidedly bad, until the end came, and "Jack" was
+incarcerated in a mad-house when but twenty-two, where his unfortunate
+life went out after twelve years' confinement in a darkness that
+darkened also the last years of his good, if injudicious, father, with a
+sorrow beside which all common bereavements should seem like blessings.
+
+In 1769, then, we see the Cardington home broken up, the boy placed in a
+boarding-school, and John Howard setting forth upon what to him was but
+an aimless journey, in search of consolation, amid new scenes, for the
+shattered fortunes of his home. He travelled over large portions of
+Italy, and returned again to England, where in 1773 he was elected High
+Sheriff of Bedford. No sooner had he entered upon the duties of his
+office, than he was struck with the gross injustice of the practices,
+especially as affecting those prisoners held for debt. Many heads of
+families were held for months and years, not for the original debt for
+which they were incarcerated, which in many cases had been forgiven or
+paid, but for an accumulation of fees due to jailer and divers other
+officers of the prison, who drew their salaries from this source. Much
+astounded by such a state of things in a Christian land, but supposing
+it to be a peculiarity of his own county, he made a journey into some of
+the surrounding districts, to learn from them, if possible, some better
+method. It but augmented his indignation and distress to find their
+condition and methods worse even than at home, since in some he actually
+found the fees wrung from these unhappy prisoners to amount to so much
+that the office of jailer was sold to the highest bidder, the sum paid
+for the position often amounting to as much as L40 per annum.
+
+On this tour Howard, now thoroughly awake on the subject, could not but
+observe the miseries of the prisoners from other sources, besides
+extortions. This might have been borne, but for the terrible crowding of
+herds of men and women, without regard to age, sex, character, or crime,
+into foul underground dungeons, damp, dark, unventilated, often
+unwarmed, with insufficient and unfit food and clothing, without beds,
+and many in chains. Such were the sights which met his gaze at every
+turn, and moved his soul with shame for his country, and a slow but
+deadly anger that, once kindled, died only with his life. Thoroughly and
+systematically he continued his investigation of the jails and prisons
+of England, until he had been over them all, which consumed nearly a
+year's time (travel was a different matter a hundred years ago, from
+now), and then made his report public, for which labor he was called
+before the bar of the House of Commons and received the thanks of that
+august body.
+
+More satisfactory still, he had the pleasure of seeing two bills passed,
+one making the office of jailer a salaried position, thereby abolishing
+the whole iniquitous system of special fees from prisoners, the other
+having reference to improvements in ventilation and other sanitary
+matters.
+
+The text of these bills he had printed in large bold type at his own
+expense, and sent them to every jail and prison in England. A few months
+later, being desirous of seeing whether or not the requirements of the
+new laws were being put into execution, he made personal inspection,
+riding by chaise or on horseback from city to city and from town to
+town.
+
+Toward the last of this year, 1774, Howard made his first and last
+venture into the arena of political life. Being a man of strong, stern
+political convictions, and feeling it his duty to stand by his
+principles, he listened to the advice of friends, and made a stand for
+the House of Commons. Fortunately for the world he was defeated by _four
+votes_.
+
+On such small hinges swing the doors of life. Had he been elected he
+would doubtless have sunk out of sight and been forgotten, and his great
+work would have been given to some other agent.
+
+Though greatly disappointed at his failure, Howard's mind at once
+returned to the question of prison reform, and his next journey led him
+over Ireland and Scotland. The former he found worse and the latter
+better than England.
+
+Being desirous of publishing a book upon his investigations and their
+results, he at the close of this year left England to examine the
+prisons of France, Flanders, and Holland. It surprises us much to learn
+that he found the prisons of Holland almost models, while France is
+declared far in advance of England, although these were the days of the
+Bastille! He also journeyed into Switzerland and again made a survey of
+the jails of England and Wales. Feeling at last that he had sufficient
+material he returned to England and began upon his book. For eight
+months he labored incessantly upon this work, correcting proofs,
+collating and arranging statistics, etc., although for the literary part
+he was obliged to call in the assistance of some of his learned friends,
+who, better than he understood the use of the king's English.
+
+This book made a most profound sensation throughout the civilized world.
+That it might reach a more extended circulation, it was sold at less
+than the cost of production, and large numbers were given away among the
+officials. All this expense was borne by Howard out of his own private
+purse, as were at all times his immense and constant outlay in travel.
+Not only his whole private income, but the fortune of L15,000 received
+from his only sister at her death, was expended in the same manner.
+
+Subsequently Howard published a second volume, in 1780, as an appendix
+to the first, and in 1784 a third and last, which was a compilation of
+the first two, with much added material acquired during his continuous
+travels over every part of Europe.
+
+[Illustration: Howard relieving a Prisoner.]
+
+During the earlier and idler parts of his life, Howard had been pleased
+to dabble somewhat in medicine, after the manner of the gentlemen of his
+time. This stood him in good part upon his travels, and made him
+familiar with the various forms of disease that especially afflicted
+prisons and the people at large. For jail fever and typhus he rightly
+judged that the sanitary and food conditions were sufficient cause and
+attacked them from this basis. But having in a measure finished his jail
+and prison work, to his mind, he became possessed with the idea that he
+might search out and find a remedy for the dreadful _plague_ that was
+filling all Europe with dismay. The methodical habit of the man's mind
+is evidenced by noting that he followed exactly the same method in this
+as in his former undertaking, namely, personal investigation and
+experience. He left home in July, 1789, and it is surprising that for
+six months he literally lived in the poisonous atmosphere of the
+pest-houses, pest-ships, and lazarettos of Europe, and escaped
+contagion. In January, 1790, however, in a little Russian village near
+the Crimea, he was called upon to prescribe for a young lady, ill with
+some low malignant fever, from which visit he contracted the same
+disease. Being then sixty-four years of age, naturally frail, worn down
+by sixteen years of hard, exhaustive toil, depleted by a diet that found
+no place for meats or stimulants, he had nothing upon which to rally,
+and rapidly sank into the long slumber which at last gave him what he
+had so many years denied himself--_rest_.
+
+His remains were buried there in Russia in the village of Dophinovka.
+After his death a monument was erected to his memory, being the first
+placed in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. This was appropriately inscribed
+to his memory, although it was his latest expressed wish that he should
+be left to sleep in an unmarked, unknown grave.
+
+A just estimate of the character of John Howard can only be arrived at
+by a careful consideration of the times in which he lived and the
+peculiar circumstances of his life. The natural inherited sternness of
+his character never felt the modifying influences of a mother's love or
+the companionship of brothers or sisters. His ill health added to his
+restless desire for travel and change, but unfitted him for close or
+continued application to any special line of thought or interest, while
+his early independence in the management of his fortune placed in his
+way strong temptations to extravagance and idleness.
+
+It is therefore more than an ordinary indication of an inborn principle
+of humanity when we find him, upon his first settlement upon his
+father's estates, devoting time, thought, and money to the amelioration
+of the condition of his neglected and suffering tenantry. Model
+landlords were not in fashion in those times, and a man who so
+administered his affairs must have done so in the face of much
+criticism, ridicule, and contempt among his peers.
+
+But none of these things seem to have moved him from the even tenor of
+his way. Yet there was no sentimentalism in his dealings with his
+tenants, as we find him holding them to a strict accounting for the use
+made of their improved conditions.
+
+So of his prison work. It seemed to be all and altogether for the
+masses, and not for individuals. No record is left of personal
+almsgiving, save when resorted to as a ruse to obtain entrance to the
+French prisons. That his interest was not in individuals is further
+shown by the calm and deliberate manner in which he prosecuted his
+investigations, taking years for the accumulation of materials and
+months to their careful watching through the press. It was the principle
+of justice ingrained in the man's deepest nature that forced him to
+_know_ all that could be known or said upon both sides before speaking.
+It was this thoroughness, this absolute fairness, that made of his work
+and of his inartistically constructed books the tremendous and lasting
+success which they were.
+
+Deeply religious, he naturally reflected the spirit of the religious
+teachings of the times, which savored more of the terrors of the law
+than of mercy and forgiveness to evil-doers; that found more worship in
+denying self the indulgences of soft living than in the partaking of the
+harmless pleasures and sweets of life, giving a good God thanks for His
+good gifts. Through all the life and writings of Howard one constantly
+hears the minor chord of infinite sadness wrought into his life by his
+motherless infancy, his unloved boyhood, his years of invalidism, his
+ceaseless mourning for his wife Henrietta, the bitterness of death in
+the cup held to his lips by his unfortunate son, and over and above all,
+the constant atmosphere of crime, cruelty, sin, and suffering in which
+he spent the last sixteen years of his life. Life to him came to mean
+sin, suffering, and sorrow in the world about him, and for himself work,
+work, incessant work, in the effort to do what one man could to lift or
+lighten the burden under which the whole earth groaned. Death came to
+him where he would have most wished it might, and took him directly from
+labor to reward. And throughout the coming ages the world will be the
+better because in the last half of the eighteenth century there lived,
+labored, and died in the midst of his labors one _John Howard, the
+Philanthropist_.
+
+[Signature: Harriet G. Walker.]
+
+
+
+
+ETHAN ALLEN[16]
+
+         [Footnote 16: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]
+
+By GERTRUDE VAN RENSSELAER WICKHAM
+
+(1738-1789)
+
+
+Was Ethan Allen a hero or a humbug? a patriot or a pretender? Ask
+Vermont and she cries "Nulli secundus!" Ask New York and the reply is
+"Ad referendum."
+
+The differentiation antedates the American Revolution and the part Ethan
+Allen played in that historic drama. It is an inheritance of loving
+loyalty and gratitude that quivers in the answer of one State, the
+traditional antagonisms of prejudice that speak in the other.
+
+But for Ethan Allen, Vermont would have had no separate existence. But
+for Ethan Allen, New York's northeastern boundary would have been the
+Connecticut River. Therefore, on one shore of Lake Champlain the
+disputed shield is unalloyed gold, reflecting all that is strong and
+brave, all that is courageous and magnanimous, all that is patriotic and
+generous, while from the other shore its appearance is as brass engraven
+by vanity and vulgarity, by self-sufficiency and infidelity.
+
+[Illustration: Ethan Allen.]
+
+Controversy over property rights engenders such diversities of opinion,
+and when, as in this case, one side gains all and the other loses much,
+the exultation of triumph or the bitterness of defeat will color the ink
+of all literature on the subject for a century to come.
+
+Not until after the year 1761 did the dense wilderness of either
+Northern New York, or what was then considered Western New Hampshire,
+prove attractive to the Yankee or Dutch settler in search of a pioneer
+home. The cruel conflicts that for over seventy years had made these
+border lands the scene of bloody race enmities were ended by the
+conquest of Canada. These primeval forests, that had echoed only to the
+tread of skulking savages, or the revengeful tramp of opposing forces,
+became peaceful spots for the erection of hearth-stones around which
+women and children might gather in safety. Many of the Connecticut
+soldiery who had taken active part in the late French and Indian wars,
+now recalled the beautiful country through which they had marched to
+meet or pursue the foe, the grandeur of its evergreen mountain peaks,
+the limpid sheets of water nestling between, its sparkling fish-laden
+streams, and the apparent fertility of its soil.
+
+These recollections were stimulated by the conditions which confronted
+them on their return to peaceful and agricultural pursuits. The
+subdivision of farms among the many robust sons of the average New
+England household had reached its limit, and the young man who would
+found a home and family of his own, thenceforth must seek for cheaper
+and broader acres than were to be found already under cultivation. New
+Hampshire's liberal offer of grants in her western border upon easy
+terms, decided the future of many a New England lad, and for several
+years the tide of emigration rolled steadily northward.
+
+From Burlington, on Lake Champlain, for one hundred miles south to
+Bennington, the sound of the axe was heard by day and by night. The
+enthusiasms of a new country lent strength to the arm and courage to the
+heart. In every direction homes sprang up, surrounded by young orchards,
+and beyond and around these, cultivated fields.
+
+Suddenly the settlers were set to wondering and worrying at the sight of
+strange surveyors taking new measurements through the farms wrenched
+from the wilds with so much of hard labor and wearisome toil. And then
+the blow fell. New York was claiming all this tract of land as part of
+her province, and declaring New Hampshire grants to be null and void. A
+second payment for their farms was demanded, based upon their present
+value as improved property.
+
+In some cases new owners put in an appearance and attempted to take
+possession, having purchased, in good faith, of land speculators in New
+York City, to whom Governor Colden, of New York, had issued immense
+grants covering a large part of the disputed territory. These
+speculators were mostly lawyers, who were favorites or friends of the
+governor. Against these shrewd men of wealth and education, with their
+powerful backing, the puny defence of the original settlers seemed
+wellnigh hopeless. But it was to be a contest between might and right,
+and that invisible influence which seems ever to weaken the one and
+strengthen the other was surely, though silently at work.
+
+Upon this scene of trouble and uncertainty appears Ethan Allen, a
+farmer, born about thirty years before in Coventry, Conn., large of
+frame, of great personal strength, and with mental characteristics in
+harmony with his powerful physique: a tender-hearted giant whose
+standard of honor and honesty soon measured the injustice of New York's
+position in the land controversy, and at once sided with the besieged
+farmers, with whom he had many generalities of sympathy.
+
+With fiery energy of will and purpose, he immediately assumed the
+leadership of the defence, guiding its combined strength into the legal
+side of the question, thus meeting the power of alleged law with like
+weapons. Selecting the best legal talent of Connecticut as assistants,
+and armed with New Hampshire's charter and seal, he appeared in the
+Albany courts to contest New York's claim that the Connecticut River was
+the boundary between that province and New Hampshire.
+
+But the trial was a farce, stripped of all dignity and justice by the
+fact that the judge upon the bench, the prosecuting attorneys, and other
+officials were personally interested, each holding New York grants for
+many thousand acres in the disputed territory. All evidence for the
+defence, even the New Hampshire charter, was ruled out of court, and
+Ethan Allen's peaceful efforts for defence were defeated.
+
+He returned home, burning with indignation and resolving to protect his
+property and that of his neighbors, if need were, by the force of his
+own strong right arm. For six years, under his leadership, all attempts
+by New York settlers to take possession were frustrated by the alertness
+of the "Green Mountain Boys," as the defence now termed themselves, who
+drove them off quietly or with violence, according to the exigencies of
+the occasion.
+
+As a measure of punishment for these acts, Ethan Allen was outlawed by
+the Governor of New York, and a price offered for his capture. Soon
+after he rode alone into Albany one day, and alighting at a tavern in
+the heart of the city, called for refreshment. His former visit had
+marked his strong personality in the remembrance of many, and he was at
+once recognized by prominent officials, who stared at him with
+curiosity, but made no effort to arrest him. Returning their gaze, he
+lifted his glass to his lips, pledging in a loud, firm voice "The Green
+Mountain Boys," and then rode away unmolested.
+
+This act was defined by his friends as the rashness of bravery; by his
+enemies as the madness of impudence.
+
+But the cloud overhanging the shores of Lake Champlain was but a shadow
+compared with the darkness of the storm brooding over the whole region
+south and east of it, and the battle of Lexington ended this local
+strife.
+
+Thenceforth, Ethan Allen was to bid defiance, not to a State, but to a
+nation. To him and his Green Mountain Boys came urgent appeals from
+leading patriots of the American Revolution for help and support in the
+coming struggle, and the answer was more than kindly assent and promise:
+it was prompt and vigorous action--the first aggressive blow at the
+power of Great Britain, for the musket-shots that harassed the
+retreating red-coats from Concord were those of spirited defence rather
+than of deliberate attack.
+
+As the fortress of Ticonderoga had been the key of the position in the
+late French and Indian wars, the gain or loss of which meant either
+overwhelming victory or disaster, so now it was deemed of equal
+importance in the coming conflict, which inevitably would bring the
+British foe upon them from the North, along the same familiar war-path.
+The capture of this fort was a serious undertaking, for it was well
+garrisoned by a company of British soldiers, and thoroughly equipped for
+vigorous defense. Only the keenest strategy and the most complete
+surprise would avail in the accomplishment of the task.
+
+But the experience and ability of Ethan Allen--who had been unanimously
+chosen as leader--was adequate to the occasion, and his plans were made
+with the greatest secrecy and skill. One of his men was detailed to gain
+admission to the fort on some pretext, and then by skilfully acting the
+part of a greenhorn full of foolish questions, to learn many important
+facts and necessary details. In addition, a lad was found thoroughly
+familiar with the interior of the garrison, who would serve as guide,
+and on the night of May 9, 1775, 270 American patriots appeared on the
+shore opposite Fort Ticonderoga, which was on the west or New York side
+of Lake Champlain.
+
+A day or two previous a small force of men had been despatched secretly
+to points above and below this spot in quest of boats, which failing
+them, in this emergency only 83 of the 270 men could be accommodated in
+the limited number at hand. Spring lingers long in this latitude, and
+the night, clear and cold, was giving way to dawn when the brave leader
+and his little vanguard of heroes resolved to attack without further
+re-enforcement. According to military precedent, he first harangued his
+followers.
+
+"Friends and fellow-soldiers, you have for a number of years been a
+scourge and a terror to arbitrary power. Your valor has been famed
+abroad and acknowledged, as appears by the advice and orders to me from
+the General Assembly of Connecticut to surprise and take the garrison
+now before us. I now propose to advance before you and in person conduct
+you through the wicket gate; for we must this morning either quit our
+pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves of this fortress in a few
+minutes. And inasmuch as it is a desperate attempt, which none but the
+bravest men dare undertake, I do not urge it on any contrary to his
+will. You that will undertake voluntarily, poise your firelock!"
+
+Needless to state, the firelocks were all "poised"--whatever that may
+be--and, led by Allen, a rush was made, the sentry overpowered, and
+soon the gallant "83" were standing back to back on the parade-ground
+within the fort, their muskets levelled at the two barracks which,
+filled with sleeping soldiers, faced each other.
+
+The commandant was then aroused by loud rapping on his door and the
+voice of Allen bidding him come out and surrender the fort. The
+astonished officer, half dressed, made his appearance, demanding by what
+authority he was asked to do such a thing.
+
+A part of Ethan Allen's famous reply: "In the name of Jehovah and the
+Continental Congress!" was more prophetic than authentic, as the latter
+earthly tribunal at that time had no existence.
+
+The hundred cannon and quantities of ammunition found in the fort were
+sent east, where they proved of great service in the siege of Boston.
+
+Crown Point, the garrison of St. Johns, many boats, vessels, and a
+British armed schooner soon after fell into the hands of the Green
+Mountain Boys, thus giving them the full sweep of Lake Champlain, and
+holding in check any attempts at invasion from that direction.
+
+Ethan Allen's military instincts and foresight transcended any
+experience and all knowledge he possessed on the subject. He at once saw
+the importance of pushing the advantage now gained, by an immediate
+advance upon Canada before reinforcements could arrive to strengthen the
+strongholds of Montreal and Quebec; a measure which, if adopted, would
+have changed the whole history of the northern campaign that eventually
+proved so disastrous.
+
+With the splendid magnanimity of a noble soul and the abnegation of a
+true patriot, he addressed the Continental Congress of New York on the
+subject, first apologizing for his seeming neglect to consult with that
+body before his attack on Ticonderoga, which was within its province,
+and explaining the necessity for secrecy, which prompted him. Note the
+spirit of prophecy breathed in the following words:
+
+"I wish to God America would at this critical juncture exert herself
+agreeable to the indignity offered her by a tyrannical ministry. She
+might rise on eagle's wings and mount up to glory, freedom, and immortal
+honor if she did but know and exert her strength. Fame is now hovering
+over her head. A vast continent must now sink to slavery, poverty, and
+bondage, or rise to unconquerable freedom, immense wealth, inexpressible
+felicity, and immortal fame."
+
+He then offers the services of his own men for the purpose, and to raise
+a regiment of rangers in Northern New York, a proposal which he trusts
+will not be deemed impertinent.
+
+[Illustration: Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga.]
+
+But for some unexplained reason no action was taken on his suggestions
+until months later, when the conditions had materially changed, making
+such a campaign exceedingly more difficult. Generals Schuyler and
+Montgomery were then in command, and to Ethan Allen was given a task
+requiring shrewdness, tact, and great personal influence--to enlist the
+co-operation or the neutrality of the Canadians in the struggle between
+the American colonists and the mother country. For weeks he travelled in
+Canada, "preaching politics" so successfully that he was able to
+report a company of 300 Canadian recruits for the American service, and
+that 2,000 more could be enlisted when needed.
+
+In returning from this expedition he was persuaded by a brother officer
+into a step that but for an accident would have been more brilliant than
+Allen's former exploit and added fresh laurels to his name as a military
+hero. It was no less than the surprise and capture of Fort Montreal,
+then garrisoned by 500 men, 40 only of whom were regulars, the remainder
+volunteers and Indians.
+
+It seemed a feasible undertaking. The plan was similar to the seizure of
+Ticonderoga--the quiet landing of boats under the walls of the fort
+before daybreak and the quick rush of attack. The forces were divided,
+Allen taking 110 men and landing below the city. The remainder and
+larger portion were to cross the river above and then signal the others.
+Colonel Allen promptly performed his part of the programme, but no
+signal greeted his ears, and daylight found him in full view of the fort
+and unable to retreat. He and his men for two hours bravely resisted the
+enemy, who sallied out to attack them, but without avail, and they were
+taken prisoners.
+
+The story of Ethan Allen's long captivity, lasting two years and eight
+months, as told by himself, is one of the most interesting narratives
+connected with the Revolutionary war. Loaded with chains, consigned to
+the filthy hold of a vessel, with no seat nor bed save a seaman's chest,
+half starved, tortured by daily indignities, his high courage and brave
+spirit never faltered. Once, when insulted, he sprang at his
+tormentor--the captain of the ship--and with his shackled hands knocked
+him down; and again he bit off the nail that fastened his handcuffs, and
+by these feats of strength and anger awed his guards into some show of
+respect.
+
+The method by which he saved himself from a felon's death in England was
+worthy the dignity of a veteran diplomat. A letter to the Continental
+Congress, which he knew would never reach its destination, but fall into
+the hands of its bitterest enemy, Lord North, contained an account of
+his ill treatment and possible fate, and closed with the request that if
+retaliation upon the Tory and other prisoners in its power should be
+found necessary, it might be exercised not according to his own value or
+rank, but in proportion to the importance of the cause for which he
+suffered.
+
+The English ministry concluded evidently to treat him henceforth as a
+prisoner of war entitled to an honorable exchange, rather than a rebel
+deserving an ignoble death, and he was returned to America, where he was
+confined, with varieties of usage, in Halifax, and afterward in New
+York.
+
+While in the latter place, and suffering from hunger and long ill
+health, he was approached by a British officer, authorized to offer him
+the command of a royalist regiment, and the gift of thousands of acres
+of land at the close of the war, in any part of the American colonies he
+might select, providing he would forsake the patriot cause and take oath
+of allegiance to the crown. Colonel Allen rejected this overture with
+great scorn, assuring the officer that he had as little land to promise
+him as had the devil when making a similar one.
+
+"Thereupon," said Allen, "he closed the conversation and turned from me
+with an air of dislike, saying I was a bigot."
+
+An exchange of prisoners at length freed him from a situation so full of
+personal hardship and mental anguish, and he hastened home to his
+family, from whom he so long and cruelly had been separated.
+
+His only son had died in the meantime, and his wife and daughters, not
+expecting his arrival, were not at Bennington in time to receive him.
+But his neighbors and friends flocked in from miles around to give him
+greeting, and although it was the Sabbath, a day strictly observed in
+those parts, the enthusiasm of the joyful occasion could neither be
+postponed nor suppressed, and its expression found vent in the firing of
+cannon and happy huzzas.
+
+The "Hampshire Grants" in his absence had become the full-fledged "State
+of Vermont," knocking for admission at the doors of the Continental
+Congress.
+
+Ethan Allen at once was appointed General of the Vermont State Militia,
+and although he did not again join the American army, his natural gifts
+of diplomacy were of inestimable service to the country, and the number
+of men he could summon at a moment's notice to his command, served to
+hold in check any attempted raids of the enemy through Canada. He lived
+eight years after the declaration of peace, dying at the age of
+fifty-one, in Burlington, where he was engaged in farming.
+
+A little incident never before in print was recently related to the
+writer of this sketch by a lady to whom it was told in childhood by an
+old man who, as a lad, lived on Ethan Allen's farm. It was in
+illustration of the simplicity of the celebrated hero's private life.
+
+The farm hands all sat at the table with the family, much to the
+amusement or astonishment of his frequent guests, who sometimes were
+wealthy and distinguished and quite unaccustomed to such practical
+exhibitions of democracy. One of these had the poor taste to expostulate
+with the general, and remarked, "I should think your men would prefer to
+eat by themselves."
+
+General Allen feigned to misunderstand the meaning of this, and after a
+moment's reflection replied, "Thank you very much for calling my
+attention to it. I see that what has been hearty enough for my family
+may not have been for my hard-working help. I will take more notice
+hereafter to see that they are better served."
+
+"It was little use," says my informant, "to try to dictate to Ethan
+Allen."
+
+[Signature: Gertrude Van Rensselaer Wickham.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8, by Various
+
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