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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36184-8.txt b/36184-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..042f8c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/36184-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4130 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Englishwomen, by M. B. Synge + +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 Englishwomen + An Historical Reading Book for Schools + +Author: M. B. Synge + +Release Date: May 22, 2011 [EBook #36184] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +BELL'S READING-BOOKS. + +CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE READERS. + + +Abridgements of well-known English books have been carefully made by a +method of excision only, the language of the original being in all cases +left intact. + +Price One Shilling each. + +_Post 8vo. Illustrated. Strongly Bound._ + + +_Suitable for Standard_ III. + + ADVENTURES OF A DONKEY. Translated from the French. + GREAT DEEDS IN ENGLISH HISTORY. + GRIMM'S GERMAN TALES. (Selected.) + ANDERSEN'S DANISH TALES. (Selected.) + GREAT ENGLISHMEN. Short Lives for Young Children. + GREAT IRISHMEN. Short Lives for Young Children. + LIFE OF COLUMBUS. By S. Crompton. + + +_Standard_ IV. + + UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. + SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. (Abridged.) + PARABLES FROM NATURE. (Selected.) By Mrs. Gatty. + GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN. Short Lives. + GREAT SCOTSMEN. Short Lives. + THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) + EDGEWORTH'S TALES. (A Selection.) + LYRICAL POETRY. Selected by D. Monro. + THE TALISMAN. By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.) + + +_Standard_ V. + + THE STORY OF LITTLE NELL. By Charles Dickens. (Abridged.) + SETTLERS IN CANADA. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) New Edition. + MASTERMAN READY. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) New Edition. + GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. (Abridged.) + ROBINSON CRUSOE. (Abridged.) New Edition. + POOR JACK. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) + ARABIAN NIGHTS. + + +_Standards_ VI. _and_ VII. + + WOODSTOCK. By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.) + IVANHOE. By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.) + OLIVER TWIST. By Charles Dickens. (Abridged.) + THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. (Abridged.) + LAMB'S TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. (Selected.) + SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF NELSON. (Abridged.) + SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AND OTHER ESSAYS, FROM THE "SPECTATOR." + TALES OF THE COAST. By J. Runciman. + + +LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS. + + + + +GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN. + + + + + GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN + + AN HISTORICAL READING BOOK FOR SCHOOLS + + + BY M. B. SYNGE + AUTHOR OF "GREAT ENGLISHMEN," ETC. + + + LONDON + GEORGE BELL AND SONS + 1907 + + + + +The following collection of short lives has been compiled as a companion +volume to the "Great Englishmen," which has already met with approval in +schools. It is hoped that this will be found no less useful. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + QUEEN BERTHA (died 606) 1 + + MAUDE THE GOOD (1080-1118) 8 + + ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1122-1204) 13 + + PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT (1313-1369) 23 + + MARGARET OF ANJOU (1429-1480) 31 + + THE LADY MARGARET (1441-1509) 38 + + MARGARET ROPER (1501?-1544) 46 + + LADY JANE GREY (1537-1554) 52 + + PRINCESS ELIZABETH (1596-1662) 61 + + LADY RACHEL RUSSELL (1636-1723) 69 + + ANGELICA KAUFMANN (1741-1807) 78 + + HANNAH MORE (1745-1833) 85 + + ELIZABETH FRY (1780-1845) 92 + + MARY SOMERVILLE (1780-1872) 100 + + ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1809-1861) 110 + + FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (born 1820) 120 + + + + +GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN. + + + + +QUEEN BERTHA (died 606). + + +Bertha, our first Christian queen, lived a very quiet, uneventful life; +history does not record her sayings, nor does it tell us that she +performed any great public acts; she made no special mark on the world at +large. But by her good example to others, by her gentle influence on those +around her, she stands out as the one bright light shining from out the +thick darkness of those heathen days. + +She was the only child of the king of Paris, but there is more to say +about her grandmother Radigund than about either her father or mother; for +Bertha had been taught to love the name of Radigund from a little child. + +Radigund was the wife of a king of part of France. This king had taken her +prisoner with her little brother in a war, but, finding her very beautiful +and of royal blood, he adopted her. As she was a heathen, he had her +baptized, and then had her taught till she was old enough to become his +wife. Then poor Radigund was very unhappy; the king her husband was stern, +rough, and cruel, though he loved her very much, and she escaped unknown +to a distant convent. With her own hands she cut off her long and +beautiful hair, and leaving her royal dress and jewels, she threw on the +cloak of a nun. At last the king discovered her, repented of his harshness +toward her, and gave her a large estate, on which she built a convent, and +devoted her time to study. It was she who made the convent rules herself, +she who gave advice to those who needed it, encouraged the timid, urged on +the slothful, and spoke tenderly to those in trouble. + +Radigund brought up her son, Bertha's father, to love the classics and old +writings, and he became a wise and good king. So when he had a child of +his own, he determined that she should be brought up in a convent, away +from the world, as he had been. We do not know where Bertha was taught (it +may have been under her grandmother Radigund), and we hear nothing more of +her till history tells us that Ethelbert, the king of Kent, married the +gentle Bertha, daughter of the king of Paris. + +Now Ethelbert was a young Saxon king, who had taken part in governing from +the age of sixteen; his friends and servants all looked up to him and were +ready to share his dangers and his triumphs. The kings and princes of +England at this early time were always trying to increase their domains, +and Ethelbert was no exception. The kings were all very jealous of one +another, so Ethelbert thought it would be better to look for help outside +England. So he visited the king of Paris, to ask his advice on the +subject. There he met Bertha, and was greatly attracted by the good and +beautiful princess. The king of Paris for his part liked the brave +boy-king of Kent, and was pleased with the idea of a marriage between him +and his daughter Bertha. But in 567 he died suddenly, and Bertha went to +live with her uncle, who now became king of Paris. + +Now her uncle would not hear of her proposed marriage with the king of +Kent, because Bertha was a Christian and Ethelbert a heathen. But +Ethelbert loved Bertha very much, and he said if he might marry her, he +would allow her to keep her Christian religion, and also to bring over a +Christian bishop with her. So the uncle consented, and the Princess Bertha +was sent over in great state and honour to the unknown land, to become the +queen of Kent. + +Her new home was a castle in the town of Canterbury, a palace where the +kings of Kent always lived. For it was a splendid hall where the king and +queen entertained their friends, and where dancing to the pipe and harp +often went on. The queen had a bower in the garden, where she could play +the lute and ply the shuttle, and she loved to wander in the gardens with +the ladies of the court and watch the flowers growing. + +Happy years followed Bertha's marriage; a little son and daughter came to +wake up the old castle with their merry voices. They had curious Saxon +names, but the little girl was always called "Tata," which means lively, +because she was such a bright little child. + +On a hill beyond Canterbury stood the little church of St. Martin, which +had been restored for the queen's use, and there she went daily, while +Ethelbert prayed to his idols in a pagan temple near. Bertha longed for +him to become a Christian and to convert the heathen men of Kent, but +although he was a good king, anxious to improve the laws and the people, +he liked to remain as he was and as his fathers had been before him. At +last Bertha's wish was to be fulfilled. + +Now some poor little Saxon children had been stolen away from their homes +and taken all the way to Rome as slaves. There they were put out in the +market-place to be bought by the people. They were very fair, with blue +eyes, light hair, white skins and rosy cheeks, and very different to the +Roman children, who were dark. + +While the children were there a priest passed by. + +"From what country do these slaves come," he asked. + +"They are Angles," answered the slave-dealer. + +"Not Angles, but Angels," replied the priest, with pity in his voice, +"with faces so angel-like." + +Then he asked more about them and their country, and when he heard it was +a heathen country, a longing came over him to go and teach the people to +be Christians. When the Romans chose him for their bishop, or, as they +called him, their Pope or Father, he remembered the little heathen slaves +from the heathen land, and he chose a man called Augustine and forty monks +to go over to England and teach the people better things. + +As Augustine passed through France, he heard that Queen Bertha was already +a Christian, and the news made him very hopeful. So he and the monks +landed on the Isle of Thanet off Kent, and sent a message to Ethelbert to +say they were there and would like to see the king. And a few days after +Ethelbert and Bertha went to the Isle of Thanet to meet Augustine and his +men. They wore monks' dress: loose black gowns, with wide sleeves and +hood, and their heads were closely shaven on the top. The king and queen +sat on the ground and watched the long array of monks coming nearer, while +the words of their litany became more and more distinct. At the king's +command they sat down, while Augustine stood and talked to the king about +leaving his idols and letting his subjects become Christians. + +"Your words are fair," answered the king, "but they are new and of +doubtful meaning." Then he went on to say, that though he could not give +up his old customs suddenly, yet he would allow Augustine to preach to his +people; he would give them a house to dwell in and food to eat, and he +hoped their mission might succeed. So the little band marched into the +heathen city of Canterbury singing as they went. The people were greatly +attracted by their teaching, their simple way of living, their plain food, +and gentle manners. Augustine and the monks used to go to Queen Bertha's +little church of St. Martin, and pray, sing, preach, and baptize the +people, who soon came promising to give up praying to their idols and to +become Christians. + +At last, one day the King Ethelbert came to the little church on the hill +to be baptized, and you may imagine Bertha's joy as the king of Kent was +led to St. Martin's Church, never more to enter his little pagan temple. +Then many followed his example, and before the end of the year ten +thousand Saxons were baptized. The king saw what good work these men were +doing, and that St. Martin's Church was not large enough for all, so he +told the people to build and repair churches all over his land. + +Now Augustine could not preach to all these many people, and he wanted to +make new priests to help him. But this he could not do till he was made a +bishop himself. So he went to an archbishop in the south of France, and +was made a bishop with the Pope's leave. Very soon after he was made +Archbishop of Canterbury, and ever since his time there has been an +Archbishop of Canterbury, who is not only head of all the clergy, but the +highest subject in the queen's realm. Augustine was allowed to ordain +twelve bishops to work under him, and to send to York a very trusty +bishop, who might ordain twelve more. + +Now the old Britons or Welsh were, many of them, already Christians, and +Augustine and Ethelbert thought it would be a good plan to make friends +with the Welsh bishops. So they all met under a great oak on the border +land, but unhappily the Welsh bishops could not agree with them; for, +although they were Christians, they did not do everything as Augustine had +been used to do at Rome. So they could not help in preaching to the +heathen, and Augustine went home again. He began to repair an old church +in Canterbury, which is the present Canterbury Cathedral. + +He died in 605, and the last time we hear of Queen Bertha is at the +opening of a great monastery dedicated to St. Augustine. The king and +queen and their son took part in the solemn meeting. + +About the rest of Queen Bertha's life history is silent. Her death is +supposed to have taken place the same year, but we have no record of the +event. She died as quietly as she had lived, leaving us little more to +know her by than her influence on the times in which she lived. She was +buried in a church named after St. Peter and St. Paul, in a corner called +St. Martin's porch, beside St. Augustine, and twelve years later King +Ethelbert was laid beside her. + + + + +MAUDE THE GOOD (1080-1118). + + +"Maude, the good queen;" "Dame Maude, a kind woman and true;" "The good +queen Maude;" "Queen Maude, that's right well loved England through." When +these are the terms used by the people of her time there is little need to +say more about her character. + +Born in 1080, she was christened Edith, but as her name was changed to +Maude or Matilda, on her marriage, out of compliment to the mother of +Henry I., we will call her Maude throughout. Her mother was Margaret, the +gentle Queen of Scotland, her father the well-known Malcolm, of whom +Shakspere has written, a mighty king, but a man who could neither read nor +write. + +When Maude was quite a little girl, she was sent with her sister Mary to +live with her aunt Christina, the Abbess of Romsey. Now, although she had +no intention of making Maude a nun, her aunt compelled her to wear the +nun's veil; this made the little girl not only very unhappy, but angry, +and, whenever her aunt's back was turned, Maude tore the veil from her +head and trampled upon it. One day her father came to the abbey to see his +daughters, and he saw Maude wearing the nun's veil. He was very angry, +and, tearing it off her head, he declared that his fair-haired Maude +should never be a nun, but that she was to marry Count Alan. It is +probable that Malcolm took his two children back to Scotland with him, for +the next mention of Maude is beside her mother's death-bed. + +Malcolm had invaded England for the fifth time, when he was slain, +together with his eldest son Edward. This was heavy news for Prince Edgar +to break to his mother. + +"How fares it with the king and my Edward?" asked the dying queen, as her +son Edgar entered the room. The young prince was silent, but his sad face +spoke more than words. + +"I know all--I know all," sobbed his mother; "but speak the worst." + +"Then your husband and son are both slain!" replied Edgar. + +The widowed queen lifted up her hands and eyes to heaven and prayed, and, +as the last words were uttered, she died. + +Then Maude and Mary were sent back to their aunt Christina to complete +their education. + +While they were there, the news suddenly burst upon England that William +Rufus, the Red King, had been shot by an arrow while hunting in the New +Forest, and that his brother Henry intended to be King of England, as +Robert the elder brother was away fighting in the Holy Land. Henry said, +if the people would only make him king, he would do everything they +wished; and, when they at last consented, he pleased them all by marrying +Maude, the daughter of good Queen Margaret, and descended from Alfred the +Great, whose memory all England loved. + +At first Christina the abbess refused to allow her niece to marry the +king, and, knowing what a bad man Henry was, Maude refused too. But at +last, commanded by her brother Edgar, urged by the people, entreated by +the king, she consented. So they were married on November 11th, in 1100, +and Archbishop Anselm preached a very celebrated sermon to the crowds who +had come to see the royal wedding. Then Maude was crowned Queen of +England, to the joy of the people. + +She was very kind to the poor and to all around her; every day in Lent she +went barefoot, clothed in haircloth, to wash the feet of the poorest +people, after the custom of her mother. She had hospitals built, new roads +made, and bridges over the rivers. + +One day she was riding on horseback through a ford on the river Lea, with +her train of attendants. The river was flooded, and the current sweeping +along so fast, that they were in danger of perishing, and out of gratitude +for her life, Queen Maude caused the first arched bridge ever known in +England to be built. + +In 1102, a little son was born, and named William, after his grandfather +William the Conqueror. + +Now Robert, the Duke of Normandy, Henry's elder brother, had returned from +his wars in the Holy Land, and finding it useless to try and assert his +rights in England, he settled in Normandy. But he was very idle; he had +spent all his money; it is even said that he had to lie in bed sometimes, +for want of clothes to put on, and the Norman people were so unhappy, +that they sent for Henry to come and help them. So leaving his wife Maude +to govern England, Henry took an army to Normandy, and a battle was fought +in which Duke Robert and his little son were taken prisoners. + +It was just forty years after the battle of Hastings; then the Normans +came over and conquered the English; now the English went over, and +Normandy was conquered. Of course Henry had to spend a good deal of time +over there, to reform laws and make peace, but Queen Maude was quite +capable of reigning in England, and keeping the people peaceful and happy. + +In the summer of 1109 Henry returned to England, and kept court in great +splendour at the new palace at Windsor. His little daughter Matilda was +just five years old, when the Emperor of Germany, a man of forty-five, +begged to be allowed to marry her. The proposal was eagerly accepted by +her father, for the union would secure peace between Germany and England, +so the little princess was solemnly married. The child could not stand +under the weight of jewels with which she was adorned as bride, and had to +be carried; she was allowed to live with her mother in England till she +was twelve, when she was sent over in great state to her royal husband. + +When Prince William was twelve, he was taken over to Normandy, for the +Norman barons to swear fealty to him and acknowledge him as their future +king. But he was never their king, because he was drowned when he was only +eighteen. + +A revolt in Normandy to set Robert's little son upon the throne, took +Henry and his son away from England again, and the queen was left alone. +She was in failing health, and Henry returned to spend Christmas with her, +but he could not stay long. He had left Prince William as a pledge that he +would return; so he left the queen, and they never met again. Maude lived +on in her palace at Westminster, very lonely in heart, although she was +surrounded with all the splendour of royalty; her two children were gone, +her husband was across the sea. Her only pleasure lay in caring for the +poor around her, and making _them_ happy. For five months she lived on in +her solitude, and in May, 1118, she died, and was buried in Westminster +Abbey. She was spared the blow of hearing that her only boy, Prince +William, was drowned in the White Ship crossing over to England; spared +the misery of knowing that her daughter Matilda, left a widow at +twenty-one, was obliged to fight for the crown of England, and spared +witnessing the bitter grief of her husband Henry, who, after the loss of +his son, never "smiled again." + + + + +ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1122-1204). + + +Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of Henry II., has been handed down to us by +popular tradition, as a tyrannical woman, with a great many bad faults and +very few good traits of character. This is not entirely the case. Although +her early life was marked by wild and reckless freaks, and though we must +blame her for helping her sons against their father, yet we must recognize +her, as one whose masterful power in ruling the kingdom kept the country +at peace, whose last years were marked by very merciful acts, who never +spared herself any trouble for her son, even when bowed down with +fourscore years--as a great and illustrious woman. + +Her energy from early youth to old age was unrivalled; at the age of +twenty-five, she went on a crusade, dressed as a pilgrim, with her +husband; at the age of seventy she had the energy to go to Italy with a +wife for her son, and to Germany with the ransom she had raised to release +him from prison. + +Eleanor was born in 1122, in Aquitaine, a dukedom in the south-west corner +of France. Count William, her father, was a good prince, and so beloved by +his people, that when he died, fighting in the Holy Land, he was +remembered as "St. William." He died when Eleanor was ten, and her +grandfather undertook to provide for her future welfare. He called +together his barons, and made them acknowledge Eleanor as his heiress, and +further agree to a proposal that Eleanor should marry the future King of +France, Louis, and thus unite the north of France with the south. + +So it came to pass that, when Eleanor was fifteen, she was married with +great pomp, for her grandfather had been one of the most powerful princes +in Europe. Then her grandfather left her, laid down his robes, and went +off to Spain, where he soon after died. After their marriage, Louis and +Eleanor were summoned to the death bed of Louis VI. + +"Remember, royalty is a public trust," were his last words to the future +king and queen, and on them the words made a lasting impression. + +The new Queen of France was very beautiful; moreover she was musical, and +composed songs and poetry; she could read and write, then a rare +accomplishment, and was adored by her southern subjects, who always +welcomed her with joy, and mourned her absence, when she was obliged to +return to her court at Paris. + +Now it was at this time that St. Bernard was preaching about the Crusades, +and the king and queen with all their court went to hear him. He had to +preach in the market-place, as no cathedral would hold the crowds that +went to listen. Now the king,--urged by Eleanor,--had already been to war +in France, and in course of war he had ruthlessly set fire to a cathedral, +in which 1,300 people had taken refuge; all had perished, and the king, +stirred by St. Bernard, resolved to atone for this heartless deed by going +to the Holy Land to fight. Eleanor declared that she would go too, so, +dressed as a "gay and courtly pilgrim," and mounted on horseback, she +accompanied Louis to the Crusade. But it was not a success. It led to +disagreement between Louis and Eleanor, and on their return they obtained +a divorce, and Eleanor went back to her own country. + +Six weeks after she married Henry, Duke of Normandy, the future King of +England. Louis was very angry, because now Aquitaine was united to +Normandy; both would soon be joined to England, and Louis foresaw +dangerous enemies. + +In 1154 Henry became King of England, and he and Eleanor went over to be +crowned. Everything looked bright before them; the queen rode by the +king's side into Winchester, and the handsome and brave young Henry with +his beautiful wife called forth shouts of joy from the English people. + +Soon after her marriage, one day, in the grounds of Woodstock, Eleanor saw +the king walking with the end of a ball of silk caught on his spur. +Knowing it was not her silk, her suspicions were aroused, and, without +letting him see, she took up the ball of silk, and the king walking on, +the silk unwound, and the queen traced him to a maze in the park, where he +disappeared. Thus runs the story. + +Soon after this, the king left Woodstock for a long journey; the queen, +remembering the silk, then searched the grounds, and found a low door half +hidden by the thicket. She opened it, and went down along a path +underground, which at length led out to a lodge in a remote part of the +forest, and here in a bower Eleanor found a very beautiful lady busily +engaged in work. This was the fair Rosamond, and she could now account for +the silk on her husband's spur. Eleanor was very angry, and it has been +said that she poisoned her rival. Rosamond, however, retired to a convent, +where she lived for the rest of her life. + +The king was very often obliged to be in France to look after his vast +possessions, but he always left Eleanor to rule in his absence, and she +governed well and wisely. But the people in her duchy in the south of +France did not like her to leave them so much, and at last they broke into +open revolt, and would not be pacified till Eleanor went with her third +son Richard to govern them for a time. + +Now Henry had four sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John, who was ten +years younger than his brother Geoffrey. The two eldest, Henry and +Richard, had, while quite little boys, been married to two daughters of +the King of France, by which Henry hoped to keep peace with France. + +Geoffrey was to marry the heiress of Brittany, so by this means the King +of England possessed more of France than King Louis himself. + +Henry and his little wife Margaret had been sent to Thomas à Becket, the +Chancellor, to be educated and brought up in a way befitting the future +king and queen of England. The children loved Becket, and when in after +years Henry and Margaret were summoned to be crowned--in the lifetime of +the king--by the Archbishop of York, Margaret refused to appear, because +the guardian of her youth, Becket, was not to perform the coronation. + +In 1172, after the murder of Becket, Henry and Margaret were again +crowned, and soon after went to the French court to Louis. Now, though +they had been crowned, Henry and Margaret could take no share in the +government till the king's death, but Louis stirred up his young +son-in-law to rebel against this rule. + +At his father's death Henry was to have England, Normandy, Anjou, Maine, +and Touraine; Richard, Aquitaine and Poitou; and Geoffrey, Brittany. +Eleanor encouraged Henry to rebel against his father. "I advise you, king, +beware of your wife and sons," were words addressed to Henry, with a +warning to look after Aquitaine. + +One night the king and his son stopped to sleep a night at Chimon; in the +night Henry escaped and fled to the French king, where a few days after he +was joined by Richard and Geoffrey. Queen Eleanor attempted to join them, +but she was seized--dressed in men's clothes--escaping to the French +court, and soon after Henry came over to fetch her and take her back to +England, where he kept her as a sort of prisoner, safely guarded in her +palace at Winchester, for many years. + +Then there was peace for a time. Richard, the darling of his imprisoned +mother, was the first to renew the war. On being told to do homage to +young Henry for Aquitaine, he refused; whereupon Henry and Geoffrey +marched against him. But peace was made. Nevertheless, the people of +Aquitaine were more enraged than ever. In their eyes Eleanor was their +chief, and Henry had no power over them, except through her and by +affectionate treatment of her. Now she was in prison,--Eleanor, the +princess of their old stock,--the princess born among them, brought up in +their midst. + +"Daughter of Aquitaine," sang the troubadours, "thou hast been torn from +thy country and led into a strange land. Return, poor prisoner, return to +thy faithful cities, if thou canst; if thou canst not, weep and cry, +'Alas, how long is my exile!' Raise thy voice like a trumpet, that thy +sons may hear thee; for the day is at hand when thy sons shall deliver +thee, and then thou shalt see thy native land again!" + +In 1183 young Henry the heir died. When he found he could not live much +longer, he sent for his father to implore forgiveness for his wrongdoings. +Henry, who had always loved his son, forgave him readily, and the +prince--almost passionate in his sorrow--died on sackcloth and ashes as an +atonement for his sins. + +The following year there was a solemn peace-making between Henry and his +three sons. Eleanor was released from her prison to be present, and "peace +and final concord" was established. Soon after Geoffrey was killed, and +the King of France at once invited Richard to his court. The oft-repeated +risings and rebellions of Henry's sons were making his last days very +unhappy. He longed to make peace with Richard, but he could not. The +people of the South were against him, his vassals were even forsaking him +for Richard. A list was brought of those who had left him; he ordered the +names to be read. The first name on the list was John. The king leapt from +his bed in agony. + +"Is it true," he cried, "that John, the child of my heart, the best +beloved of all my sons, has forsaken me?" + +He looked at the name, as if to make sure there was no mistake; then, +turning his face to the wall, he groaned: "Now let everything go as it +will; I care no more for myself, nor for the world." + +Richard's first act as King of England was to release his mother from her +captivity, and make her Queen Regent of England. She made a royal progress +through England, releasing prisoners throughout the country to pray "for +the soul of Henry II.," pardoning offences against the crown, making the +forest laws easier, and restoring to their families those who had been put +in prison for disobeying them. + +Her long captivity and sorrow for her two dead sons had softened her +character, and the latter part of her life was kinder, more merciful, and, +therefore, more powerful than the former. When Richard had settled a dower +on her, she went back to France. Soon after Richard joined the King of +France to go to the crusade, leaving a regent to govern England, and that +regent was not his brother John. John felt the slight, but waited till +Richard had gone before he put in his claims. + +Eleanor's next step was to go to Spain to fetch Berengaria, the beautiful +daughter of the King of Navarre, and take her to Richard, who had fallen +in love with her some years before. The royal ladies set off from the +court of Navarre together, crossed the Pyrenees, and went to Naples, where +they found ships, and crossed to Messina, where Richard met them. + +Now Eleanor had several reasons for taking this long journey to Messina. +There was a question who should succeed Richard as King of England, and it +was therefore important he should have an heir. Geoffrey's son Arthur was +the rightful heir, as matters stood, but Eleanor hated Arthur and Arthur's +mother, and was anxious to prevent his ever being king. Again, England was +not in a happy state, and Eleanor wanted to talk to Richard about it. + +Richard left matters entirely in his mother's hands, and Eleanor returned +to England. It required all her efforts to keep the country at peace; it +was she who conferred with the barons, she who at last prevailed over her +youngest unruly son to remain quiet. After a time came the joyful news +that Richard had started for home, but it was followed by the tidings that +he had been taken prisoner. Then came a letter from Richard: + +"Richard, King of England, to his esteemed lady and dearest mother +Eleanor, by the same grace Queen of England, health and all happiness, +which a devoted son can wish for his mother. In the first place to God, +and afterward to your serene highness, sweetest mother, we send our utmost +thanks, although we cannot render enough for the faithfulness which you +keep for us, and the faithful care and diligence which you spend so +devotedly for the peace and defence of our countries." + +Then he tells her that if a ransom can be raised, he will receive his +freedom. Eleanor at once held a meeting of the barons, and ordered a tax +to be made, and the ransom raised. Then she herself set out for Germany +with the ransom, and received back her son Richard. + +When John heard through the King of France that Richard was returning, he +fled. Then Eleanor and Richard held a council, and decreed that if John +did not appear in forty days all his English estates should be forfeited. +Then John threw himself at his brother's feet, and implored forgiveness. +Richard was loth to forgive, but Eleanor begged him not to refuse, and he +always obeyed her. + +"I forgive him," he cried, "and I hope I shall as easily forget his +injuries as he will forget my pardon." + +In 1199 Richard died, leaving the kingdom to John. It was due mostly to +Eleanor's influence that Arthur was set aside, and John appointed to +reign. But many of the French people hated John, and wanted Arthur to +reign over them, and Arthur and his friends marched against a French town +where his grandmother Eleanor was staying. On hearing of his mother's +danger, John, with unwonted energy, marched to the rescue, and Arthur was +taken as prisoner to the castle of Rouen. From this time he disappeared. +Some say his uncle drowned him; tradition gives a tragic history of how +his eyes were burnt out by Hubert. Our poet Shakspere represents him as +throwing himself from a high wall and being killed, but we do not know +what the truth really is. Then Eleanor retired to Fonteraux, where she +died at the age of eighty-two. + +With his mother's death John lost all fear and shame, and relapsed into +depths of wickedness. Sorrow and adversity had taught Eleanor many a stern +lesson, and few women have lived to a more honourable old age than +"Eleanor, beloved of God and man," as the monks of Canterbury used to +address her. + + + + +PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT (1313-1369). + + +Philippa, afterwards Queen of Edward III. of England, was born in the +province of Hainault in Belgium, in 1313. Her mother, the Countess of +Hainault, was a wise and good woman, devoted to her husband and her four +little daughters, of whom Philippa was the second. Her uncle, Sir John, +was a very powerful man, and fought for England when Edward was king. Now, +on one of their many visits abroad, the young Prince Edward and his mother +came to Hainault, and stayed at Count William's house. + +The story runs, that the future King of England took a great fancy to +Count William's daughter Philippa, who was about his own age. They had +long talks together, and spent a very happy fortnight, and the pretty +little Philippa missed her companion very much when he and his mother were +obliged to return to England. + +On the death of Edward II., his son Edward was crowned king, and it was +thought advisable for him to marry. Now it so happened that it would be to +the benefit of England to have the Flemings as allies; for the people +there were ready to help Edward against the French, and to trade with +England; so "a daughter of William of Hainault" was to be selected for +the young king. A bishop was accordingly sent over to choose which +daughter should be queen. + +Happily for both parties, he chose the tall and pretty Philippa, who +started joyfully for England to marry the young king. She received a +hearty welcome, and, with her uncle and numerous attendants, went up to +York, where Edward and she were married in the winter of 1328, at the ages +of fifteen and sixteen. Then they went for the summer to the beautiful +palace of Woodstock, while Edward's mother, and Mortimer, a bad and +tyrannical man, governed the kingdom. + +It was at Woodstock, in 1330, that Philippa's first son was born, the +future hero, the Black Prince. To celebrate his birth, a grand tournament +was held in London, and a tower was erected and filled with seats, so that +the queen and all her ladies might see it. But they had scarcely taken +their seats, when, with a crash, the boarding gave way, and all fell to +the ground. No one was hurt, but all were very much frightened. When the +young king saw the peril of his wife, he flew into a violent passion, and +vowed that all the careless carpenters should be put to death. But the +gentle Philippa, still trembling from the effects of her fall, threw +herself on her knees before him, and pleaded for pardon so hard, that +Edward forgave the men. + +When Edward was seventeen, he determined to govern the kingdom for +himself, and throw off the restraints of his mother and Mortimer, so he +shut his mother up in a castle, and Mortimer was sent to the Tower, and +sentenced to die, as he deserved. Then Edward began to reform many abuses; +many good laws were made, and trade was encouraged with other nations. +Philippa, too, knew how well the people in her own country wove wool, so +she sent for some of them to come and teach the English. First she made a +little colony of weavers at Norwich, and had them taught, often going +herself to look after them, and encourage their work. + +During all the early part of his reign Edward was fighting in Scotland, +and Philippa went with him whenever she could. Once Edward had been up in +Scotland, and had arranged that Philippa should meet him at Durham. Having +welcomed him and supped at the priory, she retired to bed. Scarcely had +she undressed, when the monks came to her door in a great state of +excitement, to say that it was against rules for any lady--even a +queen--to sleep at their priory. Queen Philippa was very much distressed, +and, not waiting to dress, fled in her nightgown to the castle close by, +where she was allowed to pass the night in peace. + +Up to this time Philippa's father had supplied Edward with money to carry +on war with Scotland; on his death Edward became so poor that he had to +pawn the queen's crown in Germany. Soon after the English people sent +their woollen manufactures to Germany, and, instead of receiving money, so +the story says, they redeemed their queen's crown. + +In 1340, a fourth son was born to Philippa at Ghent, and called John of +Gaunt--Gaunt being the old English way of saying Ghent. + +Now Edward had entered on a war with France, which had made him poorer +than ever. Again the queen's crowns and jewels were pawned, and Edward +was getting into so much trouble, that one night he took his wife and +baby, and with a few trusty servants crossed to England secretly. The ship +was small, the weather cold, the wind was high, and at times their lives +were in great danger. However, about midnight they arrived at the Tower in +London, to find it unguarded and only occupied by the three royal children +and nurses. Edward was in a fury, and had it not been for the gentle +Philippa at his side, the guards on their return would have come off very +badly. Not only was Queen Philippa a faithful wife, always ready to calm +Edward's fits of passion and to encourage the industry of the country, but +now we find her ruling his kingdom for him and leading his army to battle. + +In 1346, Philippa said farewell to her husband and to the Black Prince, +the darling of her heart, who at sixteen was off to the French war with +his father. She and Lionel, a child of eight, were left to govern England. + +But no sooner had Edward gone, than the King of Scotland invaded England. +Philippa did not spend long in wondering what was to be done--she went +quickly to Newcastle, where she awaited the English army. When the King of +Scotland heard she was there, he sent to say that he was ready to fight! +Philippa sent back word, that she was ready too; adding, "My barons will +risk their lives for the realm of my lord the king!" + +The queen's army drew up at Neville's Cross, and Philippa, on a white +charger, so runs the story, was among them. She begged them to do their +duty, and to defend the honour of the king; then leaving them to the +protection of God, she rode away. She would not stop to fight; her nature +was too womanly to stay and see the carnage which was going to take place; +she had done all a great queen could do by cheering and encouraging her +men; now she would go and pray for victory while the battle raged. + +When she heard it was over, she mounted her white horse and rode again to +the battle-field, where she heard that not only had a victory been won, +but the King of Scotland had been taken prisoner. He was taken on a tall +black war-horse through the streets of London, and put in the Tower. The +next day Philippa sailed for Calais, and her royal husband held a grand +court to welcome his victorious queen. The terrible siege of Calais was +going on; the French had defended it bravely, till at last they were so +much reduced by famine that they were obliged to surrender. Everything was +eaten, even the cats, dogs, and horses; there was no corn, no wine, and +the unhappy people were fast dying. + +So the governor of Calais came to ask Edward on what terms they could +surrender. Edward was very angry at having been kept waiting so long, and +refused to spare the people unless the six chief men of Calais would come +out bareheaded and bare-footed, with ropes round their necks and the keys +of Calais in their hands, ready to die for the rest of the people. The +governor returned sad and sick at heart, and calling the people together +he gave them the king's message. There was silence for a moment among the +feeble few. Then the hero Eustace de St. Pierre cried: + + "Oh! never be it said, + That the loyal hearts of Calais + To die could be afraid! + +I will be the first, I will willingly give myself up to the mercy of the +King of England." Then five others followed his brave example, and the +willing captives came before the angry king. They knelt and pleaded for +mercy. But in vain. In vain the lords around him begged him to restrain +his anger,--he only thundered: + +"Strike off their heads, each man of them shall die; I will have it so!" + +Then gentle Philippa stepped forth and knelt at the feet of her royal +husband: + +"My loving lord and husband," she cried, "I have crossed the stormy sea +with great peril to come to you--I have been faithful to you all our +wedded life--do not deny my request, but, as a proof of your love to me, +grant me the lives of these six men!" + +The king looked at her in silence, "Lady, I would you had not been here," +he cried at last, "I cannot refuse you, do as you please with them." + +Then Philippa joyously arose, took the men, fed them, clothed them, and +sent them back to their wives, friends, and children. + +Soon after Philippa and Edward returned to England. The same year a +terrible disease called the Black Death broke out in England, and +Philippa's second daughter, a girl of fifteen, died of it. She was just +going to marry the Infant Pedro of Spain, and had crossed to France, where +he was to meet her, when she was taken very ill with the plague, and died +in a few hours. And on the very day appointed for her wedding the little +princess was buried. + +In 1357, the Black Prince returned to England after his victories of Crecy +and Poitiers, and proudly presented his royal prisoner King John to his +mother, as well as John's little son, a boy of fourteen, who had fought to +the end by his father's side, and had been at last captured terribly +wounded. The first day, when at dinner with the king and queen and his +captive father, the boy started up, and boxed the servant's ears for +serving Edward, King of England, before his father John, King of France. + +Philippa, instead of being angry, only smiled at the boy's spirit, and she +treated him as one of her own sons as long as he remained with her. + +The following year Philippa, her husband, and four sons went to France, +leaving Thomas, a child of five, guardian of the kingdom. There she saw +her eldest son married. + +She did not live to see the sad change which made the last years of her +son's life so unhappy; she did not live to see her husband, with a mind +once so mighty, sink into helpless old age, but she died in 1369, at +Windsor. + +When she was dying, she called the king: "We have, my husband, enjoyed our +long union in peace and happiness, but before we are for ever parted in +this world, I entreat you will grant me three requests." + +"Lady, name them," answered Edward, "they shall be granted." + +"My lord," she whispered, "I beg you will pay all the merchants I have +engaged for their wares; I beseech you to fulfil any gifts or legacies I +have made to churches and my servants; and when it shall please God to +call you hence, that you will lie by my side in the cloisters of +Westminster Abbey." + +She ceased speaking. The king was in tears. "Lady," he said, "all this +shall be done." And Philippa the queen died. + + + + +MARGARET OF ANJOU (1429-1480). + + +Margaret had a difficult part to play in the history of England; married +to a weak king, who preferred founding colleges to governing a kingdom, +she had to take the reins of government into her own hands. With the +interest of her only son at heart, she refused to stand by and see the +kingdom snatched from her husband and son; wrath roused her to energy. So +far she may have been right, but she was led on to hard-hearted cruelty; +love for her son made her bloodthirsty; and when both her husband and son +were slain, the woman, once beautiful and strong, was left to go back +friendless to her native land, ruined, miserable. + +Margaret of Anjou was born in one of the grandest castles in Lorraine in +1429. Her father, René of Anjou, was taken prisoner fighting for his +country, when Margaret, the youngest of his four little children, was but +a baby. + +"Alas!" cried the mother, clasping her little golden-haired Margaret to +her bosom, "Where is René, my lord? He is taken--he is slain!" + +The four children of the captive prince were very beautiful, and the bards +loved to sing of them, and follow them in crowds, and scatter flowers in +their path. + +When Margaret was but six, it was arranged that she should marry Henry +VI., the young King of England, in order to make peace between the two +countries. + +When her father, René, was released, Margaret went to live in Italy with +her father and mother; she inherited her father's taste for learning and +love of art. "There was no princess in Christendom more accomplished than +my lady Margaret of Anjou," said a writer of these times. + +The news of her charms, beauty, talent and courage reached Henry's ears in +England, and he sent for a portrait of the princess. The picture delighted +him, and it ended in a truce being signed between the two countries, and +Margaret starting for England to marry King Henry. The parting with her +uncle, Charles VII. of France, was very affecting; sobs stifled his voice; +the young queen could only reply by a torrent of tears, as they parted, +never to meet again. It was harder still to part with her father, for +"never was a princess more deeply loved in the bosom of her own family." +Neither father nor daughter could speak, but each turned their different +ways, with full hearts. + +The people pressed in crowds to look at Margaret when she was married, for +"England had never seen a queen more worthy of a throne than Margaret of +Anjou." + +Now King Henry shrank from the toils and cares of governing the kingdom; +he gave himself up to the learning of the country, and all branches of +study; so that Margaret found the government of England left almost +entirely in her hands. She tried to make the people turn their attention +to manufactures and trade, but England was not in a state for peace; the +men who had fought at Agincourt thirty years before, and the future +soldiers of St. Albans, were not willing to till the soil or weave their +clothes. A rebellion led by Jack Cade excited them more, and in 1455 all +were ready to take up arms and fight. + +Now the cause of war was this: Margaret had no children, and the question +was, who should succeed when Henry died. The Earl of Somerset said he was +the heir, but the Duke of York thought he had a better right to the +throne. This was the beginning of the "Wars of the Roses," as they were +called, for the friends of York wore a white rose, the friends of Somerset +a red rose. + +Now while they were still debating who should be the future king, a little +son was born to Margaret. King Henry had been very ill with a sort of +madness, and did not know about the birth of his son, till one day Queen +Margaret came to him, bringing the baby with her. The king was delighted. + +"What is his name?" he cried. + +"Edward," answered the queen. Then Henry "lifted up his hands and thanked +God." + +Still the Duke of York was not satisfied; for he was very jealous of +Somerset, who ruled the kingdom when the king was ill. In 1455 Somerset +was killed at the battle of St. Albans, and York became very powerful, and +still went on fighting, because he wanted to be king. + +At last the poor king himself was taken prisoner, and led bareheaded into +London, while Queen Margaret and her infant boy fled to a Welsh castle. +The next news the queen heard was, that it had been decided, when Henry +died, his little son Edward should not succeed him, but the Duke of York +should reign. + +When Margaret the queen heard this, she was roused to energy. Why should +not her son reign when his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had +reigned before him? Among the rocky wilds of Wales she wandered, trying to +collect trusty followers, and rouse the nation to fight for her husband +and son. + +Her youth, beauty, courage, and love for her little child touched the +people; they not only gave themselves, but got some of the Scotch people +to help too, and Margaret was able to unfurl the banner of the Red Rose at +Wakefield, almost before the Yorkists knew she was there. Then a terrible +battle was fought, and the Duke of York was slain. His head was cut off, +crowned with a paper crown, and taken on a pole to Margaret. + +"Madame, your war is done; here is your king's ransom," cried one of her +nobles. + +At the ghastly sight Margaret shuddered and turned pale; then a revengeful +look of pleasure passed over her face, as she laughed long and strangely, +and commanded the head of her foe to be placed over the gates of York, +ordered another earl to be beheaded, and pushed on to London. + +But the people of London would not admit her, and very soon after Edward, +son of the Duke of York, was proclaimed king. Seeing the south was +against her, Margaret, with her husband and son, fled north to gain help. +Many of Somerset's friends joined her, and things were looking brighter, +when a large body of Yorkists defeated her array at Hexham. Seized with +terror for the safety of her boy, Margaret fled on foot to a forest near, +alone and unprotected. There she wandered about with the young prince in +unbeaten tracks, weary and anxious. It was growing dark, when, by the +light of the moon, Margaret observed a robber of gigantic size coming +towards her, sword in hand. The child Edward clung to his mother in +terror--but Margaret showed no fear; she took Edward, and thrusting him +forward, said, "Behold the son of Henry your king, and save him!" + +Struck with the loveliness of the child, the loneliness and courage of the +mother, the robber of Hexham knelt down, and dropping his sword, promised +to help them, for he was on the king's side. Then taking the little prince +in his arms, he led them to a cave in the forest where he lived, and took +care of them till it was safe for them to escape to Scotland, and from +thence to France. + +There tidings reached her of Henry's fate; he had been betrayed into the +enemy's hands, and shut up in the Tower of London. + +For many years Margaret and her son lived in France, until the tide once +more turned in their favour. The Earl of Warwick, who had fought against +Henry and Margaret, now turned round, and offered to help the exiled queen +and her son to win back the kingdom. It was some time before the haughty +queen could make up her mind to forgive him, but the future of her son was +very dear to her, and at last she sent him pardoned to England, where he +raised an army and surprised the king, who had to flee for his life. + +Meanwhile Margaret and her son were trying to cross to England, but time +after time they were driven back by wind and storm, and when they did +arrive, it was only to learn that King Edward had returned, gained a +victory, that Warwick was slain, and the king again put into prison. + +When Margaret heard this crushing news, she fell to the ground in a stupor +of despair, for all hope seemed gone. At last her son roused her, he told +her that he himself would go and fight, and they started again for Wales, +collecting supporters as they went. But King Edward's army met them at +Tewkesbury, and a terrible battle took place. Margaret watched it; she saw +the battle was going against them; she saw her only son in the thick of +it, and it was with difficulty she was kept from rushing into it herself. +At last she was carried away insensible, and the next thing she heard was +that the battle was lost, her son Edward slain! + +Love for her boy seemed the only tender part of Margaret's nature, and she +was overwhelmed with motherly grief. A few days after, she was taken +captive to the Tower, and at midnight on that same day King Henry, her +husband, was put to death. + +King René's love for his daughter never failed; he had sympathized with +her in all her troubles, shed bitter tears when her son was killed and the +kingdom wrenched away, and now he gave up half his own kingdom to ransom +the daughter he loved so well. + +So Margaret returned to her native land, to her father's home--no longer +the beautiful, powerful Queen of England, with spirit to do and to dare, +with courage to face any foe; but a desolate, unhappy woman, with all +spirit crushed out of her, with no courage left ever to face the world +again. Hardened by oft-repeated failure and stormy conflicts, she wandered +listlessly about the gardens and galleries of her father's castle, going +over and over the sorrows of her past life, her eyes dim and red from +continual weeping, caring for nothing. Her father died in 1480, and +Margaret did not live long after. She seldom left her retreat to see +anyone, and at last, worn out with trouble and sorrow, she died on August +25th, at the age of fifty-one. + + + + +THE LADY MARGARET (1441-1509). + + +Margaret Beaufort, or the Lady Margaret, was the mother of Henry VII., and +an ancestor of Queen Victoria. She was by far the greatest woman of her +day. "It would fill a volume to recount her good deeds," says a writer of +the times. Full of pity and love for the poor, she devoted herself as well +to help on the learning of the richer classes; she was a mother to the +young students of the Colleges, always ready to forgive injuries done her, +ready to work when there was work to be done, and "All England at her +death had cause of weeping," writes a bishop who knew her very well. + +She was born on the last day of May, 1441, at a large manor in +Bedfordshire. Her father was of royal blood, being grandson to John of +Gaunt, a son of Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault, about whom you have +heard. The child Margaret was named after her mother. At an early age she +learnt to read, and, what was considered a rare accomplishment in those +days, to write; she was fond of French, and knew a little Latin, but not +much, and she often complained in later life because she had not learnt +more. Her needlework was beautiful, and it is said that James I., whenever +he passed, stopped to see the work done by the fingers of his +great-grandmother. There is still a carpet to be seen worked entirely by +her. When she grew a little older, she learnt about medicine and sickness, +and in later life we find her devoting a part of each day to dressing the +wounds of poor people and helping to ease their suffering. + +When she was only nine, the Duke of Suffolk, a great man in England, +wished her to marry his son John, for he knew she would some day be very +rich; but the King of England, Henry VI., wanted the little heiress to +marry his brother Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The little girl did not +know what to do. The night before her fate was to be decided, she lay +awake, thinking and praying, when suddenly, at about four in the morning, +"one appeared unto her arrayed like a bishop, and naming Edmund, told her +to marry him," and not the other. The child told her vision to her mother, +and soon after she was betrothed to the Earl of Richmond, and when she was +fifteen they were married. They went to live in a Welsh castle, but only +for a short time. They had not been married two years, when the Earl of +Richmond died, leaving Margaret a widow at sixteen. She mourned for him +very deeply, but the birth of a little son, the future Henry VII. of +England, occupied all her time and thoughts; for he was so delicate and +fragile a baby, that it was a question whether he would live or die. + +Now the Wars of the Roses were raging in England. Margaret's uncle, the +Duke of Somerset, had been killed at the battle of St. Albans, and she +thought it safest to stay quietly in Wales, taking no part in the war. +Still, it was a trying time for the young mother, closely related to the +fighting parties, listening breathlessly from day to day for news of the +victories and losses, watching over the interests of her infant son, the +young Earl of Richmond. When he was but a few years old, his mother +presented him to the king, Henry VI., his great uncle. Henry solemnly +blessed the child, and placing his hands on the young earl's head, said: +"This pretty boy will wear the garland in peace, for which we so sinfully +contend,"--words treasured by the young mother and remembered in after +years. + +In 1459 the Lady Margaret married the Earl of Stafford, +great-great-grandson of Edward III. and Philippa, and she still lived on +in Wales. + +Margaret taught her son Henry a good deal herself; the boy was growing up +sad and serious and thoughtful, fond of his books, fond of rugged Wales, +and as was but natural devoted to his young mother. + +The battle of Tewkesbury and accession of Edward IV. made it unsafe for +him to remain in England; so with his uncle he went to France, where he +stayed for some time. + +Separation from her son was a great trial to the Lady Margaret, and her +thoughts were constantly with her exiled child. + +It was her habit to get up at five in the morning, and pass five hours in +prayer. Ten o'clock was the dinner hour in those days, and the rest of the +day she devoted to helping the poor around her and to translating French +into English, so that those who did not know French might be able to read +the English translation. Printing was hardly known in England, so she had +to copy out all her writings herself. + +In 1482 her second husband died, and not long after she married Lord +Stanley, a great friend of the king, Edward V., by which means she hoped +to forward her son's cause in England. At the coronation of Richard, the +Lady Margaret and her husband were present; for we hear that the Lady +Margaret was sent "ten yards of scarlet for her livery, a long gown made +of crimson velvet with cloth of gold and another of blue velvet;" she +walked just behind the queen and held up her train, a fact which showed +she was in royal favour then. But not for long. Besides being a usurper +and murderer, Richard III. was a bad king, and the people wanted to depose +him, and set on the throne Margaret Beaufort's son, Henry Tudor. + +It was proposed that he should marry Elizabeth, daughter of the late king; +then all the friends of the Red Rose and the White Rose would join +together, and overthrow Richard. Richard heard of the plot, the Lady +Margaret was accused of high treason, and it was only by reason of her +husband's favour with the king that her life was spared. At last, in 1485, +Henry came over from France, went to Wales, collected an army, defeated +and slew Richard at Bosworth. Now Lord Stanley had come to the battle with +Richard, but just as the battle was going to begin, he took all his men, +and went over to Henry's side. + +The battle began. Richard fought like a lion, determined to conquer; he +knew that Richmond was but a youth, who had never fought before, not even +"trained up in arms." To kill the young Henry was his own aim and object. + + "I think there be six Richmonds in the field; + Five have I slain to-day instead of him!" + +are the words which Shakspere puts into his mouth, as the king is again +unhorsed. But his enemies were too strong for him. When the battle was +over, Richard III. was found dead upon the field of Bosworth, and Lord +Stanley, taking the crown which the king had worn in battle, placed it +upon the head of Henry, now King of England. + +Then came the meeting with his mother. "Tell me," he had said before the +battle, when Lord Stanley had come to fight for him and was wishing him +victory and fortune, "tell me, how fares our loving mother?" and Stanley +had answered, "I bless thee from thy mother, who prays continually for +Richmond's good." Now mother and son met again; they had not seen one +another for fourteen long years, years of the deepest anxiety to both. +Margaret had parted from him as a serious and thoughtful boy--"a little +peevish boy," Shakspere calls him; she met him again as a hero, the King +of England. One of Henry's first acts as king was to restore to his mother +the lands and titles which Richard had taken away from her. + +Then Henry married the rightful heiress of the throne--Elizabeth, daughter +of Edward IV., and England was once more at peace. A grand coronation took +place, and this is what we hear of Margaret. "When the king her son was +crowned, in all that great triumph and glory she wept marvellously." + +The Lady Margaret loved her daughter-in-law very tenderly, and Elizabeth +the queen was always pleased to have her at court. But she did not give +herself up to the pleasures and comforts of court life; her work lay in +another direction. At one of her large country houses she made a plan to +keep twelve poor people, giving them lodging, meat, drink, and clothing, +visiting them when she could, and waiting on them herself. + +She was the highest lady in England after the queen, but she never thought +any service too menial for her, any duty too humble for her to perform. +One of her manor-houses she had already given up to a poor clergyman in +Devonshire, who had many weary miles to walk from his own house to his +church, and was thankful to have a home nearer to his work. + +Now while the Wars of the Roses had been going on, William Caxton, having +learnt the art of printing, had set up a press in London. Margaret +Beaufort was one of his first zealous supporters, and to her he dedicated +one of his first printed books. But the name of the Lady Margaret is +perhaps best known at Cambridge; for it was there, in 1505, that she +founded two colleges, which still exist. One, under the name of "God's +house," had been founded by Henry VI., but it never flourished, and when +the Lady Margaret heard what a state it was in, she refounded it with the +title of "Christ's College." The college was to hold a master, twelve +fellows, and forty-seven scholars, and the countess framed all the rules +for them herself. The scholars were to have a certain small sum of money a +year for their clothes, which were to be bought at a neighbouring fair; +they were not to keep any dogs or birds, and were only to be allowed cards +at Christmas time. The Lady Margaret took great interest in the college; +one day, when it was but partly built, she went to see it. Looking out of +a window, she saw the dean punishing a "faulty scholar." Her heart was +moved to pity, and she cried out, "gently, gently," thinking it better +rather to lessen his punishment than to ask pardon for him altogether. + +In 1506, the king and his mother both visited Cambridge to see the +beautiful chapel of King's College, which was nearly finished. + +She did not live to see St. John's Hospital completely founded (though she +obtained consent to have it made into a college), or King's College +finished, but her arms are over the gates of the college, her crest and +coronet in the window of the hall; still her name is mentioned every year +with the other founders of colleges, and her name is given to buildings +and societies and clubs. + +In 1509, Henry VII. died, leaving Margaret, "our dearest and most entirely +beloved mother," as he calls her, to choose councillors for her grandson +Henry, a boy of eighteen. + +At last her strong health began to fail; she had survived parents, +husbands, and her only son, but when those around her saw she could not +live "it pierced their hearts like a spear." + +"And specially when they saw she must needs depart from them, and they +should forgo so gentle a mistress, so tender a lady, then wept they all +marvellously, wept her ladies and kinswomen, to whom she was full kind, +wept her poor gentlewomen whom she had loved so tenderly before, wept her +chaplains and priests, wept her other true and faithful servants." + +She died on June 29th, 1509. + +She was buried in Westminster Abbey, in a part called Henry VII.'s Chapel, +and a tomb of black marble was erected to her memory. On the top lies a +figure of the Lady Margaret in her coronet and robes of state; her head +rests on cushions, her feet are supported by a fawn. It is one of the most +beautiful monuments in the Abbey, and if you ever go there, look at it and +remember the Lady Margaret's life and work. + + + + +MARGARET ROPER (1501?-1544). + + +Margaret Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas More, was born on July 10th, in +London. She was the eldest of four children, and she was her father's +favourite. She was like him in face and figure; her memory was very good, +her sense of humour keen, her love for her father intense and brave. + +When Margaret, or Meg, as her father loved to call her, was only six, her +mother died, and very soon after her father married a widow, not for the +sake of her youth or beauty, but to look after his four little children +and manage his household. Such a household, too. Before he went to his +work every morning Thomas More set each their appointed task, his wife +included; no one was ever idle, no wrangling went on, no angry words were +ever heard about the house; the most menial offices were regarded as +honourable work, the humblest duties were labours of love. This was the +atmosphere in which Margaret's childhood was spent; no wonder she was +loved for her gentle ways and sweet disposition; with the long quiet +mornings and fixed studies, no wonder she became a learned and clever +woman. + +Each member of the family had a pet, and Thomas More said: "No child or +servant of mine hath liberty to adopt a pet, which he is too lazy to +attend to himself. To neglect giving them food at proper times entails a +disgrace, of which every one of them would be ashamed." + +There is a story told about Margaret Roper, which will show what rigid +discipline she was taught as a child, though the story rests on very +slight foundation. + +One night her stepmother had been churning for a long time, but the butter +would not come; so she sent for Meg and her two sisters, and told them to +churn till the butter came, even if they sat up all night, as she had no +more time, and she could not have so much good cream wasted. They churned, +but the butter would not come; they said "Chevy Chase" from beginning to +end to pass the time; they chanted the 119th Psalm through. At last they +began to repeat Latin; then they heard the buttermilk separating and +splashing in earnest, and at midnight, when poor little Daisy, one of the +sisters, had fallen asleep on the dresser, Meg succeeded in making the +butter come. + +Meg's father--now raised to the rank of Sir Thomas More for his valued +services to the king, Henry VIII.--was often away from home for many +months together, and Meg used to miss him dreadfully. He had risen to be +Speaker in the House of Commons, and his wit and learning were most +popular at court. The king would often come to Chelsea and walk round the +garden, his arm round the neck of Sir Thomas More, discussing some +important matter, to which he wished his favourite's consent. But Sir +Thomas did not agree with the king in many things, and he refused to act +against his conscience even to win the royal favour. Thus a coolness +sprang up between them, which afterwards led to the execution of Sir +Thomas More. + +At the age of twenty-four Margaret married Will Roper, more to please her +father than herself. He was a good fellow, and had studied hard to please +Margaret, and helped her father in much of his work. Margaret would have +preferred to study and write, rather than marry, but her father convinced +her that "one may spend a life in dreaming over Plato, and yet go out of +it without leaving the world a whit better for having made part of it," +and her father's word was law with Margaret. Her father's departure to +Woodstock, the king's court, was a source of grief to Margaret. Two nights +after he left, the household was aroused by shouts of "Fire! fire!" +Everybody got up, and it was found that part of the Chelsea house was +burnt, though all its inmates escaped uninjured. + +In 1530 Sir Thomas More was made Lord Chancellor, but this high post he +only held for two years; he refused to sanction Henry's marriage with Ann +Boleyn, together with several other things, and resigned the Great Seal in +August, 1532. + +A great load was taken off his mind, and his spirits returned, but not for +long. The storm was about to burst. Threatening visits and letters alarmed +the family, and at last the blow came. + +Sir Thomas More had refused to take the oath of Supremacy, that is to say, +he refused to acknowledge Henry VIII. as Head of the Church, and he was +summoned to Lambeth to give his reasons. It was with a heavy heart that +he took the boat to Lambeth, for he was leaving home for the last time, +and he seemed to know it. The days when he was gone seemed long and lonely +to his daughter Margaret. He refused to take the oath against his +conscience, and was sent to the Tower. There Meg used to visit him, and he +told her not to fret for him at home; he explained to her his innocence, +his reasons for refusing to take the oath, and told her he was happy. + +In 1535 he was called to trial at Westminster, and crowds collected to see +him pass from the Tower; even his children found it difficult to catch a +glimpse of him. Margaret, we hear, climbed on a bench, and gazed her "very +heart away," as he went by, so thin and worn, wrapt in a coarse woollen +gown, and leaning on a staff, for he was weak from long confinement; his +face was calm and grave. + +The trial lasted many hours, and Margaret waited on through that long day +by the Tower wharf till he passed back. The moment she saw him, she knew +the terrible sentence was "Guilty!" She pressed her way through the dense +crowd, and, regardless of the men who surrounded him with axes and +halberds, she flung her arms round his neck, crying, "My father! Oh, my +father!" + +"My Meg!" sobbed More. + +He could bear the outward disgrace of the king and nation, he could stand +without shrinking to hear the sentence of death passed upon him, but this +passionate, tender love utterly broke his brave spirit and shook his firm +courage. + +"Enough, enough, my child! what, mean ye to weep, and break my heart?" + +Even the guards were touched by this overwhelming scene, and many turned +away to hide a falling tear. She tore herself away, but only to go a few +steps; she _could_ not lose sight of that dear face for ever; she must +hear him speak once more to her. Again, with choking sobs and blinding +tears, she laid her head on his shoulder. This time tears were standing in +her father's eyes as he whispered:--"Meg, for Christ's sake! don't unman +me." Then he kissed her, and with a last bitter cry of "Oh, father! +father!" she parted from him for ever, and the crowd moved on. + +With a piece of coal Sir Thomas More wrote a few loving words to his +daughter, and on July 5 he was executed, and his head put upon a pole on +London Bridge as an example to others who disobeyed the king's orders. +Then Margaret's love showed itself in all its most courageous strength. + +Soon after midnight she arose, dressed herself, and walked quickly down to +the river, where she found boatmen to row her to London Bridge. + + "The faithful daughter cannot brook the summer sun should rise + Upon the poor defenceless head, grey hair, and lifeless eyes. + A boat shoots up beneath the bridge at dead of night, and there, + When all the world arose next day, the useless pole was bare." + +The head of Sir Thomas More was gone, no longer open to the ridicule of +crowds, to the triumph of the king's party, to bear witness to his friends +a monarch's infidelity--but safe in the keeping of Margaret Roper. + +After the death of Sir Thomas More, his family were driven from their +Chelsea home, and Margaret was for a time imprisoned. She died nine years +after her father, and the dear and honoured head that the faithful +daughter had dared her life to save was buried with her in the Roper vault +at Canterbury. + + + + +LADY JANE GREY (1537-1554). + + +Lady Jane Grey was born in a beautiful palace half hidden by masses of old +trees, called Bradgate Hall, in Leicestershire, in the year 1537. Most of +the old hall is now a ruin, but a tower still stands in which the +villagers still declare that Lady Jane was born. Her father, Henry Grey, +Marquis of Dorset, was one of the king's most powerful noblemen; her +mother, Lady Frances Brandon, was a niece of the king, Henry VIII. Jane +was the eldest of three daughters; Katharine, her next sister, was two +years younger, and therefore her companion in lessons and play. Mary was +much younger. The grounds about Bradgate Hall, and the winding +trout-stream about which the children played, may still be seen around the +ruined palace; but much as little Jane loved the open air and the flowers +that grew around, yet she was still fonder of her books. + +While quite young her father engaged a master to come and teach his +children, and Jane learnt very quickly. Greek, Latin, and French were her +great delight; she could sing, play, sew, and write very clearly. With all +this she was very sweet in temper, truthful, and beautiful to look at. The +queen, Katharine Parr, Henry VIII.'s sixth and last wife, took a great +fancy to the little girl. She was a clever and learned woman herself, and +begged Lady Frances Brandon to allow Jane to live with her at court, +promising to see that her lessons were still carried on. So at the early +age of nine we find Jane attending on the queen, and carrying her candles +before her. This was by no means an easy feat to perform, as the little +candle-bearer had to walk backwards with the lighted candles. The child +did not know, and happy for her that she did not, that she was looked upon +by the court as the heiress to the throne of England, and that the queen +was trying to fit her for the difficult post she was destined to fill. + +When Jane was but ten years old, the king, Henry VIII., died, and his son +Edward, a poor sickly boy, the same age as the Lady Jane, was made king. + +Soon after, Katharine Parr died, and the little girl walked as chief +mourner at her funeral, her long black train being held up by a young +nobleman. + +After this, the most natural thing would have been for Jane to go home to +her mother at Bradgate; but her father and mother thought more of worldly +advance than of their child's happiness. They agreed to let her go to Lord +Seymour, a scheming and plotting man, who wished to bring about a marriage +between the poor little Lady Jane and the young king, Edward VI., who was +her cousin. At first Jane's parents pretended--for it was but +pretence--that they wished to keep her at home, but when Lord Seymour gave +them £500 they consented, for the sake of this contemptible sum of money, +to let him take away their pretty little girl to teach her first, and +then to marry her to a king. But this never came to pass, for the +following year Seymour was taken to the Tower and beheaded in a horrible +way, and his little ward was sent home. Her parents were bitterly +disappointed; they treated her coldly, even cruelly, and her only +happiness was in her lessons. + +One day Roger Ascham, Princess Elizabeth's clever master, came to stay at +Bradgate. Passing through the park he saw that the members of the +household were hunting, but where was the Lady Jane? She was in her own +room, he was told. Thither he went, and found her busily reading a Greek +book by Plato. "Why was she not hunting in the park?" he asked, with some +surprise. + +"I wis," answered the child of fourteen, looking up with a bright smile, +"all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in +Plato; they do not know, alas! what true pleasure means!" + +Then they had a long talk, and the Lady Jane told Roger Ascham how she +loved her books and lessons, and how thankful she was for her kind master. +For she was never happy with her father and mother; they were sharp and +severe with her, and whether she talked or kept silent, sat or stood, +sewed or played, it was sure to be wrong. They laughed at her, scolded +her, often even pinched and nipped her, till she longed for her lesson +hour, when she could go back to her gentle teacher. There the time passed +so quickly, and he was so good to her, and when lessons were over she +would often cry, because everything else was "so full of great trouble and +fear." + +The gentle and clever girl was greatly beloved; her master was duly proud +of his young pupil, whose knowledge of languages was quite wonderful, and +surprised many an older scholar than himself. Greek was her favourite +study, and the last letter she ever wrote was written to her sister +Katharine on a blank leaf in her Greek Testament. + +Lady Jane Grey spent the Christmas of 1551 with the Princess Mary, with +whom the family were on very friendly terms. But the cold weather and the +long winter walks she had to take injured her health, and she became very +ill. Her slow recovery gave her plenty of time for work, and long letters +still exist in Greek and Latin that she wrote to Roger Ascham, and also to +many foreign students, who thought very highly of the noble Lady Jane. + +Up to this time friendship had existed between Princess Mary, who was a +Roman Catholic, and Lady Jane. One day Mary gave her a rich dress. Lady +Jane did not care to wear bright colours, as she always dressed in the +Puritan style. + +"What shall I do with it?" she asked. + +"Marry, wear it, to be sure," replied Mary. + +But this Lady Jane refused to do, even to win favour with the princess. + +This offended Mary. She had heard rumours, too, that Lady Jane, being a +Protestant, was likely to succeed Edward VI., instead of herself, and thus +the Lady Jane slowly dropped out of favour at court. + +Lady Jane's father now occupied a high post; he had become Duke of Suffolk +by the death of two elder brothers, and helped the Duke of Northumberland +to govern England till the young king, Edward, should be old enough to +govern for himself. But Edward instead of growing better grew worse; +always delicate, an attack of measles left him worse, and he could not get +rid of a bad cough. When the dukes found he was not likely to live long, +they began to scheme for his successor. Of course Suffolk wanted his +daughter to be queen; of course Northumberland wanted his son to be king; +so they agreed that Suffolk's daughter, Lady Jane, should marry +Northumberland's son, Guildford Dudley, and reign as king and queen of +England. + +The poor young king, Edward, was weak and ill, and his strong Protectors +could easily make him say that his Protestant cousin, Lady Jane, and her +husband, Guildford Dudley, should succeed him, instead of his sisters +Elizabeth or Mary. + +Guildford was tall and very handsome; he was his father's pride and +darling; but when Lady Jane was told that he was to be her husband, she +was very angry, and refused to marry him. In vain her father urged her, +and told her the king himself had ordered the marriage. + +"And do you mean to disobey the king as well as your father?" he asked +harshly. + +We are told that he had recourse to blows at last; anyhow, the poor Lady +Jane was too unhappy to hold out any longer; her life could not be much +more miserable than it was, and she gave her consent at last. + +On a summer day, Whitsunday, 1553, when Edward the king was lying at the +point of death, Lady Jane Grey was married to Guildford Dudley, and very +soon after she was told by her mother-in-law suddenly off-hand, that she +must hold herself in readiness at any moment to be crowned Queen of +England! For a moment Lady Jane was stunned, almost stupefied, till the +utter misery of her position slowly dawned upon her. She was to take the +throne from the Princess Mary, who was the rightful queen, and reign over +a people who would look on her as a usurper instead of pitying her as a +helpless woman. The future weighed heavily on her mind; she became very +ill, and was taken to Chelsea, to the house of her father-in-law, for +change of air, there to await the king's death. + +Late on one summer afternoon, the summons came for her to go at once to +Sion House, whether well or ill. A barge was at the door to convey her up +the river. What a long two hours it seemed to Lady Jane till the barge +arrived at Sion House! She found the hall empty, but no sooner had she +arrived than the two Protectors, her father and Northumberland, her mother +and mother-in-law, and many dukes and earls entered, all bending low +before her. Her cheeks grew hot, her heart beat fast. She understood +everything. The young king was dead. She was Queen of England. A long +speech was made, and all present swore to protect and serve her as queen, +but it was all too much for the Lady Jane, already ill and unhappy. She +tottered and fell to the ground, weeping bitterly; there she lay as one +dead, her face white as marble, her eyes closed. When she came to herself +she raised herself on to her knees, and prayed that, if to succeed to the +throne were her duty and right, she might govern the realm of England +well and justly. + +Very early next morning, still weary from the excitement of the former +night, the queen and her attendants came down the Thames in barges, and +landed near the Great Hall of the Tower. Then a long procession was +formed. Guildford Dudley walked beside his royal wife, cap in hand, bowing +to the ground whenever she spoke. Crowds lined the way, and knelt as she +passed to be crowned their queen; little did they know how gladly she +would have changed her lot with any of her poorer subjects if she could. +Her life grew more unhappy; she could not sleep; she fainted often while +talking to her council. + +One day she heard that her father, the Duke of Suffolk, was going to march +against the Princess Mary, who had been proclaimed queen in many parts of +England; but she was so alarmed at being left alone with the Dudleys, and +wept so bitterly, that he consented to stay with her, and let +Northumberland go instead. But he met with no success. There were no +shouts of "God save Queen Jane!" no one cried "God speed ye!" He found +that Mary's party was growing rapidly in strength, and that she had been +proclaimed queen everywhere but in London itself. + +The news fell heavily on the queen; sleep forsook her entirely; the long +nights were "full of great trouble and fear," though she knew the Tower +was barred and locked. At last the blow came. One day the queen had +promised to stand godmother to a child; not being well enough to go she +sent her attendant. The attendant was not gone long, but on her return she +found officers in possession of the room, the royal canopy down, and was +told that "Jane Grey was a prisoner for high treason." Thus from the state +apartments she followed her to the prison rooms of the Tower. + +She was still in the Tower, no longer a queen, but a prisoner; her nobles +had deserted her, her subjects had risen up against her, her father and +mother were gone, and her husband was separated from her. + +On October 1st, 1553, Mary was crowned queen amid the cheers of the +people; and the Duke of Suffolk, father of the late queen, was one of the +first to acknowledge Mary as Queen of England. + +The following month Lady Jane and her husband were accused of high +treason; they pleaded guilty to the charge, and sentence of death was +passed upon them. Husband and wife looked on one another for the last +time, and Lady Jane was taken back to the Tower, there to await her death. +A dismal Christmas passed, and the new year of 1554, which was to see so +many bloody deeds, opened. + +Queen Mary was forced somewhat against her will to sign the death warrant, +and "Guildford Dudley and his wife" were informed that February 12th was +the day fixed for their execution. Still, if Lady Jane would change her +religion, become a Roman Catholic, and obey Mary, she might have her +liberty and her life; but this she refused to do--rather death than that. + +Guildford Dudley was the first to die; he had begged for a last interview, +a last kiss from his wife, and it had been granted by the queen, but Lady +Jane refused, saying it would be too much for them, and unnerve her +completely. So she stood at the Tower window, and waved him a silent +farewell, sobbing, "Oh, Guildford, Guildford!" An hour afterwards she was +led forth for execution; she walked with a firm and steady step, and +addressed to the crowd a few touching words, which drew forth heartfelt +sympathy for the courageous and noble woman who was going to die. She said +a psalm, her eyes were bound, she forgave willingly the man who was about +to cut off her head, and in a few moments her unhappy life was ended. + + + + +PRINCESS ELIZABETH (1596-1662). + + +Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James I., was one of the most heroic women +of her time; first an English princess, then a foreign queen, and lastly +almost a beggar in a strange land, she always managed to be bright, and to +cheer those around her, when she could. + +She was born in August, 1596, in a Scotch palace, and as she was the first +daughter of the Scotch king, a regular establishment of nurses, rockers, +and attendants was provided for her; she was given everything that could +make her happy, supplied with costly dolls, and dressed in velvet or +plush. + +When Elizabeth was only seven, her godmother, the Queen of England, died, +and James I., her father, went to England to be crowned king, thus uniting +the two countries of Scotland and England. Elizabeth and her elder brother +Henry went with their father and mother, and all were received with great +joy in England. The children only stayed at court three weeks, when they +were sent to an old abbey in the country with tutors and governesses. Here +they were very happy; they played about the lovely grounds round the +abbey, rode and hunted, breathed the free country air, and learnt their +lessons in large spacious rooms. Elizabeth could write very well even at +seven, and whenever her brother was away, she wrote him charming little +letters between lines ruled in red ink. When she was nine Gunpowder Plot +was discovered. + +"I can easily enter by the gate yonder, and with the aid of a dozen men +carry off the princess, while the rest catch her attendants," were words +heard by the children one day while playing near the high road. It was +clear she must be taken away at once. + +"No, I can never leave my dear Henry," cried the child, when told they +must part, and so tightly did she cling to him, that it was with +difficulty her arms were unclasped. + +Soon after this a suite of rooms were fitted up for her at court, and +there for a short time she enjoyed the splendours of court life. But when +only fourteen, little more than a child, a husband was chosen for her from +a foreign country. Frederick, the future Elector Palatine, was only +sixteen himself, when he was sent for to come over to England and marry +the Princess Elizabeth. + +The whole family were assembled to welcome him when he arrived. + +Elizabeth stood by her brother Henry on a raised platform, her eyes fixed +on the ground, while Frederick with a firm step and beaming face walked up +the long hall. When he reached the king and queen, Elizabeth looked up to +see a dark handsome boy with a pleasant face and manly figure. He bowed +very low and kissed her hand, and apologized in broken English for +appearing in his travelling clothes and not in court dress. + +The month before her marriage her brother Henry was seized with a severe +fever, and it soon became evident that he could not live. Elizabeth was in +despair, she refused to obey the order not to enter the sick room of her +beloved brother, and one evening she stole away from the festivities of +the court, disguised herself, and hurried eagerly to him, but only to be +sent back by the watchful attendants, who were more anxious for her safety +than pitiful of her sisterly love. "Do not be so cruel. Take me to him, if +only for a minute." There was a hungry, yearning look in her brown eyes, +the tears rolled down her cheeks, and it was hard to refuse such a +request. But the guards were firm. + +"Oh, where is my dear sister?" were Henry's last words. This was the first +great sorrow in Elizabeth's life, and the beginning of the darker days in +store for her, which were to bring out all the courage of her womanly +nature. + +On St. Valentine's Day, 1613, the wedding took place. Prince Frederick was +dressed in cloth of silver embroidered with diamonds; his bride wore cloth +of silver too, shining with pearls and diamonds, and her long and +beautiful hair hung over her shoulders to her waist. + +After a few months of English festivities the young couple made their way +to their new home at Heidelberg, where they were received with great joy. + +Now Frederick was, by his father's death, Elector Palatine, that is, he +ruled over part of Germany under the Emperor. The Emperor had made a +cousin of his King of Bohemia, but that cousin was a Roman Catholic, and +the people of Bohemia did not like him, so they dethroned him, and sent +to Frederick to ask him to come to help them and be their king. It was a +critical position for Frederick; he saw it might, and probably would, lead +to war; his mother begged him to refuse, but his wife Elizabeth would not +hear of such a thing. The sparkle of a crown glittered before her eyes; +she trusted Frederick to keep peace and reign well over the people who had +chosen him as king. "I had rather feed on a dry crust at a king's table +than feed on dainties at that of an elector!" cried Elizabeth. Thirty +years later she knew what it was to eat a dry crust, but not at a king's +table. + +So Frederick consented to become King of Bohemia, and he, Elizabeth, and +their three little children left their beautiful Heidelberg home to be +crowned king and queen. Great were the rejoicings; bells rang, bonfires +were lit, cheers of "Long live King Frederick!" echoed through the air, +while those who were near enough kissed the hem of the new queen's robes, +for Elizabeth had already won their hearts; she ordered bread and wine to +be given to all who came to the castle, and by her goodness and generosity +won the name of "Queen of Hearts." But their position of King and Queen of +Bohemia was not secure; jealousy began to show itself in the princes round +them, and Frederick felt that at any moment the threatened storm might +burst. He had been growing more and more unpopular, and at last war was +declared. + +The more critical Frederick's position, the firmer grew Elizabeth. + +"I persuaded you to be crowned king, I was with you in those happy and +joyous days, I will stand by you in trouble," she said, and not only +said, but did. She sent away her children, only keeping Prince Rupert, a +baby of but a year old. The first battle was lost, and in anguish +Frederick hastened to his wife, begging her to escape at once. But she +would not leave him. If he would come, she would go; if not, they would +stay together. His subjects begged their king to stand firm; they reminded +him of his oath to guard his kingdom to the last; a raid on the enemy +might yet turn the scale. But where his wife's life was in danger, +Frederick refused to stay, and together they escaped from their kingdom. +Still relying on help from England, they hoped on, and Frederick again +joined the army. Leaving behind her a baby of a month old and her other +children, Elizabeth again followed her husband, knowing that she alone +could cheer him and keep up his spirits. Once more she travelled through +parts of the country where, only six years ago, she had been welcomed as a +happy bride; now she wandered an outcast and an exile, with but the empty +title of queen to make up for the loss of a home, country, friends. When +Heidelberg, their lovely home, fell into the hands of the enemy, Elizabeth +cried piteously, "My poor Heidelberg taken! Oh! God visits us very +severely; the misery of these poor people distresses me sadly!" + +Still the war, known as the Thirty Years' War, went on, and Frederick was +often away for many months together. + +In 1629, a terrible grief befell Elizabeth in the death of her eldest son +Henry. He was in a yacht with his father one day, when a large vessel bore +down upon them, and struck them; the yacht filled with water, and in a +moment sank. All on board perished save King Frederick. + +"Save me, father, save me!" was the drowning cry of the boy, but all +efforts to save him were in vain, and the distracted father had but to go +back, and break the news to his wife. The mother's grief was so violent, +that she became very ill, but when she found how heartbroken Frederick was +with the thought that he was saved and his boy drowned, she roused herself +to comfort him. + +Things were looking brighter; a new hero had come to the aid of the +unhappy king, when his troubled life was suddenly ended. A bad fever set +in, and as he was weak and anxious it took deadly hold on him. His last +effort was a letter to his wife. "Can I but live to see you once again, I +shall die content," he wrote--but they did not meet. + +The blow fell heavily on Elizabeth; for three days she neither ate, drank, +slept, nor shed a single tear. She could hardly realize that all hope of +regaining the kingdom was gone, and that he whom she had loved so +devotedly through the twenty years of her married life was dead. Her +comfort was in her children; her second son Rupert was specially dear to +her. While still a boy, the future hero of Edgehill and Marston Moor +distinguished himself by fighting to get back his father's rights; a wild, +reckless youth, he was taken prisoner fighting for his father's cause +rather than give up, or flee, as his elder brother had done. When in +prison he managed to scribble a few words of comfort to his mother, +assuring her he was well, and would come back to her as soon as he was +released. + +When the sudden news arrived that Elizabeth's brother Charles had been +executed, and Cromwell made Protector of the kingdom, Prince Rupert, the +daring royalist, was one of the first to offer himself to the future +Charles II. to help to regain the kingdom. + +Meanwhile, Elizabeth was almost penniless. "Next week I shall have no meat +to eat, and this week, if there be no money found, I shall have neither +meat, nor bread, nor candles," she wrote piteously to her son Charles. +Rupert would have given her his last crust, but Charles, Elector Palatine, +refused to supply her wants. + +At last the exiled queen made up her mind to return to England, and end +her days in the land of her childhood. + +Sophia, her youngest child, was married, and lived with her husband, the +Prince of Hanover, in his own country. She was a beautiful and clever +woman, and constantly went back to see her mother, and cheer her solitude. +Sophia's son was George I. of England, from whom is descended Queen +Victoria. She and Prince Rupert came to bid farewell to their mother +before she left their land for ever. + +What a different return to England; no crowds lined the coast, no shouts +resounded from the citizens as on her departure, forty years before, as a +happy young bride. When the widowed queen stepped on English soil, her +heart revived. She had lived to see Charles II., her nephew, restored to +the throne of England--her son restored to the Palatinate. Craven, her +faithful friend, took her to his home, but she did not live long. The +passionate love of her son Rupert, the wild and daring royalist, comforted +her to the end, and "Prince Rupert of the Rhine" was the only one of her +many children who followed her to the grave. She was buried by night at +Westminster. While the long torchlight procession moved up the Abbey, a +fierce gale raged; some thought it was a foreboding of future troubles to +England; some thought it was like the troubled life of the Bohemian Queen; +the faithful Craven bowed his head, and thanked God that his lady was +beyond the wild storms of the world. + + + + +LADY RACHEL RUSSELL (1636-1723). + + +England was in a troubled state when Lady Rachel Russell was born. + +Charles I. was king, but the people were not happy under his rule. England +became divided into two parties--some for him, and some against him. Among +the king's firmest and most staunch supporters was the Earl of +Southampton, Rachel Russell's father. He was a loyal Englishman, and when +affairs came to a crisis, and civil war broke out--though he saw what must +be the result--he stuck to his king, and fought manfully for him. He +married a French lady of noble birth, and had two daughters, Elizabeth and +Rachel. + +When Rachel was yet a baby, her mother died. She never had much education, +perhaps because her father was a great deal away, and she had no mother to +watch over it; perhaps because the country was in too disturbed a state +for any progress in learning; and the result is, that her letters are full +of mistakes in spelling. She must have heard a great deal about politics +as a child; for her father took his seat in the Long Parliament when his +little daughter was only six; she must have heard him talk of the battle +of Edgehill and the bravery of Prince Rupert; she must have heard about +Oliver Cromwell; and when she was thirteen, all England rang with the +news that Charles the king was beheaded. Her father was one of those +faithful four, who, on that snowy winter day, bore the coffin of the king +to the royal tomb at Windsor. Then he took his family away into Hampshire, +while Oliver Cromwell was at the head of the English government. + +When she was seventeen, her father chose her a husband in Lord Vaughan. + +"It was acceptance rather than choosing on either side," she said in after +life. However, the young couple went to live in Wales, and were very +happy, and everyone loved her and respected her. + +"All that know you are forced to honour you," wrote a friend to her one +day, "neither are you to thank them for it, because they cannot do +otherwise." + +Fourteen happy years passed away, and then Lady Vaughan was left a widow. +She went to live with her elder sister Elizabeth, now Elizabeth Noel, whom +she loved very dearly. Her father was dead, and Elizabeth had inherited +his seat in Hampshire; so, in the home where they had played as children, +the two sisters now lived together. + +In 1669 she married William Russell, a young nobleman. Having travelled +abroad, he had returned to England in time to become a member of the House +of Commons which restored Charles II. to the throne, and from this time he +took a prominent part in the politics of the day. He consulted his wife +about everything; he was guided by her advice in moments of extreme +difficulty; he depended on her judgment, and he found it just and good. On +the other hand, she watched every event in which her husband's interest +was concerned, with unwearying love; his happiness and success were hers, +his sorrows and defeats were shared by her too. They were not often parted +during the fourteen years of their married life, but when they were +separated their letters show how long the time seemed, and how drearily +the days passed. + +"The few hours we have been parted seem too many to me to let this first +post-night pass without giving my dear man a little talk," she wrote to +him, when he had been obliged to be present at the parliament, just called +together again. She tells him about their little child named after her +mother, Rachel, how she "fetched but one sleep last night," and how "very +good she was this morning;" how she is writing in the nursery with "little +Fubs," as they generally called her, and how she knew the father would be +rejoiced to hear that Fubs "was breeding her teeth so well," and beginning +to talk. + +The letters are badly written, bad grammar is used, and the spelling +neglected, but they are so homely and happy, they are written with such +ease and enjoyment, that we forget that the writer was never really +educated, though an earl's daughter. + +In 1679 Elizabeth Noel died. This was no common loss to Lady Rachel +Russell; it was her only sister, her beloved, the person whom, next to her +husband, she loved most dearly in all the world. Though she writes to her +husband of her loss, she does not fill her letters with her own feelings; +she tries to rouse herself to public affairs, which will interest him +more, and chats about the three little children and their doings and +sayings. She taught the children herself, and their happiness and welfare +was her great object in life; she liked "Fubs" to write to her father +whenever he went away, and the conscientious little girl used to bring a +tiny letter to be enclosed, though sometimes tears were shed when the +spelling and writing would not come right. + +Nevertheless, very anxious times were hovering over England, and Lady +Rachel Russell was not blind to her husband's danger. + +Lord Russell had been in the parliament that called Charles II. to the +throne; but slowly he and many others awoke to the fact that they had +blundered. Charles was weak, selfish, unfit to rule England, unsettled as +she was then, and a few years after the Restoration Lord Russell, together +with others, joined the country party against the court. He was a +generous, kind-hearted man, "raised by birth and fortune high above his +fellows," and he soon became one of the most powerful opponents of the +court, one of the most influential leaders of the country party. By the +Whigs he was honoured as a chief; he was one of those who wished to +exclude the Duke of York, brother to Charles II., from the throne on +account of his religion. + +In 1678 Lord Russell was supporting a bitter measure against the court +party. Lady Russell was very much alarmed; she wrote to him in the House, +and begged him not to support it. + +"If you do, I am most assured you will repent it; if I have any interest, +I use it to beg you to be silent in this case, at least to-day." + +In 1681 a crisis arrived. The king and parliament could no longer act +together, and when parliament was dissolved, two men were at the head of +the struggle. One of these was Lord Russell. Meetings were held; some +proposed to overthrow the king and set up a new ruler; others wished to +rise and murder Charles II. But they were discovered, and Lord Russell was +arrested. The messenger waited about the door for many hours, so that Lord +Russell might have escaped, for the back door was open, but he would not; +"he had done nothing," he said, "which caused him to dread the justice of +the country." Lady Russell consulted his friends, and they agreed he ought +not to fly. + +Then he was sent to the Tower. It was the 26th of June. During the +fortnight that elapsed between his arrest and trial, Lady Russell spared +neither pains nor energy in finding supporters to defend her husband. She +was constantly with him, she wrote for him, she encouraged his timid +friends, she strengthened his firm ones, she left not a stone unturned to +provide against the charges which would be brought forward to crush him +whom she loved so dearly. + +At last the trial came. The night before, Lady Russell wrote a few lines +to her husband; she told him that she was going to be present, for friends +thought she might be of use; she begged him to keep up heart for _her_ +sake as well as his own. The court was densely filled; as Lady Russell +entered, her pale face calm and brave, a thrill of anguish ran through the +crowd. + +"We have no room to sit down," said the counsel. Lord Russell asked for +pen, ink, paper, and the use of any papers he had, adding, "May I have +somebody to write for me?" + +"Any of your servants shall assist you in writing anything you please," +said the Chief Justice. + +"My wife," said Lord Russell, "is here to do it." And Lady Russell stood +up in the midst of that crowded court to show that she was willing, more +than willing, to fulfil this almost sacred office for her husband. + +"If my lady will give herself that trouble," said the judge, carelessly. + +Trouble! It was no trouble to her. The resolute wife took her seat beside +her husband, took up the pen, and during the whole long trial sat there, +his only secretary and adviser. + +Even when the sentence of death was pronounced, Lady Russell did not give +way. She tried later to move the heart of the king, but in vain; though +she was the daughter of one of his oldest and most faithful servants, he +refused pardon, unless Lord Russell would change his opinions. + +"It is all true," said the king when Russell's innocence was pleaded; "but +it is true that, if I do not take his life, he will take mine." + +Slowly all hope disappeared, and the fatal day approached. Lord Russell +wrote to the king, "I hope your majesty's displeasure against me will end +with my life, and that no part of it shall fall on my wife and children." + +His last thoughts were for his wife; he dreaded the blow for her more than +for himself. The parting with her was the hardest thing he had to do, for +he was afraid she would hardly be able to bear it, he said to Burnet, the +bishop who was allowed to be with him the last few days. + +Tears came into his eyes when he spoke of her. The last day came, and Lady +Russell brought the three little children to say good-bye for ever to +their father. "Little Fubs" was only nine, her sister Catherine seven, and +the baby three years old, too young to realize his loss. He kissed them +all calmly, and sent them away. + +"Stay and sup with me," he said to his wife. She stayed, and they ate +their last meal together. Then they kissed in silence, and silently she +left him. When she had gone, Lord Russell broke down completely. + +"Oh, what a blessing she has been to me!" he cried. "It is a great comfort +to me to leave my children in such a mother's care; she has promised me to +take care of herself for their sakes; she will do it," he added +resolutely. + +Lady Russell returned heavy-hearted to the sad home to which she would +never welcome him again, there to count the wretched hours till the fatal +stroke was given. + +On July 21st, 1683, she was a widow, and her children fatherless. They +left their dreary London house, and went to an old abbey in the country, +where Lady Russell gave herself up to the education of her children. She +never neglected this duty she had taken upon herself, and her daughters +never had any other teacher but their mother. She tried to dismiss her +sorrow for their sakes, and interest herself in their pleasures. Politics +still interested her, and it was with troubled feelings she saw James II. +mount the throne of England. + +In 1688 her eldest daughter Rachel was married. The same year the Great +Revolution began. + +In 1689, William and Mary were crowned; one of their first acts was to +annul the sentence against Lord Russell. When the parchment which effected +this was laid on the table of that assembly in which, eight years before, +his face and his voice had been so well known, the excitement was great. +One old Whig member tried to speak, but could not. "I cannot," he +faltered, "name my Lord Russell without disorder. It is enough to name +him. I am not able to say more." + +Lady Russell's health was broken, and she was threatened with blindness. +It has been said that she wept herself blind, but this is hardly true. It +was discovered she had cataract, and must give up writing by candlelight +and reading. + +Soon after her son, Lord Tavistock, was married at fifteen to a rich +heiress, and her daughter Catherine to a nobleman. + +An amusing account is given of Catherine and her husband, which shows what +favour the family was in at this time. + +When they drew near Belvoir, where they were going to stay, verses were +presented them on the occasion of their happy marriage; at the gate stood +"four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row; four-and-twenty trumpeters with +their tan-tara-ra-ra's; four-and-twenty ladies, and as many parsons." + +Her son was only just married when Lady Russell was requested to let him +stand to be elected to the House of Commons. He was just going to +Cambridge to study, a mere boy, and his mother, feeling it would ruin his +future, and turn his head, to enter parliament so young, refused, though +the offer was a tempting one. + +In 1701 she was called to the deathbed of that son, who had caught small +pox, which was raging at that time. His wife and little children had been +obliged to flee from it, and his mother was left to comfort his last +hours. + +"I did not know the greatness of my love to him, till I could see him no +more," she cried, when he had gone. She was confused and stunned by the +suddenness of his death, but she had need of all her strength, for another +blow was close at hand. + +Six months after, her second daughter Catherine died. Rachel, Duchess of +Devonshire, was very ill at the time, but, knowing of her sister's +illness, she constantly enquired for her. It was all the poor mother could +do to keep up herself, and conceal from Rachel the death of her sister for +a time. + +The last years of Lady Russell's life were calm, but very sad;--her +husband, her son and daughter, were all gone, and she longed to follow +them. + +At last, on a September day in 1723, she died in the arms of her daughter +Rachel, the little "Fubs" of bygone days, and she was buried beside the +husband whom she had loved and served so devotedly during the few happy +years of their married life. + + + + +ANGELICA KAUFMANN (1741-1807). + + +Angelica Kaufmann, though the name is foreign, though she was born on the +banks of the German Rhine, may still be called an Englishwoman, for her +work lay chiefly in England, and the greater part of her life was spent in +this country. Although no mighty heroine, she was on the one hand a lover +of art, a painter, a musician, in the eyes of the public beautiful and +popular; on the other, a genuine, true-hearted woman, often deceived, but +never deceiving, true to the world, and true to herself. She was born in +1741, at a town on the Rhine, in a wild and picturesque district. + +Her father, John Kaufmann, had been a sort of travelling painter, mending +a picture here, copying one there, and painting signs for the public +houses in the neighbourhood. In the course of his travels he had met a +German girl, married her, and their only child they called Marie Anne +Angelica Catherine; so, though born to poverty, she was rich in names. +John Kaufmann then took to painting as a means of livelihood. The first +toys that little Angelica had were his paint-brushes, his unstrained +canvas, his bladders of colour, which she would play with till her little +fingers were discoloured, and her pinafore daubed all over. + +It was not many years before it became evident that the little girl would +surpass her father in the love--if not in the art--of painting. When he +gave her copy-books to learn her letters, she left the words unwritten, +and copied the pictures only. Instead of playing with childish toys, she +would get scraps of paper and copy the pictures and models in her father's +studio, or sketch the trees and houses in the country round. + +Then her father began to teach her drawing; he showed her how to mix the +colours, and lay them on; he explained to her about light and shade, and +gave her models to copy. When they went out for walks, he would take the +child's hand and make her look well at the faces of the people they +passed, then draw their features when she got home. So little Angelica, or +Angela, as her father loved to call her, learnt to love drawing and +painting more and more. When she was eleven, her father moved to Como in +Italy; here people heard of Angelica and her wonderful power of painting, +and the Bishop of Como offered to sit for the little girl to paint him. He +was an old man with a long flowing beard, a difficult subject for such a +young artist, but Angelica did it, and the portrait was such a success +that the Archbishop of Milan and many other great Italians sat to be +painted by the eleven-year-old child, until she had more work than she +could well do. Still she went on, learning, copying the Old Masters' +pictures, and teaching herself the old Italian art. + +When she was sixteen her mother died. Poor little Angelica took it +terribly to heart, and her father thought it best to leave Italy and go to +Switzerland, so that change of scene might divert her mind. Her father's +love for her was unbounded; he petted her, he loved to sing her praises, +to call her his Angel, his Angelina, his little artist daughter, and she +returned it with all the warmth of her lonely little heart. + +Once Angelica was entrusted to paint alone an altar-piece on the wall of a +village church. Day after day father and daughter went to the church, and +Angelica would sit on the top of a high scaffolding, her dark hair falling +over her shoulders, her eyes eagerly fixed on the fresco before her, on +which angels, lambs, doves, grew under her clever fingers. Below stood the +honest John Kaufmann watching the form he loved so well, his arms folded, +his head thrown back, and feelings of pride and joy kindling in his heart. + +Besides her love for painting, Angelica was intensely fond of music, her +voice was pure and sweet, and she could play wonderfully well. She learnt +to conquer the most difficult of the grand old Italian pieces, and would +sing from memory the old ballads to amuse her father when he was +melancholy and troubled. And this was often the case. He had little money, +he had nearly starved himself to give his daughter the education he knew +she deserved; the roof was humble, the beds were hard, the sheets coarse, +the bread dark and sour. Angelica had to mend her own scanty and often +thread-bare clothes. But the time was coming when she would have money +enough to dress in silk and satin had she wished. + +On their return to Milan, John Kaufmann was urged strongly to have +Angelica educated for the stage; her beauty and her voice would soon win +her renown, they said; managers made her tempting offers, and her father +was ready to give his consent. But Angelica was true to her art. The stage +had its attractions for her; the offer was a tempting one; she drew a +picture of herself standing between music on one side and painting on the +other, turning towards painting, and bidding a tender farewell to music. +Then bravely, though not without a sigh, she took up her brushes, and with +fresh energy set her whole mind to painting. + +In 1763 she took up her abode in Venice to study and paint pictures; six +years of travelling among Italian art had widened her experience and given +a firmer grasp both to mind and hand. Countesses, duchesses, ladies, came +to see her, and sit for their portraits, and when, in 1766, a rich lady +offered to take her to England to make her fortune, Angelica consented. + +The first few days in London were rather lonely for the poor girl, but she +soon learnt the English language, and her bright, pleasant manners won her +many friends. Among these was Sir Joshua Reynolds, the greatest artist in +England. + +"Mr. Reynolds is the first of painters here," she wrote to her father in +Germany. She admired his colouring so much that she became his pupil, and +the great artist was delighted with her, not only as a clever painter, but +as a woman. He painted her portrait, she painted his. On the establishment +of the Royal Academy, Angelica Kaufmann was made a member. It is said +that Sir Joshua Reynolds wanted her to be his wife; be that as it may, we +soon after find Angelica living in Golden Square, some way from her old +home. She was very popular; no large evening party was complete without +her; the world of fashion, the world of art, all sought her society, and +her praises were sung throughout the country. She painted the young Prince +of Wales, afterwards George IV., and other members of the royal family, +which made her trebly popular. + +Before beginning a portrait Angelica would scan the features before her +closely, she would wait till the sitters had arranged themselves in +natural positions, and then, as truthfully as she could, she would paint +them. She was making her fortune rapidly; her father had come over to live +with her, and life seemed to go on very happily for her till she was +twenty-six. Then she married a man calling himself Count Horn, handsome, +clever, amusing; but three weeks after it was discovered that the _real_ +Count Horn had arrived in England, and that the man who had married +Angelica was only the Count's footman, who had taken his master's name. +This was a terrible blow to Angelica and her father; for a long time she +seemed bordering on despair, and could not even go on painting. Her +husband went abroad, Angelica never saw him again, and he died some years +after. At last her friends roused her, and persuaded her to take up her +brushes again, and she threw herself into her work once more. + +As time wore on, John Kaufmann grew old and infirm, and the doctors said +he must go abroad. Angelica was tired of London society, weary of London +fogs and mists, and she had long been yearning for her beloved Italy. So +they left England, and though it cost Angelica many pangs to leave the +friends who had been so kind to her, she was very thankful to be in a +sunny climate once more, under the blue Italian skies. + +In Venice she painted several well-known pictures on historical subjects; +they were eagerly bought at high prices, and are now to be seen in +different parts of Europe. + +After the death of her father, Angelica took up her abode in Rome; she +would get up early, take up her palette and brush, and paint on till +sunset in winter, till nearly six in the summer. In the evening, when she +could no longer see to paint, she would go out and see her friends, and +several nights in the week she would open her rooms to receive visitors. A +hall, filled with statues and busts, led to her studio and other rooms, +where hung her pictures by the great masters, heads by Vandyke and +Rembrandt, her own portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and many other +pictures. + +Not only by the rich was she known and loved, but also by the poor. Her +charity and kindness were boundless; she did not simply give her money to +the many beggars who abound in Italy, but she tried to improve their +condition, and help them to work for themselves. + +Having obtained news of the death of her husband, Angelica Kaufmann +married a Venetian artist; together they painted, together they enjoyed +the grand Italian art, and when, in 1795, he died, Angelica seemed +overwhelmed. This was the beginning of a series of troubles. She lost a +great deal of the money she had saved owing to the failure of a bank and +the unsettled state of England, which often prevented her money from +arriving. "But I have two hands still left," she would say, "and I can +still work." In 1802 her health failed. She went to Switzerland for +change, but on her return her cough came back. Her strength grew less, her +hand lost its cunning, and at last her busy fingers could no longer hold +the brush. + +In the summer of 1807 she died. People of all ranks gathered together at +her funeral in Rome; artists, nobility, poor, and rich came alike to do +her honour. Her coffin was borne by girls in white, and like the great +master Raphael, her two last pictures were carried behind the coffin, on +which was placed a model of her right hand in plaster, with a paint-brush +between its fingers. + +Compared to the great and powerful artists before her, she was no mighty +genius; her figures are more full of grace than force or energy; there is +a sameness of design, which has called forth the saying, "To see one is to +see all," but what she has painted she has painted truly. "Her pencil was +faithful to art and womanhood," and we are proud to think that Angelica +Kaufmann was one of the greatest artist-women the world has ever seen. + + + + +HANNAH MORE (1745-1833). + + +Hannah More was one of the first women who devoted her life to the poor. +She had been in London society; she knew most of the leading men of the +day; she could have lived a comfortable life in the midst of great people; +but she chose rather to build herself a little house in the country, and +there to work with her sister Patty among the rough miners of +Somersetshire. + +She was one of the younger daughters of Jacob More, a schoolmaster, near +Gloucester. Her grandmother was a vigorous old woman, who even at the age +of eighty used to get up at four in the morning with great energy. + +Hannah learnt to read at the age of three. While still small enough to sit +on her father's knee, she learnt Greek and Roman history; he used to +repeat the speeches of the great men of old in the Greek or Latin tongue, +which delighted the child, and then translate them till the eager little +eyes sparkled "like diamonds." Her nurse had lived in the family of +Dryden, and little Hannah heard many a story of the poet from her nurse's +lips. + +When quite small, it was her delight to get a scrap of paper, scribble a +little poem or essay, and hide it in a dark corner, where the servant +kept her brush or duster. Sometimes the little sister who slept with her, +probably Patty, would creep downstairs in the dark to get her a piece of +paper and a candle to write by. To possess a whole quire of paper was the +child's greatest ambition. + +One of her elder sisters went to a school in Bristol from Mondays till +Saturdays, and from Saturday to Monday little Hannah set herself +diligently to learn French from her sister. When she was sixteen, she also +went to Bristol, and there she met many clever people, who were charmed +with her, and looked on her bright conversation and manner as proofs of +dawning genius. + +Once, when she was ill, a well-known doctor was called in to attend her. +He had paid her many visits, when one day she began to talk to him on many +interesting subjects. At last he went; but when he was half-way +downstairs, he cried out, "Bless me! I quite forgot to ask the girl how +she was!" and returning to the room he inquired tenderly, "And how are you +to-day my poor child?" + +The following year she wrote a drama called "The Search after Happiness." +"The public have taken ten thousand copies," she says, "but _I_ have not +the patience to read it!" + +When she went to London she was introduced to Garrick the actor, Sir +Joshua Reynolds the artist, and many other clever people. Sir Joshua +Reynolds one day took her to see Dr. Johnson, or "Dictionary Johnson," as +she called him. She was very nervous, as no one knew how the great doctor +would receive her, or what temper he would be in. But it was all right. +He came to meet her "with good humour on his countenance," and with royal +grace greeted her with a verse out of her own "Morning Hymn." + +When she went to see him one day alone, he was out. So Hannah More went +into his parlour, and seated herself in his great chair, hoping to feel +inspired by so doing. When Dr. Johnson entered, she explained to him why +she was sitting there; at which he went into fits of laughing, and cried +out that it was a chair he _never_ sat in. + +After this he became a frequent visitor at the house of the five sisters-- + +"I have spent a happy evening," he cried one night. "I love you all five; +I am glad I came. I will come and see you again." + +In 1777, Hannah More wrote a play called "Percy." Hidden in the corner of +a box at the theatre, she anxiously watched the performance of her play; +she heard her hero speak through the voice of her friend Garrick; she saw +her audience--even the men--shedding tears, and she knew it was a success. +So much did her writings apply to the feelings of her audience, that after +the performance of one of her plays called the "Fatal Falsehood," when a +lady said to her servant girl, who had been to the play, that her eyes +looked red, as if she had been crying, the girl answered: + +"Well, ma'am, if I did, it was no harm; a great many respectable people +cried too!" + +The death of David Garrick affected Hannah More deeply. Mrs. Garrick sent +for her at once in her trouble, and, though ill in bed at the time, +Hannah More came to comfort her friend. After this she spent much time +with Mrs. Garrick, often in the depths of the country giving up her time +to reading and writing, and taking long walks to the pretty villages +round. + +Then she built herself a little house near Bristol, where she went to live +with her sister Patty. They made long expeditions together to villages +round, and they soon discovered what a bad state the country people were +in. + +In a village near, she set to work to establish a school for the little +children, and was soon rewarded by finding that three hundred were ready +and longing to be taught. Difficulties lay at every turn; the rich farmers +objected to the children being taught, and religion brought into the +country. + +"It makes the people so lazy and useless," they said. + +"It will make the people better and more industrious," urged Hannah More; +"they will work from higher and nobler motives, instead of merely for +money and drink!" + +At last they consented to have a school, and the children came by hundreds +to be taught. + +Then she went on to two mining villages high up on the Mendip Hills. In +these villages the people were even more ignorant than those at Cheddar; +they thought the ladies came to carry off their children as slaves. For at +this time the selling of little children as slaves had reached a terrible +height, and many great men, Pitt, Fox, and others, were doing what they +could to have it abolished by an Act of Parliament. + +It was into districts where no policemen dared to go that Hannah More and +her sister ventured. There was no clergyman for miles round; one village +had a curate living twelve miles away; another village had a clergyman who +himself drank to excess, and was never sober enough to preach. There was +one Bible in the village, but that was used to prop up a flower-pot. Such +was the state of affairs when Hannah More first went among them. + +Soon a school was established, and again the children were ready and +willing to be taught. Before long they had six schools and as many as +twelve hundred children were being taught. Very soon their work bore +fruit. + +"Several day-labourers coming home late from harvest, so tired that they +could hardly stand, will not go to rest till they have been into the +school for a chapter and a prayer," wrote Hannah More. + +In 1792 she wrote "Village Politics," at the request of friends, to try +and give a more healthy turn to politics in England. She did not put her +own name to it, but called herself "Will Chip." One of her friends +discovered who had written it, and sitting down he began a letter, "My +dear Mrs. Chip," thanking her for giving to the world such a popular and +wholesome tract. + +Hannah More still kept up with the world outside; she watched with the +keenest interest the struggle against slavery; her heart ached for the +victims of the French Revolution across the Channel, and she wrote +pamphlets on both subjects. Then came an attack on her writings; people +said she wished for the success of France; some said she was an enemy to +liberty, and many other false things. + +This made Hannah More very unhappy. She liked to be loved, she could not +bear to be hated; she who was ready to see good in all, could not bear to +be forced to see evil. Then her poor people upheld her, and +school-teachers and church-workers came forward to bear witness to the +world-wide good her writings had done. Sympathy flowed in from all sides, +and she found heart to go on again. + +At last the happy home was broken up--the bright home where the poor +people had never failed to find warmth and shelter and a welcome from the +five sisters. + +The three eldest died first. Still, through all the sad partings, Hannah +More bravely worked on, while she had strength for it, writing when she +could, and keeping bright those who still remained around her. + +A few years later Patty died; she was the nearest of all to Hannah's +heart, and the "aching void" she felt after her sister's death affected +her health. Long and dangerous illnesses constantly left her unable to +work for many months. Her work had been taken up by others now, and the +"tide she had helped to turn had already swept past her." + +"I learns geography and the harts and senses," boasted a little girl in a +county parish, meaning the arts and sciences. + +"I am learning syntax," a little servant said to Hannah More when +questioned about her school. + +Hannah More died at the age of eighty-eight, after years of intense +suffering. She had lived to see how education was helping the poorer +classes, and stamping out crime; how a little love and kindness had helped +even the rough miners in their work, and how the children, taught in the +village schools, were already growing up better and happier men and women, +and it pleased her, long after her health and memory had failed, to hear +that they still remembered the name of Hannah More. + + + + +ELIZABETH FRY (1780-1845). + + +Elizabeth Fry was one of those rare women whose "life was work." Once +having recognized the path of duty, she never left it; through illness and +suffering, trouble and sorrow, she held fast to it, and the result was +grand. For she was our first great prison reformer, the first to open the +eyes of the nation to the alarming state of the prisons, the first to take +active steps for their improvement. + +She was born in Norwich on May 21, 1780. Her father, John Gurney, belonged +to the Society of Friends; he was a popular, warm-hearted man, fond of his +children, devoted to his wife. Elizabeth was the third of eleven children; +when she was two years old, her father and mother moved to Earlham Hall, +an old house standing in a well-wooded park, about two miles from Norwich. +She was a nervous, delicate little child; every night, on going to bed, +she would quake with fear at the prospect of being left alone in the dark, +when the moment should come for the candle to be blown out. Sea-bathing, +too, had its horrors for her. She was forced to bathe when they went to +the sea-side, but at the sight of the sea she would begin to cry and +tremble till she turned her back on it again. The child's devotion to her +mother was intense; she would often lie awake at night and cry at the +thought that her mother might some day die and leave her, and her childish +wish was that two big walls might fall and crush them both together. But +the two big walls never _did_ fall; when Elizabeth was but twelve, her +mother died, leaving eleven children, the eldest barely seventeen, the +youngest only two. Elizabeth was tall and thin; she had quantities of soft +flaxen hair and a sweet face, but she was so reserved and quiet, that +people thought her quite stupid. She was very fond of dancing and riding +and any kind of amusement, and when she was a little older we hear of her +as a "beautiful lady on horseback in a scarlet riding-habit." + +When she was eighteen a great Quaker preacher came to Norwich, and +Elizabeth went with her six sisters to hear him. Hitherto she had cared +little for Quaker meetings, but this time, as soon as the preacher began, +her attention was fixed. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and "Betsy wept +most of the way home," says one of her sisters. From that day all love of +amusement and pleasure seemed gone. New feelings had been stirred within +her; she felt there was something more to live for than mere pleasure; a +nobler spirit was moving within her, that showed her there lay work around +her to be done, and work specially for her to do. And she soon found the +work; an old man, who was dying, wanted comfort and care; a little boy +called Billy from the village needed teaching. Slowly other little boys +came to be taught, and in a few months she had a school of seventy. She +taught them in an empty laundry, no other room being large enough. + +Life went on thus till she was twenty. The more she saw of Quakers, the +more firmly she believed they were right; she now wore their dress,--a +plain slate-coloured skirt with a close handkerchief and cap, with no +ornaments of any kind. In the summer of this year she married Joseph Fry, +also a Quaker, engaged in business in London, where they accordingly went +to live. Leaving her old home was a great trial to her, for the "very +stones of the Norwich streets seemed dear to her." + +A new sphere of work now opened before her; she was surrounded by the +poor, workhouses claimed her attention, the sick and dying begged for a +sight of the simple Quaker woman, whom "to see was to love," and whose +gentle words always comforted them. + +In 1809, Mr. and Mrs. Fry and their five children moved into the country +for a time, for rest after the smoke and din of the crowded city life. +Here Elizabeth Fry was very happy; she loved to live out of doors with her +little children, to explain to them the growth of a flower, the structure +of a bee's wing or caterpillar; they would all go long rambles together +with baskets and trowels to get ferns and wild flowers to plant in their +garden at home. Then, refreshed and strengthened, she was again ready to +take up her London work. + +It was in 1813 that she first entered the prison at Newgate, and the +special work of her life began. She found the prison and prisoners in a +disgraceful state, and her womanly heart was touched with pity for the +poor creatures who were compelled to live in these unhealthy wards and +cells. Many had not sufficient clothing, but lived in rags, sleeping on +the floor with raised boards for pillows. Little children cried for food +and clothes, which their unhappy mothers could not give them. In the same +room they slept, ate, cooked, and washed; in the bad air they fell ill, +and no one came to nurse them or comfort them, no one came to show them +how to live an honest, upright life, when their prison-life was over. Sick +at heart, Elizabeth Fry went home, determined to help these miserable +people in some way or other. Then trouble came to her. Her little Betsy, a +lovely child of five, died, and long and bitter was her grief. + +"Mama," said the child, soon before her death, "I love everybody better +than myself, and I love thee better than everybody, and I love Almighty +better than thee." + +Sorrow was making Elizabeth Fry more and more sympathetic and able to +enter into the sufferings of those around her. + +At last she was able to work again, and with her whole heart she set +herself to improve the prisons. + +She got the prison authorities to let the poor women have mats to sleep +on, especially those who were ill, and she begged to be alone with the +convicts for a few hours. The idleness, ignorance, and dirt of these women +shocked her. How could the poor little children, pining for food and fresh +air, ever grow up to be good women in the world, into which they might be +turned out any time? How could those wretched women ever learn to be +better and happier by being thrown into those unhealthy cells with others +as bad or worse than themselves, if no one ever tried to teach them how to +live better lives, and start afresh in the world? She proposed to start a +school for the children, and the prisoners thanked her with tears of joy. +They had not known such kindness before; they had never been spoken to so +gently; the noise and fighting ceased, and they listened to the simple +Quaker's words. + +So an empty cell was made into a school-room, and one of the prisoners was +made school-mistress. Mrs. Fry and a few other ladies helped to teach, and +the children soon got on, and learnt to like their lessons. Still the +terrible sounds of swearing, fighting, and screaming went on; Mrs. Fry met +with failure and discouragement on every side; the utter misery and +suffering sickened her, and she would sometimes wonder if she should have +strength to go on. But she found she had. + +Soon others came forward to help, and not long after we find a very +different scene. Instead of the inhuman noises that reached the ear +before, comparative stillness reigned; most of the women wore clean blue +aprons, and were sitting round a long table engaged in different kinds of +work, while a lady at the head of the table read aloud to them. + +The news of this reformation soon spread. Newspapers were full of it; +pamphlets were sent round; the public awoke to the evils of prison-life, +and the voice of the people made itself heard; and Queen Charlotte herself +sought an interview with Elizabeth Fry, the leader of this important +work. + +To improve the state of convict ships was the next work for Mrs. Fry. Up +to this time the vessels were terribly over-crowded; the women had nothing +to do all day during the voyage; their children were separated from them, +and all were marked with hot irons, so that if by any chance they escaped, +they might be found again. Part of the vessel was made into a school for +the children; pieces of print were collected for the women to make into +patchwork, and a matron was chosen to nurse those who were ill. + +Mrs. Fry herself went to bid the emigrants farewell. She stood in her +plain Quaker dress at the door of the cabin with the captain; the women +stood facing her, while sailors climbed up to the rigging to hear her +speak. The silence was profound for a few moments. Then she spoke to them +a few hopeful, encouraging words, and prayed for them; many of the convict +women wept bitterly, and when she left, every eye followed her till she +was out of sight. From this time she visited every convict ship with women +on board leaving England till 1841, when she was prevented by illness. + +Elizabeth Fry had a wonderful power of winning hearts by her gentle and +earnest way of speaking. One day she went over a large Home for young +women; as she was going away the matron pointed out two as being very +troublesome and hard to manage. Mrs. Fry went up to them, and holding out +a hand to each, she said, looking at them with one of her beautiful +smiles: "I trust I shall hear better things of thee." + +The girls had been proof against words of reproach and command, but at +these few heartfelt words of hope and kindness, they both burst into tears +of sorrow and shame. + +In 1839 Elizabeth Fry went to Paris, in order to visit the workhouses, +prisons, and homes on the continent, and to stir up the people to enquire +into their arrangements. + +A few days after her arrival she went to a little children's hospital. As +she entered the long ward, the only sound audible was a faint and pitiful +bleating like a flock of little lambs. A long row of clean white cots was +placed all round the room; on a sloping mattress before the fire a row of +babies were lying waiting their turn to be fed by the nurse with a spoon. +The poor little things were swathed up, according to the foreign custom, +so tightly that they could not move their limbs. For some time Mrs. Fry +pleaded with the Sister of the ward to undo their swathings, and let their +arms free, and, as she did so at last, one of the babies, who had been +crying piteously, ceased, and stretched out its arms to its deliverer. + +Everywhere, abroad and at home, among old and young, she was welcomed as a +friend; from the head of the land to the poorest prisoner, she was loved, +for "it was an honour to know her in this world." Through illness and +intense suffering she struggled on with duty and work, until she was no +longer able to walk. She was still wheeled to the meetings in a chair, but +the work of her life was ended. Then sorrow upon sorrow came to her; her +son, sister, and a little grandchild all died within a short time of one +another. + +"Can our mother hear this and live?" cried her children. A long year of +intense pain and suffering followed, and then, one autumn evening, +Elizabeth Fry died. Universal was the mourning for her; vast crowds +assembled in the Friend's burying ground, near her old country home at +Plashet, silently and reverently to attend the simple Quaker funeral, and +to do honour to Elizabeth Fry, now laid at rest beside her little child. + + + + +MARY SOMERVILLE (1780-1872). + + +Mary Somerville, whose parents' name was Fairfax, was born in Scotland on +the day after Christmas in the year 1780. Her father was away at sea; he +had begun life early as a midshipman, and had been present at the taking +of Quebec in 1759. He had left his wife in a little seaport town on the +Scotch coast just opposite Edinburgh, in a house whose garden sloped down +to the sea and was always full of bright flowers. The Scotch in this part +lived a primitive kind of life; we are told that all the old men and women +smoked tobacco in short pipes, and the curious way in which a cripple or +infirm man got his livelihood. One of his relations would put him into a +wheelbarrow, wheel him to the next neighbour's door, and there leave him. +The neighbour would then come out, feed the cripple with a little oatcake +or anything she could spare, and wheel him onto the next door. The next +neighbour would do the same, and so on, and thus the beggar got his +livelihood. + +Here it was that Mary lived with her mother, her brother Sam, and +sometimes her father. + +Now Mrs. Fairfax was very much afraid of thunder and lightning, and when +she thought a storm was coming on, she used to prepare by taking out the +steel pins which fastened on her cap, in case they might attract the +lightning. Then she sat on a sofa at some distance from the fireplace, and +read aloud descriptions of storms in the Bible, which frightened her +little daughter Mary more than the storm itself. The large dog Hero, too, +seems to have shared in the general fear of thunder, for, at the first +clap, he would rush howling indoors and place his head on Mary's knee. +Thus, with shutters closed, they awaited the utter destruction they +expected, but which never came. + +When Mary was seven, her mother made her useful at shelling peas and +beans, feeding the cocks and hens, and looking after the dairy. Once she +had put some green gooseberries into some bottles, and taken them to the +kitchen, telling the cook to boil the bottles uncorked, and when the fruit +was enough cooked, to cork and tie them up. In a short time the whole +house was alarmed by loud screams from the kitchen. It was found they +proceeded from the cook, who had disobeyed orders, and corked the bottles +before boiling, so of course they exploded. This accident interested Mary +very much, and in after years she turned it to account in her reading of +science. + +She was devoted to birds, and would watch the swallows collecting in +hundreds on the house roofs to prepare for their winter flight. She always +fed the robins on snowy mornings, and taught them to hop in and pick up +the crumbs on the table. All through her life this love of birds +continued; and, when she was quite old, and her little mountain sparrow +died, having been her constant companion for eight years, she felt its +death very much. + +When she was between eight and nine, her father came back from sea, and +was quite shocked to find his little daughter still a wild, untrained +child, unable to write, and only reading very badly, with a strong Scotch +accent. So, after breakfast every morning, he made her read a chapter from +the Bible and a paper from the "Spectator." But she was always glad when +this penance was over, and she could run off with her father into the +garden, and take a lesson in laying carnations and pruning fruit trees. + +At last one day her father said: "This kind of life will never do; Mary +must at least know how to write and keep accounts." + +So Mary was sent to a boarding school kept by a Miss Primrose, where she +was very unhappy. Fancy the wild, strong Scotch child, used to roaming +about the lanes, wandering by the sea at her own will, caring for no +lessons but those of Nature, suddenly enclosed in a stiff steel support +round her body, a band drawing her shoulders back till the shoulder-blades +met, a steel rod with a semicircle passing under her chin to keep her head +up, and thus bound up having to learn by heart pages of Johnson's +dictionary; not only to spell the words and give their parts of speech and +meaning, but to remember the order in which they came! Such was the strict +discipline through which Mary Fairfax passed for one long year. Once home +again, she was like a wild animal escaped from a cage, but still unable so +much as to write and compose a letter. + +When the tide went out, she would spend hours and hours on the sands, +watching closely the habits of the starfish and sea-urchins, collecting +shells, and wondering at curious marks of fern leaves and shells on +blocks of stone. She had no one to tell her they were fossils, or to +explain to her their curious forms. + +Still her people at home were not satisfied with the way she "wasted her +time," and she was sent to the village school to learn plain needlework. +The village schoolmaster also came on the winter evenings to teach her the +use of the globes, and at night she would sit up at her own little window +trying to learn about the stars and moon. And yet, fond as she was of +stars, the dark nights had their terrors for her. + +One night, the house being full, she had to sleep in a room apart from the +rest of the house, under a garret filled with cheeses, slung by ropes to +the rafters. She had put out her candle and fallen asleep, when she was +awakened by a tremendous crash and a loud rolling noise over head. She was +very frightened; there were no matches in those days, so she could not get +a light; but she seized a huge club shod with iron, which lay in the room, +and thundered on the bedroom door till her father, followed by the whole +household, came to her aid. It was found that some rats had gnawed the +ropes on which the cheeses hung, and all the cheeses rolled down. However, +Mary got no comfort, but only a good scolding for making such an uproar +and disturbing the household in the night. + +When she was thirteen, her mother took a small house in Edinburgh, and +Mary was sent to a writing-school, and also taught music and arithmetic. + +One day, when she was getting up, she suddenly saw a flash in the air. +"There is lightning!" she cried to her mother. + +"No," answered Mrs. Fairfax, "it is fire;" and on opening the shutters +they found the next house but one was burning fiercely. They dressed +quickly, and sent for some men to help pack the family papers and silver. + +"Now let us breakfast; it is time enough to move our things when the next +house takes fire," said her mother, calmly showing the presence of mind +one would not have expected from a woman so afraid of a thunder-storm. + +At last Mary obtained what she had so long wished for, a Euclid, and she +worked at it by day and night. "It is no wonder the stock of candles is +soon exhausted," said the servants, "for Miss Mary sits up till a very +late hour;" and accordingly an order was given that the candle should be +put out as soon as she was in bed. So she had to content herself by +repeating the problems at night by heart, till she knew well the first six +books. + +She had learnt to paint, too, in Edinburgh, and her landscapes at this +time were thought a great deal of by various people. + +In 1797 her father was in a naval battle against the Dutch, and for his +brave action he was knighted. + +"You ask for the promotion of your officers, but you never ask a reward +for yourself," were words addressed to him on his return. + +"I leave that to my country," answered Fairfax. And his daughter tells us +that his country did little for him, and his wife had nothing to live on +but £75 a year at his death in 1813. + +In 1804 Mary Fairfax married a cousin, a Mr. Greig, and went to live in +London. She was very poor, her mother could afford her but a small outfit, +and gave her £20 to buy a warm wrap for the winter. Mrs. Greig lived a +lonely life, for her husband was out all day for three years, at the end +of which time she returned to her old home, a widow, with two little boys, +one of whom died soon after. + +Then she threw her whole self into the study of mathematics and astronomy. +At last she succeeded in solving a prize problem, and was awarded a silver +medal with her name upon it, which greatly delighted and encouraged her. +When she had money enough she bought a little library of books on her +favourite subjects, which have since been presented to the College for +Women at Cambridge. + +Her family and those around her thought her very foolish to read so hard +at subjects they thought so useless. When, some years later, she was going +to marry Dr. Somerville, his sister wrote to say she did hope the "foolish +manner of life and studies" might be given up, so that she might make a +"respectable and useful wife to her brother." + +Her husband, however, encouraged her in her study of science; he saw +nothing "foolish" in it at all, and he helped her to collect minerals and +curious stones. + +They travelled abroad a good deal, and then settled in London, where Mary +Somerville gave up a good deal of her time to teaching her little +children. Here she published a book on Physical Geography, which is very +well known and used still. It was a great undertaking for a woman, and +made a stir in the world of science. + +But she was not entirely given up to science. We find her making with her +own hands a quantity of orange marmalade for a friend, who had brought her +back minerals from a foreign land, to take on his next voyage, and she +enjoyed an evening at the play as much as anyone. + +The long illness and death of their eldest child fell very heavily on Mrs. +Somerville, and for a time she could not even work. Then they moved to +Chelsea. Here she was asked to write an account of a French book which she +had read on astronomy, a book which only some twenty people in England +knew, and _she_ was chosen above all the learned men to write on this +difficult subject. It was a vast undertaking; the more so as she still saw +and entertained friends, not wishing to drop society altogether. + +Moreover, it was not known what she was writing, as, if it turned out a +failure, it was not to be printed. In the middle of some difficult problem +a friend would call and say, "I have come to spend a few hours with you, +Mrs. Somerville," and papers and problems had to be hidden as quickly as +possible. + +When it was finished, the manuscript was sent to the great astronomer +Herschel, who was delighted with it. + +"Go on thus," he wrote, "and you will leave a memorial of no common kind +to posterity." + +Mrs. Somerville never wrote for fame, but it was very pleasant to have +such praise from one of the greatest men of science living. The success of +her book proved its value, and astonished her. Seven hundred and fifty +copies were sold at once, and her name and her work were talked of +everywhere. Her bust was placed in the Great Hall of the Royal Society; +she was elected a member of the Royal Academy in Dublin, and of the +Natural History Society at Geneva. A bust of her was made the figurehead +of a large vessel in the Royal Navy, which was called "Mary Somerville," +and lastly, she received a letter from Sir Robert Peel, saying he had +asked the king, George IV., to grant her a pension of £200 a year, so that +she might work with less anxiety. + +Here was success for the self-taught woman, raised by her own efforts +higher than any woman before her in any branch of science, and it is +pleasant to find her the same modest character after it as she was before. + +Her health being broken, she went to Paris. Here she still went on +writing; but being very weak and ill, she was obliged to write in bed till +one o'clock. The afternoons she gave up to going about Paris and seeing +her friends. + +Some years after, her husband being ill, they went abroad to Rome, where +they made many friends. One friend is mentioned as having won Mrs. +Somerville's heart by his love for birds. The Italians eat nightingales, +robins, and other singing birds, and when the friend heard this, he cried: + +"What! robins! our household birds! I would as soon eat a child!" + +In 1860 her husband died in Florence. To occupy her mind, Mrs. Somerville +began to write another book. She was now over eighty, and her hand was not +so steady as it used to be, but she had her eyesight and all her +faculties, and with her pet mountain-sparrow sitting on her arm, she +wrote daily from eight in the morning till twelve. + +Five years later she had the energy to go all over an ironclad ship, which +she was very curious to see. + +"I was not even hoisted on board," she wrote to her son, but mounted the +ladder bravely, and examined everything in detail "except the stoke-hole!" + +At the age of ninety she still studied in bed all the morning, but "I am +left solitary," she says, with pathos, "for I have lost my little bird, +who was my constant companion for eight years." + +One morning her daughter came into the room, and being surprised that the +little bird did not fly to greet her as usual, she searched for it, and +found the poor little creature drowned in the jug! + +In 1870 an eclipse of the sun interested Mrs. Somerville very much; it +came after a huge thunder-storm, and was only visible now and then between +dense masses of clouds. The following year there was a brilliant Aurora +lighting up the whole sky; many ignorant people were very frightened, +because it had been said the world was coming to an end, and they thought +that a bright piece of the Aurora was a slice of the moon that had +"already tumbled down!" + +Though at the age of ninety-two her memory for names and people failed, +she could still read mathematics, solve problems, and enjoy reading about +new discoveries and theories in the world of science. + +Some months before her death, she was awakened one night at Naples to +behold Mount Vesuvius in splendid eruption. It was a wonderful sight. + +A fiery stream of lava was flowing down in all directions; a column of +dense black smoke rose to more than four times the height of the mountain, +while bursts of fiery matter shot high up into the smoke, and the roaring +and thundering never ceased for one single moment. + +Three days later extreme darkness surprised everyone; Mrs. Somerville saw +men walking along the streets with umbrellas up, and found that Vesuvius +was sending out an immense quantity of ashes like fine sand, and neither +land, sea, nor sky were visible. + +In the summer Mrs. Somerville and her daughters went out of Naples, and +took a pleasant little house near the sea. + +She still took a keen interest in passing events; she knew she could not +live much longer, and she worked on to the actual day of her death, which +took place in the autumn of 1872. + +Mrs. Somerville stands alone as the greatest woman in the world of +science; she was entirely self-taught, and it was by her own efforts she +rose to be what she was--a woman of untiring energy, with wonderful power +of thought and clearness of mind, a woman in advance of her times. + + + + +ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1809-1861). + + +Elizabeth Barrett Browning is the greatest "woman poet" England has ever +had. Though some of her poetry is difficult to understand, owing to her +depth of thought and great reading, yet many of her prettiest and most +touching poems have been written about little children; she with her +pitiful heart felt for the sorrows they could not express, and has told us +about them; she has told us about little Lily, who died when she was "no +taller than the flowers," of the little factory children, who only cried +in their playtime, and only cared for the fields and meadows just to "drop +down in them and sleep," of little Ellie sitting alone by the stream +dipping her feet into the clear cool water and dreaming the hours away. + +Elizabeth Barrett always looked on Malvern as her native place, though she +was not actually born there, but in Durham, in 1809. + +The early years of her life seem to have been very happy; we hear of her +as a little girl with clusters of golden curls, large tender eyes, and a +sweet smile. She herself has not told us much about her early years, but +the glimpses she has given us are very bright. Her father had a country +house near Malvern, and over the Malvern Hills the child loved to roam. +She liked to be out all day with the flowers and the bees and the sun. + +"If the rain fell, there was sorrow," she says, and she laid her curly +head against the window, while her little finger followed the "long, +trailing drops" down the pane, and, like other children, she would gently +sing, "Rain, rain, come to-morrow," to try and drive it away. When she +went out, it was not along the sheep paths over the hills that she cared +to go, but to wander into the little woods, where the sheep could not +stray. Now and then, she tells us, one of them would venture in, but its +wool caught in the thickets, and with a "silly thorn-pricked nose" it +would bleat back into the sun, while the little poet-girl went on, tearing +aside the prickly branches with her struggling fingers, and tripping up +over the brambles which lay across her way. + +At eight years old and earlier she began to write little verses, and at +eleven she wrote a long "epic" poem in four books called the "Battle of +Marathon," of which fifty copies were printed, because, she tells us, her +father was bent on spoiling her. She spent most of her time reading Greek, +either alone or with her brother; she so loved the old Greek heroes, and +would dream about them at night; she loved the old Greek stories, she "ate +and drank Greek," and her poetry is mixed with Greek ideas and thoughts +and names, even from a child. + +She had one favourite brother; with him she read, with him she talked; +they understood one another, and entered into one another's thoughts and +fancies. He called her by a pet name, when they were little children +together, because the name Elizabeth seemed so "hard to utter," and "he +calls me by it still," she adds pathetically in later life, when that life +was no longer all sunshine and laughter, and when the brother had been +taken from her. But these were happy days, these days of childhood, never +forgotten by Elizabeth Barrett, who looked back to them afterwards, and +remembered how she sat at her father's knee, and how lovingly he would +look down at the little poet and reward her with kisses. + +When she was older the family moved to London, and there Elizabeth Barrett +became very ill. She had always been fragile and delicate, and now she was +obliged to lie all day in one room in the London house. When she grew a +little stronger, and the cold weather was coming on, the doctor ordered a +milder climate, and she was moved to Torquay, her favourite brother going +with her. She had been there a year, and the mild sea-breezes of +Devonshire had done her good, when fresh trouble came to her. + +One fine summer morning her brother with a few friends started in a little +sailing-vessel for a few hours' trip. They were all good sailors, and +knowing the coast well, they sent back the boatmen, and undertook the +management of the boat themselves. The idea of danger never seems to have +occurred to them. They had not got far out, when suddenly, just as they +were crossing the bar, in sight of the very windows, the boat went down, +and the little crew perished--among them Elizabeth Barrett's favourite +brother. He was drowned before her very eyes, and, already ill and weak, +she nearly sank under the weight of the blow. + +The house she lived in at Torquay was at the bottom of the cliffs close to +the sea, but now the sound of the waves no longer soothed her; they +sounded like moanings from the sea. She struggled back to life, but all +was changed for her. Still she clung to Greek and literature, and she +would pore over her books till the doctor would remonstrate, and urge some +lighter reading. He did not know that her books were no hard study to her; +reading was no exertion, but a delight and comfort to her, changing the +current of her thoughts from the sad past, and helping her to wile away +the long hours of sickness. However, to make others happy about her, she +had her little edition of Plato bound so that it looked like a novel, and +then she could read it without being disturbed or interfered with at all. + +She tried to forget her ill health and weariness, and some of her letters +at this time were so bright and amusing, that we see how well she +succeeded in throwing herself into the lives of those around her. At last +she was well enough to be moved in an invalid carriage with "a thousand +springs" to London, in short journeys of twenty miles a day. There for +seven long years she lived in one large, but partly darkened room, seeing +only her own family and a few special friends. + +Her poems were sad, beautiful, and very tender; never once does she allude +in words to the terrible blow which had swept so much sunshine and +happiness from her young life, but her writings are full now of wild +utterances and passionate cries, now calming down into sleepy lullabies +for the little children she had such sympathy with. She did not put her +name to many of her works, but readers were startled from time to time by +the wonderful new poems, until at last they were traced to the sick room +of Elizabeth Barrett. In her sick room lived "Flush," a little dog given +her by a friend; he was dark brown with long silken ears and hazel eyes, +but, better than these, such a faithful heart, and + + "... of _thee_ it shall be said, + This dog watched beside a bed + Day and night unweary; + Watched within a curtained room, + Where no sunbeam brake the gloom + Round the sick and dreary." + +He would push his nose into her pale, thin hand, and lie content for +hours, till the quick tears of his mistress would sometimes drop on to his +glossy head, and he would spring up eagerly, as if to share the trouble if +he only could. + +Here is a story about Flush which shows his devotion. The little terrier +was stolen, and his mistress shed many tears for her lost favourite. She +was accused of being "childish," but she could not help it. + +"Flushie is my friend, my companion, and loves me better than he loves the +sunshine without," she cried. + +At last the thief was found, and he gave up the dog for some money, +saying, "You had better give your dog something to eat, for he has tasted +nothing for three days!" + +But Flush was too happy to eat; he shrank away from the plate of food +which was given him, and laid down his head on his mistress's shoulder. + +"He is worth loving, is he not?" asked Elizabeth Barrett, when she had +told this story to a friend. + +One of her best-known poems is "The Cry of the Children." For the little +overworked children in the large factories her human heart was stirred. +She knew what a life they led from early morning till late at night, amid +the rushing of the great iron wheels, or working underground in the damp +and dark, and she could not be silent. + + "Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, + Ere the sorrow comes with years? + They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, + And _that_ cannot stop their tears. + The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, + The young birds are chirping in the nest, + The young fawns are playing with the shadows, + The young flowers are blowing towards the west-- + But the young, young children, O my brothers, + They are weeping bitterly! + They are weeping in the playtime of the others, + In the country of the free." + +They seem to look up with their "pale and sunken faces," and to cry that +the world is _very_ dreary; they take but a few steps, and get so tired, +that they long for rest. It is true, they say, sometimes they die very +young. There was one--little Alice--died lately; they go and listen by her +grave and _she_ never cries; no one calls _her_ up early, saying, "Get up, +little Alice; it is day!" time to go off to the droning, droning wheels in +the factories, and--"It is good when it happens," say the children, "that +we die before our time." It is no good to call them to the fields to +play, to gather big bunches of cowslips, to sing out, as the little +thrushes do:-- + + "For oh!" say the children, "we are weary, + And we cannot run and leap; + If we cared for any meadows, it were merely + To drop down in them and sleep." + +For the great wheels never stop; the little heads may burn, the little +hearts may ache, till the children long to moan out:-- + + "O ye wheels--stop--be silent for to-day!" + +Here were the children in their misery, life-like, only too true and real; +and then the poet pleads for them, pleads that they may be taught there +_is_ something in life as well as the great grinding wheels; pleads that +the lives of the little factory children may be made happier and brighter. + +And England heard the cry of the children. The following year fresh laws +were made about the employment of children in factories; they were not to +be allowed to work under the age of eight, and not then unless they were +strong and healthy; they were not to work more than six hours and a half a +day, and to attend school for three hours. + +Three years after this poem was written Elizabeth Barrett married Robert +Browning, the poet, and together they went off to Italy, where the softer +air and mild climate brought back her health for a time. + +"She is getting better every day," wrote her husband; "stronger, better +wonderfully, and beyond all our hopes." + +One of Mrs. Browning's happiest poems is the story of little Ellie and the +swan's nest. + +"Little Ellie sits alone," she begins, "'mid the beeches of a meadow." +Then she goes on to tell us of her shining hair and face; how she has +thrown aside her bonnet, and is dipping her feet into the shallow stream +by which she sits. As she rocks herself to and fro she thinks about a +swan's nest she has found among the reeds, with two precious eggs in it; +then the vision of a knight, who is to be her lover, rises before her. He +is to be a noble man, riding on a red-roan steed shod with silver; he is +to kneel at her feet, and she will tell him to rise and go, "put away all +wrong," so that the world may love and fear him. Off he goes; three times +he is to send a little foot page to Ellie for words of comfort; the first +time she will send him a white rosebud, the second time a glove, and the +third time leave to come and claim her love. Then she will show him and +him only the swan's nest among the reeds. Little Ellie gets up, ties on +her bonnet, puts on her shoes, and goes home round by the swan's nest, as +she does every day, just to see if there are any more eggs; on she goes, +"pushing through the elm-tree copse, winding up the stream, +light-hearted." Then, when she reaches the place, she stops, stoops down, +and what does she find? The wild swan had deserted her nest, a rat had +gnawed the reeds, and "Ellie went home sad and slow." If she ever found +the lover on the "red-roan steed"-- + + "Sooth I know not: but I know + She could never show him--never + That swan's nest among the reeds!" + +It was at Florence that Mrs. Browning's little son was born, "her little +Florentine" as she loves to call him; she has drawn us many a picture of +him with his blue eyes and amber curls, lit up to golden by the Italian +sun. + + "My little son, my Florentine, + Sit down beside my knee," + +she begins in one poem, and then she tells him in verse a tale about +Florence, and the war in Italy, and when it was over the child had grown +very grave. For Mrs. Browning loved Italy with all her heart, and she +watched the great struggle for Italian unity, which was going on, very +anxiously. From time to time she wrote patriotic poems to encourage the +oppressed, and to express her delight at their victories. + +At the same time England was not forgotten. + +"I am listening here in Rome," she wrote, when pleading for the ragged +schools of London. Still, though under the clear Italian skies, she can +see the ragged, bare-footed, hungry-eyed children begging in the London +streets. It is a disgrace to England, she cries; she knows they cannot all +be fed and clothed, but-- + + "Put a thought beneath the rags + To ennoble the heart's struggle," + +so that by gentle words the children may learn "just the uses of their +sorrow." And again Mrs. Browning's appeal was not in vain. + +One of her last poems was a very sad one, called "Little Mattie." + +Mrs. Browning had, even in Italy, suffered very much from bad health, and +in 1861 she died. She was buried beside a grassy wall in the English +burial-ground just outside Florence, the city she loved so well, in Italy, +"my Italy" as she has called it, the land where Keats and Shelley lie. + + + + +FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (born 1820). + + +Of the early and private life of Florence Nightingale there is no need to +speak, but you should know what good work she has done for her country, +how she left her English home to go and nurse the poor soldiers who were +wounded in battle in the Crimea, and how well she did the work that she +undertook to do. Not only did she work out of England, but in England she +has improved some of our hospitals, taught some of our English nurses how +to work better, and has made nursing into the happier labour it is now, +instead of the drudgery it was too often before. + +She was born in Florence in 1820, and therefore named after that town, but +her home was always in Derbyshire. She was always fond of nursing, and her +early ambition was to improve the system of nursing, and to get many +things done that she saw would make pain and suffering more bearable in +our English hospitals. + +Now in Germany, in a little village[1] on the great Rhine, is a large +building where women are trained as nurses for sick people. They all wear +full black skirts and very white aprons, deep white collars and caps, and +all the sick people come from the village and villages round to be nursed +by them. There was no training-school for women in England, so it was to +this kind of hospital home that Florence Nightingale went in 1851, and +there she worked for three months. They were three happy months, and she +learnt the best German rules of nursing, and saw how a large hospital +ought to be managed; and so she got some of the training which fitted her +for the great work which she undertook some years later. On her return to +England, she became head of a London hospital for women. + + [1] Kaiserswerth. + +But before you hear about her work, and how she nursed our soldiers, you +must know about the war in the Crimea, how our soldiers were wounded, and +why they wanted good nursing. + +For several years a dispute had been going on between Russia and Turkey, +and at last Russia pushed her troops into Turkey, and Turkey declared war. +England and France had promised some time before to help Turkey if she +needed help, and now they found themselves at war. English and French +steamers kept hurrying backwards and forwards from the Black Sea to try +and make peace;--but it was impossible; so armies were sent, and Lord +Raglan, who had lost one arm at Waterloo, fighting under the great Duke of +Wellington, was given the command of the English army. Now at the south of +Russia is a peninsula called the Crimea, and the allied armies of England, +France, and Turkey knew that if they could take a large town in the Crimea +called Sebastopol, the Russian fleet in the Black Sea would be rendered +powerless for a long time. So they chose this town for their attack. But +they were divided from it by the river Alma, and here the Russian army +was posted in great strength on a line of steep rocky hills on the other +side of the river. They thought that the English and French would never +dare to cross the river in the face of their fire. But the allied armies +were very brave. The order was given to cross the river; the men waded the +stream, and, under a deadly fire from the Russians, they scaled the +heights bravely. The Russians were brave, but badly commanded, and before +long they fled, leaving the allied armies victorious. The English had +fought their first battle, gained their first victory in the Crimea, and a +loud British cheer rose from the troops as they stood on the well-won +heights, and struck terror into the hearts of the retreating Russians. Our +soldiers had fought nobly, but three thousand lay dead or wounded on the +field of battle. + +Great were the rejoicings in England when news of the victory arrived, but +the joy was mixed with sorrow at the terrible accounts of the English +soldiers who were wounded so badly on the field. All night the doctors +worked, trying to dress their wounds, and relieve their pain, and have +them carried to hospitals and tents. But the work was enormous, and there +were not enough doctors to perform it, and no proper nurses to take charge +of the hospitals. The cry for doctors and nurses reached England, and +England responded readily to the call. Many Englishwomen offered +themselves to go out and nurse the sick soldiers, and their offer was +accepted by the Government. + +One of the first to volunteer was Miss Nightingale, and owing to her great +experience she was entrusted with choice of nurses, and the leadership of +them. It was a difficult matter to choose the fittest nurses out of the +many who offered themselves, but at last the work was done, and one +October day Miss Nightingale and thirty-seven nurses left Folkestone by +steamer for the East. They were received by a crowd at Boulogne to wish +them "God speed" on their mission, and then some of the chief citizens +entertained them at dinner. The fisherwomen of Boulogne in their plain +bright skirts and coloured shawls, carried all the luggage themselves up +from the steamer, amid the cheers of the people. + +All through France the nurses were received with sympathy and respect; for +France and England were joined in a common cause, and France had already +sent out nurses for their sick soldiers. + +Then Miss Nightingale and her little band sailed from Marseilles to +Constantinople. They had a very stormy passage, but arrived at +Constantinople on November 4th, 1854, on the eve of another great battle. + +The battle of Balaclava--made famous by the Charge of the Light Brigade, +in which so many brave lives were lost through a mistaken order--was over, +but November 5th, the day after Miss Nightingale arrived, was to be made +famous by another splendid victory over the Russians. + +It was a misty winter morning, and the day had hardly dawned, when the +Russians advanced, sure of victory, to the plateau of Inkermann, where a +scanty British force was collected. So thick was the fog that the English +knew nothing till, in overwhelming numbers, the Russians appeared pressing +up the hill. At once the fighting began, and the soldiers bravely kept +their post, driving back the Russians time after time as they mounted the +slopes. All day the battle lasted, and the English were getting exhausted +when a French army arrived, and the Russians were soon in full retreat, +having been beaten by an army taken unawares and only a fourth part of +their own number. This battle is famous because the soldiers, not the +generals, won the day. + +The wounded soldiers were taken to the hospital at Scutari, where Miss +Nightingale had only just arrived. + +The hospital was already full; two miles of space were occupied by beds, +and there were over two thousand sick and wounded soldiers. Then the +wounded from Inkermann were brought across the water, and landed at the +pier; those who could, walked to the great barrack hospital; those who +were too badly hurt to walk were carried on stretchers up the steep hill +leading to the hospital. It was a large square building outside, and +inside were large bare wards with rows and rows of closely packed beds. +There seemed no room for the heroes of Inkermann, but beds were made up +all along the passages as close as possible, and the wounded men were laid +in them. + +It was a cheering sight to the sick soldiers to see Miss Nightingale and +the nurses moving about the wards. They all wore aprons, and bands with +"Scutari Hospital" marked on them, plain skirts and white caps. The men +had never been nursed by women before, only by men, some of them very +rough, some knowing nothing of sickness and unable to dress their wounds. +But these nurses moved about from bed to bed, quickly and quietly, +attending to each sufferer in turn, and working for hours and hours with +no rest. Some of the soldiers were too ill even to know where they were, +until they slowly returned to life, and found themselves no longer lying +on the battle-field, but in the hospital, being cared for and looked after +by Miss Nightingale or one of her band. The nurses had a hard time of it; +the Turkish bread was so sour they could hardly eat it; what butter they +had was bad, and the meat, one of them said, "was more like moist leather +than food." + +But they worked on through the day, often through the night as well, +carrying out the doctor's orders, giving medicine, supplying lint and +bandages, and giving lemonade to the thirsty soldiers. There was barely +room to pass between the beds,--so closely were they packed. Here and +there a little group of doctors would stand over a bed talking over a bad +case, while those soldiers who could walk would go to the bed of a +comrade, to help pass some of the long hours away. + +The winter was bitterly cold. The men on the bleak heights before +Sebastopol were only half fed, their clothes were in rags, they had to +sleep on the damp ground, and toil for many hours every day in the +trenches ankle deep in water and mud. Many hundreds died, many more +sickened, and were taken to the hospital. Besides the large kitchen which +supplied all the general food, the nurses had another, where jelly, +arrowroot, soup, broth, and chickens were cooked for those who were too +ill to eat the usual hospital fare. Here Miss Nightingale would cook +herself, if there were some urgent case, and with her own hands feed the +sick and dying men. She had a great power of command over the soldiers; +many a time _her_ influence helped a wounded man through the dreaded +operations. He would sooner die than meet the knife of the surgeon. Then +Miss Nightingale would encourage him to be brave, and, while she stood +beside him, he, with lips closely set and hands folded, set himself for +_her_ sake to endure the necessary pain. And the soldiers would watch her +gliding down the wards, and long for their turn to come, when she would +stand by their special bed and perhaps speak some special word to them. + +Then the men under her, the orderlies who had to obey her in everything, +did it without a murmur. + +"During all that dreadful period" not one of them failed her in devotion, +obedience, ready attention; for her sake they toiled and endured, as they +would not have toiled and endured for anyone else. + +"Never," she said, "never came from any one of them a word or look which a +gentleman would not have used," and the tears would come into her eyes as +she thought how amid those terrible scenes of suffering, disease, and +death, these men, accustomed to use bad language, perhaps to swear, never +once used a bad expression which might have distressed her--their "Lady in +Chief." But Miss Nightingale had very uphill work; among other things, +when she first went to the hospital, she found there was no laundry, and +only seven shirts had been washed belonging to the soldiers; so she had a +laundry formed as soon as possible, and there was a grand improvement in +the cleanliness of the hospital. + +One December day great excitement ran through the wards of the great +Scutari hospital, when it became known that a letter from the Queen had +arrived. + +"I wish," wrote the Queen, "Miss Nightingale and the ladies to tell these +poor noble wounded and sick men, that no one takes a warmer interest, or +feels more for their sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism more +than their Queen. Day and night she thinks of her beloved troops." Copies +of this letter were made, and read aloud in each ward, and as the last +words, followed by "God save the Queen," were uttered, a vigorous "Amen" +rose from the sick and dying men. They liked the Queen's sympathy, and +they loved to think, in that far-off land, that England was thinking of +them. + +The rejoicings in the wards over an English newspaper were great; small +groups of soldiers would collect round the stove, while one would stand in +the middle, perhaps with only one arm, or his head bound up, and read to +his eager listeners the news of England and the news of the war, which was +still being waged around them, and in which they were keenly interested. +For the long siege of Sebastopol, in which many of them had taken part, +was still going on. In the spring came the unexpected news of the death of +Nicholas, Emperor of Russia. "Nicholas is dead--Nicholas is dead!" was +murmured through the wards, and the news travelled quickly from bed to +bed. + +"How did he die?" cried some. "Well," exclaimed one soldier, "I'd rather +have that news than a month's pay!" One man burst into tears, and slowly +raising his hands, he clasped them together, and sobbed out "Thank God!" + +In the summer Miss Nightingale went to visit the camp hospitals near +Balaclava and to take some nurses there. She rode up the heights on a +pony, while some men followed with baggage for the hospitals, and she was +warmly greeted by the sick soldiers. A little later she was seized with +fever, and carried on a litter to one of the hut hospitals, where she lay +for some time in high fever. When at last she was well enough to be moved, +she was carried down and placed on board a vessel bound for England. But +she felt there was more work to be done, and though still weak and ill she +returned to her post at the Barrack Hospital. + +In the autumn of 1855 the interest among the soldiers became intense, as +it was known that Sebastopol could not hold out much longer. + +At last in September it was announced that Sebastopol was a heap of ruins. +The effect in the wards was electric. "Sebastopol has fallen," was the one +absorbing thought. Dying men sat up in their beds, and clasped their +hands, unable to utter more than the one word "Sebastopol." "Would that I +had been in at the last," murmured one, wounded while the siege was yet +going on. + +With the fall of Sebastopol the war was at an end, and peace was signed +the following spring. But Miss Nightingale still remained at Scutari, till +the English had finally left Turkey in the summer of 1856. England had +resolved to give her a public welcome, but she shrank from it, and quietly +arrived at her home in Derbyshire unrecognized. But England wanted to show +her gratitude to her in some way for the good work she had done, and the +soldiers wanted to share. So a fund was started, called the "Nightingale +Fund." And very heartily did all join in the home movement. The soldiers, +both those who were wounded and those who were not, gave all they could, +so universal was the feeling of thankfulness and gratitude to Miss +Nightingale, who had given up so much for their sakes, and risked her life +to ease their sufferings and cheer their long hours of pain. + +At Miss Nightingale's special wish the Fund was devoted to the formation +of a training-school for nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital in London. For up +to this time no woman could be properly trained in England, and there were +not many who could afford to go to the training home on the Rhine in +Germany. + +The Queen presented Miss Nightingale with a beautiful jewel; it was +designed by the Prince Consort; the word "Crimea" was engraved on it, and +on the back were the words, "To Florence Nightingale, as a mark of esteem +and gratitude for her devotion towards the Queen's brave soldiers. From +Victoria R., 1855." + +In 1858 she wrote a book called "Notes on Nursing," and it soon became +very popular; in it she tries to show how much harm is done by _bad_ +nursing. + +"Every woman," she says, "or at least almost every woman in England has at +one time or another of her life charge of the personal health of somebody, +in other words every woman is a nurse." And then she tells the women of +England, what a good nurse ought to be, how quiet and clean, how obedient +to the doctor's orders, how careful about food and air. "Windows are made +to open, doors are made to shut," she remarks, and if nurses remembered +this oftener, it would be better and happier for their patients. + +But her life was chiefly lived in those two years at the Scutari hospital; +the many difficulties she met with at first, the struggle against dirt and +bad food, the enormous amount of extra work to be got through in the day +because others would not do their full share, the terribly anxious cases +she had to nurse,--all these told on her health. + +"I have been a prisoner to my room from illness for years," she tells us, +but she did more good, brave, noble work in those two years than many a +woman has done in a lifetime. + +One of our poets has written about Miss Nightingale. He was reading one +night of the "great army of the dead" on the battle-fields of the Crimea, + + "The wounded from the battle plain + In dreary hospitals of pain, + The cheerless corridors, + The cold and stony floors," + +and as he pictured this desolate scene, he seemed to see a lady with a +little lamp moving through the "glimmering gloom," softly going from bed +to bed; he saw the "speechless sufferer" turn to kiss her shadow, as it +fell upon the darkened walls. And then he adds: + + "A Lady with a Lamp shall stand + In the great history of the land, + A noble type of good, + Heroic Womanhood." + + +CHISWICK PRESS:--C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COUNT, CHANCERY LANE. + + + + +THE YORK READERS + + +An entirely new series of PRIMERS and READERS, beautifully printed in a +specially bold and clear type, and illustrated throughout in colours and +in black and white. 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B. Synge + +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 Englishwomen + An Historical Reading Book for Schools + +Author: M. B. Synge + +Release Date: May 22, 2011 [EBook #36184] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<div class="verts"> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">BELL’S READING-BOOKS.</span></p> +<p class="center">CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE READERS.</p> + +<p>Abridgements of well-known English books have been carefully made by a +method of excision only, the language of the original being in all cases +left intact.</p> + +<p class="center">Price One Shilling each.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Post 8vo. Illustrated. Strongly Bound.</i></p> + + +<p><br /><i>Suitable for Standard</i> III.</p> + +<p class="dent"><span class="smcap">Adventures of a Donkey.</span> Translated from the French.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Great Deeds in English History.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Grimm’s German Tales.</span> (Selected.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Andersen’s Danish Tales.</span> (Selected.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Great Englishmen.</span> Short Lives for Young Children.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Great Irishmen.</span> Short Lives for Young Children.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Life of Columbus.</span> By S. Crompton.</p> + +<p><br /><i>Standard</i> IV.</p> + +<p class="dent"><span class="smcap">Uncle Tom’s Cabin.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Swiss Family Robinson.</span> (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Parables from Nature.</span> (Selected.) By Mrs. Gatty.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Great Englishwomen.</span> Short Lives.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Great Scotsmen.</span> Short Lives.<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Children of the New Forest.</span> By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Edgeworth’s Tales.</span> (A Selection.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Lyrical Poetry.</span> Selected by D. Monro.<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Talisman.</span> By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.)</p> + +<p><br /><i>Standard</i> V.</p> + +<p class="dent"><span class="smcap">The Story of Little Nell.</span> By Charles Dickens. (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Settlers in Canada.</span> By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) New Edition.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Masterman Ready.</span> By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) New Edition.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Gulliver’s Travels.</span> (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Robinson Crusoe.</span> (Abridged.) New Edition.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Poor Jack.</span> By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Arabian Nights.</span></p> + +<p><br /><i>Standards</i> VI. <i>and</i> VII.</p> + +<p class="dent"><span class="smcap">Woodstock.</span> By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Ivanhoe.</span> By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Oliver Twist.</span> By Charles Dickens. (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Vicar of Wakefield.</span> (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare.</span> (Selected.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Southey’s Life of Nelson.</span> (Abridged.)<br /> +<span class="smcap">Sir Roger de Coverley and other Essays, from the “Spectator.”</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Tales of the Coast.</span> By J. Runciman.</p> + +<p class="center"><br />LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS.</p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN.</span></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN</span></p> +<p class="center">AN HISTORICAL READING BOOK<br />FOR SCHOOLS</p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">BY</p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">M. B. SYNGE</span><br /> +<small>AUTHOR OF “GREAT ENGLISHMEN,” ETC.</small></p> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/printer.jpg" alt="" /></div> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">LONDON<br />GEORGE BELL AND SONS<br />1907</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p class="note">The following collection of short lives has been compiled as a companion +volume to the “Great Englishmen,” which has already met with approval in +schools. It is hoped that this will be found no less useful.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Queen Bertha</span> (died 606)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Maude the Good</span> (1080-1118)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Eleanor of Aquitaine</span> (1122-1204)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Philippa of Hainault</span> (1313-1369)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Margaret of Anjou</span> (1429-1480)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Lady Margaret</span> (1441-1509)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Margaret Roper</span> (1501?-1544)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Lady Jane Grey</span> (1537-1554)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Princess Elizabeth</span> (1596-1662)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Lady Rachel Russell</span> (1636-1723)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Angelica Kaufmann</span> (1741-1807)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Hannah More</span> (1745-1833)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Fry</span> (1780-1845)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Mary Somerville</span> (1780-1872)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Barrett Browning</span> (1809-1861)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Florence Nightingale</span> (born 1820)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td></tr></table> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN.</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<h2>QUEEN BERTHA (died 606).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Bertha,</span> our first Christian queen, lived a very quiet, uneventful life; +history does not record her sayings, nor does it tell us that she +performed any great public acts; she made no special mark on the world at +large. But by her good example to others, by her gentle influence on those +around her, she stands out as the one bright light shining from out the +thick darkness of those heathen days.</p> + +<p>She was the only child of the king of Paris, but there is more to say +about her grandmother Radigund than about either her father or mother; for +Bertha had been taught to love the name of Radigund from a little child.</p> + +<p>Radigund was the wife of a king of part of France. This king had taken her +prisoner with her little brother in a war, but, finding her very beautiful +and of royal blood, he adopted her. As she was a heathen, he had her +baptized, and then had her taught till she was old enough to become his +wife. Then poor Radigund was very unhappy; the king her husband was stern, +rough, and cruel, though he loved her very much, and she escaped unknown +to a distant convent. With her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> own hands she cut off her long and +beautiful hair, and leaving her royal dress and jewels, she threw on the +cloak of a nun. At last the king discovered her, repented of his harshness +toward her, and gave her a large estate, on which she built a convent, and +devoted her time to study. It was she who made the convent rules herself, +she who gave advice to those who needed it, encouraged the timid, urged on +the slothful, and spoke tenderly to those in trouble.</p> + +<p>Radigund brought up her son, Bertha’s father, to love the classics and old +writings, and he became a wise and good king. So when he had a child of +his own, he determined that she should be brought up in a convent, away +from the world, as he had been. We do not know where Bertha was taught (it +may have been under her grandmother Radigund), and we hear nothing more of +her till history tells us that Ethelbert, the king of Kent, married the +gentle Bertha, daughter of the king of Paris.</p> + +<p>Now Ethelbert was a young Saxon king, who had taken part in governing from +the age of sixteen; his friends and servants all looked up to him and were +ready to share his dangers and his triumphs. The kings and princes of +England at this early time were always trying to increase their domains, +and Ethelbert was no exception. The kings were all very jealous of one +another, so Ethelbert thought it would be better to look for help outside +England. So he visited the king of Paris, to ask his advice on the +subject. There he met Bertha, and was greatly attracted by the good and +beautiful princess. The king of Paris for his part liked the brave +boy-king of Kent, and was pleased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> with the idea of a marriage between him +and his daughter Bertha. But in 567 he died suddenly, and Bertha went to +live with her uncle, who now became king of Paris.</p> + +<p>Now her uncle would not hear of her proposed marriage with the king of +Kent, because Bertha was a Christian and Ethelbert a heathen. But +Ethelbert loved Bertha very much, and he said if he might marry her, he +would allow her to keep her Christian religion, and also to bring over a +Christian bishop with her. So the uncle consented, and the Princess Bertha +was sent over in great state and honour to the unknown land, to become the +queen of Kent.</p> + +<p>Her new home was a castle in the town of Canterbury, a palace where the +kings of Kent always lived. For it was a splendid hall where the king and +queen entertained their friends, and where dancing to the pipe and harp +often went on. The queen had a bower in the garden, where she could play +the lute and ply the shuttle, and she loved to wander in the gardens with +the ladies of the court and watch the flowers growing.</p> + +<p>Happy years followed Bertha’s marriage; a little son and daughter came to +wake up the old castle with their merry voices. They had curious Saxon +names, but the little girl was always called “Tata,” which means lively, +because she was such a bright little child.</p> + +<p>On a hill beyond Canterbury stood the little church of St. Martin, which +had been restored for the queen’s use, and there she went daily, while +Ethelbert prayed to his idols in a pagan temple near. Bertha longed for +him to become a Christian and to convert the heathen men of Kent, but +although he was a good king,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> anxious to improve the laws and the people, +he liked to remain as he was and as his fathers had been before him. At +last Bertha’s wish was to be fulfilled.</p> + +<p>Now some poor little Saxon children had been stolen away from their homes +and taken all the way to Rome as slaves. There they were put out in the +market-place to be bought by the people. They were very fair, with blue +eyes, light hair, white skins and rosy cheeks, and very different to the +Roman children, who were dark.</p> + +<p>While the children were there a priest passed by.</p> + +<p>“From what country do these slaves come,” he asked.</p> + +<p>“They are Angles,” answered the slave-dealer.</p> + +<p>“Not Angles, but Angels,” replied the priest, with pity in his voice, +“with faces so angel-like.”</p> + +<p>Then he asked more about them and their country, and when he heard it was +a heathen country, a longing came over him to go and teach the people to +be Christians. When the Romans chose him for their bishop, or, as they +called him, their Pope or Father, he remembered the little heathen slaves +from the heathen land, and he chose a man called Augustine and forty monks +to go over to England and teach the people better things.</p> + +<p>As Augustine passed through France, he heard that Queen Bertha was already +a Christian, and the news made him very hopeful. So he and the monks +landed on the Isle of Thanet off Kent, and sent a message to Ethelbert to +say they were there and would like to see the king. And a few days after +Ethelbert and Bertha went to the Isle of Thanet to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> meet Augustine and his +men. They wore monks’ dress: loose black gowns, with wide sleeves and +hood, and their heads were closely shaven on the top. The king and queen +sat on the ground and watched the long array of monks coming nearer, while +the words of their litany became more and more distinct. At the king’s +command they sat down, while Augustine stood and talked to the king about +leaving his idols and letting his subjects become Christians.</p> + +<p>“Your words are fair,” answered the king, “but they are new and of +doubtful meaning.” Then he went on to say, that though he could not give +up his old customs suddenly, yet he would allow Augustine to preach to his +people; he would give them a house to dwell in and food to eat, and he +hoped their mission might succeed. So the little band marched into the +heathen city of Canterbury singing as they went. The people were greatly +attracted by their teaching, their simple way of living, their plain food, +and gentle manners. Augustine and the monks used to go to Queen Bertha’s +little church of St. Martin, and pray, sing, preach, and baptize the +people, who soon came promising to give up praying to their idols and to +become Christians.</p> + +<p>At last, one day the King Ethelbert came to the little church on the hill +to be baptized, and you may imagine Bertha’s joy as the king of Kent was +led to St. Martin’s Church, never more to enter his little pagan temple. +Then many followed his example, and before the end of the year ten +thousand Saxons were baptized. The king saw what good work these men were +doing, and that St. Martin’s Church was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> large enough for all, so he +told the people to build and repair churches all over his land.</p> + +<p>Now Augustine could not preach to all these many people, and he wanted to +make new priests to help him. But this he could not do till he was made a +bishop himself. So he went to an archbishop in the south of France, and +was made a bishop with the Pope’s leave. Very soon after he was made +Archbishop of Canterbury, and ever since his time there has been an +Archbishop of Canterbury, who is not only head of all the clergy, but the +highest subject in the queen’s realm. Augustine was allowed to ordain +twelve bishops to work under him, and to send to York a very trusty +bishop, who might ordain twelve more.</p> + +<p>Now the old Britons or Welsh were, many of them, already Christians, and +Augustine and Ethelbert thought it would be a good plan to make friends +with the Welsh bishops. So they all met under a great oak on the border +land, but unhappily the Welsh bishops could not agree with them; for, +although they were Christians, they did not do everything as Augustine had +been used to do at Rome. So they could not help in preaching to the +heathen, and Augustine went home again. He began to repair an old church +in Canterbury, which is the present Canterbury Cathedral.</p> + +<p>He died in 605, and the last time we hear of Queen Bertha is at the +opening of a great monastery dedicated to St. Augustine. The king and +queen and their son took part in the solemn meeting.</p> + +<p>About the rest of Queen Bertha’s life history is silent. Her death is +supposed to have taken place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> the same year, but we have no record of the +event. She died as quietly as she had lived, leaving us little more to +know her by than her influence on the times in which she lived. She was +buried in a church named after St. Peter and St. Paul, in a corner called +St. Martin’s porch, beside St. Augustine, and twelve years later King +Ethelbert was laid beside her.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> +<h2>MAUDE THE GOOD (1080-1118).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">“Maude,</span> the good queen;” “Dame Maude, a kind woman and true;” “The good +queen Maude;” “Queen Maude, that’s right well loved England through.” When +these are the terms used by the people of her time there is little need to +say more about her character.</p> + +<p>Born in 1080, she was christened Edith, but as her name was changed to +Maude or Matilda, on her marriage, out of compliment to the mother of +Henry I., we will call her Maude throughout. Her mother was Margaret, the +gentle Queen of Scotland, her father the well-known Malcolm, of whom +Shakspere has written, a mighty king, but a man who could neither read nor +write.</p> + +<p>When Maude was quite a little girl, she was sent with her sister Mary to +live with her aunt Christina, the Abbess of Romsey. Now, although she had +no intention of making Maude a nun, her aunt compelled her to wear the +nun’s veil; this made the little girl not only very unhappy, but angry, +and, whenever her aunt’s back was turned, Maude tore the veil from her +head and trampled upon it. One day her father came to the abbey to see his +daughters, and he saw Maude wearing the nun’s veil. He was very angry, +and, tearing it off her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> head, he declared that his fair-haired Maude +should never be a nun, but that she was to marry Count Alan. It is +probable that Malcolm took his two children back to Scotland with him, for +the next mention of Maude is beside her mother’s death-bed.</p> + +<p>Malcolm had invaded England for the fifth time, when he was slain, +together with his eldest son Edward. This was heavy news for Prince Edgar +to break to his mother.</p> + +<p>“How fares it with the king and my Edward?” asked the dying queen, as her +son Edgar entered the room. The young prince was silent, but his sad face +spoke more than words.</p> + +<p>“I know all—I know all,” sobbed his mother; “but speak the worst.”</p> + +<p>“Then your husband and son are both slain!” replied Edgar.</p> + +<p>The widowed queen lifted up her hands and eyes to heaven and prayed, and, +as the last words were uttered, she died.</p> + +<p>Then Maude and Mary were sent back to their aunt Christina to complete +their education.</p> + +<p>While they were there, the news suddenly burst upon England that William +Rufus, the Red King, had been shot by an arrow while hunting in the New +Forest, and that his brother Henry intended to be King of England, as +Robert the elder brother was away fighting in the Holy Land. Henry said, +if the people would only make him king, he would do everything they +wished; and, when they at last consented, he pleased them all by marrying +Maude, the daughter of good Queen Margaret, and descended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> from Alfred the +Great, whose memory all England loved.</p> + +<p>At first Christina the abbess refused to allow her niece to marry the +king, and, knowing what a bad man Henry was, Maude refused too. But at +last, commanded by her brother Edgar, urged by the people, entreated by +the king, she consented. So they were married on November 11th, in 1100, +and Archbishop Anselm preached a very celebrated sermon to the crowds who +had come to see the royal wedding. Then Maude was crowned Queen of +England, to the joy of the people.</p> + +<p>She was very kind to the poor and to all around her; every day in Lent she +went barefoot, clothed in haircloth, to wash the feet of the poorest +people, after the custom of her mother. She had hospitals built, new roads +made, and bridges over the rivers.</p> + +<p>One day she was riding on horseback through a ford on the river Lea, with +her train of attendants. The river was flooded, and the current sweeping +along so fast, that they were in danger of perishing, and out of gratitude +for her life, Queen Maude caused the first arched bridge ever known in +England to be built.</p> + +<p>In 1102, a little son was born, and named William, after his grandfather +William the Conqueror.</p> + +<p>Now Robert, the Duke of Normandy, Henry’s elder brother, had returned from +his wars in the Holy Land, and finding it useless to try and assert his +rights in England, he settled in Normandy. But he was very idle; he had +spent all his money; it is even said that he had to lie in bed sometimes, +for want of clothes to put on, and the Norman people were so unhappy, +that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> they sent for Henry to come and help them. So leaving his wife Maude +to govern England, Henry took an army to Normandy, and a battle was fought +in which Duke Robert and his little son were taken prisoners.</p> + +<p>It was just forty years after the battle of Hastings; then the Normans +came over and conquered the English; now the English went over, and +Normandy was conquered. Of course Henry had to spend a good deal of time +over there, to reform laws and make peace, but Queen Maude was quite +capable of reigning in England, and keeping the people peaceful and happy.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1109 Henry returned to England, and kept court in great +splendour at the new palace at Windsor. His little daughter Matilda was +just five years old, when the Emperor of Germany, a man of forty-five, +begged to be allowed to marry her. The proposal was eagerly accepted by +her father, for the union would secure peace between Germany and England, +so the little princess was solemnly married. The child could not stand +under the weight of jewels with which she was adorned as bride, and had to +be carried; she was allowed to live with her mother in England till she +was twelve, when she was sent over in great state to her royal husband.</p> + +<p>When Prince William was twelve, he was taken over to Normandy, for the +Norman barons to swear fealty to him and acknowledge him as their future +king. But he was never their king, because he was drowned when he was only +eighteen.</p> + +<p>A revolt in Normandy to set Robert’s little son upon the throne, took +Henry and his son away from England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> again, and the queen was left alone. +She was in failing health, and Henry returned to spend Christmas with her, +but he could not stay long. He had left Prince William as a pledge that he +would return; so he left the queen, and they never met again. Maude lived +on in her palace at Westminster, very lonely in heart, although she was +surrounded with all the splendour of royalty; her two children were gone, +her husband was across the sea. Her only pleasure lay in caring for the +poor around her, and making <i>them</i> happy. For five months she lived on in +her solitude, and in May, 1118, she died, and was buried in Westminster +Abbey. She was spared the blow of hearing that her only boy, Prince +William, was drowned in the White Ship crossing over to England; spared +the misery of knowing that her daughter Matilda, left a widow at +twenty-one, was obliged to fight for the crown of England, and spared +witnessing the bitter grief of her husband Henry, who, after the loss of +his son, never “smiled again.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> +<h2>ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1122-1204).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Eleanor</span> of Aquitaine, the wife of Henry II., has been handed down to us by +popular tradition, as a tyrannical woman, with a great many bad faults and +very few good traits of character. This is not entirely the case. Although +her early life was marked by wild and reckless freaks, and though we must +blame her for helping her sons against their father, yet we must recognize +her, as one whose masterful power in ruling the kingdom kept the country +at peace, whose last years were marked by very merciful acts, who never +spared herself any trouble for her son, even when bowed down with +fourscore years—as a great and illustrious woman.</p> + +<p>Her energy from early youth to old age was unrivalled; at the age of +twenty-five, she went on a crusade, dressed as a pilgrim, with her +husband; at the age of seventy she had the energy to go to Italy with a +wife for her son, and to Germany with the ransom she had raised to release +him from prison.</p> + +<p>Eleanor was born in 1122, in Aquitaine, a dukedom in the south-west corner +of France. Count William, her father, was a good prince, and so beloved by +his people, that when he died, fighting in the Holy Land, he was +remembered as “St. William.” He died<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> when Eleanor was ten, and her +grandfather undertook to provide for her future welfare. He called +together his barons, and made them acknowledge Eleanor as his heiress, and +further agree to a proposal that Eleanor should marry the future King of +France, Louis, and thus unite the north of France with the south.</p> + +<p>So it came to pass that, when Eleanor was fifteen, she was married with +great pomp, for her grandfather had been one of the most powerful princes +in Europe. Then her grandfather left her, laid down his robes, and went +off to Spain, where he soon after died. After their marriage, Louis and +Eleanor were summoned to the death bed of Louis VI.</p> + +<p>“Remember, royalty is a public trust,” were his last words to the future +king and queen, and on them the words made a lasting impression.</p> + +<p>The new Queen of France was very beautiful; moreover she was musical, and +composed songs and poetry; she could read and write, then a rare +accomplishment, and was adored by her southern subjects, who always +welcomed her with joy, and mourned her absence, when she was obliged to +return to her court at Paris.</p> + +<p>Now it was at this time that St. Bernard was preaching about the Crusades, +and the king and queen with all their court went to hear him. He had to +preach in the market-place, as no cathedral would hold the crowds that +went to listen. Now the king,—urged by Eleanor,—had already been to war +in France, and in course of war he had ruthlessly set fire to a cathedral, +in which 1,300 people had taken refuge;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> all had perished, and the king, +stirred by St. Bernard, resolved to atone for this heartless deed by going +to the Holy Land to fight. Eleanor declared that she would go too, so, +dressed as a “gay and courtly pilgrim,” and mounted on horseback, she +accompanied Louis to the Crusade. But it was not a success. It led to +disagreement between Louis and Eleanor, and on their return they obtained +a divorce, and Eleanor went back to her own country.</p> + +<p>Six weeks after she married Henry, Duke of Normandy, the future King of +England. Louis was very angry, because now Aquitaine was united to +Normandy; both would soon be joined to England, and Louis foresaw +dangerous enemies.</p> + +<p>In 1154 Henry became King of England, and he and Eleanor went over to be +crowned. Everything looked bright before them; the queen rode by the +king’s side into Winchester, and the handsome and brave young Henry with +his beautiful wife called forth shouts of joy from the English people.</p> + +<p>Soon after her marriage, one day, in the grounds of Woodstock, Eleanor saw +the king walking with the end of a ball of silk caught on his spur. +Knowing it was not her silk, her suspicions were aroused, and, without +letting him see, she took up the ball of silk, and the king walking on, +the silk unwound, and the queen traced him to a maze in the park, where he +disappeared. Thus runs the story.</p> + +<p>Soon after this, the king left Woodstock for a long journey; the queen, +remembering the silk, then searched the grounds, and found a low door half +hidden by the thicket. She opened it, and went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> down along a path +underground, which at length led out to a lodge in a remote part of the +forest, and here in a bower Eleanor found a very beautiful lady busily +engaged in work. This was the fair Rosamond, and she could now account for +the silk on her husband’s spur. Eleanor was very angry, and it has been +said that she poisoned her rival. Rosamond, however, retired to a convent, +where she lived for the rest of her life.</p> + +<p>The king was very often obliged to be in France to look after his vast +possessions, but he always left Eleanor to rule in his absence, and she +governed well and wisely. But the people in her duchy in the south of +France did not like her to leave them so much, and at last they broke into +open revolt, and would not be pacified till Eleanor went with her third +son Richard to govern them for a time.</p> + +<p>Now Henry had four sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John, who was ten +years younger than his brother Geoffrey. The two eldest, Henry and +Richard, had, while quite little boys, been married to two daughters of +the King of France, by which Henry hoped to keep peace with France.</p> + +<p>Geoffrey was to marry the heiress of Brittany, so by this means the King +of England possessed more of France than King Louis himself.</p> + +<p>Henry and his little wife Margaret had been sent to Thomas à Becket, the +Chancellor, to be educated and brought up in a way befitting the future +king and queen of England. The children loved Becket, and when in after +years Henry and Margaret were summoned to be crowned—in the lifetime of +the king—by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> the Archbishop of York, Margaret refused to appear, because +the guardian of her youth, Becket, was not to perform the coronation.</p> + +<p>In 1172, after the murder of Becket, Henry and Margaret were again +crowned, and soon after went to the French court to Louis. Now, though +they had been crowned, Henry and Margaret could take no share in the +government till the king’s death, but Louis stirred up his young +son-in-law to rebel against this rule.</p> + +<p>At his father’s death Henry was to have England, Normandy, Anjou, Maine, +and Touraine; Richard, Aquitaine and Poitou; and Geoffrey, Brittany. +Eleanor encouraged Henry to rebel against his father. “I advise you, king, +beware of your wife and sons,” were words addressed to Henry, with a +warning to look after Aquitaine.</p> + +<p>One night the king and his son stopped to sleep a night at Chimon; in the +night Henry escaped and fled to the French king, where a few days after he +was joined by Richard and Geoffrey. Queen Eleanor attempted to join them, +but she was seized—dressed in men’s clothes—escaping to the French +court, and soon after Henry came over to fetch her and take her back to +England, where he kept her as a sort of prisoner, safely guarded in her +palace at Winchester, for many years.</p> + +<p>Then there was peace for a time. Richard, the darling of his imprisoned +mother, was the first to renew the war. On being told to do homage to +young Henry for Aquitaine, he refused; whereupon Henry and Geoffrey +marched against him. But peace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> was made. Nevertheless, the people of +Aquitaine were more enraged than ever. In their eyes Eleanor was their +chief, and Henry had no power over them, except through her and by +affectionate treatment of her. Now she was in prison,—Eleanor, the +princess of their old stock,—the princess born among them, brought up in +their midst.</p> + +<p>“Daughter of Aquitaine,” sang the troubadours, “thou hast been torn from +thy country and led into a strange land. Return, poor prisoner, return to +thy faithful cities, if thou canst; if thou canst not, weep and cry, +‘Alas, how long is my exile!’ Raise thy voice like a trumpet, that thy +sons may hear thee; for the day is at hand when thy sons shall deliver +thee, and then thou shalt see thy native land again!”</p> + +<p>In 1183 young Henry the heir died. When he found he could not live much +longer, he sent for his father to implore forgiveness for his wrongdoings. +Henry, who had always loved his son, forgave him readily, and the +prince—almost passionate in his sorrow—died on sackcloth and ashes as an +atonement for his sins.</p> + +<p>The following year there was a solemn peace-making between Henry and his +three sons. Eleanor was released from her prison to be present, and “peace +and final concord” was established. Soon after Geoffrey was killed, and +the King of France at once invited Richard to his court. The oft-repeated +risings and rebellions of Henry’s sons were making his last days very +unhappy. He longed to make peace with Richard, but he could not. The +people of the South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> were against him, his vassals were even forsaking him +for Richard. A list was brought of those who had left him; he ordered the +names to be read. The first name on the list was John. The king leapt from +his bed in agony.</p> + +<p>“Is it true,” he cried, “that John, the child of my heart, the best +beloved of all my sons, has forsaken me?”</p> + +<p>He looked at the name, as if to make sure there was no mistake; then, +turning his face to the wall, he groaned: “Now let everything go as it +will; I care no more for myself, nor for the world.”</p> + +<p>Richard’s first act as King of England was to release his mother from her +captivity, and make her Queen Regent of England. She made a royal progress +through England, releasing prisoners throughout the country to pray “for +the soul of Henry II.,” pardoning offences against the crown, making the +forest laws easier, and restoring to their families those who had been put +in prison for disobeying them.</p> + +<p>Her long captivity and sorrow for her two dead sons had softened her +character, and the latter part of her life was kinder, more merciful, and, +therefore, more powerful than the former. When Richard had settled a dower +on her, she went back to France. Soon after Richard joined the King of +France to go to the crusade, leaving a regent to govern England, and that +regent was not his brother John. John felt the slight, but waited till +Richard had gone before he put in his claims.</p> + +<p>Eleanor’s next step was to go to Spain to fetch Berengaria, the beautiful +daughter of the King of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> Navarre, and take her to Richard, who had fallen +in love with her some years before. The royal ladies set off from the +court of Navarre together, crossed the Pyrenees, and went to Naples, where +they found ships, and crossed to Messina, where Richard met them.</p> + +<p>Now Eleanor had several reasons for taking this long journey to Messina. +There was a question who should succeed Richard as King of England, and it +was therefore important he should have an heir. Geoffrey’s son Arthur was +the rightful heir, as matters stood, but Eleanor hated Arthur and Arthur’s +mother, and was anxious to prevent his ever being king. Again, England was +not in a happy state, and Eleanor wanted to talk to Richard about it.</p> + +<p>Richard left matters entirely in his mother’s hands, and Eleanor returned +to England. It required all her efforts to keep the country at peace; it +was she who conferred with the barons, she who at last prevailed over her +youngest unruly son to remain quiet. After a time came the joyful news +that Richard had started for home, but it was followed by the tidings that +he had been taken prisoner. Then came a letter from Richard:</p> + +<p>“Richard, King of England, to his esteemed lady and dearest mother +Eleanor, by the same grace Queen of England, health and all happiness, +which a devoted son can wish for his mother. In the first place to God, +and afterward to your serene highness, sweetest mother, we send our utmost +thanks, although we cannot render enough for the faithfulness which you +keep for us, and the faithful care and diligence which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> you spend so +devotedly for the peace and defence of our countries.”</p> + +<p>Then he tells her that if a ransom can be raised, he will receive his +freedom. Eleanor at once held a meeting of the barons, and ordered a tax +to be made, and the ransom raised. Then she herself set out for Germany +with the ransom, and received back her son Richard.</p> + +<p>When John heard through the King of France that Richard was returning, he +fled. Then Eleanor and Richard held a council, and decreed that if John +did not appear in forty days all his English estates should be forfeited. +Then John threw himself at his brother’s feet, and implored forgiveness. +Richard was loth to forgive, but Eleanor begged him not to refuse, and he +always obeyed her.</p> + +<p>“I forgive him,” he cried, “and I hope I shall as easily forget his +injuries as he will forget my pardon.”</p> + +<p>In 1199 Richard died, leaving the kingdom to John. It was due mostly to +Eleanor’s influence that Arthur was set aside, and John appointed to +reign. But many of the French people hated John, and wanted Arthur to +reign over them, and Arthur and his friends marched against a French town +where his grandmother Eleanor was staying. On hearing of his mother’s +danger, John, with unwonted energy, marched to the rescue, and Arthur was +taken as prisoner to the castle of Rouen. From this time he disappeared. +Some say his uncle drowned him; tradition gives a tragic history of how +his eyes were burnt out by Hubert. Our poet Shakspere represents him as +throwing <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>himself from a high wall and being killed, but we do not know +what the truth really is. Then Eleanor retired to Fonteraux, where she +died at the age of eighty-two.</p> + +<p>With his mother’s death John lost all fear and shame, and relapsed into +depths of wickedness. Sorrow and adversity had taught Eleanor many a stern +lesson, and few women have lived to a more honourable old age than +“Eleanor, beloved of God and man,” as the monks of Canterbury used to +address her.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> +<h2>PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT (1313-1369).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Philippa,</span> afterwards Queen of Edward III. of England, was born in the +province of Hainault in Belgium, in 1313. Her mother, the Countess of +Hainault, was a wise and good woman, devoted to her husband and her four +little daughters, of whom Philippa was the second. Her uncle, Sir John, +was a very powerful man, and fought for England when Edward was king. Now, +on one of their many visits abroad, the young Prince Edward and his mother +came to Hainault, and stayed at Count William’s house.</p> + +<p>The story runs, that the future King of England took a great fancy to +Count William’s daughter Philippa, who was about his own age. They had +long talks together, and spent a very happy fortnight, and the pretty +little Philippa missed her companion very much when he and his mother were +obliged to return to England.</p> + +<p>On the death of Edward II., his son Edward was crowned king, and it was +thought advisable for him to marry. Now it so happened that it would be to +the benefit of England to have the Flemings as allies; for the people +there were ready to help Edward against the French, and to trade with +England; so “a daughter of William of Hainault” was to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> selected for +the young king. A bishop was accordingly sent over to choose which +daughter should be queen.</p> + +<p>Happily for both parties, he chose the tall and pretty Philippa, who +started joyfully for England to marry the young king. She received a +hearty welcome, and, with her uncle and numerous attendants, went up to +York, where Edward and she were married in the winter of 1328, at the ages +of fifteen and sixteen. Then they went for the summer to the beautiful +palace of Woodstock, while Edward’s mother, and Mortimer, a bad and +tyrannical man, governed the kingdom.</p> + +<p>It was at Woodstock, in 1330, that Philippa’s first son was born, the +future hero, the Black Prince. To celebrate his birth, a grand tournament +was held in London, and a tower was erected and filled with seats, so that +the queen and all her ladies might see it. But they had scarcely taken +their seats, when, with a crash, the boarding gave way, and all fell to +the ground. No one was hurt, but all were very much frightened. When the +young king saw the peril of his wife, he flew into a violent passion, and +vowed that all the careless carpenters should be put to death. But the +gentle Philippa, still trembling from the effects of her fall, threw +herself on her knees before him, and pleaded for pardon so hard, that +Edward forgave the men.</p> + +<p>When Edward was seventeen, he determined to govern the kingdom for +himself, and throw off the restraints of his mother and Mortimer, so he +shut his mother up in a castle, and Mortimer was sent to the Tower, and +sentenced to die, as he deserved. Then Edward began to reform many abuses; +many good laws<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> were made, and trade was encouraged with other nations. +Philippa, too, knew how well the people in her own country wove wool, so +she sent for some of them to come and teach the English. First she made a +little colony of weavers at Norwich, and had them taught, often going +herself to look after them, and encourage their work.</p> + +<p>During all the early part of his reign Edward was fighting in Scotland, +and Philippa went with him whenever she could. Once Edward had been up in +Scotland, and had arranged that Philippa should meet him at Durham. Having +welcomed him and supped at the priory, she retired to bed. Scarcely had +she undressed, when the monks came to her door in a great state of +excitement, to say that it was against rules for any lady—even a +queen—to sleep at their priory. Queen Philippa was very much distressed, +and, not waiting to dress, fled in her nightgown to the castle close by, +where she was allowed to pass the night in peace.</p> + +<p>Up to this time Philippa’s father had supplied Edward with money to carry +on war with Scotland; on his death Edward became so poor that he had to +pawn the queen’s crown in Germany. Soon after the English people sent +their woollen manufactures to Germany, and, instead of receiving money, so +the story says, they redeemed their queen’s crown.</p> + +<p>In 1340, a fourth son was born to Philippa at Ghent, and called John of +Gaunt—Gaunt being the old English way of saying Ghent.</p> + +<p>Now Edward had entered on a war with France, which had made him poorer +than ever. Again the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> queen’s crowns and jewels were pawned, and Edward +was getting into so much trouble, that one night he took his wife and +baby, and with a few trusty servants crossed to England secretly. The ship +was small, the weather cold, the wind was high, and at times their lives +were in great danger. However, about midnight they arrived at the Tower in +London, to find it unguarded and only occupied by the three royal children +and nurses. Edward was in a fury, and had it not been for the gentle +Philippa at his side, the guards on their return would have come off very +badly. Not only was Queen Philippa a faithful wife, always ready to calm +Edward’s fits of passion and to encourage the industry of the country, but +now we find her ruling his kingdom for him and leading his army to battle.</p> + +<p>In 1346, Philippa said farewell to her husband and to the Black Prince, +the darling of her heart, who at sixteen was off to the French war with +his father. She and Lionel, a child of eight, were left to govern England.</p> + +<p>But no sooner had Edward gone, than the King of Scotland invaded England. +Philippa did not spend long in wondering what was to be done—she went +quickly to Newcastle, where she awaited the English army. When the King of +Scotland heard she was there, he sent to say that he was ready to fight! +Philippa sent back word, that she was ready too; adding, “My barons will +risk their lives for the realm of my lord the king!”</p> + +<p>The queen’s army drew up at Neville’s Cross, and Philippa, on a white +charger, so runs the story, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> among them. She begged them to do their +duty, and to defend the honour of the king; then leaving them to the +protection of God, she rode away. She would not stop to fight; her nature +was too womanly to stay and see the carnage which was going to take place; +she had done all a great queen could do by cheering and encouraging her +men; now she would go and pray for victory while the battle raged.</p> + +<p>When she heard it was over, she mounted her white horse and rode again to +the battle-field, where she heard that not only had a victory been won, +but the King of Scotland had been taken prisoner. He was taken on a tall +black war-horse through the streets of London, and put in the Tower. The +next day Philippa sailed for Calais, and her royal husband held a grand +court to welcome his victorious queen. The terrible siege of Calais was +going on; the French had defended it bravely, till at last they were so +much reduced by famine that they were obliged to surrender. Everything was +eaten, even the cats, dogs, and horses; there was no corn, no wine, and +the unhappy people were fast dying.</p> + +<p>So the governor of Calais came to ask Edward on what terms they could +surrender. Edward was very angry at having been kept waiting so long, and +refused to spare the people unless the six chief men of Calais would come +out bareheaded and bare-footed, with ropes round their necks and the keys +of Calais in their hands, ready to die for the rest of the people. The +governor returned sad and sick at heart, and calling the people together +he gave them the king’s message. There was silence for a moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> among the +feeble few. Then the hero Eustace de St. Pierre cried:</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">“Oh! never be it said,</span><br /> +That the loyal hearts of Calais<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To die could be afraid!</span></p> + +<p>I will be the first, I will willingly give myself up to the mercy of the +King of England.” Then five others followed his brave example, and the +willing captives came before the angry king. They knelt and pleaded for +mercy. But in vain. In vain the lords around him begged him to restrain +his anger,—he only thundered:</p> + +<p>“Strike off their heads, each man of them shall die; I will have it so!”</p> + +<p>Then gentle Philippa stepped forth and knelt at the feet of her royal +husband:</p> + +<p>“My loving lord and husband,” she cried, “I have crossed the stormy sea +with great peril to come to you—I have been faithful to you all our +wedded life—do not deny my request, but, as a proof of your love to me, +grant me the lives of these six men!”</p> + +<p>The king looked at her in silence, “Lady, I would you had not been here,” +he cried at last, “I cannot refuse you, do as you please with them.”</p> + +<p>Then Philippa joyously arose, took the men, fed them, clothed them, and +sent them back to their wives, friends, and children.</p> + +<p>Soon after Philippa and Edward returned to England. The same year a +terrible disease called the Black Death broke out in England, and +Philippa’s second daughter, a girl of fifteen, died of it. She was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> just +going to marry the Infant Pedro of Spain, and had crossed to France, where +he was to meet her, when she was taken very ill with the plague, and died +in a few hours. And on the very day appointed for her wedding the little +princess was buried.</p> + +<p>In 1357, the Black Prince returned to England after his victories of Crecy +and Poitiers, and proudly presented his royal prisoner King John to his +mother, as well as John’s little son, a boy of fourteen, who had fought to +the end by his father’s side, and had been at last captured terribly +wounded. The first day, when at dinner with the king and queen and his +captive father, the boy started up, and boxed the servant’s ears for +serving Edward, King of England, before his father John, King of France.</p> + +<p>Philippa, instead of being angry, only smiled at the boy’s spirit, and she +treated him as one of her own sons as long as he remained with her.</p> + +<p>The following year Philippa, her husband, and four sons went to France, +leaving Thomas, a child of five, guardian of the kingdom. There she saw +her eldest son married.</p> + +<p>She did not live to see the sad change which made the last years of her +son’s life so unhappy; she did not live to see her husband, with a mind +once so mighty, sink into helpless old age, but she died in 1369, at +Windsor.</p> + +<p>When she was dying, she called the king: “We have, my husband, enjoyed our +long union in peace and happiness, but before we are for ever parted in +this world, I entreat you will grant me three requests.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>“Lady, name them,” answered Edward, “they shall be granted.”</p> + +<p>“My lord,” she whispered, “I beg you will pay all the merchants I have +engaged for their wares; I beseech you to fulfil any gifts or legacies I +have made to churches and my servants; and when it shall please God to +call you hence, that you will lie by my side in the cloisters of +Westminster Abbey.”</p> + +<p>She ceased speaking. The king was in tears. “Lady,” he said, “all this +shall be done.” And Philippa the queen died.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> +<h2>MARGARET OF ANJOU (1429-1480).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Margaret</span> had a difficult part to play in the history of England; married +to a weak king, who preferred founding colleges to governing a kingdom, +she had to take the reins of government into her own hands. With the +interest of her only son at heart, she refused to stand by and see the +kingdom snatched from her husband and son; wrath roused her to energy. So +far she may have been right, but she was led on to hard-hearted cruelty; +love for her son made her bloodthirsty; and when both her husband and son +were slain, the woman, once beautiful and strong, was left to go back +friendless to her native land, ruined, miserable.</p> + +<p>Margaret of Anjou was born in one of the grandest castles in Lorraine in +1429. Her father, René of Anjou, was taken prisoner fighting for his +country, when Margaret, the youngest of his four little children, was but +a baby.</p> + +<p>“Alas!” cried the mother, clasping her little golden-haired Margaret to +her bosom, “Where is René, my lord? He is taken—he is slain!”</p> + +<p>The four children of the captive prince were very beautiful, and the bards +loved to sing of them, and follow them in crowds, and scatter flowers in +their path.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>When Margaret was but six, it was arranged that she should marry Henry +VI., the young King of England, in order to make peace between the two +countries.</p> + +<p>When her father, René, was released, Margaret went to live in Italy with +her father and mother; she inherited her father’s taste for learning and +love of art. “There was no princess in Christendom more accomplished than +my lady Margaret of Anjou,” said a writer of these times.</p> + +<p>The news of her charms, beauty, talent and courage reached Henry’s ears in +England, and he sent for a portrait of the princess. The picture delighted +him, and it ended in a truce being signed between the two countries, and +Margaret starting for England to marry King Henry. The parting with her +uncle, Charles VII. of France, was very affecting; sobs stifled his voice; +the young queen could only reply by a torrent of tears, as they parted, +never to meet again. It was harder still to part with her father, for +“never was a princess more deeply loved in the bosom of her own family.” +Neither father nor daughter could speak, but each turned their different +ways, with full hearts.</p> + +<p>The people pressed in crowds to look at Margaret when she was married, for +“England had never seen a queen more worthy of a throne than Margaret of +Anjou.”</p> + +<p>Now King Henry shrank from the toils and cares of governing the kingdom; +he gave himself up to the learning of the country, and all branches of +study; so that Margaret found the government of England left almost +entirely in her hands. She tried<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> to make the people turn their attention +to manufactures and trade, but England was not in a state for peace; the +men who had fought at Agincourt thirty years before, and the future +soldiers of St. Albans, were not willing to till the soil or weave their +clothes. A rebellion led by Jack Cade excited them more, and in 1455 all +were ready to take up arms and fight.</p> + +<p>Now the cause of war was this: Margaret had no children, and the question +was, who should succeed when Henry died. The Earl of Somerset said he was +the heir, but the Duke of York thought he had a better right to the +throne. This was the beginning of the “Wars of the Roses,” as they were +called, for the friends of York wore a white rose, the friends of Somerset +a red rose.</p> + +<p>Now while they were still debating who should be the future king, a little +son was born to Margaret. King Henry had been very ill with a sort of +madness, and did not know about the birth of his son, till one day Queen +Margaret came to him, bringing the baby with her. The king was delighted.</p> + +<p>“What is his name?” he cried.</p> + +<p>“Edward,” answered the queen. Then Henry “lifted up his hands and thanked +God.”</p> + +<p>Still the Duke of York was not satisfied; for he was very jealous of +Somerset, who ruled the kingdom when the king was ill. In 1455 Somerset +was killed at the battle of St. Albans, and York became very powerful, and +still went on fighting, because he wanted to be king.</p> + +<p>At last the poor king himself was taken prisoner, and led bareheaded into +London, while Queen <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Margaret and her infant boy fled to a Welsh castle. +The next news the queen heard was, that it had been decided, when Henry +died, his little son Edward should not succeed him, but the Duke of York +should reign.</p> + +<p>When Margaret the queen heard this, she was roused to energy. Why should +not her son reign when his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had +reigned before him? Among the rocky wilds of Wales she wandered, trying to +collect trusty followers, and rouse the nation to fight for her husband +and son.</p> + +<p>Her youth, beauty, courage, and love for her little child touched the +people; they not only gave themselves, but got some of the Scotch people +to help too, and Margaret was able to unfurl the banner of the Red Rose at +Wakefield, almost before the Yorkists knew she was there. Then a terrible +battle was fought, and the Duke of York was slain. His head was cut off, +crowned with a paper crown, and taken on a pole to Margaret.</p> + +<p>“Madame, your war is done; here is your king’s ransom,” cried one of her +nobles.</p> + +<p>At the ghastly sight Margaret shuddered and turned pale; then a revengeful +look of pleasure passed over her face, as she laughed long and strangely, +and commanded the head of her foe to be placed over the gates of York, +ordered another earl to be beheaded, and pushed on to London.</p> + +<p>But the people of London would not admit her, and very soon after Edward, +son of the Duke of York, was proclaimed king. Seeing the south was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +against her, Margaret, with her husband and son, fled north to gain help. +Many of Somerset’s friends joined her, and things were looking brighter, +when a large body of Yorkists defeated her array at Hexham. Seized with +terror for the safety of her boy, Margaret fled on foot to a forest near, +alone and unprotected. There she wandered about with the young prince in +unbeaten tracks, weary and anxious. It was growing dark, when, by the +light of the moon, Margaret observed a robber of gigantic size coming +towards her, sword in hand. The child Edward clung to his mother in +terror—but Margaret showed no fear; she took Edward, and thrusting him +forward, said, “Behold the son of Henry your king, and save him!”</p> + +<p>Struck with the loveliness of the child, the loneliness and courage of the +mother, the robber of Hexham knelt down, and dropping his sword, promised +to help them, for he was on the king’s side. Then taking the little prince +in his arms, he led them to a cave in the forest where he lived, and took +care of them till it was safe for them to escape to Scotland, and from +thence to France.</p> + +<p>There tidings reached her of Henry’s fate; he had been betrayed into the +enemy’s hands, and shut up in the Tower of London.</p> + +<p>For many years Margaret and her son lived in France, until the tide once +more turned in their favour. The Earl of Warwick, who had fought against +Henry and Margaret, now turned round, and offered to help the exiled queen +and her son to win back the kingdom. It was some time before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> haughty +queen could make up her mind to forgive him, but the future of her son was +very dear to her, and at last she sent him pardoned to England, where he +raised an army and surprised the king, who had to flee for his life.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Margaret and her son were trying to cross to England, but time +after time they were driven back by wind and storm, and when they did +arrive, it was only to learn that King Edward had returned, gained a +victory, that Warwick was slain, and the king again put into prison.</p> + +<p>When Margaret heard this crushing news, she fell to the ground in a stupor +of despair, for all hope seemed gone. At last her son roused her, he told +her that he himself would go and fight, and they started again for Wales, +collecting supporters as they went. But King Edward’s army met them at +Tewkesbury, and a terrible battle took place. Margaret watched it; she saw +the battle was going against them; she saw her only son in the thick of +it, and it was with difficulty she was kept from rushing into it herself. +At last she was carried away insensible, and the next thing she heard was +that the battle was lost, her son Edward slain!</p> + +<p>Love for her boy seemed the only tender part of Margaret’s nature, and she +was overwhelmed with motherly grief. A few days after, she was taken +captive to the Tower, and at midnight on that same day King Henry, her +husband, was put to death.</p> + +<p>King René’s love for his daughter never failed; he had sympathized with +her in all her troubles, shed bitter tears when her son was killed and the +kingdom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> wrenched away, and now he gave up half his own kingdom to ransom +the daughter he loved so well.</p> + +<p>So Margaret returned to her native land, to her father’s home—no longer +the beautiful, powerful Queen of England, with spirit to do and to dare, +with courage to face any foe; but a desolate, unhappy woman, with all +spirit crushed out of her, with no courage left ever to face the world +again. Hardened by oft-repeated failure and stormy conflicts, she wandered +listlessly about the gardens and galleries of her father’s castle, going +over and over the sorrows of her past life, her eyes dim and red from +continual weeping, caring for nothing. Her father died in 1480, and +Margaret did not live long after. She seldom left her retreat to see +anyone, and at last, worn out with trouble and sorrow, she died on August +25th, at the age of fifty-one.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE LADY MARGARET (1441-1509).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Margaret Beaufort,</span> or the Lady Margaret, was the mother of Henry VII., and +an ancestor of Queen Victoria. She was by far the greatest woman of her +day. “It would fill a volume to recount her good deeds,” says a writer of +the times. Full of pity and love for the poor, she devoted herself as well +to help on the learning of the richer classes; she was a mother to the +young students of the Colleges, always ready to forgive injuries done her, +ready to work when there was work to be done, and “All England at her +death had cause of weeping,” writes a bishop who knew her very well.</p> + +<p>She was born on the last day of May, 1441, at a large manor in +Bedfordshire. Her father was of royal blood, being grandson to John of +Gaunt, a son of Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault, about whom you have +heard. The child Margaret was named after her mother. At an early age she +learnt to read, and, what was considered a rare accomplishment in those +days, to write; she was fond of French, and knew a little Latin, but not +much, and she often complained in later life because she had not learnt +more. Her needlework was beautiful, and it is said that James I., whenever +he passed, stopped to see the work done by the fingers of his +great-grandmother.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> There is still a carpet to be seen worked entirely by +her. When she grew a little older, she learnt about medicine and sickness, +and in later life we find her devoting a part of each day to dressing the +wounds of poor people and helping to ease their suffering.</p> + +<p>When she was only nine, the Duke of Suffolk, a great man in England, +wished her to marry his son John, for he knew she would some day be very +rich; but the King of England, Henry VI., wanted the little heiress to +marry his brother Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The little girl did not +know what to do. The night before her fate was to be decided, she lay +awake, thinking and praying, when suddenly, at about four in the morning, +“one appeared unto her arrayed like a bishop, and naming Edmund, told her +to marry him,” and not the other. The child told her vision to her mother, +and soon after she was betrothed to the Earl of Richmond, and when she was +fifteen they were married. They went to live in a Welsh castle, but only +for a short time. They had not been married two years, when the Earl of +Richmond died, leaving Margaret a widow at sixteen. She mourned for him +very deeply, but the birth of a little son, the future Henry VII. of +England, occupied all her time and thoughts; for he was so delicate and +fragile a baby, that it was a question whether he would live or die.</p> + +<p>Now the Wars of the Roses were raging in England. Margaret’s uncle, the +Duke of Somerset, had been killed at the battle of St. Albans, and she +thought it safest to stay quietly in Wales, taking no part in the war. +Still, it was a trying time for the young mother, closely related to the +fighting parties, listening breathlessly from day to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> day for news of the +victories and losses, watching over the interests of her infant son, the +young Earl of Richmond. When he was but a few years old, his mother +presented him to the king, Henry VI., his great uncle. Henry solemnly +blessed the child, and placing his hands on the young earl’s head, said: +“This pretty boy will wear the garland in peace, for which we so sinfully +contend,”—words treasured by the young mother and remembered in after +years.</p> + +<p>In 1459 the Lady Margaret married the Earl of Stafford, +great-great-grandson of Edward III. and Philippa, and she still lived on +in Wales.</p> + +<p>Margaret taught her son Henry a good deal herself; the boy was growing up +sad and serious and thoughtful, fond of his books, fond of rugged Wales, +and as was but natural devoted to his young mother.</p> + +<p>The battle of Tewkesbury and accession of Edward IV. made it unsafe for +him to remain in England; so with his uncle he went to France, where he +stayed for some time.</p> + +<p>Separation from her son was a great trial to the Lady Margaret, and her +thoughts were constantly with her exiled child.</p> + +<p>It was her habit to get up at five in the morning, and pass five hours in +prayer. Ten o’clock was the dinner hour in those days, and the rest of the +day she devoted to helping the poor around her and to translating French +into English, so that those who did not know French might be able to read +the English translation. Printing was hardly known in England, so she had +to copy out all her writings herself.</p> + +<p>In 1482 her second husband died, and not long<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> after she married Lord +Stanley, a great friend of the king, Edward V., by which means she hoped +to forward her son’s cause in England. At the coronation of Richard, the +Lady Margaret and her husband were present; for we hear that the Lady +Margaret was sent “ten yards of scarlet for her livery, a long gown made +of crimson velvet with cloth of gold and another of blue velvet;” she +walked just behind the queen and held up her train, a fact which showed +she was in royal favour then. But not for long. Besides being a usurper +and murderer, Richard III. was a bad king, and the people wanted to depose +him, and set on the throne Margaret Beaufort’s son, Henry Tudor.</p> + +<p>It was proposed that he should marry Elizabeth, daughter of the late king; +then all the friends of the Red Rose and the White Rose would join +together, and overthrow Richard. Richard heard of the plot, the Lady +Margaret was accused of high treason, and it was only by reason of her +husband’s favour with the king that her life was spared. At last, in 1485, +Henry came over from France, went to Wales, collected an army, defeated +and slew Richard at Bosworth. Now Lord Stanley had come to the battle with +Richard, but just as the battle was going to begin, he took all his men, +and went over to Henry’s side.</p> + +<p>The battle began. Richard fought like a lion, determined to conquer; he +knew that Richmond was but a youth, who had never fought before, not even +“trained up in arms.” To kill the young Henry was his own aim and object.</p> + +<p class="poem">“I think there be six Richmonds in the field;<br /> +Five have I slain to-day instead of him!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>are the words which Shakspere puts into his mouth, as the king is again +unhorsed. But his enemies were too strong for him. When the battle was +over, Richard III. was found dead upon the field of Bosworth, and Lord +Stanley, taking the crown which the king had worn in battle, placed it +upon the head of Henry, now King of England.</p> + +<p>Then came the meeting with his mother. “Tell me,” he had said before the +battle, when Lord Stanley had come to fight for him and was wishing him +victory and fortune, “tell me, how fares our loving mother?” and Stanley +had answered, “I bless thee from thy mother, who prays continually for +Richmond’s good.” Now mother and son met again; they had not seen one +another for fourteen long years, years of the deepest anxiety to both. +Margaret had parted from him as a serious and thoughtful boy—“a little +peevish boy,” Shakspere calls him; she met him again as a hero, the King +of England. One of Henry’s first acts as king was to restore to his mother +the lands and titles which Richard had taken away from her.</p> + +<p>Then Henry married the rightful heiress of the throne—Elizabeth, daughter +of Edward IV., and England was once more at peace. A grand coronation took +place, and this is what we hear of Margaret. “When the king her son was +crowned, in all that great triumph and glory she wept marvellously.”</p> + +<p>The Lady Margaret loved her daughter-in-law very tenderly, and Elizabeth +the queen was always pleased to have her at court. But she did not give +herself up to the pleasures and comforts of court life; her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> work lay in +another direction. At one of her large country houses she made a plan to +keep twelve poor people, giving them lodging, meat, drink, and clothing, +visiting them when she could, and waiting on them herself.</p> + +<p>She was the highest lady in England after the queen, but she never thought +any service too menial for her, any duty too humble for her to perform. +One of her manor-houses she had already given up to a poor clergyman in +Devonshire, who had many weary miles to walk from his own house to his +church, and was thankful to have a home nearer to his work.</p> + +<p>Now while the Wars of the Roses had been going on, William Caxton, having +learnt the art of printing, had set up a press in London. Margaret +Beaufort was one of his first zealous supporters, and to her he dedicated +one of his first printed books. But the name of the Lady Margaret is +perhaps best known at Cambridge; for it was there, in 1505, that she +founded two colleges, which still exist. One, under the name of “God’s +house,” had been founded by Henry VI., but it never flourished, and when +the Lady Margaret heard what a state it was in, she refounded it with the +title of “Christ’s College.” The college was to hold a master, twelve +fellows, and forty-seven scholars, and the countess framed all the rules +for them herself. The scholars were to have a certain small sum of money a +year for their clothes, which were to be bought at a neighbouring fair; +they were not to keep any dogs or birds, and were only to be allowed cards +at Christmas time. The Lady Margaret took great interest in the college; +one day, when it was but partly built, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> went to see it. Looking out of +a window, she saw the dean punishing a “faulty scholar.” Her heart was +moved to pity, and she cried out, “gently, gently,” thinking it better +rather to lessen his punishment than to ask pardon for him altogether.</p> + +<p>In 1506, the king and his mother both visited Cambridge to see the +beautiful chapel of King’s College, which was nearly finished.</p> + +<p>She did not live to see St. John’s Hospital completely founded (though she +obtained consent to have it made into a college), or King’s College +finished, but her arms are over the gates of the college, her crest and +coronet in the window of the hall; still her name is mentioned every year +with the other founders of colleges, and her name is given to buildings +and societies and clubs.</p> + +<p>In 1509, Henry VII. died, leaving Margaret, “our dearest and most entirely +beloved mother,” as he calls her, to choose councillors for her grandson +Henry, a boy of eighteen.</p> + +<p>At last her strong health began to fail; she had survived parents, +husbands, and her only son, but when those around her saw she could not +live “it pierced their hearts like a spear.”</p> + +<p>“And specially when they saw she must needs depart from them, and they +should forgo so gentle a mistress, so tender a lady, then wept they all +marvellously, wept her ladies and kinswomen, to whom she was full kind, +wept her poor gentlewomen whom she had loved so tenderly before, wept her +chaplains and priests, wept her other true and faithful servants.”</p> + +<p>She died on June 29th, 1509.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>She was buried in Westminster Abbey, in a part called Henry VII.’s Chapel, +and a tomb of black marble was erected to her memory. On the top lies a +figure of the Lady Margaret in her coronet and robes of state; her head +rests on cushions, her feet are supported by a fawn. It is one of the most +beautiful monuments in the Abbey, and if you ever go there, look at it and +remember the Lady Margaret’s life and work.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> +<h2>MARGARET ROPER (1501?-1544).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Margaret Roper,</span> daughter of Sir Thomas More, was born on July 10th, in +London. She was the eldest of four children, and she was her father’s +favourite. She was like him in face and figure; her memory was very good, +her sense of humour keen, her love for her father intense and brave.</p> + +<p>When Margaret, or Meg, as her father loved to call her, was only six, her +mother died, and very soon after her father married a widow, not for the +sake of her youth or beauty, but to look after his four little children +and manage his household. Such a household, too. Before he went to his +work every morning Thomas More set each their appointed task, his wife +included; no one was ever idle, no wrangling went on, no angry words were +ever heard about the house; the most menial offices were regarded as +honourable work, the humblest duties were labours of love. This was the +atmosphere in which Margaret’s childhood was spent; no wonder she was +loved for her gentle ways and sweet disposition; with the long quiet +mornings and fixed studies, no wonder she became a learned and clever +woman.</p> + +<p>Each member of the family had a pet, and Thomas More said: “No child or +servant of mine hath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> liberty to adopt a pet, which he is too lazy to +attend to himself. To neglect giving them food at proper times entails a +disgrace, of which every one of them would be ashamed.”</p> + +<p>There is a story told about Margaret Roper, which will show what rigid +discipline she was taught as a child, though the story rests on very +slight foundation.</p> + +<p>One night her stepmother had been churning for a long time, but the butter +would not come; so she sent for Meg and her two sisters, and told them to +churn till the butter came, even if they sat up all night, as she had no +more time, and she could not have so much good cream wasted. They churned, +but the butter would not come; they said “Chevy Chase” from beginning to +end to pass the time; they chanted the 119th Psalm through. At last they +began to repeat Latin; then they heard the buttermilk separating and +splashing in earnest, and at midnight, when poor little Daisy, one of the +sisters, had fallen asleep on the dresser, Meg succeeded in making the +butter come.</p> + +<p>Meg’s father—now raised to the rank of Sir Thomas More for his valued +services to the king, Henry VIII.—was often away from home for many +months together, and Meg used to miss him dreadfully. He had risen to be +Speaker in the House of Commons, and his wit and learning were most +popular at court. The king would often come to Chelsea and walk round the +garden, his arm round the neck of Sir Thomas More, discussing some +important matter, to which he wished his favourite’s consent. But Sir +Thomas did not agree with the king in many things,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> and he refused to act +against his conscience even to win the royal favour. Thus a coolness +sprang up between them, which afterwards led to the execution of Sir +Thomas More.</p> + +<p>At the age of twenty-four Margaret married Will Roper, more to please her +father than herself. He was a good fellow, and had studied hard to please +Margaret, and helped her father in much of his work. Margaret would have +preferred to study and write, rather than marry, but her father convinced +her that “one may spend a life in dreaming over Plato, and yet go out of +it without leaving the world a whit better for having made part of it,” +and her father’s word was law with Margaret. Her father’s departure to +Woodstock, the king’s court, was a source of grief to Margaret. Two nights +after he left, the household was aroused by shouts of “Fire! fire!” +Everybody got up, and it was found that part of the Chelsea house was +burnt, though all its inmates escaped uninjured.</p> + +<p>In 1530 Sir Thomas More was made Lord Chancellor, but this high post he +only held for two years; he refused to sanction Henry’s marriage with Ann +Boleyn, together with several other things, and resigned the Great Seal in +August, 1532.</p> + +<p>A great load was taken off his mind, and his spirits returned, but not for +long. The storm was about to burst. Threatening visits and letters alarmed +the family, and at last the blow came.</p> + +<p>Sir Thomas More had refused to take the oath of Supremacy, that is to say, +he refused to acknowledge Henry VIII. as Head of the Church, and he was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>summoned to Lambeth to give his reasons. It was with a heavy heart that +he took the boat to Lambeth, for he was leaving home for the last time, +and he seemed to know it. The days when he was gone seemed long and lonely +to his daughter Margaret. He refused to take the oath against his +conscience, and was sent to the Tower. There Meg used to visit him, and he +told her not to fret for him at home; he explained to her his innocence, +his reasons for refusing to take the oath, and told her he was happy.</p> + +<p>In 1535 he was called to trial at Westminster, and crowds collected to see +him pass from the Tower; even his children found it difficult to catch a +glimpse of him. Margaret, we hear, climbed on a bench, and gazed her “very +heart away,” as he went by, so thin and worn, wrapt in a coarse woollen +gown, and leaning on a staff, for he was weak from long confinement; his +face was calm and grave.</p> + +<p>The trial lasted many hours, and Margaret waited on through that long day +by the Tower wharf till he passed back. The moment she saw him, she knew +the terrible sentence was “Guilty!” She pressed her way through the dense +crowd, and, regardless of the men who surrounded him with axes and +halberds, she flung her arms round his neck, crying, “My father! Oh, my +father!”</p> + +<p>“My Meg!” sobbed More.</p> + +<p>He could bear the outward disgrace of the king and nation, he could stand +without shrinking to hear the sentence of death passed upon him, but this +passionate, tender love utterly broke his brave spirit and shook his firm +courage.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>“Enough, enough, my child! what, mean ye to weep, and break my heart?”</p> + +<p>Even the guards were touched by this overwhelming scene, and many turned +away to hide a falling tear. She tore herself away, but only to go a few +steps; she <i>could</i> not lose sight of that dear face for ever; she must +hear him speak once more to her. Again, with choking sobs and blinding +tears, she laid her head on his shoulder. This time tears were standing in +her father’s eyes as he whispered:—“Meg, for Christ’s sake! don’t unman +me.” Then he kissed her, and with a last bitter cry of “Oh, father! +father!” she parted from him for ever, and the crowd moved on.</p> + +<p>With a piece of coal Sir Thomas More wrote a few loving words to his +daughter, and on July 5 he was executed, and his head put upon a pole on +London Bridge as an example to others who disobeyed the king’s orders. +Then Margaret’s love showed itself in all its most courageous strength.</p> + +<p>Soon after midnight she arose, dressed herself, and walked quickly down to +the river, where she found boatmen to row her to London Bridge.</p> + +<p class="poem">“The faithful daughter cannot brook the summer sun should rise<br /> +Upon the poor defenceless head, grey hair, and lifeless eyes.<br /> +A boat shoots up beneath the bridge at dead of night, and there,<br /> +When all the world arose next day, the useless pole was bare.”</p> + +<p>The head of Sir Thomas More was gone, no longer open to the ridicule of +crowds, to the triumph of the king’s party, to bear witness to his friends +a monarch’s infidelity—but safe in the keeping of Margaret Roper.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>After the death of Sir Thomas More, his family were driven from their +Chelsea home, and Margaret was for a time imprisoned. She died nine years +after her father, and the dear and honoured head that the faithful +daughter had dared her life to save was buried with her in the Roper vault +at Canterbury.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> +<h2>LADY JANE GREY (1537-1554).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Lady Jane Grey</span> was born in a beautiful palace half hidden by masses of old +trees, called Bradgate Hall, in Leicestershire, in the year 1537. Most of +the old hall is now a ruin, but a tower still stands in which the +villagers still declare that Lady Jane was born. Her father, Henry Grey, +Marquis of Dorset, was one of the king’s most powerful noblemen; her +mother, Lady Frances Brandon, was a niece of the king, Henry VIII. Jane +was the eldest of three daughters; Katharine, her next sister, was two +years younger, and therefore her companion in lessons and play. Mary was +much younger. The grounds about Bradgate Hall, and the winding +trout-stream about which the children played, may still be seen around the +ruined palace; but much as little Jane loved the open air and the flowers +that grew around, yet she was still fonder of her books.</p> + +<p>While quite young her father engaged a master to come and teach his +children, and Jane learnt very quickly. Greek, Latin, and French were her +great delight; she could sing, play, sew, and write very clearly. With all +this she was very sweet in temper, truthful, and beautiful to look at. The +queen, Katharine Parr, Henry VIII.’s sixth and last wife, took a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> great +fancy to the little girl. She was a clever and learned woman herself, and +begged Lady Frances Brandon to allow Jane to live with her at court, +promising to see that her lessons were still carried on. So at the early +age of nine we find Jane attending on the queen, and carrying her candles +before her. This was by no means an easy feat to perform, as the little +candle-bearer had to walk backwards with the lighted candles. The child +did not know, and happy for her that she did not, that she was looked upon +by the court as the heiress to the throne of England, and that the queen +was trying to fit her for the difficult post she was destined to fill.</p> + +<p>When Jane was but ten years old, the king, Henry VIII., died, and his son +Edward, a poor sickly boy, the same age as the Lady Jane, was made king.</p> + +<p>Soon after, Katharine Parr died, and the little girl walked as chief +mourner at her funeral, her long black train being held up by a young +nobleman.</p> + +<p>After this, the most natural thing would have been for Jane to go home to +her mother at Bradgate; but her father and mother thought more of worldly +advance than of their child’s happiness. They agreed to let her go to Lord +Seymour, a scheming and plotting man, who wished to bring about a marriage +between the poor little Lady Jane and the young king, Edward VI., who was +her cousin. At first Jane’s parents pretended—for it was but +pretence—that they wished to keep her at home, but when Lord Seymour gave +them £500 they consented, for the sake of this contemptible sum of money, +to let him take away their pretty little girl to teach her first, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +then to marry her to a king. But this never came to pass, for the +following year Seymour was taken to the Tower and beheaded in a horrible +way, and his little ward was sent home. Her parents were bitterly +disappointed; they treated her coldly, even cruelly, and her only +happiness was in her lessons.</p> + +<p>One day Roger Ascham, Princess Elizabeth’s clever master, came to stay at +Bradgate. Passing through the park he saw that the members of the +household were hunting, but where was the Lady Jane? She was in her own +room, he was told. Thither he went, and found her busily reading a Greek +book by Plato. “Why was she not hunting in the park?” he asked, with some +surprise.</p> + +<p>“I wis,” answered the child of fourteen, looking up with a bright smile, +“all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in +Plato; they do not know, alas! what true pleasure means!”</p> + +<p>Then they had a long talk, and the Lady Jane told Roger Ascham how she +loved her books and lessons, and how thankful she was for her kind master. +For she was never happy with her father and mother; they were sharp and +severe with her, and whether she talked or kept silent, sat or stood, +sewed or played, it was sure to be wrong. They laughed at her, scolded +her, often even pinched and nipped her, till she longed for her lesson +hour, when she could go back to her gentle teacher. There the time passed +so quickly, and he was so good to her, and when lessons were over she +would often cry, because everything else was “so full of great trouble and +fear.”</p> + +<p>The gentle and clever girl was greatly beloved;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> her master was duly proud +of his young pupil, whose knowledge of languages was quite wonderful, and +surprised many an older scholar than himself. Greek was her favourite +study, and the last letter she ever wrote was written to her sister +Katharine on a blank leaf in her Greek Testament.</p> + +<p>Lady Jane Grey spent the Christmas of 1551 with the Princess Mary, with +whom the family were on very friendly terms. But the cold weather and the +long winter walks she had to take injured her health, and she became very +ill. Her slow recovery gave her plenty of time for work, and long letters +still exist in Greek and Latin that she wrote to Roger Ascham, and also to +many foreign students, who thought very highly of the noble Lady Jane.</p> + +<p>Up to this time friendship had existed between Princess Mary, who was a +Roman Catholic, and Lady Jane. One day Mary gave her a rich dress. Lady +Jane did not care to wear bright colours, as she always dressed in the +Puritan style.</p> + +<p>“What shall I do with it?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Marry, wear it, to be sure,” replied Mary.</p> + +<p>But this Lady Jane refused to do, even to win favour with the princess.</p> + +<p>This offended Mary. She had heard rumours, too, that Lady Jane, being a +Protestant, was likely to succeed Edward VI., instead of herself, and thus +the Lady Jane slowly dropped out of favour at court.</p> + +<p>Lady Jane’s father now occupied a high post; he had become Duke of Suffolk +by the death of two elder brothers, and helped the Duke of Northumberland +to govern England till the young king, Edward, should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> be old enough to +govern for himself. But Edward instead of growing better grew worse; +always delicate, an attack of measles left him worse, and he could not get +rid of a bad cough. When the dukes found he was not likely to live long, +they began to scheme for his successor. Of course Suffolk wanted his +daughter to be queen; of course Northumberland wanted his son to be king; +so they agreed that Suffolk’s daughter, Lady Jane, should marry +Northumberland’s son, Guildford Dudley, and reign as king and queen of +England.</p> + +<p>The poor young king, Edward, was weak and ill, and his strong Protectors +could easily make him say that his Protestant cousin, Lady Jane, and her +husband, Guildford Dudley, should succeed him, instead of his sisters +Elizabeth or Mary.</p> + +<p>Guildford was tall and very handsome; he was his father’s pride and +darling; but when Lady Jane was told that he was to be her husband, she +was very angry, and refused to marry him. In vain her father urged her, +and told her the king himself had ordered the marriage.</p> + +<p>“And do you mean to disobey the king as well as your father?” he asked +harshly.</p> + +<p>We are told that he had recourse to blows at last; anyhow, the poor Lady +Jane was too unhappy to hold out any longer; her life could not be much +more miserable than it was, and she gave her consent at last.</p> + +<p>On a summer day, Whitsunday, 1553, when Edward the king was lying at the +point of death, Lady Jane Grey was married to Guildford Dudley,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> and very +soon after she was told by her mother-in-law suddenly off-hand, that she +must hold herself in readiness at any moment to be crowned Queen of +England! For a moment Lady Jane was stunned, almost stupefied, till the +utter misery of her position slowly dawned upon her. She was to take the +throne from the Princess Mary, who was the rightful queen, and reign over +a people who would look on her as a usurper instead of pitying her as a +helpless woman. The future weighed heavily on her mind; she became very +ill, and was taken to Chelsea, to the house of her father-in-law, for +change of air, there to await the king’s death.</p> + +<p>Late on one summer afternoon, the summons came for her to go at once to +Sion House, whether well or ill. A barge was at the door to convey her up +the river. What a long two hours it seemed to Lady Jane till the barge +arrived at Sion House! She found the hall empty, but no sooner had she +arrived than the two Protectors, her father and Northumberland, her mother +and mother-in-law, and many dukes and earls entered, all bending low +before her. Her cheeks grew hot, her heart beat fast. She understood +everything. The young king was dead. She was Queen of England. A long +speech was made, and all present swore to protect and serve her as queen, +but it was all too much for the Lady Jane, already ill and unhappy. She +tottered and fell to the ground, weeping bitterly; there she lay as one +dead, her face white as marble, her eyes closed. When she came to herself +she raised herself on to her knees, and prayed that, if to succeed to the +throne were her duty and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> right, she might govern the realm of England +well and justly.</p> + +<p>Very early next morning, still weary from the excitement of the former +night, the queen and her attendants came down the Thames in barges, and +landed near the Great Hall of the Tower. Then a long procession was +formed. Guildford Dudley walked beside his royal wife, cap in hand, bowing +to the ground whenever she spoke. Crowds lined the way, and knelt as she +passed to be crowned their queen; little did they know how gladly she +would have changed her lot with any of her poorer subjects if she could. +Her life grew more unhappy; she could not sleep; she fainted often while +talking to her council.</p> + +<p>One day she heard that her father, the Duke of Suffolk, was going to march +against the Princess Mary, who had been proclaimed queen in many parts of +England; but she was so alarmed at being left alone with the Dudleys, and +wept so bitterly, that he consented to stay with her, and let +Northumberland go instead. But he met with no success. There were no +shouts of “God save Queen Jane!” no one cried “God speed ye!” He found +that Mary’s party was growing rapidly in strength, and that she had been +proclaimed queen everywhere but in London itself.</p> + +<p>The news fell heavily on the queen; sleep forsook her entirely; the long +nights were “full of great trouble and fear,” though she knew the Tower +was barred and locked. At last the blow came. One day the queen had +promised to stand godmother to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> child; not being well enough to go she +sent her attendant. The attendant was not gone long, but on her return she +found officers in possession of the room, the royal canopy down, and was +told that “Jane Grey was a prisoner for high treason.” Thus from the state +apartments she followed her to the prison rooms of the Tower.</p> + +<p>She was still in the Tower, no longer a queen, but a prisoner; her nobles +had deserted her, her subjects had risen up against her, her father and +mother were gone, and her husband was separated from her.</p> + +<p>On October 1st, 1553, Mary was crowned queen amid the cheers of the +people; and the Duke of Suffolk, father of the late queen, was one of the +first to acknowledge Mary as Queen of England.</p> + +<p>The following month Lady Jane and her husband were accused of high +treason; they pleaded guilty to the charge, and sentence of death was +passed upon them. Husband and wife looked on one another for the last +time, and Lady Jane was taken back to the Tower, there to await her death. +A dismal Christmas passed, and the new year of 1554, which was to see so +many bloody deeds, opened.</p> + +<p>Queen Mary was forced somewhat against her will to sign the death warrant, +and “Guildford Dudley and his wife” were informed that February 12th was +the day fixed for their execution. Still, if Lady Jane would change her +religion, become a Roman Catholic, and obey Mary, she might have her +liberty and her life; but this she refused to do—rather death than that.</p> + +<p>Guildford Dudley was the first to die; he had begged for a last interview, +a last kiss from his wife,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> and it had been granted by the queen, but Lady +Jane refused, saying it would be too much for them, and unnerve her +completely. So she stood at the Tower window, and waved him a silent +farewell, sobbing, “Oh, Guildford, Guildford!” An hour afterwards she was +led forth for execution; she walked with a firm and steady step, and +addressed to the crowd a few touching words, which drew forth heartfelt +sympathy for the courageous and noble woman who was going to die. She said +a psalm, her eyes were bound, she forgave willingly the man who was about +to cut off her head, and in a few moments her unhappy life was ended.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<h2>PRINCESS ELIZABETH (1596-1662).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Elizabeth,</span> eldest daughter of James I., was one of the most heroic women +of her time; first an English princess, then a foreign queen, and lastly +almost a beggar in a strange land, she always managed to be bright, and to +cheer those around her, when she could.</p> + +<p>She was born in August, 1596, in a Scotch palace, and as she was the first +daughter of the Scotch king, a regular establishment of nurses, rockers, +and attendants was provided for her; she was given everything that could +make her happy, supplied with costly dolls, and dressed in velvet or +plush.</p> + +<p>When Elizabeth was only seven, her godmother, the Queen of England, died, +and James I., her father, went to England to be crowned king, thus uniting +the two countries of Scotland and England. Elizabeth and her elder brother +Henry went with their father and mother, and all were received with great +joy in England. The children only stayed at court three weeks, when they +were sent to an old abbey in the country with tutors and governesses. Here +they were very happy; they played about the lovely grounds round the +abbey, rode and hunted, breathed the free country air, and learnt their +lessons in large spacious rooms. Elizabeth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> could write very well even at +seven, and whenever her brother was away, she wrote him charming little +letters between lines ruled in red ink. When she was nine Gunpowder Plot +was discovered.</p> + +<p>“I can easily enter by the gate yonder, and with the aid of a dozen men +carry off the princess, while the rest catch her attendants,” were words +heard by the children one day while playing near the high road. It was +clear she must be taken away at once.</p> + +<p>“No, I can never leave my dear Henry,” cried the child, when told they +must part, and so tightly did she cling to him, that it was with +difficulty her arms were unclasped.</p> + +<p>Soon after this a suite of rooms were fitted up for her at court, and +there for a short time she enjoyed the splendours of court life. But when +only fourteen, little more than a child, a husband was chosen for her from +a foreign country. Frederick, the future Elector Palatine, was only +sixteen himself, when he was sent for to come over to England and marry +the Princess Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>The whole family were assembled to welcome him when he arrived.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth stood by her brother Henry on a raised platform, her eyes fixed +on the ground, while Frederick with a firm step and beaming face walked up +the long hall. When he reached the king and queen, Elizabeth looked up to +see a dark handsome boy with a pleasant face and manly figure. He bowed +very low and kissed her hand, and apologized in broken English for +appearing in his travelling clothes and not in court dress.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>The month before her marriage her brother Henry was seized with a severe +fever, and it soon became evident that he could not live. Elizabeth was in +despair, she refused to obey the order not to enter the sick room of her +beloved brother, and one evening she stole away from the festivities of +the court, disguised herself, and hurried eagerly to him, but only to be +sent back by the watchful attendants, who were more anxious for her safety +than pitiful of her sisterly love. “Do not be so cruel. Take me to him, if +only for a minute.” There was a hungry, yearning look in her brown eyes, +the tears rolled down her cheeks, and it was hard to refuse such a +request. But the guards were firm.</p> + +<p>“Oh, where is my dear sister?” were Henry’s last words. This was the first +great sorrow in Elizabeth’s life, and the beginning of the darker days in +store for her, which were to bring out all the courage of her womanly +nature.</p> + +<p>On St. Valentine’s Day, 1613, the wedding took place. Prince Frederick was +dressed in cloth of silver embroidered with diamonds; his bride wore cloth +of silver too, shining with pearls and diamonds, and her long and +beautiful hair hung over her shoulders to her waist.</p> + +<p>After a few months of English festivities the young couple made their way +to their new home at Heidelberg, where they were received with great joy.</p> + +<p>Now Frederick was, by his father’s death, Elector Palatine, that is, he +ruled over part of Germany under the Emperor. The Emperor had made a +cousin of his King of Bohemia, but that cousin was a Roman Catholic, and +the people of Bohemia did not like him, so they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> dethroned him, and sent +to Frederick to ask him to come to help them and be their king. It was a +critical position for Frederick; he saw it might, and probably would, lead +to war; his mother begged him to refuse, but his wife Elizabeth would not +hear of such a thing. The sparkle of a crown glittered before her eyes; +she trusted Frederick to keep peace and reign well over the people who had +chosen him as king. “I had rather feed on a dry crust at a king’s table +than feed on dainties at that of an elector!” cried Elizabeth. Thirty +years later she knew what it was to eat a dry crust, but not at a king’s +table.</p> + +<p>So Frederick consented to become King of Bohemia, and he, Elizabeth, and +their three little children left their beautiful Heidelberg home to be +crowned king and queen. Great were the rejoicings; bells rang, bonfires +were lit, cheers of “Long live King Frederick!” echoed through the air, +while those who were near enough kissed the hem of the new queen’s robes, +for Elizabeth had already won their hearts; she ordered bread and wine to +be given to all who came to the castle, and by her goodness and generosity +won the name of “Queen of Hearts.” But their position of King and Queen of +Bohemia was not secure; jealousy began to show itself in the princes round +them, and Frederick felt that at any moment the threatened storm might +burst. He had been growing more and more unpopular, and at last war was +declared.</p> + +<p>The more critical Frederick’s position, the firmer grew Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>“I persuaded you to be crowned king, I was with you in those happy and +joyous days, I will stand by you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> in trouble,” she said, and not only +said, but did. She sent away her children, only keeping Prince Rupert, a +baby of but a year old. The first battle was lost, and in anguish +Frederick hastened to his wife, begging her to escape at once. But she +would not leave him. If he would come, she would go; if not, they would +stay together. His subjects begged their king to stand firm; they reminded +him of his oath to guard his kingdom to the last; a raid on the enemy +might yet turn the scale. But where his wife’s life was in danger, +Frederick refused to stay, and together they escaped from their kingdom. +Still relying on help from England, they hoped on, and Frederick again +joined the army. Leaving behind her a baby of a month old and her other +children, Elizabeth again followed her husband, knowing that she alone +could cheer him and keep up his spirits. Once more she travelled through +parts of the country where, only six years ago, she had been welcomed as a +happy bride; now she wandered an outcast and an exile, with but the empty +title of queen to make up for the loss of a home, country, friends. When +Heidelberg, their lovely home, fell into the hands of the enemy, Elizabeth +cried piteously, “My poor Heidelberg taken! Oh! God visits us very +severely; the misery of these poor people distresses me sadly!”</p> + +<p>Still the war, known as the Thirty Years’ War, went on, and Frederick was +often away for many months together.</p> + +<p>In 1629, a terrible grief befell Elizabeth in the death of her eldest son +Henry. He was in a yacht with his father one day, when a large vessel bore +down upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> them, and struck them; the yacht filled with water, and in a +moment sank. All on board perished save King Frederick.</p> + +<p>“Save me, father, save me!” was the drowning cry of the boy, but all +efforts to save him were in vain, and the distracted father had but to go +back, and break the news to his wife. The mother’s grief was so violent, +that she became very ill, but when she found how heartbroken Frederick was +with the thought that he was saved and his boy drowned, she roused herself +to comfort him.</p> + +<p>Things were looking brighter; a new hero had come to the aid of the +unhappy king, when his troubled life was suddenly ended. A bad fever set +in, and as he was weak and anxious it took deadly hold on him. His last +effort was a letter to his wife. “Can I but live to see you once again, I +shall die content,” he wrote—but they did not meet.</p> + +<p>The blow fell heavily on Elizabeth; for three days she neither ate, drank, +slept, nor shed a single tear. She could hardly realize that all hope of +regaining the kingdom was gone, and that he whom she had loved so +devotedly through the twenty years of her married life was dead. Her +comfort was in her children; her second son Rupert was specially dear to +her. While still a boy, the future hero of Edgehill and Marston Moor +distinguished himself by fighting to get back his father’s rights; a wild, +reckless youth, he was taken prisoner fighting for his father’s cause +rather than give up, or flee, as his elder brother had done. When in +prison he managed to scribble a few words of comfort to his mother, +assuring her he was well,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> and would come back to her as soon as he was +released.</p> + +<p>When the sudden news arrived that Elizabeth’s brother Charles had been +executed, and Cromwell made Protector of the kingdom, Prince Rupert, the +daring royalist, was one of the first to offer himself to the future +Charles II. to help to regain the kingdom.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Elizabeth was almost penniless. “Next week I shall have no meat +to eat, and this week, if there be no money found, I shall have neither +meat, nor bread, nor candles,” she wrote piteously to her son Charles. +Rupert would have given her his last crust, but Charles, Elector Palatine, +refused to supply her wants.</p> + +<p>At last the exiled queen made up her mind to return to England, and end +her days in the land of her childhood.</p> + +<p>Sophia, her youngest child, was married, and lived with her husband, the +Prince of Hanover, in his own country. She was a beautiful and clever +woman, and constantly went back to see her mother, and cheer her solitude. +Sophia’s son was George I. of England, from whom is descended Queen +Victoria. She and Prince Rupert came to bid farewell to their mother +before she left their land for ever.</p> + +<p>What a different return to England; no crowds lined the coast, no shouts +resounded from the citizens as on her departure, forty years before, as a +happy young bride. When the widowed queen stepped on English soil, her +heart revived. She had lived to see Charles II., her nephew, restored to +the throne of England—her son restored to the Palatinate. Craven,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> her +faithful friend, took her to his home, but she did not live long. The +passionate love of her son Rupert, the wild and daring royalist, comforted +her to the end, and “Prince Rupert of the Rhine” was the only one of her +many children who followed her to the grave. She was buried by night at +Westminster. While the long torchlight procession moved up the Abbey, a +fierce gale raged; some thought it was a foreboding of future troubles to +England; some thought it was like the troubled life of the Bohemian Queen; +the faithful Craven bowed his head, and thanked God that his lady was +beyond the wild storms of the world.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> +<h2>LADY RACHEL RUSSELL (1636-1723).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">England</span> was in a troubled state when Lady Rachel Russell was born.</p> + +<p>Charles I. was king, but the people were not happy under his rule. England +became divided into two parties—some for him, and some against him. Among +the king’s firmest and most staunch supporters was the Earl of +Southampton, Rachel Russell’s father. He was a loyal Englishman, and when +affairs came to a crisis, and civil war broke out—though he saw what must +be the result—he stuck to his king, and fought manfully for him. He +married a French lady of noble birth, and had two daughters, Elizabeth and +Rachel.</p> + +<p>When Rachel was yet a baby, her mother died. She never had much education, +perhaps because her father was a great deal away, and she had no mother to +watch over it; perhaps because the country was in too disturbed a state +for any progress in learning; and the result is, that her letters are full +of mistakes in spelling. She must have heard a great deal about politics +as a child; for her father took his seat in the Long Parliament when his +little daughter was only six; she must have heard him talk of the battle +of Edgehill and the bravery of Prince Rupert; she must have heard about +Oliver Cromwell; and when she was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> thirteen, all England rang with the +news that Charles the king was beheaded. Her father was one of those +faithful four, who, on that snowy winter day, bore the coffin of the king +to the royal tomb at Windsor. Then he took his family away into Hampshire, +while Oliver Cromwell was at the head of the English government.</p> + +<p>When she was seventeen, her father chose her a husband in Lord Vaughan.</p> + +<p>“It was acceptance rather than choosing on either side,” she said in after +life. However, the young couple went to live in Wales, and were very +happy, and everyone loved her and respected her.</p> + +<p>“All that know you are forced to honour you,” wrote a friend to her one +day, “neither are you to thank them for it, because they cannot do +otherwise.”</p> + +<p>Fourteen happy years passed away, and then Lady Vaughan was left a widow. +She went to live with her elder sister Elizabeth, now Elizabeth Noel, whom +she loved very dearly. Her father was dead, and Elizabeth had inherited +his seat in Hampshire; so, in the home where they had played as children, +the two sisters now lived together.</p> + +<p>In 1669 she married William Russell, a young nobleman. Having travelled +abroad, he had returned to England in time to become a member of the House +of Commons which restored Charles II. to the throne, and from this time he +took a prominent part in the politics of the day. He consulted his wife +about everything; he was guided by her advice in moments of extreme +difficulty; he depended on her judgment, and he found it just and good. On +the other hand, she watched every event in which her husband’s interest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +was concerned, with unwearying love; his happiness and success were hers, +his sorrows and defeats were shared by her too. They were not often parted +during the fourteen years of their married life, but when they were +separated their letters show how long the time seemed, and how drearily +the days passed.</p> + +<p>“The few hours we have been parted seem too many to me to let this first +post-night pass without giving my dear man a little talk,” she wrote to +him, when he had been obliged to be present at the parliament, just called +together again. She tells him about their little child named after her +mother, Rachel, how she “fetched but one sleep last night,” and how “very +good she was this morning;” how she is writing in the nursery with “little +Fubs,” as they generally called her, and how she knew the father would be +rejoiced to hear that Fubs “was breeding her teeth so well,” and beginning +to talk.</p> + +<p>The letters are badly written, bad grammar is used, and the spelling +neglected, but they are so homely and happy, they are written with such +ease and enjoyment, that we forget that the writer was never really +educated, though an earl’s daughter.</p> + +<p>In 1679 Elizabeth Noel died. This was no common loss to Lady Rachel +Russell; it was her only sister, her beloved, the person whom, next to her +husband, she loved most dearly in all the world. Though she writes to her +husband of her loss, she does not fill her letters with her own feelings; +she tries to rouse herself to public affairs, which will interest him +more, and chats about the three little children and their doings and +sayings. She taught the children herself, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> their happiness and welfare +was her great object in life; she liked “Fubs” to write to her father +whenever he went away, and the conscientious little girl used to bring a +tiny letter to be enclosed, though sometimes tears were shed when the +spelling and writing would not come right.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, very anxious times were hovering over England, and Lady +Rachel Russell was not blind to her husband’s danger.</p> + +<p>Lord Russell had been in the parliament that called Charles II. to the +throne; but slowly he and many others awoke to the fact that they had +blundered. Charles was weak, selfish, unfit to rule England, unsettled as +she was then, and a few years after the Restoration Lord Russell, together +with others, joined the country party against the court. He was a +generous, kind-hearted man, “raised by birth and fortune high above his +fellows,” and he soon became one of the most powerful opponents of the +court, one of the most influential leaders of the country party. By the +Whigs he was honoured as a chief; he was one of those who wished to +exclude the Duke of York, brother to Charles II., from the throne on +account of his religion.</p> + +<p>In 1678 Lord Russell was supporting a bitter measure against the court +party. Lady Russell was very much alarmed; she wrote to him in the House, +and begged him not to support it.</p> + +<p>“If you do, I am most assured you will repent it; if I have any interest, +I use it to beg you to be silent in this case, at least to-day.”</p> + +<p>In 1681 a crisis arrived. The king and parliament<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> could no longer act +together, and when parliament was dissolved, two men were at the head of +the struggle. One of these was Lord Russell. Meetings were held; some +proposed to overthrow the king and set up a new ruler; others wished to +rise and murder Charles II. But they were discovered, and Lord Russell was +arrested. The messenger waited about the door for many hours, so that Lord +Russell might have escaped, for the back door was open, but he would not; +“he had done nothing,” he said, “which caused him to dread the justice of +the country.” Lady Russell consulted his friends, and they agreed he ought +not to fly.</p> + +<p>Then he was sent to the Tower. It was the 26th of June. During the +fortnight that elapsed between his arrest and trial, Lady Russell spared +neither pains nor energy in finding supporters to defend her husband. She +was constantly with him, she wrote for him, she encouraged his timid +friends, she strengthened his firm ones, she left not a stone unturned to +provide against the charges which would be brought forward to crush him +whom she loved so dearly.</p> + +<p>At last the trial came. The night before, Lady Russell wrote a few lines +to her husband; she told him that she was going to be present, for friends +thought she might be of use; she begged him to keep up heart for <i>her</i> +sake as well as his own. The court was densely filled; as Lady Russell +entered, her pale face calm and brave, a thrill of anguish ran through the +crowd.</p> + +<p>“We have no room to sit down,” said the counsel. Lord Russell asked for +pen, ink, paper, and the use of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> any papers he had, adding, “May I have +somebody to write for me?”</p> + +<p>“Any of your servants shall assist you in writing anything you please,” +said the Chief Justice.</p> + +<p>“My wife,” said Lord Russell, “is here to do it.” And Lady Russell stood +up in the midst of that crowded court to show that she was willing, more +than willing, to fulfil this almost sacred office for her husband.</p> + +<p>“If my lady will give herself that trouble,” said the judge, carelessly.</p> + +<p>Trouble! It was no trouble to her. The resolute wife took her seat beside +her husband, took up the pen, and during the whole long trial sat there, +his only secretary and adviser.</p> + +<p>Even when the sentence of death was pronounced, Lady Russell did not give +way. She tried later to move the heart of the king, but in vain; though +she was the daughter of one of his oldest and most faithful servants, he +refused pardon, unless Lord Russell would change his opinions.</p> + +<p>“It is all true,” said the king when Russell’s innocence was pleaded; “but +it is true that, if I do not take his life, he will take mine.”</p> + +<p>Slowly all hope disappeared, and the fatal day approached. Lord Russell +wrote to the king, “I hope your majesty’s displeasure against me will end +with my life, and that no part of it shall fall on my wife and children.”</p> + +<p>His last thoughts were for his wife; he dreaded the blow for her more than +for himself. The parting with her was the hardest thing he had to do, for +he was afraid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> she would hardly be able to bear it, he said to Burnet, the +bishop who was allowed to be with him the last few days.</p> + +<p>Tears came into his eyes when he spoke of her. The last day came, and Lady +Russell brought the three little children to say good-bye for ever to +their father. “Little Fubs” was only nine, her sister Catherine seven, and +the baby three years old, too young to realize his loss. He kissed them +all calmly, and sent them away.</p> + +<p>“Stay and sup with me,” he said to his wife. She stayed, and they ate +their last meal together. Then they kissed in silence, and silently she +left him. When she had gone, Lord Russell broke down completely.</p> + +<p>“Oh, what a blessing she has been to me!” he cried. “It is a great comfort +to me to leave my children in such a mother’s care; she has promised me to +take care of herself for their sakes; she will do it,” he added +resolutely.</p> + +<p>Lady Russell returned heavy-hearted to the sad home to which she would +never welcome him again, there to count the wretched hours till the fatal +stroke was given.</p> + +<p>On July 21st, 1683, she was a widow, and her children fatherless. They +left their dreary London house, and went to an old abbey in the country, +where Lady Russell gave herself up to the education of her children. She +never neglected this duty she had taken upon herself, and her daughters +never had any other teacher but their mother. She tried to dismiss her +sorrow for their sakes, and interest herself in their pleasures. Politics +still interested her, and it was with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> troubled feelings she saw James II. +mount the throne of England.</p> + +<p>In 1688 her eldest daughter Rachel was married. The same year the Great +Revolution began.</p> + +<p>In 1689, William and Mary were crowned; one of their first acts was to +annul the sentence against Lord Russell. When the parchment which effected +this was laid on the table of that assembly in which, eight years before, +his face and his voice had been so well known, the excitement was great. +One old Whig member tried to speak, but could not. “I cannot,” he +faltered, “name my Lord Russell without disorder. It is enough to name +him. I am not able to say more.”</p> + +<p>Lady Russell’s health was broken, and she was threatened with blindness. +It has been said that she wept herself blind, but this is hardly true. It +was discovered she had cataract, and must give up writing by candlelight +and reading.</p> + +<p>Soon after her son, Lord Tavistock, was married at fifteen to a rich +heiress, and her daughter Catherine to a nobleman.</p> + +<p>An amusing account is given of Catherine and her husband, which shows what +favour the family was in at this time.</p> + +<p>When they drew near Belvoir, where they were going to stay, verses were +presented them on the occasion of their happy marriage; at the gate stood +“four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row; four-and-twenty trumpeters with +their tan-tara-ra-ra’s; four-and-twenty ladies, and as many parsons.”</p> + +<p>Her son was only just married when Lady Russell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> was requested to let him +stand to be elected to the House of Commons. He was just going to +Cambridge to study, a mere boy, and his mother, feeling it would ruin his +future, and turn his head, to enter parliament so young, refused, though +the offer was a tempting one.</p> + +<p>In 1701 she was called to the deathbed of that son, who had caught small +pox, which was raging at that time. His wife and little children had been +obliged to flee from it, and his mother was left to comfort his last +hours.</p> + +<p>“I did not know the greatness of my love to him, till I could see him no +more,” she cried, when he had gone. She was confused and stunned by the +suddenness of his death, but she had need of all her strength, for another +blow was close at hand.</p> + +<p>Six months after, her second daughter Catherine died. Rachel, Duchess of +Devonshire, was very ill at the time, but, knowing of her sister’s +illness, she constantly enquired for her. It was all the poor mother could +do to keep up herself, and conceal from Rachel the death of her sister for +a time.</p> + +<p>The last years of Lady Russell’s life were calm, but very sad;—her +husband, her son and daughter, were all gone, and she longed to follow +them.</p> + +<p>At last, on a September day in 1723, she died in the arms of her daughter +Rachel, the little “Fubs” of bygone days, and she was buried beside the +husband whom she had loved and served so devotedly during the few happy +years of their married life.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> +<h2>ANGELICA KAUFMANN (1741-1807).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Angelica Kaufmann,</span> though the name is foreign, though she was born on the +banks of the German Rhine, may still be called an Englishwoman, for her +work lay chiefly in England, and the greater part of her life was spent in +this country. Although no mighty heroine, she was on the one hand a lover +of art, a painter, a musician, in the eyes of the public beautiful and +popular; on the other, a genuine, true-hearted woman, often deceived, but +never deceiving, true to the world, and true to herself. She was born in +1741, at a town on the Rhine, in a wild and picturesque district.</p> + +<p>Her father, John Kaufmann, had been a sort of travelling painter, mending +a picture here, copying one there, and painting signs for the public +houses in the neighbourhood. In the course of his travels he had met a +German girl, married her, and their only child they called Marie Anne +Angelica Catherine; so, though born to poverty, she was rich in names. +John Kaufmann then took to painting as a means of livelihood. The first +toys that little Angelica had were his paint-brushes, his unstrained +canvas, his bladders of colour, which she would play with till her little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +fingers were discoloured, and her pinafore daubed all over.</p> + +<p>It was not many years before it became evident that the little girl would +surpass her father in the love—if not in the art—of painting. When he +gave her copy-books to learn her letters, she left the words unwritten, +and copied the pictures only. Instead of playing with childish toys, she +would get scraps of paper and copy the pictures and models in her father’s +studio, or sketch the trees and houses in the country round.</p> + +<p>Then her father began to teach her drawing; he showed her how to mix the +colours, and lay them on; he explained to her about light and shade, and +gave her models to copy. When they went out for walks, he would take the +child’s hand and make her look well at the faces of the people they +passed, then draw their features when she got home. So little Angelica, or +Angela, as her father loved to call her, learnt to love drawing and +painting more and more. When she was eleven, her father moved to Como in +Italy; here people heard of Angelica and her wonderful power of painting, +and the Bishop of Como offered to sit for the little girl to paint him. He +was an old man with a long flowing beard, a difficult subject for such a +young artist, but Angelica did it, and the portrait was such a success +that the Archbishop of Milan and many other great Italians sat to be +painted by the eleven-year-old child, until she had more work than she +could well do. Still she went on, learning, copying the Old Masters’ +pictures, and teaching herself the old Italian art.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>When she was sixteen her mother died. Poor little Angelica took it +terribly to heart, and her father thought it best to leave Italy and go to +Switzerland, so that change of scene might divert her mind. Her father’s +love for her was unbounded; he petted her, he loved to sing her praises, +to call her his Angel, his Angelina, his little artist daughter, and she +returned it with all the warmth of her lonely little heart.</p> + +<p>Once Angelica was entrusted to paint alone an altar-piece on the wall of a +village church. Day after day father and daughter went to the church, and +Angelica would sit on the top of a high scaffolding, her dark hair falling +over her shoulders, her eyes eagerly fixed on the fresco before her, on +which angels, lambs, doves, grew under her clever fingers. Below stood the +honest John Kaufmann watching the form he loved so well, his arms folded, +his head thrown back, and feelings of pride and joy kindling in his heart.</p> + +<p>Besides her love for painting, Angelica was intensely fond of music, her +voice was pure and sweet, and she could play wonderfully well. She learnt +to conquer the most difficult of the grand old Italian pieces, and would +sing from memory the old ballads to amuse her father when he was +melancholy and troubled. And this was often the case. He had little money, +he had nearly starved himself to give his daughter the education he knew +she deserved; the roof was humble, the beds were hard, the sheets coarse, +the bread dark and sour. Angelica had to mend her own scanty and often +thread-bare clothes. But the time was coming when she would have money +enough to dress in silk and satin had she wished.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>On their return to Milan, John Kaufmann was urged strongly to have +Angelica educated for the stage; her beauty and her voice would soon win +her renown, they said; managers made her tempting offers, and her father +was ready to give his consent. But Angelica was true to her art. The stage +had its attractions for her; the offer was a tempting one; she drew a +picture of herself standing between music on one side and painting on the +other, turning towards painting, and bidding a tender farewell to music. +Then bravely, though not without a sigh, she took up her brushes, and with +fresh energy set her whole mind to painting.</p> + +<p>In 1763 she took up her abode in Venice to study and paint pictures; six +years of travelling among Italian art had widened her experience and given +a firmer grasp both to mind and hand. Countesses, duchesses, ladies, came +to see her, and sit for their portraits, and when, in 1766, a rich lady +offered to take her to England to make her fortune, Angelica consented.</p> + +<p>The first few days in London were rather lonely for the poor girl, but she +soon learnt the English language, and her bright, pleasant manners won her +many friends. Among these was Sir Joshua Reynolds, the greatest artist in +England.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Reynolds is the first of painters here,” she wrote to her father in +Germany. She admired his colouring so much that she became his pupil, and +the great artist was delighted with her, not only as a clever painter, but +as a woman. He painted her portrait, she painted his. On the establishment +of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> Royal Academy, Angelica Kaufmann was made a member. It is said +that Sir Joshua Reynolds wanted her to be his wife; be that as it may, we +soon after find Angelica living in Golden Square, some way from her old +home. She was very popular; no large evening party was complete without +her; the world of fashion, the world of art, all sought her society, and +her praises were sung throughout the country. She painted the young Prince +of Wales, afterwards George IV., and other members of the royal family, +which made her trebly popular.</p> + +<p>Before beginning a portrait Angelica would scan the features before her +closely, she would wait till the sitters had arranged themselves in +natural positions, and then, as truthfully as she could, she would paint +them. She was making her fortune rapidly; her father had come over to live +with her, and life seemed to go on very happily for her till she was +twenty-six. Then she married a man calling himself Count Horn, handsome, +clever, amusing; but three weeks after it was discovered that the <i>real</i> +Count Horn had arrived in England, and that the man who had married +Angelica was only the Count’s footman, who had taken his master’s name. +This was a terrible blow to Angelica and her father; for a long time she +seemed bordering on despair, and could not even go on painting. Her +husband went abroad, Angelica never saw him again, and he died some years +after. At last her friends roused her, and persuaded her to take up her +brushes again, and she threw herself into her work once more.</p> + +<p>As time wore on, John Kaufmann grew old and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> infirm, and the doctors said +he must go abroad. Angelica was tired of London society, weary of London +fogs and mists, and she had long been yearning for her beloved Italy. So +they left England, and though it cost Angelica many pangs to leave the +friends who had been so kind to her, she was very thankful to be in a +sunny climate once more, under the blue Italian skies.</p> + +<p>In Venice she painted several well-known pictures on historical subjects; +they were eagerly bought at high prices, and are now to be seen in +different parts of Europe.</p> + +<p>After the death of her father, Angelica took up her abode in Rome; she +would get up early, take up her palette and brush, and paint on till +sunset in winter, till nearly six in the summer. In the evening, when she +could no longer see to paint, she would go out and see her friends, and +several nights in the week she would open her rooms to receive visitors. A +hall, filled with statues and busts, led to her studio and other rooms, +where hung her pictures by the great masters, heads by Vandyke and +Rembrandt, her own portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and many other +pictures.</p> + +<p>Not only by the rich was she known and loved, but also by the poor. Her +charity and kindness were boundless; she did not simply give her money to +the many beggars who abound in Italy, but she tried to improve their +condition, and help them to work for themselves.</p> + +<p>Having obtained news of the death of her husband, Angelica Kaufmann +married a Venetian artist; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>together they painted, together they enjoyed +the grand Italian art, and when, in 1795, he died, Angelica seemed +overwhelmed. This was the beginning of a series of troubles. She lost a +great deal of the money she had saved owing to the failure of a bank and +the unsettled state of England, which often prevented her money from +arriving. “But I have two hands still left,” she would say, “and I can +still work.” In 1802 her health failed. She went to Switzerland for +change, but on her return her cough came back. Her strength grew less, her +hand lost its cunning, and at last her busy fingers could no longer hold +the brush.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1807 she died. People of all ranks gathered together at +her funeral in Rome; artists, nobility, poor, and rich came alike to do +her honour. Her coffin was borne by girls in white, and like the great +master Raphael, her two last pictures were carried behind the coffin, on +which was placed a model of her right hand in plaster, with a paint-brush +between its fingers.</p> + +<p>Compared to the great and powerful artists before her, she was no mighty +genius; her figures are more full of grace than force or energy; there is +a sameness of design, which has called forth the saying, “To see one is to +see all,” but what she has painted she has painted truly. “Her pencil was +faithful to art and womanhood,” and we are proud to think that Angelica +Kaufmann was one of the greatest artist-women the world has ever seen.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> +<h2>HANNAH MORE (1745-1833).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Hannah More</span> was one of the first women who devoted her life to the poor. +She had been in London society; she knew most of the leading men of the +day; she could have lived a comfortable life in the midst of great people; +but she chose rather to build herself a little house in the country, and +there to work with her sister Patty among the rough miners of +Somersetshire.</p> + +<p>She was one of the younger daughters of Jacob More, a schoolmaster, near +Gloucester. Her grandmother was a vigorous old woman, who even at the age +of eighty used to get up at four in the morning with great energy.</p> + +<p>Hannah learnt to read at the age of three. While still small enough to sit +on her father’s knee, she learnt Greek and Roman history; he used to +repeat the speeches of the great men of old in the Greek or Latin tongue, +which delighted the child, and then translate them till the eager little +eyes sparkled “like diamonds.” Her nurse had lived in the family of +Dryden, and little Hannah heard many a story of the poet from her nurse’s +lips.</p> + +<p>When quite small, it was her delight to get a scrap of paper, scribble a +little poem or essay, and hide it in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> a dark corner, where the servant +kept her brush or duster. Sometimes the little sister who slept with her, +probably Patty, would creep downstairs in the dark to get her a piece of +paper and a candle to write by. To possess a whole quire of paper was the +child’s greatest ambition.</p> + +<p>One of her elder sisters went to a school in Bristol from Mondays till +Saturdays, and from Saturday to Monday little Hannah set herself +diligently to learn French from her sister. When she was sixteen, she also +went to Bristol, and there she met many clever people, who were charmed +with her, and looked on her bright conversation and manner as proofs of +dawning genius.</p> + +<p>Once, when she was ill, a well-known doctor was called in to attend her. +He had paid her many visits, when one day she began to talk to him on many +interesting subjects. At last he went; but when he was half-way +downstairs, he cried out, “Bless me! I quite forgot to ask the girl how +she was!” and returning to the room he inquired tenderly, “And how are you +to-day my poor child?”</p> + +<p>The following year she wrote a drama called “The Search after Happiness.” +“The public have taken ten thousand copies,” she says, “but <i>I</i> have not +the patience to read it!”</p> + +<p>When she went to London she was introduced to Garrick the actor, Sir +Joshua Reynolds the artist, and many other clever people. Sir Joshua +Reynolds one day took her to see Dr. Johnson, or “Dictionary Johnson,” as +she called him. She was very nervous, as no one knew how the great doctor +would receive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> her, or what temper he would be in. But it was all right. +He came to meet her “with good humour on his countenance,” and with royal +grace greeted her with a verse out of her own “Morning Hymn.”</p> + +<p>When she went to see him one day alone, he was out. So Hannah More went +into his parlour, and seated herself in his great chair, hoping to feel +inspired by so doing. When Dr. Johnson entered, she explained to him why +she was sitting there; at which he went into fits of laughing, and cried +out that it was a chair he <i>never</i> sat in.</p> + +<p>After this he became a frequent visitor at the house of the five sisters—</p> + +<p>“I have spent a happy evening,” he cried one night. “I love you all five; +I am glad I came. I will come and see you again.”</p> + +<p>In 1777, Hannah More wrote a play called “Percy.” Hidden in the corner of +a box at the theatre, she anxiously watched the performance of her play; +she heard her hero speak through the voice of her friend Garrick; she saw +her audience—even the men—shedding tears, and she knew it was a success. +So much did her writings apply to the feelings of her audience, that after +the performance of one of her plays called the “Fatal Falsehood,” when a +lady said to her servant girl, who had been to the play, that her eyes +looked red, as if she had been crying, the girl answered:</p> + +<p>“Well, ma’am, if I did, it was no harm; a great many respectable people +cried too!”</p> + +<p>The death of David Garrick affected Hannah More deeply. Mrs. Garrick sent +for her at once in her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> trouble, and, though ill in bed at the time, +Hannah More came to comfort her friend. After this she spent much time +with Mrs. Garrick, often in the depths of the country giving up her time +to reading and writing, and taking long walks to the pretty villages +round.</p> + +<p>Then she built herself a little house near Bristol, where she went to live +with her sister Patty. They made long expeditions together to villages +round, and they soon discovered what a bad state the country people were +in.</p> + +<p>In a village near, she set to work to establish a school for the little +children, and was soon rewarded by finding that three hundred were ready +and longing to be taught. Difficulties lay at every turn; the rich farmers +objected to the children being taught, and religion brought into the +country.</p> + +<p>“It makes the people so lazy and useless,” they said.</p> + +<p>“It will make the people better and more industrious,” urged Hannah More; +“they will work from higher and nobler motives, instead of merely for +money and drink!”</p> + +<p>At last they consented to have a school, and the children came by hundreds +to be taught.</p> + +<p>Then she went on to two mining villages high up on the Mendip Hills. In +these villages the people were even more ignorant than those at Cheddar; +they thought the ladies came to carry off their children as slaves. For at +this time the selling of little children as slaves had reached a terrible +height, and many great men, Pitt, Fox, and others, were doing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> what they +could to have it abolished by an Act of Parliament.</p> + +<p>It was into districts where no policemen dared to go that Hannah More and +her sister ventured. There was no clergyman for miles round; one village +had a curate living twelve miles away; another village had a clergyman who +himself drank to excess, and was never sober enough to preach. There was +one Bible in the village, but that was used to prop up a flower-pot. Such +was the state of affairs when Hannah More first went among them.</p> + +<p>Soon a school was established, and again the children were ready and +willing to be taught. Before long they had six schools and as many as +twelve hundred children were being taught. Very soon their work bore +fruit.</p> + +<p>“Several day-labourers coming home late from harvest, so tired that they +could hardly stand, will not go to rest till they have been into the +school for a chapter and a prayer,” wrote Hannah More.</p> + +<p>In 1792 she wrote “Village Politics,” at the request of friends, to try +and give a more healthy turn to politics in England. She did not put her +own name to it, but called herself “Will Chip.” One of her friends +discovered who had written it, and sitting down he began a letter, “My +dear Mrs. Chip,” thanking her for giving to the world such a popular and +wholesome tract.</p> + +<p>Hannah More still kept up with the world outside; she watched with the +keenest interest the struggle against slavery; her heart ached for the +victims of the French Revolution across the Channel, and she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> wrote +pamphlets on both subjects. Then came an attack on her writings; people +said she wished for the success of France; some said she was an enemy to +liberty, and many other false things.</p> + +<p>This made Hannah More very unhappy. She liked to be loved, she could not +bear to be hated; she who was ready to see good in all, could not bear to +be forced to see evil. Then her poor people upheld her, and +school-teachers and church-workers came forward to bear witness to the +world-wide good her writings had done. Sympathy flowed in from all sides, +and she found heart to go on again.</p> + +<p>At last the happy home was broken up—the bright home where the poor +people had never failed to find warmth and shelter and a welcome from the +five sisters.</p> + +<p>The three eldest died first. Still, through all the sad partings, Hannah +More bravely worked on, while she had strength for it, writing when she +could, and keeping bright those who still remained around her.</p> + +<p>A few years later Patty died; she was the nearest of all to Hannah’s +heart, and the “aching void” she felt after her sister’s death affected +her health. Long and dangerous illnesses constantly left her unable to +work for many months. Her work had been taken up by others now, and the +“tide she had helped to turn had already swept past her.”</p> + +<p>“I learns geography and the harts and senses,” boasted a little girl in a +county parish, meaning the arts and sciences.</p> + +<p>“I am learning syntax,” a little servant said to Hannah More when +questioned about her school.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>Hannah More died at the age of eighty-eight, after years of intense +suffering. She had lived to see how education was helping the poorer +classes, and stamping out crime; how a little love and kindness had helped +even the rough miners in their work, and how the children, taught in the +village schools, were already growing up better and happier men and women, +and it pleased her, long after her health and memory had failed, to hear +that they still remembered the name of Hannah More.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> +<h2>ELIZABETH FRY (1780-1845).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Elizabeth Fry</span> was one of those rare women whose “life was work.” Once +having recognized the path of duty, she never left it; through illness and +suffering, trouble and sorrow, she held fast to it, and the result was +grand. For she was our first great prison reformer, the first to open the +eyes of the nation to the alarming state of the prisons, the first to take +active steps for their improvement.</p> + +<p>She was born in Norwich on May 21, 1780. Her father, John Gurney, belonged +to the Society of Friends; he was a popular, warm-hearted man, fond of his +children, devoted to his wife. Elizabeth was the third of eleven children; +when she was two years old, her father and mother moved to Earlham Hall, +an old house standing in a well-wooded park, about two miles from Norwich. +She was a nervous, delicate little child; every night, on going to bed, +she would quake with fear at the prospect of being left alone in the dark, +when the moment should come for the candle to be blown out. Sea-bathing, +too, had its horrors for her. She was forced to bathe when they went to +the sea-side, but at the sight of the sea she would begin to cry and +tremble till she turned her back on it again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> The child’s devotion to her +mother was intense; she would often lie awake at night and cry at the +thought that her mother might some day die and leave her, and her childish +wish was that two big walls might fall and crush them both together. But +the two big walls never <i>did</i> fall; when Elizabeth was but twelve, her +mother died, leaving eleven children, the eldest barely seventeen, the +youngest only two. Elizabeth was tall and thin; she had quantities of soft +flaxen hair and a sweet face, but she was so reserved and quiet, that +people thought her quite stupid. She was very fond of dancing and riding +and any kind of amusement, and when she was a little older we hear of her +as a “beautiful lady on horseback in a scarlet riding-habit.”</p> + +<p>When she was eighteen a great Quaker preacher came to Norwich, and +Elizabeth went with her six sisters to hear him. Hitherto she had cared +little for Quaker meetings, but this time, as soon as the preacher began, +her attention was fixed. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and “Betsy wept +most of the way home,” says one of her sisters. From that day all love of +amusement and pleasure seemed gone. New feelings had been stirred within +her; she felt there was something more to live for than mere pleasure; a +nobler spirit was moving within her, that showed her there lay work around +her to be done, and work specially for her to do. And she soon found the +work; an old man, who was dying, wanted comfort and care; a little boy +called Billy from the village needed teaching. Slowly other little boys +came to be taught, and in a few months she had a school of seventy. She +taught<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> them in an empty laundry, no other room being large enough.</p> + +<p>Life went on thus till she was twenty. The more she saw of Quakers, the +more firmly she believed they were right; she now wore their dress,—a +plain slate-coloured skirt with a close handkerchief and cap, with no +ornaments of any kind. In the summer of this year she married Joseph Fry, +also a Quaker, engaged in business in London, where they accordingly went +to live. Leaving her old home was a great trial to her, for the “very +stones of the Norwich streets seemed dear to her.”</p> + +<p>A new sphere of work now opened before her; she was surrounded by the +poor, workhouses claimed her attention, the sick and dying begged for a +sight of the simple Quaker woman, whom “to see was to love,” and whose +gentle words always comforted them.</p> + +<p>In 1809, Mr. and Mrs. Fry and their five children moved into the country +for a time, for rest after the smoke and din of the crowded city life. +Here Elizabeth Fry was very happy; she loved to live out of doors with her +little children, to explain to them the growth of a flower, the structure +of a bee’s wing or caterpillar; they would all go long rambles together +with baskets and trowels to get ferns and wild flowers to plant in their +garden at home. Then, refreshed and strengthened, she was again ready to +take up her London work.</p> + +<p>It was in 1813 that she first entered the prison at Newgate, and the +special work of her life began. She found the prison and prisoners in a +disgraceful state, and her womanly heart was touched with pity for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +poor creatures who were compelled to live in these unhealthy wards and +cells. Many had not sufficient clothing, but lived in rags, sleeping on +the floor with raised boards for pillows. Little children cried for food +and clothes, which their unhappy mothers could not give them. In the same +room they slept, ate, cooked, and washed; in the bad air they fell ill, +and no one came to nurse them or comfort them, no one came to show them +how to live an honest, upright life, when their prison-life was over. Sick +at heart, Elizabeth Fry went home, determined to help these miserable +people in some way or other. Then trouble came to her. Her little Betsy, a +lovely child of five, died, and long and bitter was her grief.</p> + +<p>“Mama,” said the child, soon before her death, “I love everybody better +than myself, and I love thee better than everybody, and I love Almighty +better than thee.”</p> + +<p>Sorrow was making Elizabeth Fry more and more sympathetic and able to +enter into the sufferings of those around her.</p> + +<p>At last she was able to work again, and with her whole heart she set +herself to improve the prisons.</p> + +<p>She got the prison authorities to let the poor women have mats to sleep +on, especially those who were ill, and she begged to be alone with the +convicts for a few hours. The idleness, ignorance, and dirt of these women +shocked her. How could the poor little children, pining for food and fresh +air, ever grow up to be good women in the world, into which they might be +turned out any time? How could those wretched women ever learn to be +better and happier by being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> thrown into those unhealthy cells with others +as bad or worse than themselves, if no one ever tried to teach them how to +live better lives, and start afresh in the world? She proposed to start a +school for the children, and the prisoners thanked her with tears of joy. +They had not known such kindness before; they had never been spoken to so +gently; the noise and fighting ceased, and they listened to the simple +Quaker’s words.</p> + +<p>So an empty cell was made into a school-room, and one of the prisoners was +made school-mistress. Mrs. Fry and a few other ladies helped to teach, and +the children soon got on, and learnt to like their lessons. Still the +terrible sounds of swearing, fighting, and screaming went on; Mrs. Fry met +with failure and discouragement on every side; the utter misery and +suffering sickened her, and she would sometimes wonder if she should have +strength to go on. But she found she had.</p> + +<p>Soon others came forward to help, and not long after we find a very +different scene. Instead of the inhuman noises that reached the ear +before, comparative stillness reigned; most of the women wore clean blue +aprons, and were sitting round a long table engaged in different kinds of +work, while a lady at the head of the table read aloud to them.</p> + +<p>The news of this reformation soon spread. Newspapers were full of it; +pamphlets were sent round; the public awoke to the evils of prison-life, +and the voice of the people made itself heard; and Queen Charlotte herself +sought an interview with Elizabeth Fry, the leader of this important work.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>To improve the state of convict ships was the next work for Mrs. Fry. Up +to this time the vessels were terribly over-crowded; the women had nothing +to do all day during the voyage; their children were separated from them, +and all were marked with hot irons, so that if by any chance they escaped, +they might be found again. Part of the vessel was made into a school for +the children; pieces of print were collected for the women to make into +patchwork, and a matron was chosen to nurse those who were ill.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Fry herself went to bid the emigrants farewell. She stood in her +plain Quaker dress at the door of the cabin with the captain; the women +stood facing her, while sailors climbed up to the rigging to hear her +speak. The silence was profound for a few moments. Then she spoke to them +a few hopeful, encouraging words, and prayed for them; many of the convict +women wept bitterly, and when she left, every eye followed her till she +was out of sight. From this time she visited every convict ship with women +on board leaving England till 1841, when she was prevented by illness.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Fry had a wonderful power of winning hearts by her gentle and +earnest way of speaking. One day she went over a large Home for young +women; as she was going away the matron pointed out two as being very +troublesome and hard to manage. Mrs. Fry went up to them, and holding out +a hand to each, she said, looking at them with one of her beautiful +smiles: “I trust I shall hear better things of thee.”</p> + +<p>The girls had been proof against words of reproach<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> and command, but at +these few heartfelt words of hope and kindness, they both burst into tears +of sorrow and shame.</p> + +<p>In 1839 Elizabeth Fry went to Paris, in order to visit the workhouses, +prisons, and homes on the continent, and to stir up the people to enquire +into their arrangements.</p> + +<p>A few days after her arrival she went to a little children’s hospital. As +she entered the long ward, the only sound audible was a faint and pitiful +bleating like a flock of little lambs. A long row of clean white cots was +placed all round the room; on a sloping mattress before the fire a row of +babies were lying waiting their turn to be fed by the nurse with a spoon. +The poor little things were swathed up, according to the foreign custom, +so tightly that they could not move their limbs. For some time Mrs. Fry +pleaded with the Sister of the ward to undo their swathings, and let their +arms free, and, as she did so at last, one of the babies, who had been +crying piteously, ceased, and stretched out its arms to its deliverer.</p> + +<p>Everywhere, abroad and at home, among old and young, she was welcomed as a +friend; from the head of the land to the poorest prisoner, she was loved, +for “it was an honour to know her in this world.” Through illness and +intense suffering she struggled on with duty and work, until she was no +longer able to walk. She was still wheeled to the meetings in a chair, but +the work of her life was ended. Then sorrow upon sorrow came to her; her +son, sister, and a little grandchild all died within a short time of one +another.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>“Can our mother hear this and live?” cried her children. A long year of +intense pain and suffering followed, and then, one autumn evening, +Elizabeth Fry died. Universal was the mourning for her; vast crowds +assembled in the Friend’s burying ground, near her old country home at +Plashet, silently and reverently to attend the simple Quaker funeral, and +to do honour to Elizabeth Fry, now laid at rest beside her little child.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> +<h2>MARY SOMERVILLE (1780-1872).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Mary Somerville,</span> whose parents’ name was Fairfax, was born in Scotland on +the day after Christmas in the year 1780. Her father was away at sea; he +had begun life early as a midshipman, and had been present at the taking +of Quebec in 1759. He had left his wife in a little seaport town on the +Scotch coast just opposite Edinburgh, in a house whose garden sloped down +to the sea and was always full of bright flowers. The Scotch in this part +lived a primitive kind of life; we are told that all the old men and women +smoked tobacco in short pipes, and the curious way in which a cripple or +infirm man got his livelihood. One of his relations would put him into a +wheelbarrow, wheel him to the next neighbour’s door, and there leave him. +The neighbour would then come out, feed the cripple with a little oatcake +or anything she could spare, and wheel him onto the next door. The next +neighbour would do the same, and so on, and thus the beggar got his +livelihood.</p> + +<p>Here it was that Mary lived with her mother, her brother Sam, and +sometimes her father.</p> + +<p>Now Mrs. Fairfax was very much afraid of thunder and lightning, and when +she thought a storm was coming on, she used to prepare by taking out the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +steel pins which fastened on her cap, in case they might attract the +lightning. Then she sat on a sofa at some distance from the fireplace, and +read aloud descriptions of storms in the Bible, which frightened her +little daughter Mary more than the storm itself. The large dog Hero, too, +seems to have shared in the general fear of thunder, for, at the first +clap, he would rush howling indoors and place his head on Mary’s knee. +Thus, with shutters closed, they awaited the utter destruction they +expected, but which never came.</p> + +<p>When Mary was seven, her mother made her useful at shelling peas and +beans, feeding the cocks and hens, and looking after the dairy. Once she +had put some green gooseberries into some bottles, and taken them to the +kitchen, telling the cook to boil the bottles uncorked, and when the fruit +was enough cooked, to cork and tie them up. In a short time the whole +house was alarmed by loud screams from the kitchen. It was found they +proceeded from the cook, who had disobeyed orders, and corked the bottles +before boiling, so of course they exploded. This accident interested Mary +very much, and in after years she turned it to account in her reading of +science.</p> + +<p>She was devoted to birds, and would watch the swallows collecting in +hundreds on the house roofs to prepare for their winter flight. She always +fed the robins on snowy mornings, and taught them to hop in and pick up +the crumbs on the table. All through her life this love of birds +continued; and, when she was quite old, and her little mountain sparrow +died, having been her constant companion for eight years, she felt its +death very much.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>When she was between eight and nine, her father came back from sea, and +was quite shocked to find his little daughter still a wild, untrained +child, unable to write, and only reading very badly, with a strong Scotch +accent. So, after breakfast every morning, he made her read a chapter from +the Bible and a paper from the “Spectator.” But she was always glad when +this penance was over, and she could run off with her father into the +garden, and take a lesson in laying carnations and pruning fruit trees.</p> + +<p>At last one day her father said: “This kind of life will never do; Mary +must at least know how to write and keep accounts.”</p> + +<p>So Mary was sent to a boarding school kept by a Miss Primrose, where she +was very unhappy. Fancy the wild, strong Scotch child, used to roaming +about the lanes, wandering by the sea at her own will, caring for no +lessons but those of Nature, suddenly enclosed in a stiff steel support +round her body, a band drawing her shoulders back till the shoulder-blades +met, a steel rod with a semicircle passing under her chin to keep her head +up, and thus bound up having to learn by heart pages of Johnson’s +dictionary; not only to spell the words and give their parts of speech and +meaning, but to remember the order in which they came! Such was the strict +discipline through which Mary Fairfax passed for one long year. Once home +again, she was like a wild animal escaped from a cage, but still unable so +much as to write and compose a letter.</p> + +<p>When the tide went out, she would spend hours and hours on the sands, +watching closely the habits of the starfish and sea-urchins, collecting +shells, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>wondering at curious marks of fern leaves and shells on +blocks of stone. She had no one to tell her they were fossils, or to +explain to her their curious forms.</p> + +<p>Still her people at home were not satisfied with the way she “wasted her +time,” and she was sent to the village school to learn plain needlework. +The village schoolmaster also came on the winter evenings to teach her the +use of the globes, and at night she would sit up at her own little window +trying to learn about the stars and moon. And yet, fond as she was of +stars, the dark nights had their terrors for her.</p> + +<p>One night, the house being full, she had to sleep in a room apart from the +rest of the house, under a garret filled with cheeses, slung by ropes to +the rafters. She had put out her candle and fallen asleep, when she was +awakened by a tremendous crash and a loud rolling noise over head. She was +very frightened; there were no matches in those days, so she could not get +a light; but she seized a huge club shod with iron, which lay in the room, +and thundered on the bedroom door till her father, followed by the whole +household, came to her aid. It was found that some rats had gnawed the +ropes on which the cheeses hung, and all the cheeses rolled down. However, +Mary got no comfort, but only a good scolding for making such an uproar +and disturbing the household in the night.</p> + +<p>When she was thirteen, her mother took a small house in Edinburgh, and +Mary was sent to a writing-school, and also taught music and arithmetic.</p> + +<p>One day, when she was getting up, she suddenly saw a flash in the air. +“There is lightning!” she cried to her mother.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>“No,” answered Mrs. Fairfax, “it is fire;” and on opening the shutters +they found the next house but one was burning fiercely. They dressed +quickly, and sent for some men to help pack the family papers and silver.</p> + +<p>“Now let us breakfast; it is time enough to move our things when the next +house takes fire,” said her mother, calmly showing the presence of mind +one would not have expected from a woman so afraid of a thunder-storm.</p> + +<p>At last Mary obtained what she had so long wished for, a Euclid, and she +worked at it by day and night. “It is no wonder the stock of candles is +soon exhausted,” said the servants, “for Miss Mary sits up till a very +late hour;” and accordingly an order was given that the candle should be +put out as soon as she was in bed. So she had to content herself by +repeating the problems at night by heart, till she knew well the first six +books.</p> + +<p>She had learnt to paint, too, in Edinburgh, and her landscapes at this +time were thought a great deal of by various people.</p> + +<p>In 1797 her father was in a naval battle against the Dutch, and for his +brave action he was knighted.</p> + +<p>“You ask for the promotion of your officers, but you never ask a reward +for yourself,” were words addressed to him on his return.</p> + +<p>“I leave that to my country,” answered Fairfax. And his daughter tells us +that his country did little for him, and his wife had nothing to live on +but £75 a year at his death in 1813.</p> + +<p>In 1804 Mary Fairfax married a cousin, a Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> Greig, and went to live in +London. She was very poor, her mother could afford her but a small outfit, +and gave her £20 to buy a warm wrap for the winter. Mrs. Greig lived a +lonely life, for her husband was out all day for three years, at the end +of which time she returned to her old home, a widow, with two little boys, +one of whom died soon after.</p> + +<p>Then she threw her whole self into the study of mathematics and astronomy. +At last she succeeded in solving a prize problem, and was awarded a silver +medal with her name upon it, which greatly delighted and encouraged her. +When she had money enough she bought a little library of books on her +favourite subjects, which have since been presented to the College for +Women at Cambridge.</p> + +<p>Her family and those around her thought her very foolish to read so hard +at subjects they thought so useless. When, some years later, she was going +to marry Dr. Somerville, his sister wrote to say she did hope the “foolish +manner of life and studies” might be given up, so that she might make a +“respectable and useful wife to her brother.”</p> + +<p>Her husband, however, encouraged her in her study of science; he saw +nothing “foolish” in it at all, and he helped her to collect minerals and +curious stones.</p> + +<p>They travelled abroad a good deal, and then settled in London, where Mary +Somerville gave up a good deal of her time to teaching her little +children. Here she published a book on Physical Geography, which is very +well known and used still. It was a great undertaking for a woman, and +made a stir in the world of science.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>But she was not entirely given up to science. We find her making with her +own hands a quantity of orange marmalade for a friend, who had brought her +back minerals from a foreign land, to take on his next voyage, and she +enjoyed an evening at the play as much as anyone.</p> + +<p>The long illness and death of their eldest child fell very heavily on Mrs. +Somerville, and for a time she could not even work. Then they moved to +Chelsea. Here she was asked to write an account of a French book which she +had read on astronomy, a book which only some twenty people in England +knew, and <i>she</i> was chosen above all the learned men to write on this +difficult subject. It was a vast undertaking; the more so as she still saw +and entertained friends, not wishing to drop society altogether.</p> + +<p>Moreover, it was not known what she was writing, as, if it turned out a +failure, it was not to be printed. In the middle of some difficult problem +a friend would call and say, “I have come to spend a few hours with you, +Mrs. Somerville,” and papers and problems had to be hidden as quickly as +possible.</p> + +<p>When it was finished, the manuscript was sent to the great astronomer +Herschel, who was delighted with it.</p> + +<p>“Go on thus,” he wrote, “and you will leave a memorial of no common kind +to posterity.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Somerville never wrote for fame, but it was very pleasant to have +such praise from one of the greatest men of science living. The success of +her book proved its value, and astonished her. Seven hundred and fifty +copies were sold at once, and her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> name and her work were talked of +everywhere. Her bust was placed in the Great Hall of the Royal Society; +she was elected a member of the Royal Academy in Dublin, and of the +Natural History Society at Geneva. A bust of her was made the figurehead +of a large vessel in the Royal Navy, which was called “Mary Somerville,” +and lastly, she received a letter from Sir Robert Peel, saying he had +asked the king, George IV., to grant her a pension of £200 a year, so that +she might work with less anxiety.</p> + +<p>Here was success for the self-taught woman, raised by her own efforts +higher than any woman before her in any branch of science, and it is +pleasant to find her the same modest character after it as she was before.</p> + +<p>Her health being broken, she went to Paris. Here she still went on +writing; but being very weak and ill, she was obliged to write in bed till +one o’clock. The afternoons she gave up to going about Paris and seeing +her friends.</p> + +<p>Some years after, her husband being ill, they went abroad to Rome, where +they made many friends. One friend is mentioned as having won Mrs. +Somerville’s heart by his love for birds. The Italians eat nightingales, +robins, and other singing birds, and when the friend heard this, he cried:</p> + +<p>“What! robins! our household birds! I would as soon eat a child!”</p> + +<p>In 1860 her husband died in Florence. To occupy her mind, Mrs. Somerville +began to write another book. She was now over eighty, and her hand was not +so steady as it used to be, but she had her eyesight and all her +faculties, and with her pet mountain-sparrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> sitting on her arm, she +wrote daily from eight in the morning till twelve.</p> + +<p>Five years later she had the energy to go all over an ironclad ship, which +she was very curious to see.</p> + +<p>“I was not even hoisted on board,” she wrote to her son, but mounted the +ladder bravely, and examined everything in detail “except the stoke-hole!”</p> + +<p>At the age of ninety she still studied in bed all the morning, but “I am +left solitary,” she says, with pathos, “for I have lost my little bird, +who was my constant companion for eight years.”</p> + +<p>One morning her daughter came into the room, and being surprised that the +little bird did not fly to greet her as usual, she searched for it, and +found the poor little creature drowned in the jug!</p> + +<p>In 1870 an eclipse of the sun interested Mrs. Somerville very much; it +came after a huge thunder-storm, and was only visible now and then between +dense masses of clouds. The following year there was a brilliant Aurora +lighting up the whole sky; many ignorant people were very frightened, +because it had been said the world was coming to an end, and they thought +that a bright piece of the Aurora was a slice of the moon that had +“already tumbled down!”</p> + +<p>Though at the age of ninety-two her memory for names and people failed, +she could still read mathematics, solve problems, and enjoy reading about +new discoveries and theories in the world of science.</p> + +<p>Some months before her death, she was awakened one night at Naples to +behold Mount Vesuvius in splendid eruption. It was a wonderful sight.</p> + +<p>A fiery stream of lava was flowing down in all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> directions; a column of +dense black smoke rose to more than four times the height of the mountain, +while bursts of fiery matter shot high up into the smoke, and the roaring +and thundering never ceased for one single moment.</p> + +<p>Three days later extreme darkness surprised everyone; Mrs. Somerville saw +men walking along the streets with umbrellas up, and found that Vesuvius +was sending out an immense quantity of ashes like fine sand, and neither +land, sea, nor sky were visible.</p> + +<p>In the summer Mrs. Somerville and her daughters went out of Naples, and +took a pleasant little house near the sea.</p> + +<p>She still took a keen interest in passing events; she knew she could not +live much longer, and she worked on to the actual day of her death, which +took place in the autumn of 1872.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Somerville stands alone as the greatest woman in the world of +science; she was entirely self-taught, and it was by her own efforts she +rose to be what she was—a woman of untiring energy, with wonderful power +of thought and clearness of mind, a woman in advance of her times.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<h2>ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1809-1861).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Elizabeth Barrett Browning</span> is the greatest “woman poet” England has ever +had. Though some of her poetry is difficult to understand, owing to her +depth of thought and great reading, yet many of her prettiest and most +touching poems have been written about little children; she with her +pitiful heart felt for the sorrows they could not express, and has told us +about them; she has told us about little Lily, who died when she was “no +taller than the flowers,” of the little factory children, who only cried +in their playtime, and only cared for the fields and meadows just to “drop +down in them and sleep,” of little Ellie sitting alone by the stream +dipping her feet into the clear cool water and dreaming the hours away.</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Barrett always looked on Malvern as her native place, though she +was not actually born there, but in Durham, in 1809.</p> + +<p>The early years of her life seem to have been very happy; we hear of her +as a little girl with clusters of golden curls, large tender eyes, and a +sweet smile. She herself has not told us much about her early years, but +the glimpses she has given us are very bright. Her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> father had a country +house near Malvern, and over the Malvern Hills the child loved to roam. +She liked to be out all day with the flowers and the bees and the sun.</p> + +<p>“If the rain fell, there was sorrow,” she says, and she laid her curly +head against the window, while her little finger followed the “long, +trailing drops” down the pane, and, like other children, she would gently +sing, “Rain, rain, come to-morrow,” to try and drive it away. When she +went out, it was not along the sheep paths over the hills that she cared +to go, but to wander into the little woods, where the sheep could not +stray. Now and then, she tells us, one of them would venture in, but its +wool caught in the thickets, and with a “silly thorn-pricked nose” it +would bleat back into the sun, while the little poet-girl went on, tearing +aside the prickly branches with her struggling fingers, and tripping up +over the brambles which lay across her way.</p> + +<p>At eight years old and earlier she began to write little verses, and at +eleven she wrote a long “epic” poem in four books called the “Battle of +Marathon,” of which fifty copies were printed, because, she tells us, her +father was bent on spoiling her. She spent most of her time reading Greek, +either alone or with her brother; she so loved the old Greek heroes, and +would dream about them at night; she loved the old Greek stories, she “ate +and drank Greek,” and her poetry is mixed with Greek ideas and thoughts +and names, even from a child.</p> + +<p>She had one favourite brother; with him she read, with him she talked; +they understood one another, and entered into one another’s thoughts and +fancies. He called her by a pet name, when they were little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> children +together, because the name Elizabeth seemed so “hard to utter,” and “he +calls me by it still,” she adds pathetically in later life, when that life +was no longer all sunshine and laughter, and when the brother had been +taken from her. But these were happy days, these days of childhood, never +forgotten by Elizabeth Barrett, who looked back to them afterwards, and +remembered how she sat at her father’s knee, and how lovingly he would +look down at the little poet and reward her with kisses.</p> + +<p>When she was older the family moved to London, and there Elizabeth Barrett +became very ill. She had always been fragile and delicate, and now she was +obliged to lie all day in one room in the London house. When she grew a +little stronger, and the cold weather was coming on, the doctor ordered a +milder climate, and she was moved to Torquay, her favourite brother going +with her. She had been there a year, and the mild sea-breezes of +Devonshire had done her good, when fresh trouble came to her.</p> + +<p>One fine summer morning her brother with a few friends started in a little +sailing-vessel for a few hours’ trip. They were all good sailors, and +knowing the coast well, they sent back the boatmen, and undertook the +management of the boat themselves. The idea of danger never seems to have +occurred to them. They had not got far out, when suddenly, just as they +were crossing the bar, in sight of the very windows, the boat went down, +and the little crew perished—among them Elizabeth Barrett’s favourite +brother. He was drowned before her very eyes, and, already ill and weak, +she nearly sank under the weight of the blow.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>The house she lived in at Torquay was at the bottom of the cliffs close to +the sea, but now the sound of the waves no longer soothed her; they +sounded like moanings from the sea. She struggled back to life, but all +was changed for her. Still she clung to Greek and literature, and she +would pore over her books till the doctor would remonstrate, and urge some +lighter reading. He did not know that her books were no hard study to her; +reading was no exertion, but a delight and comfort to her, changing the +current of her thoughts from the sad past, and helping her to wile away +the long hours of sickness. However, to make others happy about her, she +had her little edition of Plato bound so that it looked like a novel, and +then she could read it without being disturbed or interfered with at all.</p> + +<p>She tried to forget her ill health and weariness, and some of her letters +at this time were so bright and amusing, that we see how well she +succeeded in throwing herself into the lives of those around her. At last +she was well enough to be moved in an invalid carriage with “a thousand +springs” to London, in short journeys of twenty miles a day. There for +seven long years she lived in one large, but partly darkened room, seeing +only her own family and a few special friends.</p> + +<p>Her poems were sad, beautiful, and very tender; never once does she allude +in words to the terrible blow which had swept so much sunshine and +happiness from her young life, but her writings are full now of wild +utterances and passionate cries, now calming down into sleepy lullabies +for the little children she had such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> sympathy with. She did not put her +name to many of her works, but readers were startled from time to time by +the wonderful new poems, until at last they were traced to the sick room +of Elizabeth Barrett. In her sick room lived “Flush,” a little dog given +her by a friend; he was dark brown with long silken ears and hazel eyes, +but, better than these, such a faithful heart, and</p> + +<p class="poem">“... of <i>thee</i> it shall be said,<br /> +This dog watched beside a bed<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Day and night unweary;</span><br /> +Watched within a curtained room,<br /> +Where no sunbeam brake the gloom<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Round the sick and dreary.”</span></p> + +<p>He would push his nose into her pale, thin hand, and lie content for +hours, till the quick tears of his mistress would sometimes drop on to his +glossy head, and he would spring up eagerly, as if to share the trouble if +he only could.</p> + +<p>Here is a story about Flush which shows his devotion. The little terrier +was stolen, and his mistress shed many tears for her lost favourite. She +was accused of being “childish,” but she could not help it.</p> + +<p>“Flushie is my friend, my companion, and loves me better than he loves the +sunshine without,” she cried.</p> + +<p>At last the thief was found, and he gave up the dog for some money, +saying, “You had better give your dog something to eat, for he has tasted +nothing for three days!”</p> + +<p>But Flush was too happy to eat; he shrank away from the plate of food +which was given him, and laid down his head on his mistress’s shoulder.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>“He is worth loving, is he not?” asked Elizabeth +Barrett, when she had told this story to a friend.</p> + +<p>One of her best-known poems is “The Cry of the Children.” For the little +overworked children in the large factories her human heart was stirred. +She knew what a life they led from early morning till late at night, amid +the rushing of the great iron wheels, or working underground in the damp +and dark, and she could not be silent.</p> + +<p class="poem">“Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ere the sorrow comes with years?</span><br /> +They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And <i>that</i> cannot stop their tears.</span><br /> +The young lambs are bleating in the meadows,<br /> +The young birds are chirping in the nest,<br /> +The young fawns are playing with the shadows,<br /> +The young flowers are blowing towards the west—<br /> +But the young, young children, O my brothers,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">They are weeping bitterly!</span><br /> +They are weeping in the playtime of the others,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">In the country of the free.”</span></p> + +<p>They seem to look up with their “pale and sunken faces,” and to cry that +the world is <i>very</i> dreary; they take but a few steps, and get so tired, +that they long for rest. It is true, they say, sometimes they die very +young. There was one—little Alice—died lately; they go and listen by her +grave and <i>she</i> never cries; no one calls <i>her</i> up early, saying, “Get up, +little Alice; it is day!” time to go off to the droning, droning wheels in +the factories, and—“It is good when it happens,” say the children, “that +we die before our time.” It is no good to call them to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> fields to +play, to gather big bunches of cowslips, to sing out, as the little +thrushes do:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“For oh!” say the children, “we are weary,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And we cannot run and leap;</span><br /> +If we cared for any meadows, it were merely<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To drop down in them and sleep.”</span></p> + +<p>For the great wheels never stop; the little heads may burn, the little +hearts may ache, till the children long to moan out:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“O ye wheels—stop—be silent for to-day!”</p> + +<p>Here were the children in their misery, life-like, only too true and real; +and then the poet pleads for them, pleads that they may be taught there +<i>is</i> something in life as well as the great grinding wheels; pleads that +the lives of the little factory children may be made happier and brighter.</p> + +<p>And England heard the cry of the children. The following year fresh laws +were made about the employment of children in factories; they were not to +be allowed to work under the age of eight, and not then unless they were +strong and healthy; they were not to work more than six hours and a half a +day, and to attend school for three hours.</p> + +<p>Three years after this poem was written Elizabeth Barrett married Robert +Browning, the poet, and together they went off to Italy, where the softer +air and mild climate brought back her health for a time.</p> + +<p>“She is getting better every day,” wrote her husband; “stronger, better +wonderfully, and beyond all our hopes.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>One of Mrs. Browning’s happiest +poems is the story of little Ellie and the swan’s nest.</p> + +<p>“Little Ellie sits alone,” she begins, “’mid the beeches of a meadow.” +Then she goes on to tell us of her shining hair and face; how she has +thrown aside her bonnet, and is dipping her feet into the shallow stream +by which she sits. As she rocks herself to and fro she thinks about a +swan’s nest she has found among the reeds, with two precious eggs in it; +then the vision of a knight, who is to be her lover, rises before her. He +is to be a noble man, riding on a red-roan steed shod with silver; he is +to kneel at her feet, and she will tell him to rise and go, “put away all +wrong,” so that the world may love and fear him. Off he goes; three times +he is to send a little foot page to Ellie for words of comfort; the first +time she will send him a white rosebud, the second time a glove, and the +third time leave to come and claim her love. Then she will show him and +him only the swan’s nest among the reeds. Little Ellie gets up, ties on +her bonnet, puts on her shoes, and goes home round by the swan’s nest, as +she does every day, just to see if there are any more eggs; on she goes, +“pushing through the elm-tree copse, winding up the stream, +light-hearted.” Then, when she reaches the place, she stops, stoops down, +and what does she find? The wild swan had deserted her nest, a rat had +gnawed the reeds, and “Ellie went home sad and slow.” If she ever found +the lover on the “red-roan steed”—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Sooth I know not: but I know<br /> +She could never show him—never<br /> +That swan’s nest among the reeds!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>It was at Florence that Mrs. Browning’s little son was born, “her little +Florentine” as she loves to call him; she has drawn us many a picture of +him with his blue eyes and amber curls, lit up to golden by the Italian +sun.</p> + +<p class="poem">“My little son, my Florentine,<br /> +Sit down beside my knee,”</p> + +<p>she begins in one poem, and then she tells him in verse a tale about +Florence, and the war in Italy, and when it was over the child had grown +very grave. For Mrs. Browning loved Italy with all her heart, and she +watched the great struggle for Italian unity, which was going on, very +anxiously. From time to time she wrote patriotic poems to encourage the +oppressed, and to express her delight at their victories.</p> + +<p>At the same time England was not forgotten.</p> + +<p>“I am listening here in Rome,” she wrote, when pleading for the ragged +schools of London. Still, though under the clear Italian skies, she can +see the ragged, bare-footed, hungry-eyed children begging in the London +streets. It is a disgrace to England, she cries; she knows they cannot all +be fed and clothed, but—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Put a thought beneath the rags<br /> +To ennoble the heart’s struggle,”</p> + +<p>so that by gentle words the children may learn “just the uses of their +sorrow.” And again Mrs. Browning’s appeal was not in vain.</p> + +<p>One of her last poems was a very sad one, called “Little Mattie.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Browning had, even in Italy, suffered very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> much from bad health, and +in 1861 she died. She was buried beside a grassy wall in the English +burial-ground just outside Florence, the city she loved so well, in Italy, +“my Italy” as she has called it, the land where Keats and Shelley lie.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> +<h2>FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (born 1820).</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Of</span> the early and private life of Florence Nightingale there is no need to +speak, but you should know what good work she has done for her country, +how she left her English home to go and nurse the poor soldiers who were +wounded in battle in the Crimea, and how well she did the work that she +undertook to do. Not only did she work out of England, but in England she +has improved some of our hospitals, taught some of our English nurses how +to work better, and has made nursing into the happier labour it is now, +instead of the drudgery it was too often before.</p> + +<p>She was born in Florence in 1820, and therefore named after that town, but +her home was always in Derbyshire. She was always fond of nursing, and her +early ambition was to improve the system of nursing, and to get many +things done that she saw would make pain and suffering more bearable in +our English hospitals.</p> + +<p>Now in Germany, in a little village<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> on the great Rhine, is a large +building where women are trained as nurses for sick people. They all wear +full black skirts and very white aprons, deep white collars and caps, and +all the sick people come from the village <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>and villages round to be nursed +by them. There was no training-school for women in England, so it was to +this kind of hospital home that Florence Nightingale went in 1851, and +there she worked for three months. They were three happy months, and she +learnt the best German rules of nursing, and saw how a large hospital +ought to be managed; and so she got some of the training which fitted her +for the great work which she undertook some years later. On her return to +England, she became head of a London hospital for women.</p> + +<p>But before you hear about her work, and how she nursed our soldiers, you +must know about the war in the Crimea, how our soldiers were wounded, and +why they wanted good nursing.</p> + +<p>For several years a dispute had been going on between Russia and Turkey, +and at last Russia pushed her troops into Turkey, and Turkey declared war. +England and France had promised some time before to help Turkey if she +needed help, and now they found themselves at war. English and French +steamers kept hurrying backwards and forwards from the Black Sea to try +and make peace;—but it was impossible; so armies were sent, and Lord +Raglan, who had lost one arm at Waterloo, fighting under the great Duke of +Wellington, was given the command of the English army. Now at the south of +Russia is a peninsula called the Crimea, and the allied armies of England, +France, and Turkey knew that if they could take a large town in the Crimea +called Sebastopol, the Russian fleet in the Black Sea would be rendered +powerless for a long time. So they chose this town for their attack. But +they were divided from it by the river<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> Alma, and here the Russian army +was posted in great strength on a line of steep rocky hills on the other +side of the river. They thought that the English and French would never +dare to cross the river in the face of their fire. But the allied armies +were very brave. The order was given to cross the river; the men waded the +stream, and, under a deadly fire from the Russians, they scaled the +heights bravely. The Russians were brave, but badly commanded, and before +long they fled, leaving the allied armies victorious. The English had +fought their first battle, gained their first victory in the Crimea, and a +loud British cheer rose from the troops as they stood on the well-won +heights, and struck terror into the hearts of the retreating Russians. Our +soldiers had fought nobly, but three thousand lay dead or wounded on the +field of battle.</p> + +<p>Great were the rejoicings in England when news of the victory arrived, but +the joy was mixed with sorrow at the terrible accounts of the English +soldiers who were wounded so badly on the field. All night the doctors +worked, trying to dress their wounds, and relieve their pain, and have +them carried to hospitals and tents. But the work was enormous, and there +were not enough doctors to perform it, and no proper nurses to take charge +of the hospitals. The cry for doctors and nurses reached England, and +England responded readily to the call. Many Englishwomen offered +themselves to go out and nurse the sick soldiers, and their offer was +accepted by the Government.</p> + +<p>One of the first to volunteer was Miss Nightingale, and owing to her great +experience she was entrusted with choice of nurses, and the leadership of +them. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> a difficult matter to choose the fittest nurses out of the +many who offered themselves, but at last the work was done, and one +October day Miss Nightingale and thirty-seven nurses left Folkestone by +steamer for the East. They were received by a crowd at Boulogne to wish +them “God speed” on their mission, and then some of the chief citizens +entertained them at dinner. The fisherwomen of Boulogne in their plain +bright skirts and coloured shawls, carried all the luggage themselves up +from the steamer, amid the cheers of the people.</p> + +<p>All through France the nurses were received with sympathy and respect; for +France and England were joined in a common cause, and France had already +sent out nurses for their sick soldiers.</p> + +<p>Then Miss Nightingale and her little band sailed from Marseilles to +Constantinople. They had a very stormy passage, but arrived at +Constantinople on November 4th, 1854, on the eve of another great battle.</p> + +<p>The battle of Balaclava—made famous by the Charge of the Light Brigade, +in which so many brave lives were lost through a mistaken order—was over, +but November 5th, the day after Miss Nightingale arrived, was to be made +famous by another splendid victory over the Russians.</p> + +<p>It was a misty winter morning, and the day had hardly dawned, when the +Russians advanced, sure of victory, to the plateau of Inkermann, where a +scanty British force was collected. So thick was the fog that the English +knew nothing till, in overwhelming numbers, the Russians appeared pressing +up the hill. At once the fighting began, and the soldiers bravely kept<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +their post, driving back the Russians time after time as they mounted the +slopes. All day the battle lasted, and the English were getting exhausted +when a French army arrived, and the Russians were soon in full retreat, +having been beaten by an army taken unawares and only a fourth part of +their own number. This battle is famous because the soldiers, not the +generals, won the day.</p> + +<p>The wounded soldiers were taken to the hospital at Scutari, where Miss +Nightingale had only just arrived.</p> + +<p>The hospital was already full; two miles of space were occupied by beds, +and there were over two thousand sick and wounded soldiers. Then the +wounded from Inkermann were brought across the water, and landed at the +pier; those who could, walked to the great barrack hospital; those who +were too badly hurt to walk were carried on stretchers up the steep hill +leading to the hospital. It was a large square building outside, and +inside were large bare wards with rows and rows of closely packed beds. +There seemed no room for the heroes of Inkermann, but beds were made up +all along the passages as close as possible, and the wounded men were laid +in them.</p> + +<p>It was a cheering sight to the sick soldiers to see Miss Nightingale and +the nurses moving about the wards. They all wore aprons, and bands with +“Scutari Hospital” marked on them, plain skirts and white caps. The men +had never been nursed by women before, only by men, some of them very +rough, some knowing nothing of sickness and unable to dress their wounds. +But these nurses moved about from bed to bed, quickly and quietly, +attending to each sufferer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> in turn, and working for hours and hours with +no rest. Some of the soldiers were too ill even to know where they were, +until they slowly returned to life, and found themselves no longer lying +on the battle-field, but in the hospital, being cared for and looked after +by Miss Nightingale or one of her band. The nurses had a hard time of it; +the Turkish bread was so sour they could hardly eat it; what butter they +had was bad, and the meat, one of them said, “was more like moist leather +than food.”</p> + +<p>But they worked on through the day, often through the night as well, +carrying out the doctor’s orders, giving medicine, supplying lint and +bandages, and giving lemonade to the thirsty soldiers. There was barely +room to pass between the beds,—so closely were they packed. Here and +there a little group of doctors would stand over a bed talking over a bad +case, while those soldiers who could walk would go to the bed of a +comrade, to help pass some of the long hours away.</p> + +<p>The winter was bitterly cold. The men on the bleak heights before +Sebastopol were only half fed, their clothes were in rags, they had to +sleep on the damp ground, and toil for many hours every day in the +trenches ankle deep in water and mud. Many hundreds died, many more +sickened, and were taken to the hospital. Besides the large kitchen which +supplied all the general food, the nurses had another, where jelly, +arrowroot, soup, broth, and chickens were cooked for those who were too +ill to eat the usual hospital fare. Here Miss Nightingale would cook +herself, if there were some urgent case, and with her own hands feed the +sick and dying men. She had a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> great power of command over the soldiers; +many a time <i>her</i> influence helped a wounded man through the dreaded +operations. He would sooner die than meet the knife of the surgeon. Then +Miss Nightingale would encourage him to be brave, and, while she stood +beside him, he, with lips closely set and hands folded, set himself for +<i>her</i> sake to endure the necessary pain. And the soldiers would watch her +gliding down the wards, and long for their turn to come, when she would +stand by their special bed and perhaps speak some special word to them.</p> + +<p>Then the men under her, the orderlies who had to obey her in everything, +did it without a murmur.</p> + +<p>“During all that dreadful period” not one of them failed her in devotion, +obedience, ready attention; for her sake they toiled and endured, as they +would not have toiled and endured for anyone else.</p> + +<p>“Never,” she said, “never came from any one of them a word or look which a +gentleman would not have used,” and the tears would come into her eyes as +she thought how amid those terrible scenes of suffering, disease, and +death, these men, accustomed to use bad language, perhaps to swear, never +once used a bad expression which might have distressed her—their “Lady in +Chief.” But Miss Nightingale had very uphill work; among other things, +when she first went to the hospital, she found there was no laundry, and +only seven shirts had been washed belonging to the soldiers; so she had a +laundry formed as soon as possible, and there was a grand improvement in +the cleanliness of the hospital.</p> + +<p>One December day great excitement ran through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> the wards of the great +Scutari hospital, when it became known that a letter from the Queen had +arrived.</p> + +<p>“I wish,” wrote the Queen, “Miss Nightingale and the ladies to tell these +poor noble wounded and sick men, that no one takes a warmer interest, or +feels more for their sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism more +than their Queen. Day and night she thinks of her beloved troops.” Copies +of this letter were made, and read aloud in each ward, and as the last +words, followed by “God save the Queen,” were uttered, a vigorous “Amen” +rose from the sick and dying men. They liked the Queen’s sympathy, and +they loved to think, in that far-off land, that England was thinking of +them.</p> + +<p>The rejoicings in the wards over an English newspaper were great; small +groups of soldiers would collect round the stove, while one would stand in +the middle, perhaps with only one arm, or his head bound up, and read to +his eager listeners the news of England and the news of the war, which was +still being waged around them, and in which they were keenly interested. +For the long siege of Sebastopol, in which many of them had taken part, +was still going on. In the spring came the unexpected news of the death of +Nicholas, Emperor of Russia. “Nicholas is dead—Nicholas is dead!” was +murmured through the wards, and the news travelled quickly from bed to +bed.</p> + +<p>“How did he die?” cried some. “Well,” exclaimed one soldier, “I’d rather +have that news than a month’s pay!” One man burst into tears, and slowly +raising his hands, he clasped them together, and sobbed out “Thank God!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>In the summer Miss Nightingale went to visit the camp hospitals near +Balaclava and to take some nurses there. She rode up the heights on a +pony, while some men followed with baggage for the hospitals, and she was +warmly greeted by the sick soldiers. A little later she was seized with +fever, and carried on a litter to one of the hut hospitals, where she lay +for some time in high fever. When at last she was well enough to be moved, +she was carried down and placed on board a vessel bound for England. But +she felt there was more work to be done, and though still weak and ill she +returned to her post at the Barrack Hospital.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1855 the interest among the soldiers became intense, as +it was known that Sebastopol could not hold out much longer.</p> + +<p>At last in September it was announced that Sebastopol was a heap of ruins. +The effect in the wards was electric. “Sebastopol has fallen,” was the one +absorbing thought. Dying men sat up in their beds, and clasped their +hands, unable to utter more than the one word “Sebastopol.” “Would that I +had been in at the last,” murmured one, wounded while the siege was yet +going on.</p> + +<p>With the fall of Sebastopol the war was at an end, and peace was signed +the following spring. But Miss Nightingale still remained at Scutari, till +the English had finally left Turkey in the summer of 1856. England had +resolved to give her a public welcome, but she shrank from it, and quietly +arrived at her home in Derbyshire unrecognized. But England wanted to show +her gratitude to her in some way for the good work she had done, and the +soldiers wanted to share.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> So a fund was started, called the “Nightingale +Fund.” And very heartily did all join in the home movement. The soldiers, +both those who were wounded and those who were not, gave all they could, +so universal was the feeling of thankfulness and gratitude to Miss +Nightingale, who had given up so much for their sakes, and risked her life +to ease their sufferings and cheer their long hours of pain.</p> + +<p>At Miss Nightingale’s special wish the Fund was devoted to the formation +of a training-school for nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. For up +to this time no woman could be properly trained in England, and there were +not many who could afford to go to the training home on the Rhine in +Germany.</p> + +<p>The Queen presented Miss Nightingale with a beautiful jewel; it was +designed by the Prince Consort; the word “Crimea” was engraved on it, and +on the back were the words, “To Florence Nightingale, as a mark of esteem +and gratitude for her devotion towards the Queen’s brave soldiers. From +Victoria R., 1855.”</p> + +<p>In 1858 she wrote a book called “Notes on Nursing,” and it soon became +very popular; in it she tries to show how much harm is done by <i>bad</i> +nursing.</p> + +<p>“Every woman,” she says, “or at least almost every woman in England has at +one time or another of her life charge of the personal health of somebody, +in other words every woman is a nurse.” And then she tells the women of +England, what a good nurse ought to be, how quiet and clean, how obedient +to the doctor’s orders, how careful about food and air. “Windows are made +to open, doors are made to shut,” she remarks,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> and if nurses remembered +this oftener, it would be better and happier for their patients.</p> + +<p>But her life was chiefly lived in those two years at the Scutari hospital; +the many difficulties she met with at first, the struggle against dirt and +bad food, the enormous amount of extra work to be got through in the day +because others would not do their full share, the terribly anxious cases +she had to nurse,—all these told on her health.</p> + +<p>“I have been a prisoner to my room from illness for years,” she tells us, +but she did more good, brave, noble work in those two years than many a +woman has done in a lifetime.</p> + +<p>One of our poets has written about Miss Nightingale. He was reading one +night of the “great army of the dead” on the battle-fields of the Crimea,</p> + +<p class="poem">“The wounded from the battle plain<br /> +In dreary hospitals of pain,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The cheerless corridors,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The cold and stony floors,”</span></p> + +<p>and as he pictured this desolate scene, he seemed to see a lady with a +little lamp moving through the “glimmering gloom,” softly going from bed +to bed; he saw the “speechless sufferer” turn to kiss her shadow, as it +fell upon the darkened walls. And then he adds:</p> + +<p class="poem">“A Lady with a Lamp shall stand<br /> +In the great history of the land,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A noble type of good,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Heroic Womanhood.”</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><br /><small>CHISWICK PRESS:—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COUNT, CHANCERY LANE.</small></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<div class="verts"> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">THE YORK READERS</span></p> + +<p>An entirely new series of <span class="smcap">Primers</span> and <span class="smcap">Readers</span>, beautifully printed in a +specially bold and clear type, and illustrated throughout in colours and +in black and white. The volumes are strongly and artistically bound in +cloth covers.</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Infant Primers</span> and <span class="smcap">Readers</span> comprise the following:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td><strong>York Primer, No. 1</strong></td> + <td>24 pp.</td> + <td align="right">3<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Primer, No. 2</strong></td> + <td>32 pp.</td> + <td align="right">4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Infant Reader</strong></td> + <td>64 pp.</td> + <td align="right">6<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Introductory Reader</strong></td> + <td>96 pp.</td> + <td align="right">8<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Reader, Book I</strong> (<i>for Stand. I</i>)</td> + <td>128 pp.</td> + <td align="right">9<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Reader, Book II</strong> (<i>for Stand. II</i>)</td> + <td>160 pp.</td> + <td align="right">10<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Reader, Book III</strong> (<i>for Stand. III</i>)</td> + <td> </td> + <td>1<i>s.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Reader, Book IV</strong> (<i>for Stand. IV</i>)</td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td><strong>York Reader, Book V</strong> (<i>for Standards V, VI, and VII</i>)</td> + <td> </td> + <td align="right">1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></td></tr></table> + +<p>The subject matter is well graduated, and includes from the first book +simple and entertaining lessons on Nature. The object throughout the +series has been to encourage the observing faculties of the children. The +conversational style is largely introduced, without being obtrusive. The +Word-building Exercises are thoroughly graduated, and simple Outline +Drawings (white on black) are introduced. These are all illustrative of +the text, and should encourage “Drawing from Memory.”</p> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Introductory Reader</span> is written to meet a long-felt want in Infant +Schools, viz., a book suitable for the more advanced children in the 1st +Class, and at the same time preparatory to Standard I.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">BELL’S BOOKS FOR</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 5em;"><span class="huge">YOUNG READERS</span></span></p> +<p class="center">Price <span class="smcap">Sixpence</span> each.</p> + +<p>The special feature of these Books is that, even from the most elementary +grade, they possess the interest which a connected narrative, however +simple in wording, seldom fails to excite; and by this means make the +reading-lesson a pleasure instead of a dull piece of routine.</p> + + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Suitable for Infants.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Æsop’s Fables</span>. Chosen and retold in easy words, by A. P. Williams. With +Coloured Frontispiece and other Illustrations.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tot and the Cat</span>, and other Stories.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Old Boat-House</span>, and other Stories.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Cat and the Hen</span>, and other Stories.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Two Parrots</span>. 9 Illustrations.</p> + + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Suitable for Standards I and II.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Story of Three Monkeys.</span> New Edition, with Coloured Frontispiece and +other Illustrations.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Lost Pigs.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Story of a Cat.</span> Told by Herself. New Edition, with Coloured Frontispiece +and other Illustrations.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Queen Bee and Busy Bee.</span> (For Girls.)</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gull’s Crag.</span> New Edition, with Coloured Frontispiece and other +Illustrations.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">THE ABBEY HISTORY READERS.</span></p> + +<p>This new series of historical readers has been revised and adapted by the +Right Rev. <span class="smcap">Abbot Gasquet</span>, D.D. They are fully illustrated and printed in +clear, bold type, and strongly bound in cloth.</p> + +<p class="hang">Book I. <strong>Early English History.</strong> (Adapted for Standard III.) Containing 12 +Stories from Early English History to the Norman Conquest. With 30 +illustrations. 163 pages, 1<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">Book II. <strong>Stories from English History, 1066-1485.</strong> (Adapted for Standard +IV.) Containing 20 Stories and Biographies from the Norman Conquest to the +end of the Wars of the Roses. With 31 illustrations. 190 pages, 1<i>s.</i> +3<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">Book III. <strong>The Tudor Period, 1485-1603.</strong> (Adapted for Standard V.) With 43 +illustrations. 163 pages, 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">Book IV. <strong>The Stuart Period, 1603-1714.</strong> (Adapted for Standard VI.) With 51 +illustrations. 220 pages, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">Book V. <strong>The Hanoverian Period, 1714-1837.</strong> (Adapted for Standard VII.) With +48 illustrations. 192 pages, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">GEOGRAPHICAL READERS.</span></p> + +<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">M. J. Barrington Ward</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>The Child’s Geography.</strong> Illustrated. Stiff paper cover, 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>The Map and the Compass.</strong> A Reading-book of Geography for Standard I. +Illustrated. New Edition, revised and enlarged, 10<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>The Round World.</strong> A Reading-book of Geography for Standard II. Illustrated. +New Edition, revised and enlarged, 1<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>About England.</strong> A Reading-book of Geography for Standard III. With very +numerous illustrations and a coloured map, 1<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">PENDLEBURY’S ARITHMETICS</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Pendlebury’s Arithmetics for the Standards.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td><strong>Scheme A.</strong></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD I.</td><td>32 pages. Paper, 2<i>d.</i>; cloth, 3<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD II.</td><td>32 pages. Paper, 2<i>d.</i>; cloth, 3<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD III.</td><td>32 pages. Paper, 2<i>d.</i>; cloth, 3<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD IV.</td><td>48 pages. Paper, 3<i>d.</i>; cloth, 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD V.</td><td>48 pages. Paper, 3<i>d.</i>; cloth, 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD VI.</td><td>56 pages. Paper, 3<i>d.</i>; cloth, 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD VII.</td><td>64 pages. Paper, 6<i>d.</i>; cloth, 6<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td colspan="2">Answers to Standards I-II, 4<i>d.</i> net.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td colspan="2">Answers to Standards III, IV, V, VI, VII, 4<i>d.</i> net each.</td></tr></table> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">Pendlebury’s Arithmetics for the Standards.</span></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td><strong>Scheme B.</strong></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD I.</td><td>48 pages. Paper, 2<i>d.</i>; cloth, 3<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD II.</td><td>56 pages. Paper, 3<i>d.</i>; cloth, 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD III.</td><td>58 pages. Paper, 3<i>d.</i>; cloth, 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD IV.</td><td>64 pages. Paper, 3<i>d.</i>; cloth, 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD V.</td><td>64 pages. Paper, 3<i>d.</i>; cloth, 4<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD VI.</td><td>64 pages. Paper, 4<i>d.</i>; cloth, 6<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>STANDARD VII.</td><td>64 pages. Paper, 4<i>d.</i>; cloth, 6<i>d.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td colspan="2">Answers, 4<i>d.</i> net each Standard.</td></tr></table> + +<p> </p> +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s Arithmetical Test Cards. Scheme B.</strong> For Standards II, III, IV, +V, VI, and VII. 36 Cards for each Standard. 1<i>s.</i> net per packet. +(Additional copies of the Answers, 2<i>d.</i> net each.)</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s New Shilling Arithmetic.</strong> 1<i>s.</i>; or with Answers, 1<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> +(Answers separately, 4<i>d.</i> net.)</p> + +<p class="hang">A new Arithmetic, arranged for Standards V-VII, and Pupils preparing for +Scholarship Examinations, etc. The book contains no treatment of the first +four rules, save a few examples for revision work.</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s Shilling Arithmetic.</strong> Eighth Edition. 1<i>s.</i>; or with Answers, +1<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> (Answers separately, 4<i>d.</i> net.)<br /> +<br /> +Embraces a complete course on the subject, and is especially suited +to—(<i>a</i>) Pupils preparing for the various Examinations and Scholarships, +(<i>b</i>) Pupils in Evening Continuation Schools, (<i>c</i>) Pupils who are soon +about to leave Day Schools; it being a sufficient <i>résumé</i> of the whole +work.</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s Commercial Arithmetic.</strong> Complete. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. +2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; or Part I, 1<i>s.</i>; Part II, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i><br /> +<br /> +This Arithmetic is based upon the scheme suggested by the Education +Department for Students in Evening Continuation Classes.</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s Long Tots and Cross Tots.</strong> (Simple and Compound.) Containing +864 Sums for use of Pupils in Evening Continuation Schools and Day Schools +under the Education Department. Paper covers, 2<i>d.</i>; cloth, 3<i>d.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">MODERN MATHEMATICAL BOOKS</span></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s New School Arithmetic.</strong> Crown 8vo. Complete, with or without +Answers, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; or in two Parts, with or without Answers, 2<i>s.</i> +6<i>d.</i> each. (Answers separately, 6<i>d.</i> net.) Key to Part II (<i>in the +Press</i>).</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s New School Examples in Arithmetic.</strong> Extracted from the above +Arithmetic. Crown 8vo. With or without Answers, or in two Parts without +Answers, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> and 2<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s Junior Arithmetic.</strong> 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; or with Answers, 2<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s Arithmetic.</strong> This book is specially suitable for Pupil +Teachers. Seventeenth Edition, with or without Answers, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; or in +two Parts, with or without Answers, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each. (Answers separately, +6<i>d.</i> net.) Full Key to Part II, price 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net.</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Pendlebury’s Examples in Arithmetic.</strong> Crown 8vo. With or without Answers, +price 3<i>s.</i>; or in two Parts, without Answers, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> and 2<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Baker and Bourne’s Elementary Algebra.</strong> By <span class="smcap">W. M. Baker</span>, M.A., and <span class="smcap">A. A. +Bourne</span>, M.A., Cheltenham College. Complete. Crown 8vo. With or without +Answers, 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; or in two Parts: Part I, 3<i>s.</i>; or without Answers, +2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> Part II—With or without Answers, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Baker and Bourne’s Examples in Algebra.</strong> Crown 8vo. With or without +Answers, 3<i>s.</i>; or two Parts, without Answers, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> and 2<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Baker and Bourne’s First Algebra.</strong> 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; or with Answers, 2<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Baker and Bourne’s Elementary Geometry.</strong> Complete. Fifth Edition, revised, +4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> Also published in various parts. Answers to the Numerical and +Mensuration Examples, 6<i>d.</i> net. Complete Key, 6<i>s.</i> net.</p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Baker and Bourne’s First Geometry.</strong> With or without Answers, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>Baker and Bourne’s Elementary Graphs.</strong> 6<i>d.</i> net.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">MASON’S GRAMMARS</span></p> +<p class="center">CODE STANDARD ENGLISH GRAMMAR</p> + +<p class="hang">Part I. <strong>Nouns and Verbs.</strong> (For Standard II.) Price 2<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">Part II. <strong>The remaining Parts of Speech.</strong> (For Standard III.) Price 2<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">Part III. <strong>Parsing.</strong> (For Standards IV, V, and VI.) With Recapitulation of +Definitions, etc. Price 3d.</p> + +<p class="hang">Part IV. <strong>Analysis of Sentences.</strong> (For Standards V, VI, and VII.) Price +3<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">Part V. <strong>First Lessons in Word-Building.</strong> (For Standards V, VI, and VII.) +Price 3<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>FIRST NOTIONS OF GRAMMAR FOR YOUNG LEARNERS.</strong> Fcap. 8vo. 154th thousand. +Cloth, 1<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>ENGLISH GRAMMAR</strong>, including the Principles of Grammatical Analysis. +Fortieth Edition, revised. 177th to 182nd thousand. Crown 8vo. 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">BELL’S FRENCH COURSE</span></p> + +<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">R. P. Atherton</span>, M.A., Assistant Master at Haileybury College.</p> + +<p class="center">In <span class="smcap">Two Parts</span>, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> each.</p> + +<p class="center">(Key to Exercises, Part I, 6<i>d.</i> net; Part II, 1<i>s.</i> net.)</p> + +<p>The broad principle on which the present course is based is that of +moderate reform. It is the result of a series of attempts to select what +is best in both the newer and the older methods, keeping in view that an +accurate pronunciation must be taught from the beginning; that as much of +the lesson as possible should be taught in the foreign language; that the +class should be encouraged to cultivate fluency of speech; and that as a +means of mental training translation from English into the foreign tongue +and a strict discipline in grammatical structure are indispensable.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">GASC’S FRENCH DICTIONARIES</span></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>FRENCH AND ENGLISH DICTIONARY</strong>, with upwards of fifteen thousand new words, +senses, etc., hitherto unpublished. Eighth Edition, reset and considerably +enlarged. In one volume. Large 8vo. Cloth, 12<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>CONCISE DICTIONARY OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES.</strong> Medium 16mo. Third +Edition, revised, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> Also Part I (French-English), 2<i>s.</i> Part II +(English-French), 2<i>s.</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><strong>POCKET DICTIONARY</strong> of the French and English Languages, for the every-day +purposes of Travellers and Students. New Edition. 76th thousand. 16mo. +Cloth, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="large">LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS</span></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Footnote:</strong></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Kaiserswerth.</p> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Great Englishwomen, by M. B. 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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 Englishwomen + An Historical Reading Book for Schools + +Author: M. B. Synge + +Release Date: May 22, 2011 [EBook #36184] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Lindy Walsh and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +BELL'S READING-BOOKS. + +CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE READERS. + + +Abridgements of well-known English books have been carefully made by a +method of excision only, the language of the original being in all cases +left intact. + +Price One Shilling each. + +_Post 8vo. Illustrated. Strongly Bound._ + + +_Suitable for Standard_ III. + + ADVENTURES OF A DONKEY. Translated from the French. + GREAT DEEDS IN ENGLISH HISTORY. + GRIMM'S GERMAN TALES. (Selected.) + ANDERSEN'S DANISH TALES. (Selected.) + GREAT ENGLISHMEN. Short Lives for Young Children. + GREAT IRISHMEN. Short Lives for Young Children. + LIFE OF COLUMBUS. By S. Crompton. + + +_Standard_ IV. + + UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. + SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. (Abridged.) + PARABLES FROM NATURE. (Selected.) By Mrs. Gatty. + GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN. Short Lives. + GREAT SCOTSMEN. Short Lives. + THE CHILDREN OF THE NEW FOREST. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) + EDGEWORTH'S TALES. (A Selection.) + LYRICAL POETRY. Selected by D. Monro. + THE TALISMAN. By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.) + + +_Standard_ V. + + THE STORY OF LITTLE NELL. By Charles Dickens. (Abridged.) + SETTLERS IN CANADA. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) New Edition. + MASTERMAN READY. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) New Edition. + GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. (Abridged.) + ROBINSON CRUSOE. (Abridged.) New Edition. + POOR JACK. By Captain Marryat, R.N. (Abridged.) + ARABIAN NIGHTS. + + +_Standards_ VI. _and_ VII. + + WOODSTOCK. By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.) + IVANHOE. By Sir Walter Scott. (Abridged.) + OLIVER TWIST. By Charles Dickens. (Abridged.) + THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. (Abridged.) + LAMB'S TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. (Selected.) + SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF NELSON. (Abridged.) + SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AND OTHER ESSAYS, FROM THE "SPECTATOR." + TALES OF THE COAST. By J. Runciman. + + +LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS. + + + + +GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN. + + + + + GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN + + AN HISTORICAL READING BOOK FOR SCHOOLS + + + BY M. B. SYNGE + AUTHOR OF "GREAT ENGLISHMEN," ETC. + + + LONDON + GEORGE BELL AND SONS + 1907 + + + + +The following collection of short lives has been compiled as a companion +volume to the "Great Englishmen," which has already met with approval in +schools. It is hoped that this will be found no less useful. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + QUEEN BERTHA (died 606) 1 + + MAUDE THE GOOD (1080-1118) 8 + + ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1122-1204) 13 + + PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT (1313-1369) 23 + + MARGARET OF ANJOU (1429-1480) 31 + + THE LADY MARGARET (1441-1509) 38 + + MARGARET ROPER (1501?-1544) 46 + + LADY JANE GREY (1537-1554) 52 + + PRINCESS ELIZABETH (1596-1662) 61 + + LADY RACHEL RUSSELL (1636-1723) 69 + + ANGELICA KAUFMANN (1741-1807) 78 + + HANNAH MORE (1745-1833) 85 + + ELIZABETH FRY (1780-1845) 92 + + MARY SOMERVILLE (1780-1872) 100 + + ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1809-1861) 110 + + FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (born 1820) 120 + + + + +GREAT ENGLISHWOMEN. + + + + +QUEEN BERTHA (died 606). + + +Bertha, our first Christian queen, lived a very quiet, uneventful life; +history does not record her sayings, nor does it tell us that she +performed any great public acts; she made no special mark on the world at +large. But by her good example to others, by her gentle influence on those +around her, she stands out as the one bright light shining from out the +thick darkness of those heathen days. + +She was the only child of the king of Paris, but there is more to say +about her grandmother Radigund than about either her father or mother; for +Bertha had been taught to love the name of Radigund from a little child. + +Radigund was the wife of a king of part of France. This king had taken her +prisoner with her little brother in a war, but, finding her very beautiful +and of royal blood, he adopted her. As she was a heathen, he had her +baptized, and then had her taught till she was old enough to become his +wife. Then poor Radigund was very unhappy; the king her husband was stern, +rough, and cruel, though he loved her very much, and she escaped unknown +to a distant convent. With her own hands she cut off her long and +beautiful hair, and leaving her royal dress and jewels, she threw on the +cloak of a nun. At last the king discovered her, repented of his harshness +toward her, and gave her a large estate, on which she built a convent, and +devoted her time to study. It was she who made the convent rules herself, +she who gave advice to those who needed it, encouraged the timid, urged on +the slothful, and spoke tenderly to those in trouble. + +Radigund brought up her son, Bertha's father, to love the classics and old +writings, and he became a wise and good king. So when he had a child of +his own, he determined that she should be brought up in a convent, away +from the world, as he had been. We do not know where Bertha was taught (it +may have been under her grandmother Radigund), and we hear nothing more of +her till history tells us that Ethelbert, the king of Kent, married the +gentle Bertha, daughter of the king of Paris. + +Now Ethelbert was a young Saxon king, who had taken part in governing from +the age of sixteen; his friends and servants all looked up to him and were +ready to share his dangers and his triumphs. The kings and princes of +England at this early time were always trying to increase their domains, +and Ethelbert was no exception. The kings were all very jealous of one +another, so Ethelbert thought it would be better to look for help outside +England. So he visited the king of Paris, to ask his advice on the +subject. There he met Bertha, and was greatly attracted by the good and +beautiful princess. The king of Paris for his part liked the brave +boy-king of Kent, and was pleased with the idea of a marriage between him +and his daughter Bertha. But in 567 he died suddenly, and Bertha went to +live with her uncle, who now became king of Paris. + +Now her uncle would not hear of her proposed marriage with the king of +Kent, because Bertha was a Christian and Ethelbert a heathen. But +Ethelbert loved Bertha very much, and he said if he might marry her, he +would allow her to keep her Christian religion, and also to bring over a +Christian bishop with her. So the uncle consented, and the Princess Bertha +was sent over in great state and honour to the unknown land, to become the +queen of Kent. + +Her new home was a castle in the town of Canterbury, a palace where the +kings of Kent always lived. For it was a splendid hall where the king and +queen entertained their friends, and where dancing to the pipe and harp +often went on. The queen had a bower in the garden, where she could play +the lute and ply the shuttle, and she loved to wander in the gardens with +the ladies of the court and watch the flowers growing. + +Happy years followed Bertha's marriage; a little son and daughter came to +wake up the old castle with their merry voices. They had curious Saxon +names, but the little girl was always called "Tata," which means lively, +because she was such a bright little child. + +On a hill beyond Canterbury stood the little church of St. Martin, which +had been restored for the queen's use, and there she went daily, while +Ethelbert prayed to his idols in a pagan temple near. Bertha longed for +him to become a Christian and to convert the heathen men of Kent, but +although he was a good king, anxious to improve the laws and the people, +he liked to remain as he was and as his fathers had been before him. At +last Bertha's wish was to be fulfilled. + +Now some poor little Saxon children had been stolen away from their homes +and taken all the way to Rome as slaves. There they were put out in the +market-place to be bought by the people. They were very fair, with blue +eyes, light hair, white skins and rosy cheeks, and very different to the +Roman children, who were dark. + +While the children were there a priest passed by. + +"From what country do these slaves come," he asked. + +"They are Angles," answered the slave-dealer. + +"Not Angles, but Angels," replied the priest, with pity in his voice, +"with faces so angel-like." + +Then he asked more about them and their country, and when he heard it was +a heathen country, a longing came over him to go and teach the people to +be Christians. When the Romans chose him for their bishop, or, as they +called him, their Pope or Father, he remembered the little heathen slaves +from the heathen land, and he chose a man called Augustine and forty monks +to go over to England and teach the people better things. + +As Augustine passed through France, he heard that Queen Bertha was already +a Christian, and the news made him very hopeful. So he and the monks +landed on the Isle of Thanet off Kent, and sent a message to Ethelbert to +say they were there and would like to see the king. And a few days after +Ethelbert and Bertha went to the Isle of Thanet to meet Augustine and his +men. They wore monks' dress: loose black gowns, with wide sleeves and +hood, and their heads were closely shaven on the top. The king and queen +sat on the ground and watched the long array of monks coming nearer, while +the words of their litany became more and more distinct. At the king's +command they sat down, while Augustine stood and talked to the king about +leaving his idols and letting his subjects become Christians. + +"Your words are fair," answered the king, "but they are new and of +doubtful meaning." Then he went on to say, that though he could not give +up his old customs suddenly, yet he would allow Augustine to preach to his +people; he would give them a house to dwell in and food to eat, and he +hoped their mission might succeed. So the little band marched into the +heathen city of Canterbury singing as they went. The people were greatly +attracted by their teaching, their simple way of living, their plain food, +and gentle manners. Augustine and the monks used to go to Queen Bertha's +little church of St. Martin, and pray, sing, preach, and baptize the +people, who soon came promising to give up praying to their idols and to +become Christians. + +At last, one day the King Ethelbert came to the little church on the hill +to be baptized, and you may imagine Bertha's joy as the king of Kent was +led to St. Martin's Church, never more to enter his little pagan temple. +Then many followed his example, and before the end of the year ten +thousand Saxons were baptized. The king saw what good work these men were +doing, and that St. Martin's Church was not large enough for all, so he +told the people to build and repair churches all over his land. + +Now Augustine could not preach to all these many people, and he wanted to +make new priests to help him. But this he could not do till he was made a +bishop himself. So he went to an archbishop in the south of France, and +was made a bishop with the Pope's leave. Very soon after he was made +Archbishop of Canterbury, and ever since his time there has been an +Archbishop of Canterbury, who is not only head of all the clergy, but the +highest subject in the queen's realm. Augustine was allowed to ordain +twelve bishops to work under him, and to send to York a very trusty +bishop, who might ordain twelve more. + +Now the old Britons or Welsh were, many of them, already Christians, and +Augustine and Ethelbert thought it would be a good plan to make friends +with the Welsh bishops. So they all met under a great oak on the border +land, but unhappily the Welsh bishops could not agree with them; for, +although they were Christians, they did not do everything as Augustine had +been used to do at Rome. So they could not help in preaching to the +heathen, and Augustine went home again. He began to repair an old church +in Canterbury, which is the present Canterbury Cathedral. + +He died in 605, and the last time we hear of Queen Bertha is at the +opening of a great monastery dedicated to St. Augustine. The king and +queen and their son took part in the solemn meeting. + +About the rest of Queen Bertha's life history is silent. Her death is +supposed to have taken place the same year, but we have no record of the +event. She died as quietly as she had lived, leaving us little more to +know her by than her influence on the times in which she lived. She was +buried in a church named after St. Peter and St. Paul, in a corner called +St. Martin's porch, beside St. Augustine, and twelve years later King +Ethelbert was laid beside her. + + + + +MAUDE THE GOOD (1080-1118). + + +"Maude, the good queen;" "Dame Maude, a kind woman and true;" "The good +queen Maude;" "Queen Maude, that's right well loved England through." When +these are the terms used by the people of her time there is little need to +say more about her character. + +Born in 1080, she was christened Edith, but as her name was changed to +Maude or Matilda, on her marriage, out of compliment to the mother of +Henry I., we will call her Maude throughout. Her mother was Margaret, the +gentle Queen of Scotland, her father the well-known Malcolm, of whom +Shakspere has written, a mighty king, but a man who could neither read nor +write. + +When Maude was quite a little girl, she was sent with her sister Mary to +live with her aunt Christina, the Abbess of Romsey. Now, although she had +no intention of making Maude a nun, her aunt compelled her to wear the +nun's veil; this made the little girl not only very unhappy, but angry, +and, whenever her aunt's back was turned, Maude tore the veil from her +head and trampled upon it. One day her father came to the abbey to see his +daughters, and he saw Maude wearing the nun's veil. He was very angry, +and, tearing it off her head, he declared that his fair-haired Maude +should never be a nun, but that she was to marry Count Alan. It is +probable that Malcolm took his two children back to Scotland with him, for +the next mention of Maude is beside her mother's death-bed. + +Malcolm had invaded England for the fifth time, when he was slain, +together with his eldest son Edward. This was heavy news for Prince Edgar +to break to his mother. + +"How fares it with the king and my Edward?" asked the dying queen, as her +son Edgar entered the room. The young prince was silent, but his sad face +spoke more than words. + +"I know all--I know all," sobbed his mother; "but speak the worst." + +"Then your husband and son are both slain!" replied Edgar. + +The widowed queen lifted up her hands and eyes to heaven and prayed, and, +as the last words were uttered, she died. + +Then Maude and Mary were sent back to their aunt Christina to complete +their education. + +While they were there, the news suddenly burst upon England that William +Rufus, the Red King, had been shot by an arrow while hunting in the New +Forest, and that his brother Henry intended to be King of England, as +Robert the elder brother was away fighting in the Holy Land. Henry said, +if the people would only make him king, he would do everything they +wished; and, when they at last consented, he pleased them all by marrying +Maude, the daughter of good Queen Margaret, and descended from Alfred the +Great, whose memory all England loved. + +At first Christina the abbess refused to allow her niece to marry the +king, and, knowing what a bad man Henry was, Maude refused too. But at +last, commanded by her brother Edgar, urged by the people, entreated by +the king, she consented. So they were married on November 11th, in 1100, +and Archbishop Anselm preached a very celebrated sermon to the crowds who +had come to see the royal wedding. Then Maude was crowned Queen of +England, to the joy of the people. + +She was very kind to the poor and to all around her; every day in Lent she +went barefoot, clothed in haircloth, to wash the feet of the poorest +people, after the custom of her mother. She had hospitals built, new roads +made, and bridges over the rivers. + +One day she was riding on horseback through a ford on the river Lea, with +her train of attendants. The river was flooded, and the current sweeping +along so fast, that they were in danger of perishing, and out of gratitude +for her life, Queen Maude caused the first arched bridge ever known in +England to be built. + +In 1102, a little son was born, and named William, after his grandfather +William the Conqueror. + +Now Robert, the Duke of Normandy, Henry's elder brother, had returned from +his wars in the Holy Land, and finding it useless to try and assert his +rights in England, he settled in Normandy. But he was very idle; he had +spent all his money; it is even said that he had to lie in bed sometimes, +for want of clothes to put on, and the Norman people were so unhappy, +that they sent for Henry to come and help them. So leaving his wife Maude +to govern England, Henry took an army to Normandy, and a battle was fought +in which Duke Robert and his little son were taken prisoners. + +It was just forty years after the battle of Hastings; then the Normans +came over and conquered the English; now the English went over, and +Normandy was conquered. Of course Henry had to spend a good deal of time +over there, to reform laws and make peace, but Queen Maude was quite +capable of reigning in England, and keeping the people peaceful and happy. + +In the summer of 1109 Henry returned to England, and kept court in great +splendour at the new palace at Windsor. His little daughter Matilda was +just five years old, when the Emperor of Germany, a man of forty-five, +begged to be allowed to marry her. The proposal was eagerly accepted by +her father, for the union would secure peace between Germany and England, +so the little princess was solemnly married. The child could not stand +under the weight of jewels with which she was adorned as bride, and had to +be carried; she was allowed to live with her mother in England till she +was twelve, when she was sent over in great state to her royal husband. + +When Prince William was twelve, he was taken over to Normandy, for the +Norman barons to swear fealty to him and acknowledge him as their future +king. But he was never their king, because he was drowned when he was only +eighteen. + +A revolt in Normandy to set Robert's little son upon the throne, took +Henry and his son away from England again, and the queen was left alone. +She was in failing health, and Henry returned to spend Christmas with her, +but he could not stay long. He had left Prince William as a pledge that he +would return; so he left the queen, and they never met again. Maude lived +on in her palace at Westminster, very lonely in heart, although she was +surrounded with all the splendour of royalty; her two children were gone, +her husband was across the sea. Her only pleasure lay in caring for the +poor around her, and making _them_ happy. For five months she lived on in +her solitude, and in May, 1118, she died, and was buried in Westminster +Abbey. She was spared the blow of hearing that her only boy, Prince +William, was drowned in the White Ship crossing over to England; spared +the misery of knowing that her daughter Matilda, left a widow at +twenty-one, was obliged to fight for the crown of England, and spared +witnessing the bitter grief of her husband Henry, who, after the loss of +his son, never "smiled again." + + + + +ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE (1122-1204). + + +Eleanor of Aquitaine, the wife of Henry II., has been handed down to us by +popular tradition, as a tyrannical woman, with a great many bad faults and +very few good traits of character. This is not entirely the case. Although +her early life was marked by wild and reckless freaks, and though we must +blame her for helping her sons against their father, yet we must recognize +her, as one whose masterful power in ruling the kingdom kept the country +at peace, whose last years were marked by very merciful acts, who never +spared herself any trouble for her son, even when bowed down with +fourscore years--as a great and illustrious woman. + +Her energy from early youth to old age was unrivalled; at the age of +twenty-five, she went on a crusade, dressed as a pilgrim, with her +husband; at the age of seventy she had the energy to go to Italy with a +wife for her son, and to Germany with the ransom she had raised to release +him from prison. + +Eleanor was born in 1122, in Aquitaine, a dukedom in the south-west corner +of France. Count William, her father, was a good prince, and so beloved by +his people, that when he died, fighting in the Holy Land, he was +remembered as "St. William." He died when Eleanor was ten, and her +grandfather undertook to provide for her future welfare. He called +together his barons, and made them acknowledge Eleanor as his heiress, and +further agree to a proposal that Eleanor should marry the future King of +France, Louis, and thus unite the north of France with the south. + +So it came to pass that, when Eleanor was fifteen, she was married with +great pomp, for her grandfather had been one of the most powerful princes +in Europe. Then her grandfather left her, laid down his robes, and went +off to Spain, where he soon after died. After their marriage, Louis and +Eleanor were summoned to the death bed of Louis VI. + +"Remember, royalty is a public trust," were his last words to the future +king and queen, and on them the words made a lasting impression. + +The new Queen of France was very beautiful; moreover she was musical, and +composed songs and poetry; she could read and write, then a rare +accomplishment, and was adored by her southern subjects, who always +welcomed her with joy, and mourned her absence, when she was obliged to +return to her court at Paris. + +Now it was at this time that St. Bernard was preaching about the Crusades, +and the king and queen with all their court went to hear him. He had to +preach in the market-place, as no cathedral would hold the crowds that +went to listen. Now the king,--urged by Eleanor,--had already been to war +in France, and in course of war he had ruthlessly set fire to a cathedral, +in which 1,300 people had taken refuge; all had perished, and the king, +stirred by St. Bernard, resolved to atone for this heartless deed by going +to the Holy Land to fight. Eleanor declared that she would go too, so, +dressed as a "gay and courtly pilgrim," and mounted on horseback, she +accompanied Louis to the Crusade. But it was not a success. It led to +disagreement between Louis and Eleanor, and on their return they obtained +a divorce, and Eleanor went back to her own country. + +Six weeks after she married Henry, Duke of Normandy, the future King of +England. Louis was very angry, because now Aquitaine was united to +Normandy; both would soon be joined to England, and Louis foresaw +dangerous enemies. + +In 1154 Henry became King of England, and he and Eleanor went over to be +crowned. Everything looked bright before them; the queen rode by the +king's side into Winchester, and the handsome and brave young Henry with +his beautiful wife called forth shouts of joy from the English people. + +Soon after her marriage, one day, in the grounds of Woodstock, Eleanor saw +the king walking with the end of a ball of silk caught on his spur. +Knowing it was not her silk, her suspicions were aroused, and, without +letting him see, she took up the ball of silk, and the king walking on, +the silk unwound, and the queen traced him to a maze in the park, where he +disappeared. Thus runs the story. + +Soon after this, the king left Woodstock for a long journey; the queen, +remembering the silk, then searched the grounds, and found a low door half +hidden by the thicket. She opened it, and went down along a path +underground, which at length led out to a lodge in a remote part of the +forest, and here in a bower Eleanor found a very beautiful lady busily +engaged in work. This was the fair Rosamond, and she could now account for +the silk on her husband's spur. Eleanor was very angry, and it has been +said that she poisoned her rival. Rosamond, however, retired to a convent, +where she lived for the rest of her life. + +The king was very often obliged to be in France to look after his vast +possessions, but he always left Eleanor to rule in his absence, and she +governed well and wisely. But the people in her duchy in the south of +France did not like her to leave them so much, and at last they broke into +open revolt, and would not be pacified till Eleanor went with her third +son Richard to govern them for a time. + +Now Henry had four sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, and John, who was ten +years younger than his brother Geoffrey. The two eldest, Henry and +Richard, had, while quite little boys, been married to two daughters of +the King of France, by which Henry hoped to keep peace with France. + +Geoffrey was to marry the heiress of Brittany, so by this means the King +of England possessed more of France than King Louis himself. + +Henry and his little wife Margaret had been sent to Thomas a Becket, the +Chancellor, to be educated and brought up in a way befitting the future +king and queen of England. The children loved Becket, and when in after +years Henry and Margaret were summoned to be crowned--in the lifetime of +the king--by the Archbishop of York, Margaret refused to appear, because +the guardian of her youth, Becket, was not to perform the coronation. + +In 1172, after the murder of Becket, Henry and Margaret were again +crowned, and soon after went to the French court to Louis. Now, though +they had been crowned, Henry and Margaret could take no share in the +government till the king's death, but Louis stirred up his young +son-in-law to rebel against this rule. + +At his father's death Henry was to have England, Normandy, Anjou, Maine, +and Touraine; Richard, Aquitaine and Poitou; and Geoffrey, Brittany. +Eleanor encouraged Henry to rebel against his father. "I advise you, king, +beware of your wife and sons," were words addressed to Henry, with a +warning to look after Aquitaine. + +One night the king and his son stopped to sleep a night at Chimon; in the +night Henry escaped and fled to the French king, where a few days after he +was joined by Richard and Geoffrey. Queen Eleanor attempted to join them, +but she was seized--dressed in men's clothes--escaping to the French +court, and soon after Henry came over to fetch her and take her back to +England, where he kept her as a sort of prisoner, safely guarded in her +palace at Winchester, for many years. + +Then there was peace for a time. Richard, the darling of his imprisoned +mother, was the first to renew the war. On being told to do homage to +young Henry for Aquitaine, he refused; whereupon Henry and Geoffrey +marched against him. But peace was made. Nevertheless, the people of +Aquitaine were more enraged than ever. In their eyes Eleanor was their +chief, and Henry had no power over them, except through her and by +affectionate treatment of her. Now she was in prison,--Eleanor, the +princess of their old stock,--the princess born among them, brought up in +their midst. + +"Daughter of Aquitaine," sang the troubadours, "thou hast been torn from +thy country and led into a strange land. Return, poor prisoner, return to +thy faithful cities, if thou canst; if thou canst not, weep and cry, +'Alas, how long is my exile!' Raise thy voice like a trumpet, that thy +sons may hear thee; for the day is at hand when thy sons shall deliver +thee, and then thou shalt see thy native land again!" + +In 1183 young Henry the heir died. When he found he could not live much +longer, he sent for his father to implore forgiveness for his wrongdoings. +Henry, who had always loved his son, forgave him readily, and the +prince--almost passionate in his sorrow--died on sackcloth and ashes as an +atonement for his sins. + +The following year there was a solemn peace-making between Henry and his +three sons. Eleanor was released from her prison to be present, and "peace +and final concord" was established. Soon after Geoffrey was killed, and +the King of France at once invited Richard to his court. The oft-repeated +risings and rebellions of Henry's sons were making his last days very +unhappy. He longed to make peace with Richard, but he could not. The +people of the South were against him, his vassals were even forsaking him +for Richard. A list was brought of those who had left him; he ordered the +names to be read. The first name on the list was John. The king leapt from +his bed in agony. + +"Is it true," he cried, "that John, the child of my heart, the best +beloved of all my sons, has forsaken me?" + +He looked at the name, as if to make sure there was no mistake; then, +turning his face to the wall, he groaned: "Now let everything go as it +will; I care no more for myself, nor for the world." + +Richard's first act as King of England was to release his mother from her +captivity, and make her Queen Regent of England. She made a royal progress +through England, releasing prisoners throughout the country to pray "for +the soul of Henry II.," pardoning offences against the crown, making the +forest laws easier, and restoring to their families those who had been put +in prison for disobeying them. + +Her long captivity and sorrow for her two dead sons had softened her +character, and the latter part of her life was kinder, more merciful, and, +therefore, more powerful than the former. When Richard had settled a dower +on her, she went back to France. Soon after Richard joined the King of +France to go to the crusade, leaving a regent to govern England, and that +regent was not his brother John. John felt the slight, but waited till +Richard had gone before he put in his claims. + +Eleanor's next step was to go to Spain to fetch Berengaria, the beautiful +daughter of the King of Navarre, and take her to Richard, who had fallen +in love with her some years before. The royal ladies set off from the +court of Navarre together, crossed the Pyrenees, and went to Naples, where +they found ships, and crossed to Messina, where Richard met them. + +Now Eleanor had several reasons for taking this long journey to Messina. +There was a question who should succeed Richard as King of England, and it +was therefore important he should have an heir. Geoffrey's son Arthur was +the rightful heir, as matters stood, but Eleanor hated Arthur and Arthur's +mother, and was anxious to prevent his ever being king. Again, England was +not in a happy state, and Eleanor wanted to talk to Richard about it. + +Richard left matters entirely in his mother's hands, and Eleanor returned +to England. It required all her efforts to keep the country at peace; it +was she who conferred with the barons, she who at last prevailed over her +youngest unruly son to remain quiet. After a time came the joyful news +that Richard had started for home, but it was followed by the tidings that +he had been taken prisoner. Then came a letter from Richard: + +"Richard, King of England, to his esteemed lady and dearest mother +Eleanor, by the same grace Queen of England, health and all happiness, +which a devoted son can wish for his mother. In the first place to God, +and afterward to your serene highness, sweetest mother, we send our utmost +thanks, although we cannot render enough for the faithfulness which you +keep for us, and the faithful care and diligence which you spend so +devotedly for the peace and defence of our countries." + +Then he tells her that if a ransom can be raised, he will receive his +freedom. Eleanor at once held a meeting of the barons, and ordered a tax +to be made, and the ransom raised. Then she herself set out for Germany +with the ransom, and received back her son Richard. + +When John heard through the King of France that Richard was returning, he +fled. Then Eleanor and Richard held a council, and decreed that if John +did not appear in forty days all his English estates should be forfeited. +Then John threw himself at his brother's feet, and implored forgiveness. +Richard was loth to forgive, but Eleanor begged him not to refuse, and he +always obeyed her. + +"I forgive him," he cried, "and I hope I shall as easily forget his +injuries as he will forget my pardon." + +In 1199 Richard died, leaving the kingdom to John. It was due mostly to +Eleanor's influence that Arthur was set aside, and John appointed to +reign. But many of the French people hated John, and wanted Arthur to +reign over them, and Arthur and his friends marched against a French town +where his grandmother Eleanor was staying. On hearing of his mother's +danger, John, with unwonted energy, marched to the rescue, and Arthur was +taken as prisoner to the castle of Rouen. From this time he disappeared. +Some say his uncle drowned him; tradition gives a tragic history of how +his eyes were burnt out by Hubert. Our poet Shakspere represents him as +throwing himself from a high wall and being killed, but we do not know +what the truth really is. Then Eleanor retired to Fonteraux, where she +died at the age of eighty-two. + +With his mother's death John lost all fear and shame, and relapsed into +depths of wickedness. Sorrow and adversity had taught Eleanor many a stern +lesson, and few women have lived to a more honourable old age than +"Eleanor, beloved of God and man," as the monks of Canterbury used to +address her. + + + + +PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT (1313-1369). + + +Philippa, afterwards Queen of Edward III. of England, was born in the +province of Hainault in Belgium, in 1313. Her mother, the Countess of +Hainault, was a wise and good woman, devoted to her husband and her four +little daughters, of whom Philippa was the second. Her uncle, Sir John, +was a very powerful man, and fought for England when Edward was king. Now, +on one of their many visits abroad, the young Prince Edward and his mother +came to Hainault, and stayed at Count William's house. + +The story runs, that the future King of England took a great fancy to +Count William's daughter Philippa, who was about his own age. They had +long talks together, and spent a very happy fortnight, and the pretty +little Philippa missed her companion very much when he and his mother were +obliged to return to England. + +On the death of Edward II., his son Edward was crowned king, and it was +thought advisable for him to marry. Now it so happened that it would be to +the benefit of England to have the Flemings as allies; for the people +there were ready to help Edward against the French, and to trade with +England; so "a daughter of William of Hainault" was to be selected for +the young king. A bishop was accordingly sent over to choose which +daughter should be queen. + +Happily for both parties, he chose the tall and pretty Philippa, who +started joyfully for England to marry the young king. She received a +hearty welcome, and, with her uncle and numerous attendants, went up to +York, where Edward and she were married in the winter of 1328, at the ages +of fifteen and sixteen. Then they went for the summer to the beautiful +palace of Woodstock, while Edward's mother, and Mortimer, a bad and +tyrannical man, governed the kingdom. + +It was at Woodstock, in 1330, that Philippa's first son was born, the +future hero, the Black Prince. To celebrate his birth, a grand tournament +was held in London, and a tower was erected and filled with seats, so that +the queen and all her ladies might see it. But they had scarcely taken +their seats, when, with a crash, the boarding gave way, and all fell to +the ground. No one was hurt, but all were very much frightened. When the +young king saw the peril of his wife, he flew into a violent passion, and +vowed that all the careless carpenters should be put to death. But the +gentle Philippa, still trembling from the effects of her fall, threw +herself on her knees before him, and pleaded for pardon so hard, that +Edward forgave the men. + +When Edward was seventeen, he determined to govern the kingdom for +himself, and throw off the restraints of his mother and Mortimer, so he +shut his mother up in a castle, and Mortimer was sent to the Tower, and +sentenced to die, as he deserved. Then Edward began to reform many abuses; +many good laws were made, and trade was encouraged with other nations. +Philippa, too, knew how well the people in her own country wove wool, so +she sent for some of them to come and teach the English. First she made a +little colony of weavers at Norwich, and had them taught, often going +herself to look after them, and encourage their work. + +During all the early part of his reign Edward was fighting in Scotland, +and Philippa went with him whenever she could. Once Edward had been up in +Scotland, and had arranged that Philippa should meet him at Durham. Having +welcomed him and supped at the priory, she retired to bed. Scarcely had +she undressed, when the monks came to her door in a great state of +excitement, to say that it was against rules for any lady--even a +queen--to sleep at their priory. Queen Philippa was very much distressed, +and, not waiting to dress, fled in her nightgown to the castle close by, +where she was allowed to pass the night in peace. + +Up to this time Philippa's father had supplied Edward with money to carry +on war with Scotland; on his death Edward became so poor that he had to +pawn the queen's crown in Germany. Soon after the English people sent +their woollen manufactures to Germany, and, instead of receiving money, so +the story says, they redeemed their queen's crown. + +In 1340, a fourth son was born to Philippa at Ghent, and called John of +Gaunt--Gaunt being the old English way of saying Ghent. + +Now Edward had entered on a war with France, which had made him poorer +than ever. Again the queen's crowns and jewels were pawned, and Edward +was getting into so much trouble, that one night he took his wife and +baby, and with a few trusty servants crossed to England secretly. The ship +was small, the weather cold, the wind was high, and at times their lives +were in great danger. However, about midnight they arrived at the Tower in +London, to find it unguarded and only occupied by the three royal children +and nurses. Edward was in a fury, and had it not been for the gentle +Philippa at his side, the guards on their return would have come off very +badly. Not only was Queen Philippa a faithful wife, always ready to calm +Edward's fits of passion and to encourage the industry of the country, but +now we find her ruling his kingdom for him and leading his army to battle. + +In 1346, Philippa said farewell to her husband and to the Black Prince, +the darling of her heart, who at sixteen was off to the French war with +his father. She and Lionel, a child of eight, were left to govern England. + +But no sooner had Edward gone, than the King of Scotland invaded England. +Philippa did not spend long in wondering what was to be done--she went +quickly to Newcastle, where she awaited the English army. When the King of +Scotland heard she was there, he sent to say that he was ready to fight! +Philippa sent back word, that she was ready too; adding, "My barons will +risk their lives for the realm of my lord the king!" + +The queen's army drew up at Neville's Cross, and Philippa, on a white +charger, so runs the story, was among them. She begged them to do their +duty, and to defend the honour of the king; then leaving them to the +protection of God, she rode away. She would not stop to fight; her nature +was too womanly to stay and see the carnage which was going to take place; +she had done all a great queen could do by cheering and encouraging her +men; now she would go and pray for victory while the battle raged. + +When she heard it was over, she mounted her white horse and rode again to +the battle-field, where she heard that not only had a victory been won, +but the King of Scotland had been taken prisoner. He was taken on a tall +black war-horse through the streets of London, and put in the Tower. The +next day Philippa sailed for Calais, and her royal husband held a grand +court to welcome his victorious queen. The terrible siege of Calais was +going on; the French had defended it bravely, till at last they were so +much reduced by famine that they were obliged to surrender. Everything was +eaten, even the cats, dogs, and horses; there was no corn, no wine, and +the unhappy people were fast dying. + +So the governor of Calais came to ask Edward on what terms they could +surrender. Edward was very angry at having been kept waiting so long, and +refused to spare the people unless the six chief men of Calais would come +out bareheaded and bare-footed, with ropes round their necks and the keys +of Calais in their hands, ready to die for the rest of the people. The +governor returned sad and sick at heart, and calling the people together +he gave them the king's message. There was silence for a moment among the +feeble few. Then the hero Eustace de St. Pierre cried: + + "Oh! never be it said, + That the loyal hearts of Calais + To die could be afraid! + +I will be the first, I will willingly give myself up to the mercy of the +King of England." Then five others followed his brave example, and the +willing captives came before the angry king. They knelt and pleaded for +mercy. But in vain. In vain the lords around him begged him to restrain +his anger,--he only thundered: + +"Strike off their heads, each man of them shall die; I will have it so!" + +Then gentle Philippa stepped forth and knelt at the feet of her royal +husband: + +"My loving lord and husband," she cried, "I have crossed the stormy sea +with great peril to come to you--I have been faithful to you all our +wedded life--do not deny my request, but, as a proof of your love to me, +grant me the lives of these six men!" + +The king looked at her in silence, "Lady, I would you had not been here," +he cried at last, "I cannot refuse you, do as you please with them." + +Then Philippa joyously arose, took the men, fed them, clothed them, and +sent them back to their wives, friends, and children. + +Soon after Philippa and Edward returned to England. The same year a +terrible disease called the Black Death broke out in England, and +Philippa's second daughter, a girl of fifteen, died of it. She was just +going to marry the Infant Pedro of Spain, and had crossed to France, where +he was to meet her, when she was taken very ill with the plague, and died +in a few hours. And on the very day appointed for her wedding the little +princess was buried. + +In 1357, the Black Prince returned to England after his victories of Crecy +and Poitiers, and proudly presented his royal prisoner King John to his +mother, as well as John's little son, a boy of fourteen, who had fought to +the end by his father's side, and had been at last captured terribly +wounded. The first day, when at dinner with the king and queen and his +captive father, the boy started up, and boxed the servant's ears for +serving Edward, King of England, before his father John, King of France. + +Philippa, instead of being angry, only smiled at the boy's spirit, and she +treated him as one of her own sons as long as he remained with her. + +The following year Philippa, her husband, and four sons went to France, +leaving Thomas, a child of five, guardian of the kingdom. There she saw +her eldest son married. + +She did not live to see the sad change which made the last years of her +son's life so unhappy; she did not live to see her husband, with a mind +once so mighty, sink into helpless old age, but she died in 1369, at +Windsor. + +When she was dying, she called the king: "We have, my husband, enjoyed our +long union in peace and happiness, but before we are for ever parted in +this world, I entreat you will grant me three requests." + +"Lady, name them," answered Edward, "they shall be granted." + +"My lord," she whispered, "I beg you will pay all the merchants I have +engaged for their wares; I beseech you to fulfil any gifts or legacies I +have made to churches and my servants; and when it shall please God to +call you hence, that you will lie by my side in the cloisters of +Westminster Abbey." + +She ceased speaking. The king was in tears. "Lady," he said, "all this +shall be done." And Philippa the queen died. + + + + +MARGARET OF ANJOU (1429-1480). + + +Margaret had a difficult part to play in the history of England; married +to a weak king, who preferred founding colleges to governing a kingdom, +she had to take the reins of government into her own hands. With the +interest of her only son at heart, she refused to stand by and see the +kingdom snatched from her husband and son; wrath roused her to energy. So +far she may have been right, but she was led on to hard-hearted cruelty; +love for her son made her bloodthirsty; and when both her husband and son +were slain, the woman, once beautiful and strong, was left to go back +friendless to her native land, ruined, miserable. + +Margaret of Anjou was born in one of the grandest castles in Lorraine in +1429. Her father, Rene of Anjou, was taken prisoner fighting for his +country, when Margaret, the youngest of his four little children, was but +a baby. + +"Alas!" cried the mother, clasping her little golden-haired Margaret to +her bosom, "Where is Rene, my lord? He is taken--he is slain!" + +The four children of the captive prince were very beautiful, and the bards +loved to sing of them, and follow them in crowds, and scatter flowers in +their path. + +When Margaret was but six, it was arranged that she should marry Henry +VI., the young King of England, in order to make peace between the two +countries. + +When her father, Rene, was released, Margaret went to live in Italy with +her father and mother; she inherited her father's taste for learning and +love of art. "There was no princess in Christendom more accomplished than +my lady Margaret of Anjou," said a writer of these times. + +The news of her charms, beauty, talent and courage reached Henry's ears in +England, and he sent for a portrait of the princess. The picture delighted +him, and it ended in a truce being signed between the two countries, and +Margaret starting for England to marry King Henry. The parting with her +uncle, Charles VII. of France, was very affecting; sobs stifled his voice; +the young queen could only reply by a torrent of tears, as they parted, +never to meet again. It was harder still to part with her father, for +"never was a princess more deeply loved in the bosom of her own family." +Neither father nor daughter could speak, but each turned their different +ways, with full hearts. + +The people pressed in crowds to look at Margaret when she was married, for +"England had never seen a queen more worthy of a throne than Margaret of +Anjou." + +Now King Henry shrank from the toils and cares of governing the kingdom; +he gave himself up to the learning of the country, and all branches of +study; so that Margaret found the government of England left almost +entirely in her hands. She tried to make the people turn their attention +to manufactures and trade, but England was not in a state for peace; the +men who had fought at Agincourt thirty years before, and the future +soldiers of St. Albans, were not willing to till the soil or weave their +clothes. A rebellion led by Jack Cade excited them more, and in 1455 all +were ready to take up arms and fight. + +Now the cause of war was this: Margaret had no children, and the question +was, who should succeed when Henry died. The Earl of Somerset said he was +the heir, but the Duke of York thought he had a better right to the +throne. This was the beginning of the "Wars of the Roses," as they were +called, for the friends of York wore a white rose, the friends of Somerset +a red rose. + +Now while they were still debating who should be the future king, a little +son was born to Margaret. King Henry had been very ill with a sort of +madness, and did not know about the birth of his son, till one day Queen +Margaret came to him, bringing the baby with her. The king was delighted. + +"What is his name?" he cried. + +"Edward," answered the queen. Then Henry "lifted up his hands and thanked +God." + +Still the Duke of York was not satisfied; for he was very jealous of +Somerset, who ruled the kingdom when the king was ill. In 1455 Somerset +was killed at the battle of St. Albans, and York became very powerful, and +still went on fighting, because he wanted to be king. + +At last the poor king himself was taken prisoner, and led bareheaded into +London, while Queen Margaret and her infant boy fled to a Welsh castle. +The next news the queen heard was, that it had been decided, when Henry +died, his little son Edward should not succeed him, but the Duke of York +should reign. + +When Margaret the queen heard this, she was roused to energy. Why should +not her son reign when his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had +reigned before him? Among the rocky wilds of Wales she wandered, trying to +collect trusty followers, and rouse the nation to fight for her husband +and son. + +Her youth, beauty, courage, and love for her little child touched the +people; they not only gave themselves, but got some of the Scotch people +to help too, and Margaret was able to unfurl the banner of the Red Rose at +Wakefield, almost before the Yorkists knew she was there. Then a terrible +battle was fought, and the Duke of York was slain. His head was cut off, +crowned with a paper crown, and taken on a pole to Margaret. + +"Madame, your war is done; here is your king's ransom," cried one of her +nobles. + +At the ghastly sight Margaret shuddered and turned pale; then a revengeful +look of pleasure passed over her face, as she laughed long and strangely, +and commanded the head of her foe to be placed over the gates of York, +ordered another earl to be beheaded, and pushed on to London. + +But the people of London would not admit her, and very soon after Edward, +son of the Duke of York, was proclaimed king. Seeing the south was +against her, Margaret, with her husband and son, fled north to gain help. +Many of Somerset's friends joined her, and things were looking brighter, +when a large body of Yorkists defeated her array at Hexham. Seized with +terror for the safety of her boy, Margaret fled on foot to a forest near, +alone and unprotected. There she wandered about with the young prince in +unbeaten tracks, weary and anxious. It was growing dark, when, by the +light of the moon, Margaret observed a robber of gigantic size coming +towards her, sword in hand. The child Edward clung to his mother in +terror--but Margaret showed no fear; she took Edward, and thrusting him +forward, said, "Behold the son of Henry your king, and save him!" + +Struck with the loveliness of the child, the loneliness and courage of the +mother, the robber of Hexham knelt down, and dropping his sword, promised +to help them, for he was on the king's side. Then taking the little prince +in his arms, he led them to a cave in the forest where he lived, and took +care of them till it was safe for them to escape to Scotland, and from +thence to France. + +There tidings reached her of Henry's fate; he had been betrayed into the +enemy's hands, and shut up in the Tower of London. + +For many years Margaret and her son lived in France, until the tide once +more turned in their favour. The Earl of Warwick, who had fought against +Henry and Margaret, now turned round, and offered to help the exiled queen +and her son to win back the kingdom. It was some time before the haughty +queen could make up her mind to forgive him, but the future of her son was +very dear to her, and at last she sent him pardoned to England, where he +raised an army and surprised the king, who had to flee for his life. + +Meanwhile Margaret and her son were trying to cross to England, but time +after time they were driven back by wind and storm, and when they did +arrive, it was only to learn that King Edward had returned, gained a +victory, that Warwick was slain, and the king again put into prison. + +When Margaret heard this crushing news, she fell to the ground in a stupor +of despair, for all hope seemed gone. At last her son roused her, he told +her that he himself would go and fight, and they started again for Wales, +collecting supporters as they went. But King Edward's army met them at +Tewkesbury, and a terrible battle took place. Margaret watched it; she saw +the battle was going against them; she saw her only son in the thick of +it, and it was with difficulty she was kept from rushing into it herself. +At last she was carried away insensible, and the next thing she heard was +that the battle was lost, her son Edward slain! + +Love for her boy seemed the only tender part of Margaret's nature, and she +was overwhelmed with motherly grief. A few days after, she was taken +captive to the Tower, and at midnight on that same day King Henry, her +husband, was put to death. + +King Rene's love for his daughter never failed; he had sympathized with +her in all her troubles, shed bitter tears when her son was killed and the +kingdom wrenched away, and now he gave up half his own kingdom to ransom +the daughter he loved so well. + +So Margaret returned to her native land, to her father's home--no longer +the beautiful, powerful Queen of England, with spirit to do and to dare, +with courage to face any foe; but a desolate, unhappy woman, with all +spirit crushed out of her, with no courage left ever to face the world +again. Hardened by oft-repeated failure and stormy conflicts, she wandered +listlessly about the gardens and galleries of her father's castle, going +over and over the sorrows of her past life, her eyes dim and red from +continual weeping, caring for nothing. Her father died in 1480, and +Margaret did not live long after. She seldom left her retreat to see +anyone, and at last, worn out with trouble and sorrow, she died on August +25th, at the age of fifty-one. + + + + +THE LADY MARGARET (1441-1509). + + +Margaret Beaufort, or the Lady Margaret, was the mother of Henry VII., and +an ancestor of Queen Victoria. She was by far the greatest woman of her +day. "It would fill a volume to recount her good deeds," says a writer of +the times. Full of pity and love for the poor, she devoted herself as well +to help on the learning of the richer classes; she was a mother to the +young students of the Colleges, always ready to forgive injuries done her, +ready to work when there was work to be done, and "All England at her +death had cause of weeping," writes a bishop who knew her very well. + +She was born on the last day of May, 1441, at a large manor in +Bedfordshire. Her father was of royal blood, being grandson to John of +Gaunt, a son of Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault, about whom you have +heard. The child Margaret was named after her mother. At an early age she +learnt to read, and, what was considered a rare accomplishment in those +days, to write; she was fond of French, and knew a little Latin, but not +much, and she often complained in later life because she had not learnt +more. Her needlework was beautiful, and it is said that James I., whenever +he passed, stopped to see the work done by the fingers of his +great-grandmother. There is still a carpet to be seen worked entirely by +her. When she grew a little older, she learnt about medicine and sickness, +and in later life we find her devoting a part of each day to dressing the +wounds of poor people and helping to ease their suffering. + +When she was only nine, the Duke of Suffolk, a great man in England, +wished her to marry his son John, for he knew she would some day be very +rich; but the King of England, Henry VI., wanted the little heiress to +marry his brother Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. The little girl did not +know what to do. The night before her fate was to be decided, she lay +awake, thinking and praying, when suddenly, at about four in the morning, +"one appeared unto her arrayed like a bishop, and naming Edmund, told her +to marry him," and not the other. The child told her vision to her mother, +and soon after she was betrothed to the Earl of Richmond, and when she was +fifteen they were married. They went to live in a Welsh castle, but only +for a short time. They had not been married two years, when the Earl of +Richmond died, leaving Margaret a widow at sixteen. She mourned for him +very deeply, but the birth of a little son, the future Henry VII. of +England, occupied all her time and thoughts; for he was so delicate and +fragile a baby, that it was a question whether he would live or die. + +Now the Wars of the Roses were raging in England. Margaret's uncle, the +Duke of Somerset, had been killed at the battle of St. Albans, and she +thought it safest to stay quietly in Wales, taking no part in the war. +Still, it was a trying time for the young mother, closely related to the +fighting parties, listening breathlessly from day to day for news of the +victories and losses, watching over the interests of her infant son, the +young Earl of Richmond. When he was but a few years old, his mother +presented him to the king, Henry VI., his great uncle. Henry solemnly +blessed the child, and placing his hands on the young earl's head, said: +"This pretty boy will wear the garland in peace, for which we so sinfully +contend,"--words treasured by the young mother and remembered in after +years. + +In 1459 the Lady Margaret married the Earl of Stafford, +great-great-grandson of Edward III. and Philippa, and she still lived on +in Wales. + +Margaret taught her son Henry a good deal herself; the boy was growing up +sad and serious and thoughtful, fond of his books, fond of rugged Wales, +and as was but natural devoted to his young mother. + +The battle of Tewkesbury and accession of Edward IV. made it unsafe for +him to remain in England; so with his uncle he went to France, where he +stayed for some time. + +Separation from her son was a great trial to the Lady Margaret, and her +thoughts were constantly with her exiled child. + +It was her habit to get up at five in the morning, and pass five hours in +prayer. Ten o'clock was the dinner hour in those days, and the rest of the +day she devoted to helping the poor around her and to translating French +into English, so that those who did not know French might be able to read +the English translation. Printing was hardly known in England, so she had +to copy out all her writings herself. + +In 1482 her second husband died, and not long after she married Lord +Stanley, a great friend of the king, Edward V., by which means she hoped +to forward her son's cause in England. At the coronation of Richard, the +Lady Margaret and her husband were present; for we hear that the Lady +Margaret was sent "ten yards of scarlet for her livery, a long gown made +of crimson velvet with cloth of gold and another of blue velvet;" she +walked just behind the queen and held up her train, a fact which showed +she was in royal favour then. But not for long. Besides being a usurper +and murderer, Richard III. was a bad king, and the people wanted to depose +him, and set on the throne Margaret Beaufort's son, Henry Tudor. + +It was proposed that he should marry Elizabeth, daughter of the late king; +then all the friends of the Red Rose and the White Rose would join +together, and overthrow Richard. Richard heard of the plot, the Lady +Margaret was accused of high treason, and it was only by reason of her +husband's favour with the king that her life was spared. At last, in 1485, +Henry came over from France, went to Wales, collected an army, defeated +and slew Richard at Bosworth. Now Lord Stanley had come to the battle with +Richard, but just as the battle was going to begin, he took all his men, +and went over to Henry's side. + +The battle began. Richard fought like a lion, determined to conquer; he +knew that Richmond was but a youth, who had never fought before, not even +"trained up in arms." To kill the young Henry was his own aim and object. + + "I think there be six Richmonds in the field; + Five have I slain to-day instead of him!" + +are the words which Shakspere puts into his mouth, as the king is again +unhorsed. But his enemies were too strong for him. When the battle was +over, Richard III. was found dead upon the field of Bosworth, and Lord +Stanley, taking the crown which the king had worn in battle, placed it +upon the head of Henry, now King of England. + +Then came the meeting with his mother. "Tell me," he had said before the +battle, when Lord Stanley had come to fight for him and was wishing him +victory and fortune, "tell me, how fares our loving mother?" and Stanley +had answered, "I bless thee from thy mother, who prays continually for +Richmond's good." Now mother and son met again; they had not seen one +another for fourteen long years, years of the deepest anxiety to both. +Margaret had parted from him as a serious and thoughtful boy--"a little +peevish boy," Shakspere calls him; she met him again as a hero, the King +of England. One of Henry's first acts as king was to restore to his mother +the lands and titles which Richard had taken away from her. + +Then Henry married the rightful heiress of the throne--Elizabeth, daughter +of Edward IV., and England was once more at peace. A grand coronation took +place, and this is what we hear of Margaret. "When the king her son was +crowned, in all that great triumph and glory she wept marvellously." + +The Lady Margaret loved her daughter-in-law very tenderly, and Elizabeth +the queen was always pleased to have her at court. But she did not give +herself up to the pleasures and comforts of court life; her work lay in +another direction. At one of her large country houses she made a plan to +keep twelve poor people, giving them lodging, meat, drink, and clothing, +visiting them when she could, and waiting on them herself. + +She was the highest lady in England after the queen, but she never thought +any service too menial for her, any duty too humble for her to perform. +One of her manor-houses she had already given up to a poor clergyman in +Devonshire, who had many weary miles to walk from his own house to his +church, and was thankful to have a home nearer to his work. + +Now while the Wars of the Roses had been going on, William Caxton, having +learnt the art of printing, had set up a press in London. Margaret +Beaufort was one of his first zealous supporters, and to her he dedicated +one of his first printed books. But the name of the Lady Margaret is +perhaps best known at Cambridge; for it was there, in 1505, that she +founded two colleges, which still exist. One, under the name of "God's +house," had been founded by Henry VI., but it never flourished, and when +the Lady Margaret heard what a state it was in, she refounded it with the +title of "Christ's College." The college was to hold a master, twelve +fellows, and forty-seven scholars, and the countess framed all the rules +for them herself. The scholars were to have a certain small sum of money a +year for their clothes, which were to be bought at a neighbouring fair; +they were not to keep any dogs or birds, and were only to be allowed cards +at Christmas time. The Lady Margaret took great interest in the college; +one day, when it was but partly built, she went to see it. Looking out of +a window, she saw the dean punishing a "faulty scholar." Her heart was +moved to pity, and she cried out, "gently, gently," thinking it better +rather to lessen his punishment than to ask pardon for him altogether. + +In 1506, the king and his mother both visited Cambridge to see the +beautiful chapel of King's College, which was nearly finished. + +She did not live to see St. John's Hospital completely founded (though she +obtained consent to have it made into a college), or King's College +finished, but her arms are over the gates of the college, her crest and +coronet in the window of the hall; still her name is mentioned every year +with the other founders of colleges, and her name is given to buildings +and societies and clubs. + +In 1509, Henry VII. died, leaving Margaret, "our dearest and most entirely +beloved mother," as he calls her, to choose councillors for her grandson +Henry, a boy of eighteen. + +At last her strong health began to fail; she had survived parents, +husbands, and her only son, but when those around her saw she could not +live "it pierced their hearts like a spear." + +"And specially when they saw she must needs depart from them, and they +should forgo so gentle a mistress, so tender a lady, then wept they all +marvellously, wept her ladies and kinswomen, to whom she was full kind, +wept her poor gentlewomen whom she had loved so tenderly before, wept her +chaplains and priests, wept her other true and faithful servants." + +She died on June 29th, 1509. + +She was buried in Westminster Abbey, in a part called Henry VII.'s Chapel, +and a tomb of black marble was erected to her memory. On the top lies a +figure of the Lady Margaret in her coronet and robes of state; her head +rests on cushions, her feet are supported by a fawn. It is one of the most +beautiful monuments in the Abbey, and if you ever go there, look at it and +remember the Lady Margaret's life and work. + + + + +MARGARET ROPER (1501?-1544). + + +Margaret Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas More, was born on July 10th, in +London. She was the eldest of four children, and she was her father's +favourite. She was like him in face and figure; her memory was very good, +her sense of humour keen, her love for her father intense and brave. + +When Margaret, or Meg, as her father loved to call her, was only six, her +mother died, and very soon after her father married a widow, not for the +sake of her youth or beauty, but to look after his four little children +and manage his household. Such a household, too. Before he went to his +work every morning Thomas More set each their appointed task, his wife +included; no one was ever idle, no wrangling went on, no angry words were +ever heard about the house; the most menial offices were regarded as +honourable work, the humblest duties were labours of love. This was the +atmosphere in which Margaret's childhood was spent; no wonder she was +loved for her gentle ways and sweet disposition; with the long quiet +mornings and fixed studies, no wonder she became a learned and clever +woman. + +Each member of the family had a pet, and Thomas More said: "No child or +servant of mine hath liberty to adopt a pet, which he is too lazy to +attend to himself. To neglect giving them food at proper times entails a +disgrace, of which every one of them would be ashamed." + +There is a story told about Margaret Roper, which will show what rigid +discipline she was taught as a child, though the story rests on very +slight foundation. + +One night her stepmother had been churning for a long time, but the butter +would not come; so she sent for Meg and her two sisters, and told them to +churn till the butter came, even if they sat up all night, as she had no +more time, and she could not have so much good cream wasted. They churned, +but the butter would not come; they said "Chevy Chase" from beginning to +end to pass the time; they chanted the 119th Psalm through. At last they +began to repeat Latin; then they heard the buttermilk separating and +splashing in earnest, and at midnight, when poor little Daisy, one of the +sisters, had fallen asleep on the dresser, Meg succeeded in making the +butter come. + +Meg's father--now raised to the rank of Sir Thomas More for his valued +services to the king, Henry VIII.--was often away from home for many +months together, and Meg used to miss him dreadfully. He had risen to be +Speaker in the House of Commons, and his wit and learning were most +popular at court. The king would often come to Chelsea and walk round the +garden, his arm round the neck of Sir Thomas More, discussing some +important matter, to which he wished his favourite's consent. But Sir +Thomas did not agree with the king in many things, and he refused to act +against his conscience even to win the royal favour. Thus a coolness +sprang up between them, which afterwards led to the execution of Sir +Thomas More. + +At the age of twenty-four Margaret married Will Roper, more to please her +father than herself. He was a good fellow, and had studied hard to please +Margaret, and helped her father in much of his work. Margaret would have +preferred to study and write, rather than marry, but her father convinced +her that "one may spend a life in dreaming over Plato, and yet go out of +it without leaving the world a whit better for having made part of it," +and her father's word was law with Margaret. Her father's departure to +Woodstock, the king's court, was a source of grief to Margaret. Two nights +after he left, the household was aroused by shouts of "Fire! fire!" +Everybody got up, and it was found that part of the Chelsea house was +burnt, though all its inmates escaped uninjured. + +In 1530 Sir Thomas More was made Lord Chancellor, but this high post he +only held for two years; he refused to sanction Henry's marriage with Ann +Boleyn, together with several other things, and resigned the Great Seal in +August, 1532. + +A great load was taken off his mind, and his spirits returned, but not for +long. The storm was about to burst. Threatening visits and letters alarmed +the family, and at last the blow came. + +Sir Thomas More had refused to take the oath of Supremacy, that is to say, +he refused to acknowledge Henry VIII. as Head of the Church, and he was +summoned to Lambeth to give his reasons. It was with a heavy heart that +he took the boat to Lambeth, for he was leaving home for the last time, +and he seemed to know it. The days when he was gone seemed long and lonely +to his daughter Margaret. He refused to take the oath against his +conscience, and was sent to the Tower. There Meg used to visit him, and he +told her not to fret for him at home; he explained to her his innocence, +his reasons for refusing to take the oath, and told her he was happy. + +In 1535 he was called to trial at Westminster, and crowds collected to see +him pass from the Tower; even his children found it difficult to catch a +glimpse of him. Margaret, we hear, climbed on a bench, and gazed her "very +heart away," as he went by, so thin and worn, wrapt in a coarse woollen +gown, and leaning on a staff, for he was weak from long confinement; his +face was calm and grave. + +The trial lasted many hours, and Margaret waited on through that long day +by the Tower wharf till he passed back. The moment she saw him, she knew +the terrible sentence was "Guilty!" She pressed her way through the dense +crowd, and, regardless of the men who surrounded him with axes and +halberds, she flung her arms round his neck, crying, "My father! Oh, my +father!" + +"My Meg!" sobbed More. + +He could bear the outward disgrace of the king and nation, he could stand +without shrinking to hear the sentence of death passed upon him, but this +passionate, tender love utterly broke his brave spirit and shook his firm +courage. + +"Enough, enough, my child! what, mean ye to weep, and break my heart?" + +Even the guards were touched by this overwhelming scene, and many turned +away to hide a falling tear. She tore herself away, but only to go a few +steps; she _could_ not lose sight of that dear face for ever; she must +hear him speak once more to her. Again, with choking sobs and blinding +tears, she laid her head on his shoulder. This time tears were standing in +her father's eyes as he whispered:--"Meg, for Christ's sake! don't unman +me." Then he kissed her, and with a last bitter cry of "Oh, father! +father!" she parted from him for ever, and the crowd moved on. + +With a piece of coal Sir Thomas More wrote a few loving words to his +daughter, and on July 5 he was executed, and his head put upon a pole on +London Bridge as an example to others who disobeyed the king's orders. +Then Margaret's love showed itself in all its most courageous strength. + +Soon after midnight she arose, dressed herself, and walked quickly down to +the river, where she found boatmen to row her to London Bridge. + + "The faithful daughter cannot brook the summer sun should rise + Upon the poor defenceless head, grey hair, and lifeless eyes. + A boat shoots up beneath the bridge at dead of night, and there, + When all the world arose next day, the useless pole was bare." + +The head of Sir Thomas More was gone, no longer open to the ridicule of +crowds, to the triumph of the king's party, to bear witness to his friends +a monarch's infidelity--but safe in the keeping of Margaret Roper. + +After the death of Sir Thomas More, his family were driven from their +Chelsea home, and Margaret was for a time imprisoned. She died nine years +after her father, and the dear and honoured head that the faithful +daughter had dared her life to save was buried with her in the Roper vault +at Canterbury. + + + + +LADY JANE GREY (1537-1554). + + +Lady Jane Grey was born in a beautiful palace half hidden by masses of old +trees, called Bradgate Hall, in Leicestershire, in the year 1537. Most of +the old hall is now a ruin, but a tower still stands in which the +villagers still declare that Lady Jane was born. Her father, Henry Grey, +Marquis of Dorset, was one of the king's most powerful noblemen; her +mother, Lady Frances Brandon, was a niece of the king, Henry VIII. Jane +was the eldest of three daughters; Katharine, her next sister, was two +years younger, and therefore her companion in lessons and play. Mary was +much younger. The grounds about Bradgate Hall, and the winding +trout-stream about which the children played, may still be seen around the +ruined palace; but much as little Jane loved the open air and the flowers +that grew around, yet she was still fonder of her books. + +While quite young her father engaged a master to come and teach his +children, and Jane learnt very quickly. Greek, Latin, and French were her +great delight; she could sing, play, sew, and write very clearly. With all +this she was very sweet in temper, truthful, and beautiful to look at. The +queen, Katharine Parr, Henry VIII.'s sixth and last wife, took a great +fancy to the little girl. She was a clever and learned woman herself, and +begged Lady Frances Brandon to allow Jane to live with her at court, +promising to see that her lessons were still carried on. So at the early +age of nine we find Jane attending on the queen, and carrying her candles +before her. This was by no means an easy feat to perform, as the little +candle-bearer had to walk backwards with the lighted candles. The child +did not know, and happy for her that she did not, that she was looked upon +by the court as the heiress to the throne of England, and that the queen +was trying to fit her for the difficult post she was destined to fill. + +When Jane was but ten years old, the king, Henry VIII., died, and his son +Edward, a poor sickly boy, the same age as the Lady Jane, was made king. + +Soon after, Katharine Parr died, and the little girl walked as chief +mourner at her funeral, her long black train being held up by a young +nobleman. + +After this, the most natural thing would have been for Jane to go home to +her mother at Bradgate; but her father and mother thought more of worldly +advance than of their child's happiness. They agreed to let her go to Lord +Seymour, a scheming and plotting man, who wished to bring about a marriage +between the poor little Lady Jane and the young king, Edward VI., who was +her cousin. At first Jane's parents pretended--for it was but +pretence--that they wished to keep her at home, but when Lord Seymour gave +them L500 they consented, for the sake of this contemptible sum of money, +to let him take away their pretty little girl to teach her first, and +then to marry her to a king. But this never came to pass, for the +following year Seymour was taken to the Tower and beheaded in a horrible +way, and his little ward was sent home. Her parents were bitterly +disappointed; they treated her coldly, even cruelly, and her only +happiness was in her lessons. + +One day Roger Ascham, Princess Elizabeth's clever master, came to stay at +Bradgate. Passing through the park he saw that the members of the +household were hunting, but where was the Lady Jane? She was in her own +room, he was told. Thither he went, and found her busily reading a Greek +book by Plato. "Why was she not hunting in the park?" he asked, with some +surprise. + +"I wis," answered the child of fourteen, looking up with a bright smile, +"all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in +Plato; they do not know, alas! what true pleasure means!" + +Then they had a long talk, and the Lady Jane told Roger Ascham how she +loved her books and lessons, and how thankful she was for her kind master. +For she was never happy with her father and mother; they were sharp and +severe with her, and whether she talked or kept silent, sat or stood, +sewed or played, it was sure to be wrong. They laughed at her, scolded +her, often even pinched and nipped her, till she longed for her lesson +hour, when she could go back to her gentle teacher. There the time passed +so quickly, and he was so good to her, and when lessons were over she +would often cry, because everything else was "so full of great trouble and +fear." + +The gentle and clever girl was greatly beloved; her master was duly proud +of his young pupil, whose knowledge of languages was quite wonderful, and +surprised many an older scholar than himself. Greek was her favourite +study, and the last letter she ever wrote was written to her sister +Katharine on a blank leaf in her Greek Testament. + +Lady Jane Grey spent the Christmas of 1551 with the Princess Mary, with +whom the family were on very friendly terms. But the cold weather and the +long winter walks she had to take injured her health, and she became very +ill. Her slow recovery gave her plenty of time for work, and long letters +still exist in Greek and Latin that she wrote to Roger Ascham, and also to +many foreign students, who thought very highly of the noble Lady Jane. + +Up to this time friendship had existed between Princess Mary, who was a +Roman Catholic, and Lady Jane. One day Mary gave her a rich dress. Lady +Jane did not care to wear bright colours, as she always dressed in the +Puritan style. + +"What shall I do with it?" she asked. + +"Marry, wear it, to be sure," replied Mary. + +But this Lady Jane refused to do, even to win favour with the princess. + +This offended Mary. She had heard rumours, too, that Lady Jane, being a +Protestant, was likely to succeed Edward VI., instead of herself, and thus +the Lady Jane slowly dropped out of favour at court. + +Lady Jane's father now occupied a high post; he had become Duke of Suffolk +by the death of two elder brothers, and helped the Duke of Northumberland +to govern England till the young king, Edward, should be old enough to +govern for himself. But Edward instead of growing better grew worse; +always delicate, an attack of measles left him worse, and he could not get +rid of a bad cough. When the dukes found he was not likely to live long, +they began to scheme for his successor. Of course Suffolk wanted his +daughter to be queen; of course Northumberland wanted his son to be king; +so they agreed that Suffolk's daughter, Lady Jane, should marry +Northumberland's son, Guildford Dudley, and reign as king and queen of +England. + +The poor young king, Edward, was weak and ill, and his strong Protectors +could easily make him say that his Protestant cousin, Lady Jane, and her +husband, Guildford Dudley, should succeed him, instead of his sisters +Elizabeth or Mary. + +Guildford was tall and very handsome; he was his father's pride and +darling; but when Lady Jane was told that he was to be her husband, she +was very angry, and refused to marry him. In vain her father urged her, +and told her the king himself had ordered the marriage. + +"And do you mean to disobey the king as well as your father?" he asked +harshly. + +We are told that he had recourse to blows at last; anyhow, the poor Lady +Jane was too unhappy to hold out any longer; her life could not be much +more miserable than it was, and she gave her consent at last. + +On a summer day, Whitsunday, 1553, when Edward the king was lying at the +point of death, Lady Jane Grey was married to Guildford Dudley, and very +soon after she was told by her mother-in-law suddenly off-hand, that she +must hold herself in readiness at any moment to be crowned Queen of +England! For a moment Lady Jane was stunned, almost stupefied, till the +utter misery of her position slowly dawned upon her. She was to take the +throne from the Princess Mary, who was the rightful queen, and reign over +a people who would look on her as a usurper instead of pitying her as a +helpless woman. The future weighed heavily on her mind; she became very +ill, and was taken to Chelsea, to the house of her father-in-law, for +change of air, there to await the king's death. + +Late on one summer afternoon, the summons came for her to go at once to +Sion House, whether well or ill. A barge was at the door to convey her up +the river. What a long two hours it seemed to Lady Jane till the barge +arrived at Sion House! She found the hall empty, but no sooner had she +arrived than the two Protectors, her father and Northumberland, her mother +and mother-in-law, and many dukes and earls entered, all bending low +before her. Her cheeks grew hot, her heart beat fast. She understood +everything. The young king was dead. She was Queen of England. A long +speech was made, and all present swore to protect and serve her as queen, +but it was all too much for the Lady Jane, already ill and unhappy. She +tottered and fell to the ground, weeping bitterly; there she lay as one +dead, her face white as marble, her eyes closed. When she came to herself +she raised herself on to her knees, and prayed that, if to succeed to the +throne were her duty and right, she might govern the realm of England +well and justly. + +Very early next morning, still weary from the excitement of the former +night, the queen and her attendants came down the Thames in barges, and +landed near the Great Hall of the Tower. Then a long procession was +formed. Guildford Dudley walked beside his royal wife, cap in hand, bowing +to the ground whenever she spoke. Crowds lined the way, and knelt as she +passed to be crowned their queen; little did they know how gladly she +would have changed her lot with any of her poorer subjects if she could. +Her life grew more unhappy; she could not sleep; she fainted often while +talking to her council. + +One day she heard that her father, the Duke of Suffolk, was going to march +against the Princess Mary, who had been proclaimed queen in many parts of +England; but she was so alarmed at being left alone with the Dudleys, and +wept so bitterly, that he consented to stay with her, and let +Northumberland go instead. But he met with no success. There were no +shouts of "God save Queen Jane!" no one cried "God speed ye!" He found +that Mary's party was growing rapidly in strength, and that she had been +proclaimed queen everywhere but in London itself. + +The news fell heavily on the queen; sleep forsook her entirely; the long +nights were "full of great trouble and fear," though she knew the Tower +was barred and locked. At last the blow came. One day the queen had +promised to stand godmother to a child; not being well enough to go she +sent her attendant. The attendant was not gone long, but on her return she +found officers in possession of the room, the royal canopy down, and was +told that "Jane Grey was a prisoner for high treason." Thus from the state +apartments she followed her to the prison rooms of the Tower. + +She was still in the Tower, no longer a queen, but a prisoner; her nobles +had deserted her, her subjects had risen up against her, her father and +mother were gone, and her husband was separated from her. + +On October 1st, 1553, Mary was crowned queen amid the cheers of the +people; and the Duke of Suffolk, father of the late queen, was one of the +first to acknowledge Mary as Queen of England. + +The following month Lady Jane and her husband were accused of high +treason; they pleaded guilty to the charge, and sentence of death was +passed upon them. Husband and wife looked on one another for the last +time, and Lady Jane was taken back to the Tower, there to await her death. +A dismal Christmas passed, and the new year of 1554, which was to see so +many bloody deeds, opened. + +Queen Mary was forced somewhat against her will to sign the death warrant, +and "Guildford Dudley and his wife" were informed that February 12th was +the day fixed for their execution. Still, if Lady Jane would change her +religion, become a Roman Catholic, and obey Mary, she might have her +liberty and her life; but this she refused to do--rather death than that. + +Guildford Dudley was the first to die; he had begged for a last interview, +a last kiss from his wife, and it had been granted by the queen, but Lady +Jane refused, saying it would be too much for them, and unnerve her +completely. So she stood at the Tower window, and waved him a silent +farewell, sobbing, "Oh, Guildford, Guildford!" An hour afterwards she was +led forth for execution; she walked with a firm and steady step, and +addressed to the crowd a few touching words, which drew forth heartfelt +sympathy for the courageous and noble woman who was going to die. She said +a psalm, her eyes were bound, she forgave willingly the man who was about +to cut off her head, and in a few moments her unhappy life was ended. + + + + +PRINCESS ELIZABETH (1596-1662). + + +Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James I., was one of the most heroic women +of her time; first an English princess, then a foreign queen, and lastly +almost a beggar in a strange land, she always managed to be bright, and to +cheer those around her, when she could. + +She was born in August, 1596, in a Scotch palace, and as she was the first +daughter of the Scotch king, a regular establishment of nurses, rockers, +and attendants was provided for her; she was given everything that could +make her happy, supplied with costly dolls, and dressed in velvet or +plush. + +When Elizabeth was only seven, her godmother, the Queen of England, died, +and James I., her father, went to England to be crowned king, thus uniting +the two countries of Scotland and England. Elizabeth and her elder brother +Henry went with their father and mother, and all were received with great +joy in England. The children only stayed at court three weeks, when they +were sent to an old abbey in the country with tutors and governesses. Here +they were very happy; they played about the lovely grounds round the +abbey, rode and hunted, breathed the free country air, and learnt their +lessons in large spacious rooms. Elizabeth could write very well even at +seven, and whenever her brother was away, she wrote him charming little +letters between lines ruled in red ink. When she was nine Gunpowder Plot +was discovered. + +"I can easily enter by the gate yonder, and with the aid of a dozen men +carry off the princess, while the rest catch her attendants," were words +heard by the children one day while playing near the high road. It was +clear she must be taken away at once. + +"No, I can never leave my dear Henry," cried the child, when told they +must part, and so tightly did she cling to him, that it was with +difficulty her arms were unclasped. + +Soon after this a suite of rooms were fitted up for her at court, and +there for a short time she enjoyed the splendours of court life. But when +only fourteen, little more than a child, a husband was chosen for her from +a foreign country. Frederick, the future Elector Palatine, was only +sixteen himself, when he was sent for to come over to England and marry +the Princess Elizabeth. + +The whole family were assembled to welcome him when he arrived. + +Elizabeth stood by her brother Henry on a raised platform, her eyes fixed +on the ground, while Frederick with a firm step and beaming face walked up +the long hall. When he reached the king and queen, Elizabeth looked up to +see a dark handsome boy with a pleasant face and manly figure. He bowed +very low and kissed her hand, and apologized in broken English for +appearing in his travelling clothes and not in court dress. + +The month before her marriage her brother Henry was seized with a severe +fever, and it soon became evident that he could not live. Elizabeth was in +despair, she refused to obey the order not to enter the sick room of her +beloved brother, and one evening she stole away from the festivities of +the court, disguised herself, and hurried eagerly to him, but only to be +sent back by the watchful attendants, who were more anxious for her safety +than pitiful of her sisterly love. "Do not be so cruel. Take me to him, if +only for a minute." There was a hungry, yearning look in her brown eyes, +the tears rolled down her cheeks, and it was hard to refuse such a +request. But the guards were firm. + +"Oh, where is my dear sister?" were Henry's last words. This was the first +great sorrow in Elizabeth's life, and the beginning of the darker days in +store for her, which were to bring out all the courage of her womanly +nature. + +On St. Valentine's Day, 1613, the wedding took place. Prince Frederick was +dressed in cloth of silver embroidered with diamonds; his bride wore cloth +of silver too, shining with pearls and diamonds, and her long and +beautiful hair hung over her shoulders to her waist. + +After a few months of English festivities the young couple made their way +to their new home at Heidelberg, where they were received with great joy. + +Now Frederick was, by his father's death, Elector Palatine, that is, he +ruled over part of Germany under the Emperor. The Emperor had made a +cousin of his King of Bohemia, but that cousin was a Roman Catholic, and +the people of Bohemia did not like him, so they dethroned him, and sent +to Frederick to ask him to come to help them and be their king. It was a +critical position for Frederick; he saw it might, and probably would, lead +to war; his mother begged him to refuse, but his wife Elizabeth would not +hear of such a thing. The sparkle of a crown glittered before her eyes; +she trusted Frederick to keep peace and reign well over the people who had +chosen him as king. "I had rather feed on a dry crust at a king's table +than feed on dainties at that of an elector!" cried Elizabeth. Thirty +years later she knew what it was to eat a dry crust, but not at a king's +table. + +So Frederick consented to become King of Bohemia, and he, Elizabeth, and +their three little children left their beautiful Heidelberg home to be +crowned king and queen. Great were the rejoicings; bells rang, bonfires +were lit, cheers of "Long live King Frederick!" echoed through the air, +while those who were near enough kissed the hem of the new queen's robes, +for Elizabeth had already won their hearts; she ordered bread and wine to +be given to all who came to the castle, and by her goodness and generosity +won the name of "Queen of Hearts." But their position of King and Queen of +Bohemia was not secure; jealousy began to show itself in the princes round +them, and Frederick felt that at any moment the threatened storm might +burst. He had been growing more and more unpopular, and at last war was +declared. + +The more critical Frederick's position, the firmer grew Elizabeth. + +"I persuaded you to be crowned king, I was with you in those happy and +joyous days, I will stand by you in trouble," she said, and not only +said, but did. She sent away her children, only keeping Prince Rupert, a +baby of but a year old. The first battle was lost, and in anguish +Frederick hastened to his wife, begging her to escape at once. But she +would not leave him. If he would come, she would go; if not, they would +stay together. His subjects begged their king to stand firm; they reminded +him of his oath to guard his kingdom to the last; a raid on the enemy +might yet turn the scale. But where his wife's life was in danger, +Frederick refused to stay, and together they escaped from their kingdom. +Still relying on help from England, they hoped on, and Frederick again +joined the army. Leaving behind her a baby of a month old and her other +children, Elizabeth again followed her husband, knowing that she alone +could cheer him and keep up his spirits. Once more she travelled through +parts of the country where, only six years ago, she had been welcomed as a +happy bride; now she wandered an outcast and an exile, with but the empty +title of queen to make up for the loss of a home, country, friends. When +Heidelberg, their lovely home, fell into the hands of the enemy, Elizabeth +cried piteously, "My poor Heidelberg taken! Oh! God visits us very +severely; the misery of these poor people distresses me sadly!" + +Still the war, known as the Thirty Years' War, went on, and Frederick was +often away for many months together. + +In 1629, a terrible grief befell Elizabeth in the death of her eldest son +Henry. He was in a yacht with his father one day, when a large vessel bore +down upon them, and struck them; the yacht filled with water, and in a +moment sank. All on board perished save King Frederick. + +"Save me, father, save me!" was the drowning cry of the boy, but all +efforts to save him were in vain, and the distracted father had but to go +back, and break the news to his wife. The mother's grief was so violent, +that she became very ill, but when she found how heartbroken Frederick was +with the thought that he was saved and his boy drowned, she roused herself +to comfort him. + +Things were looking brighter; a new hero had come to the aid of the +unhappy king, when his troubled life was suddenly ended. A bad fever set +in, and as he was weak and anxious it took deadly hold on him. His last +effort was a letter to his wife. "Can I but live to see you once again, I +shall die content," he wrote--but they did not meet. + +The blow fell heavily on Elizabeth; for three days she neither ate, drank, +slept, nor shed a single tear. She could hardly realize that all hope of +regaining the kingdom was gone, and that he whom she had loved so +devotedly through the twenty years of her married life was dead. Her +comfort was in her children; her second son Rupert was specially dear to +her. While still a boy, the future hero of Edgehill and Marston Moor +distinguished himself by fighting to get back his father's rights; a wild, +reckless youth, he was taken prisoner fighting for his father's cause +rather than give up, or flee, as his elder brother had done. When in +prison he managed to scribble a few words of comfort to his mother, +assuring her he was well, and would come back to her as soon as he was +released. + +When the sudden news arrived that Elizabeth's brother Charles had been +executed, and Cromwell made Protector of the kingdom, Prince Rupert, the +daring royalist, was one of the first to offer himself to the future +Charles II. to help to regain the kingdom. + +Meanwhile, Elizabeth was almost penniless. "Next week I shall have no meat +to eat, and this week, if there be no money found, I shall have neither +meat, nor bread, nor candles," she wrote piteously to her son Charles. +Rupert would have given her his last crust, but Charles, Elector Palatine, +refused to supply her wants. + +At last the exiled queen made up her mind to return to England, and end +her days in the land of her childhood. + +Sophia, her youngest child, was married, and lived with her husband, the +Prince of Hanover, in his own country. She was a beautiful and clever +woman, and constantly went back to see her mother, and cheer her solitude. +Sophia's son was George I. of England, from whom is descended Queen +Victoria. She and Prince Rupert came to bid farewell to their mother +before she left their land for ever. + +What a different return to England; no crowds lined the coast, no shouts +resounded from the citizens as on her departure, forty years before, as a +happy young bride. When the widowed queen stepped on English soil, her +heart revived. She had lived to see Charles II., her nephew, restored to +the throne of England--her son restored to the Palatinate. Craven, her +faithful friend, took her to his home, but she did not live long. The +passionate love of her son Rupert, the wild and daring royalist, comforted +her to the end, and "Prince Rupert of the Rhine" was the only one of her +many children who followed her to the grave. She was buried by night at +Westminster. While the long torchlight procession moved up the Abbey, a +fierce gale raged; some thought it was a foreboding of future troubles to +England; some thought it was like the troubled life of the Bohemian Queen; +the faithful Craven bowed his head, and thanked God that his lady was +beyond the wild storms of the world. + + + + +LADY RACHEL RUSSELL (1636-1723). + + +England was in a troubled state when Lady Rachel Russell was born. + +Charles I. was king, but the people were not happy under his rule. England +became divided into two parties--some for him, and some against him. Among +the king's firmest and most staunch supporters was the Earl of +Southampton, Rachel Russell's father. He was a loyal Englishman, and when +affairs came to a crisis, and civil war broke out--though he saw what must +be the result--he stuck to his king, and fought manfully for him. He +married a French lady of noble birth, and had two daughters, Elizabeth and +Rachel. + +When Rachel was yet a baby, her mother died. She never had much education, +perhaps because her father was a great deal away, and she had no mother to +watch over it; perhaps because the country was in too disturbed a state +for any progress in learning; and the result is, that her letters are full +of mistakes in spelling. She must have heard a great deal about politics +as a child; for her father took his seat in the Long Parliament when his +little daughter was only six; she must have heard him talk of the battle +of Edgehill and the bravery of Prince Rupert; she must have heard about +Oliver Cromwell; and when she was thirteen, all England rang with the +news that Charles the king was beheaded. Her father was one of those +faithful four, who, on that snowy winter day, bore the coffin of the king +to the royal tomb at Windsor. Then he took his family away into Hampshire, +while Oliver Cromwell was at the head of the English government. + +When she was seventeen, her father chose her a husband in Lord Vaughan. + +"It was acceptance rather than choosing on either side," she said in after +life. However, the young couple went to live in Wales, and were very +happy, and everyone loved her and respected her. + +"All that know you are forced to honour you," wrote a friend to her one +day, "neither are you to thank them for it, because they cannot do +otherwise." + +Fourteen happy years passed away, and then Lady Vaughan was left a widow. +She went to live with her elder sister Elizabeth, now Elizabeth Noel, whom +she loved very dearly. Her father was dead, and Elizabeth had inherited +his seat in Hampshire; so, in the home where they had played as children, +the two sisters now lived together. + +In 1669 she married William Russell, a young nobleman. Having travelled +abroad, he had returned to England in time to become a member of the House +of Commons which restored Charles II. to the throne, and from this time he +took a prominent part in the politics of the day. He consulted his wife +about everything; he was guided by her advice in moments of extreme +difficulty; he depended on her judgment, and he found it just and good. On +the other hand, she watched every event in which her husband's interest +was concerned, with unwearying love; his happiness and success were hers, +his sorrows and defeats were shared by her too. They were not often parted +during the fourteen years of their married life, but when they were +separated their letters show how long the time seemed, and how drearily +the days passed. + +"The few hours we have been parted seem too many to me to let this first +post-night pass without giving my dear man a little talk," she wrote to +him, when he had been obliged to be present at the parliament, just called +together again. She tells him about their little child named after her +mother, Rachel, how she "fetched but one sleep last night," and how "very +good she was this morning;" how she is writing in the nursery with "little +Fubs," as they generally called her, and how she knew the father would be +rejoiced to hear that Fubs "was breeding her teeth so well," and beginning +to talk. + +The letters are badly written, bad grammar is used, and the spelling +neglected, but they are so homely and happy, they are written with such +ease and enjoyment, that we forget that the writer was never really +educated, though an earl's daughter. + +In 1679 Elizabeth Noel died. This was no common loss to Lady Rachel +Russell; it was her only sister, her beloved, the person whom, next to her +husband, she loved most dearly in all the world. Though she writes to her +husband of her loss, she does not fill her letters with her own feelings; +she tries to rouse herself to public affairs, which will interest him +more, and chats about the three little children and their doings and +sayings. She taught the children herself, and their happiness and welfare +was her great object in life; she liked "Fubs" to write to her father +whenever he went away, and the conscientious little girl used to bring a +tiny letter to be enclosed, though sometimes tears were shed when the +spelling and writing would not come right. + +Nevertheless, very anxious times were hovering over England, and Lady +Rachel Russell was not blind to her husband's danger. + +Lord Russell had been in the parliament that called Charles II. to the +throne; but slowly he and many others awoke to the fact that they had +blundered. Charles was weak, selfish, unfit to rule England, unsettled as +she was then, and a few years after the Restoration Lord Russell, together +with others, joined the country party against the court. He was a +generous, kind-hearted man, "raised by birth and fortune high above his +fellows," and he soon became one of the most powerful opponents of the +court, one of the most influential leaders of the country party. By the +Whigs he was honoured as a chief; he was one of those who wished to +exclude the Duke of York, brother to Charles II., from the throne on +account of his religion. + +In 1678 Lord Russell was supporting a bitter measure against the court +party. Lady Russell was very much alarmed; she wrote to him in the House, +and begged him not to support it. + +"If you do, I am most assured you will repent it; if I have any interest, +I use it to beg you to be silent in this case, at least to-day." + +In 1681 a crisis arrived. The king and parliament could no longer act +together, and when parliament was dissolved, two men were at the head of +the struggle. One of these was Lord Russell. Meetings were held; some +proposed to overthrow the king and set up a new ruler; others wished to +rise and murder Charles II. But they were discovered, and Lord Russell was +arrested. The messenger waited about the door for many hours, so that Lord +Russell might have escaped, for the back door was open, but he would not; +"he had done nothing," he said, "which caused him to dread the justice of +the country." Lady Russell consulted his friends, and they agreed he ought +not to fly. + +Then he was sent to the Tower. It was the 26th of June. During the +fortnight that elapsed between his arrest and trial, Lady Russell spared +neither pains nor energy in finding supporters to defend her husband. She +was constantly with him, she wrote for him, she encouraged his timid +friends, she strengthened his firm ones, she left not a stone unturned to +provide against the charges which would be brought forward to crush him +whom she loved so dearly. + +At last the trial came. The night before, Lady Russell wrote a few lines +to her husband; she told him that she was going to be present, for friends +thought she might be of use; she begged him to keep up heart for _her_ +sake as well as his own. The court was densely filled; as Lady Russell +entered, her pale face calm and brave, a thrill of anguish ran through the +crowd. + +"We have no room to sit down," said the counsel. Lord Russell asked for +pen, ink, paper, and the use of any papers he had, adding, "May I have +somebody to write for me?" + +"Any of your servants shall assist you in writing anything you please," +said the Chief Justice. + +"My wife," said Lord Russell, "is here to do it." And Lady Russell stood +up in the midst of that crowded court to show that she was willing, more +than willing, to fulfil this almost sacred office for her husband. + +"If my lady will give herself that trouble," said the judge, carelessly. + +Trouble! It was no trouble to her. The resolute wife took her seat beside +her husband, took up the pen, and during the whole long trial sat there, +his only secretary and adviser. + +Even when the sentence of death was pronounced, Lady Russell did not give +way. She tried later to move the heart of the king, but in vain; though +she was the daughter of one of his oldest and most faithful servants, he +refused pardon, unless Lord Russell would change his opinions. + +"It is all true," said the king when Russell's innocence was pleaded; "but +it is true that, if I do not take his life, he will take mine." + +Slowly all hope disappeared, and the fatal day approached. Lord Russell +wrote to the king, "I hope your majesty's displeasure against me will end +with my life, and that no part of it shall fall on my wife and children." + +His last thoughts were for his wife; he dreaded the blow for her more than +for himself. The parting with her was the hardest thing he had to do, for +he was afraid she would hardly be able to bear it, he said to Burnet, the +bishop who was allowed to be with him the last few days. + +Tears came into his eyes when he spoke of her. The last day came, and Lady +Russell brought the three little children to say good-bye for ever to +their father. "Little Fubs" was only nine, her sister Catherine seven, and +the baby three years old, too young to realize his loss. He kissed them +all calmly, and sent them away. + +"Stay and sup with me," he said to his wife. She stayed, and they ate +their last meal together. Then they kissed in silence, and silently she +left him. When she had gone, Lord Russell broke down completely. + +"Oh, what a blessing she has been to me!" he cried. "It is a great comfort +to me to leave my children in such a mother's care; she has promised me to +take care of herself for their sakes; she will do it," he added +resolutely. + +Lady Russell returned heavy-hearted to the sad home to which she would +never welcome him again, there to count the wretched hours till the fatal +stroke was given. + +On July 21st, 1683, she was a widow, and her children fatherless. They +left their dreary London house, and went to an old abbey in the country, +where Lady Russell gave herself up to the education of her children. She +never neglected this duty she had taken upon herself, and her daughters +never had any other teacher but their mother. She tried to dismiss her +sorrow for their sakes, and interest herself in their pleasures. Politics +still interested her, and it was with troubled feelings she saw James II. +mount the throne of England. + +In 1688 her eldest daughter Rachel was married. The same year the Great +Revolution began. + +In 1689, William and Mary were crowned; one of their first acts was to +annul the sentence against Lord Russell. When the parchment which effected +this was laid on the table of that assembly in which, eight years before, +his face and his voice had been so well known, the excitement was great. +One old Whig member tried to speak, but could not. "I cannot," he +faltered, "name my Lord Russell without disorder. It is enough to name +him. I am not able to say more." + +Lady Russell's health was broken, and she was threatened with blindness. +It has been said that she wept herself blind, but this is hardly true. It +was discovered she had cataract, and must give up writing by candlelight +and reading. + +Soon after her son, Lord Tavistock, was married at fifteen to a rich +heiress, and her daughter Catherine to a nobleman. + +An amusing account is given of Catherine and her husband, which shows what +favour the family was in at this time. + +When they drew near Belvoir, where they were going to stay, verses were +presented them on the occasion of their happy marriage; at the gate stood +"four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row; four-and-twenty trumpeters with +their tan-tara-ra-ra's; four-and-twenty ladies, and as many parsons." + +Her son was only just married when Lady Russell was requested to let him +stand to be elected to the House of Commons. He was just going to +Cambridge to study, a mere boy, and his mother, feeling it would ruin his +future, and turn his head, to enter parliament so young, refused, though +the offer was a tempting one. + +In 1701 she was called to the deathbed of that son, who had caught small +pox, which was raging at that time. His wife and little children had been +obliged to flee from it, and his mother was left to comfort his last +hours. + +"I did not know the greatness of my love to him, till I could see him no +more," she cried, when he had gone. She was confused and stunned by the +suddenness of his death, but she had need of all her strength, for another +blow was close at hand. + +Six months after, her second daughter Catherine died. Rachel, Duchess of +Devonshire, was very ill at the time, but, knowing of her sister's +illness, she constantly enquired for her. It was all the poor mother could +do to keep up herself, and conceal from Rachel the death of her sister for +a time. + +The last years of Lady Russell's life were calm, but very sad;--her +husband, her son and daughter, were all gone, and she longed to follow +them. + +At last, on a September day in 1723, she died in the arms of her daughter +Rachel, the little "Fubs" of bygone days, and she was buried beside the +husband whom she had loved and served so devotedly during the few happy +years of their married life. + + + + +ANGELICA KAUFMANN (1741-1807). + + +Angelica Kaufmann, though the name is foreign, though she was born on the +banks of the German Rhine, may still be called an Englishwoman, for her +work lay chiefly in England, and the greater part of her life was spent in +this country. Although no mighty heroine, she was on the one hand a lover +of art, a painter, a musician, in the eyes of the public beautiful and +popular; on the other, a genuine, true-hearted woman, often deceived, but +never deceiving, true to the world, and true to herself. She was born in +1741, at a town on the Rhine, in a wild and picturesque district. + +Her father, John Kaufmann, had been a sort of travelling painter, mending +a picture here, copying one there, and painting signs for the public +houses in the neighbourhood. In the course of his travels he had met a +German girl, married her, and their only child they called Marie Anne +Angelica Catherine; so, though born to poverty, she was rich in names. +John Kaufmann then took to painting as a means of livelihood. The first +toys that little Angelica had were his paint-brushes, his unstrained +canvas, his bladders of colour, which she would play with till her little +fingers were discoloured, and her pinafore daubed all over. + +It was not many years before it became evident that the little girl would +surpass her father in the love--if not in the art--of painting. When he +gave her copy-books to learn her letters, she left the words unwritten, +and copied the pictures only. Instead of playing with childish toys, she +would get scraps of paper and copy the pictures and models in her father's +studio, or sketch the trees and houses in the country round. + +Then her father began to teach her drawing; he showed her how to mix the +colours, and lay them on; he explained to her about light and shade, and +gave her models to copy. When they went out for walks, he would take the +child's hand and make her look well at the faces of the people they +passed, then draw their features when she got home. So little Angelica, or +Angela, as her father loved to call her, learnt to love drawing and +painting more and more. When she was eleven, her father moved to Como in +Italy; here people heard of Angelica and her wonderful power of painting, +and the Bishop of Como offered to sit for the little girl to paint him. He +was an old man with a long flowing beard, a difficult subject for such a +young artist, but Angelica did it, and the portrait was such a success +that the Archbishop of Milan and many other great Italians sat to be +painted by the eleven-year-old child, until she had more work than she +could well do. Still she went on, learning, copying the Old Masters' +pictures, and teaching herself the old Italian art. + +When she was sixteen her mother died. Poor little Angelica took it +terribly to heart, and her father thought it best to leave Italy and go to +Switzerland, so that change of scene might divert her mind. Her father's +love for her was unbounded; he petted her, he loved to sing her praises, +to call her his Angel, his Angelina, his little artist daughter, and she +returned it with all the warmth of her lonely little heart. + +Once Angelica was entrusted to paint alone an altar-piece on the wall of a +village church. Day after day father and daughter went to the church, and +Angelica would sit on the top of a high scaffolding, her dark hair falling +over her shoulders, her eyes eagerly fixed on the fresco before her, on +which angels, lambs, doves, grew under her clever fingers. Below stood the +honest John Kaufmann watching the form he loved so well, his arms folded, +his head thrown back, and feelings of pride and joy kindling in his heart. + +Besides her love for painting, Angelica was intensely fond of music, her +voice was pure and sweet, and she could play wonderfully well. She learnt +to conquer the most difficult of the grand old Italian pieces, and would +sing from memory the old ballads to amuse her father when he was +melancholy and troubled. And this was often the case. He had little money, +he had nearly starved himself to give his daughter the education he knew +she deserved; the roof was humble, the beds were hard, the sheets coarse, +the bread dark and sour. Angelica had to mend her own scanty and often +thread-bare clothes. But the time was coming when she would have money +enough to dress in silk and satin had she wished. + +On their return to Milan, John Kaufmann was urged strongly to have +Angelica educated for the stage; her beauty and her voice would soon win +her renown, they said; managers made her tempting offers, and her father +was ready to give his consent. But Angelica was true to her art. The stage +had its attractions for her; the offer was a tempting one; she drew a +picture of herself standing between music on one side and painting on the +other, turning towards painting, and bidding a tender farewell to music. +Then bravely, though not without a sigh, she took up her brushes, and with +fresh energy set her whole mind to painting. + +In 1763 she took up her abode in Venice to study and paint pictures; six +years of travelling among Italian art had widened her experience and given +a firmer grasp both to mind and hand. Countesses, duchesses, ladies, came +to see her, and sit for their portraits, and when, in 1766, a rich lady +offered to take her to England to make her fortune, Angelica consented. + +The first few days in London were rather lonely for the poor girl, but she +soon learnt the English language, and her bright, pleasant manners won her +many friends. Among these was Sir Joshua Reynolds, the greatest artist in +England. + +"Mr. Reynolds is the first of painters here," she wrote to her father in +Germany. She admired his colouring so much that she became his pupil, and +the great artist was delighted with her, not only as a clever painter, but +as a woman. He painted her portrait, she painted his. On the establishment +of the Royal Academy, Angelica Kaufmann was made a member. It is said +that Sir Joshua Reynolds wanted her to be his wife; be that as it may, we +soon after find Angelica living in Golden Square, some way from her old +home. She was very popular; no large evening party was complete without +her; the world of fashion, the world of art, all sought her society, and +her praises were sung throughout the country. She painted the young Prince +of Wales, afterwards George IV., and other members of the royal family, +which made her trebly popular. + +Before beginning a portrait Angelica would scan the features before her +closely, she would wait till the sitters had arranged themselves in +natural positions, and then, as truthfully as she could, she would paint +them. She was making her fortune rapidly; her father had come over to live +with her, and life seemed to go on very happily for her till she was +twenty-six. Then she married a man calling himself Count Horn, handsome, +clever, amusing; but three weeks after it was discovered that the _real_ +Count Horn had arrived in England, and that the man who had married +Angelica was only the Count's footman, who had taken his master's name. +This was a terrible blow to Angelica and her father; for a long time she +seemed bordering on despair, and could not even go on painting. Her +husband went abroad, Angelica never saw him again, and he died some years +after. At last her friends roused her, and persuaded her to take up her +brushes again, and she threw herself into her work once more. + +As time wore on, John Kaufmann grew old and infirm, and the doctors said +he must go abroad. Angelica was tired of London society, weary of London +fogs and mists, and she had long been yearning for her beloved Italy. So +they left England, and though it cost Angelica many pangs to leave the +friends who had been so kind to her, she was very thankful to be in a +sunny climate once more, under the blue Italian skies. + +In Venice she painted several well-known pictures on historical subjects; +they were eagerly bought at high prices, and are now to be seen in +different parts of Europe. + +After the death of her father, Angelica took up her abode in Rome; she +would get up early, take up her palette and brush, and paint on till +sunset in winter, till nearly six in the summer. In the evening, when she +could no longer see to paint, she would go out and see her friends, and +several nights in the week she would open her rooms to receive visitors. A +hall, filled with statues and busts, led to her studio and other rooms, +where hung her pictures by the great masters, heads by Vandyke and +Rembrandt, her own portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and many other +pictures. + +Not only by the rich was she known and loved, but also by the poor. Her +charity and kindness were boundless; she did not simply give her money to +the many beggars who abound in Italy, but she tried to improve their +condition, and help them to work for themselves. + +Having obtained news of the death of her husband, Angelica Kaufmann +married a Venetian artist; together they painted, together they enjoyed +the grand Italian art, and when, in 1795, he died, Angelica seemed +overwhelmed. This was the beginning of a series of troubles. She lost a +great deal of the money she had saved owing to the failure of a bank and +the unsettled state of England, which often prevented her money from +arriving. "But I have two hands still left," she would say, "and I can +still work." In 1802 her health failed. She went to Switzerland for +change, but on her return her cough came back. Her strength grew less, her +hand lost its cunning, and at last her busy fingers could no longer hold +the brush. + +In the summer of 1807 she died. People of all ranks gathered together at +her funeral in Rome; artists, nobility, poor, and rich came alike to do +her honour. Her coffin was borne by girls in white, and like the great +master Raphael, her two last pictures were carried behind the coffin, on +which was placed a model of her right hand in plaster, with a paint-brush +between its fingers. + +Compared to the great and powerful artists before her, she was no mighty +genius; her figures are more full of grace than force or energy; there is +a sameness of design, which has called forth the saying, "To see one is to +see all," but what she has painted she has painted truly. "Her pencil was +faithful to art and womanhood," and we are proud to think that Angelica +Kaufmann was one of the greatest artist-women the world has ever seen. + + + + +HANNAH MORE (1745-1833). + + +Hannah More was one of the first women who devoted her life to the poor. +She had been in London society; she knew most of the leading men of the +day; she could have lived a comfortable life in the midst of great people; +but she chose rather to build herself a little house in the country, and +there to work with her sister Patty among the rough miners of +Somersetshire. + +She was one of the younger daughters of Jacob More, a schoolmaster, near +Gloucester. Her grandmother was a vigorous old woman, who even at the age +of eighty used to get up at four in the morning with great energy. + +Hannah learnt to read at the age of three. While still small enough to sit +on her father's knee, she learnt Greek and Roman history; he used to +repeat the speeches of the great men of old in the Greek or Latin tongue, +which delighted the child, and then translate them till the eager little +eyes sparkled "like diamonds." Her nurse had lived in the family of +Dryden, and little Hannah heard many a story of the poet from her nurse's +lips. + +When quite small, it was her delight to get a scrap of paper, scribble a +little poem or essay, and hide it in a dark corner, where the servant +kept her brush or duster. Sometimes the little sister who slept with her, +probably Patty, would creep downstairs in the dark to get her a piece of +paper and a candle to write by. To possess a whole quire of paper was the +child's greatest ambition. + +One of her elder sisters went to a school in Bristol from Mondays till +Saturdays, and from Saturday to Monday little Hannah set herself +diligently to learn French from her sister. When she was sixteen, she also +went to Bristol, and there she met many clever people, who were charmed +with her, and looked on her bright conversation and manner as proofs of +dawning genius. + +Once, when she was ill, a well-known doctor was called in to attend her. +He had paid her many visits, when one day she began to talk to him on many +interesting subjects. At last he went; but when he was half-way +downstairs, he cried out, "Bless me! I quite forgot to ask the girl how +she was!" and returning to the room he inquired tenderly, "And how are you +to-day my poor child?" + +The following year she wrote a drama called "The Search after Happiness." +"The public have taken ten thousand copies," she says, "but _I_ have not +the patience to read it!" + +When she went to London she was introduced to Garrick the actor, Sir +Joshua Reynolds the artist, and many other clever people. Sir Joshua +Reynolds one day took her to see Dr. Johnson, or "Dictionary Johnson," as +she called him. She was very nervous, as no one knew how the great doctor +would receive her, or what temper he would be in. But it was all right. +He came to meet her "with good humour on his countenance," and with royal +grace greeted her with a verse out of her own "Morning Hymn." + +When she went to see him one day alone, he was out. So Hannah More went +into his parlour, and seated herself in his great chair, hoping to feel +inspired by so doing. When Dr. Johnson entered, she explained to him why +she was sitting there; at which he went into fits of laughing, and cried +out that it was a chair he _never_ sat in. + +After this he became a frequent visitor at the house of the five sisters-- + +"I have spent a happy evening," he cried one night. "I love you all five; +I am glad I came. I will come and see you again." + +In 1777, Hannah More wrote a play called "Percy." Hidden in the corner of +a box at the theatre, she anxiously watched the performance of her play; +she heard her hero speak through the voice of her friend Garrick; she saw +her audience--even the men--shedding tears, and she knew it was a success. +So much did her writings apply to the feelings of her audience, that after +the performance of one of her plays called the "Fatal Falsehood," when a +lady said to her servant girl, who had been to the play, that her eyes +looked red, as if she had been crying, the girl answered: + +"Well, ma'am, if I did, it was no harm; a great many respectable people +cried too!" + +The death of David Garrick affected Hannah More deeply. Mrs. Garrick sent +for her at once in her trouble, and, though ill in bed at the time, +Hannah More came to comfort her friend. After this she spent much time +with Mrs. Garrick, often in the depths of the country giving up her time +to reading and writing, and taking long walks to the pretty villages +round. + +Then she built herself a little house near Bristol, where she went to live +with her sister Patty. They made long expeditions together to villages +round, and they soon discovered what a bad state the country people were +in. + +In a village near, she set to work to establish a school for the little +children, and was soon rewarded by finding that three hundred were ready +and longing to be taught. Difficulties lay at every turn; the rich farmers +objected to the children being taught, and religion brought into the +country. + +"It makes the people so lazy and useless," they said. + +"It will make the people better and more industrious," urged Hannah More; +"they will work from higher and nobler motives, instead of merely for +money and drink!" + +At last they consented to have a school, and the children came by hundreds +to be taught. + +Then she went on to two mining villages high up on the Mendip Hills. In +these villages the people were even more ignorant than those at Cheddar; +they thought the ladies came to carry off their children as slaves. For at +this time the selling of little children as slaves had reached a terrible +height, and many great men, Pitt, Fox, and others, were doing what they +could to have it abolished by an Act of Parliament. + +It was into districts where no policemen dared to go that Hannah More and +her sister ventured. There was no clergyman for miles round; one village +had a curate living twelve miles away; another village had a clergyman who +himself drank to excess, and was never sober enough to preach. There was +one Bible in the village, but that was used to prop up a flower-pot. Such +was the state of affairs when Hannah More first went among them. + +Soon a school was established, and again the children were ready and +willing to be taught. Before long they had six schools and as many as +twelve hundred children were being taught. Very soon their work bore +fruit. + +"Several day-labourers coming home late from harvest, so tired that they +could hardly stand, will not go to rest till they have been into the +school for a chapter and a prayer," wrote Hannah More. + +In 1792 she wrote "Village Politics," at the request of friends, to try +and give a more healthy turn to politics in England. She did not put her +own name to it, but called herself "Will Chip." One of her friends +discovered who had written it, and sitting down he began a letter, "My +dear Mrs. Chip," thanking her for giving to the world such a popular and +wholesome tract. + +Hannah More still kept up with the world outside; she watched with the +keenest interest the struggle against slavery; her heart ached for the +victims of the French Revolution across the Channel, and she wrote +pamphlets on both subjects. Then came an attack on her writings; people +said she wished for the success of France; some said she was an enemy to +liberty, and many other false things. + +This made Hannah More very unhappy. She liked to be loved, she could not +bear to be hated; she who was ready to see good in all, could not bear to +be forced to see evil. Then her poor people upheld her, and +school-teachers and church-workers came forward to bear witness to the +world-wide good her writings had done. Sympathy flowed in from all sides, +and she found heart to go on again. + +At last the happy home was broken up--the bright home where the poor +people had never failed to find warmth and shelter and a welcome from the +five sisters. + +The three eldest died first. Still, through all the sad partings, Hannah +More bravely worked on, while she had strength for it, writing when she +could, and keeping bright those who still remained around her. + +A few years later Patty died; she was the nearest of all to Hannah's +heart, and the "aching void" she felt after her sister's death affected +her health. Long and dangerous illnesses constantly left her unable to +work for many months. Her work had been taken up by others now, and the +"tide she had helped to turn had already swept past her." + +"I learns geography and the harts and senses," boasted a little girl in a +county parish, meaning the arts and sciences. + +"I am learning syntax," a little servant said to Hannah More when +questioned about her school. + +Hannah More died at the age of eighty-eight, after years of intense +suffering. She had lived to see how education was helping the poorer +classes, and stamping out crime; how a little love and kindness had helped +even the rough miners in their work, and how the children, taught in the +village schools, were already growing up better and happier men and women, +and it pleased her, long after her health and memory had failed, to hear +that they still remembered the name of Hannah More. + + + + +ELIZABETH FRY (1780-1845). + + +Elizabeth Fry was one of those rare women whose "life was work." Once +having recognized the path of duty, she never left it; through illness and +suffering, trouble and sorrow, she held fast to it, and the result was +grand. For she was our first great prison reformer, the first to open the +eyes of the nation to the alarming state of the prisons, the first to take +active steps for their improvement. + +She was born in Norwich on May 21, 1780. Her father, John Gurney, belonged +to the Society of Friends; he was a popular, warm-hearted man, fond of his +children, devoted to his wife. Elizabeth was the third of eleven children; +when she was two years old, her father and mother moved to Earlham Hall, +an old house standing in a well-wooded park, about two miles from Norwich. +She was a nervous, delicate little child; every night, on going to bed, +she would quake with fear at the prospect of being left alone in the dark, +when the moment should come for the candle to be blown out. Sea-bathing, +too, had its horrors for her. She was forced to bathe when they went to +the sea-side, but at the sight of the sea she would begin to cry and +tremble till she turned her back on it again. The child's devotion to her +mother was intense; she would often lie awake at night and cry at the +thought that her mother might some day die and leave her, and her childish +wish was that two big walls might fall and crush them both together. But +the two big walls never _did_ fall; when Elizabeth was but twelve, her +mother died, leaving eleven children, the eldest barely seventeen, the +youngest only two. Elizabeth was tall and thin; she had quantities of soft +flaxen hair and a sweet face, but she was so reserved and quiet, that +people thought her quite stupid. She was very fond of dancing and riding +and any kind of amusement, and when she was a little older we hear of her +as a "beautiful lady on horseback in a scarlet riding-habit." + +When she was eighteen a great Quaker preacher came to Norwich, and +Elizabeth went with her six sisters to hear him. Hitherto she had cared +little for Quaker meetings, but this time, as soon as the preacher began, +her attention was fixed. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and "Betsy wept +most of the way home," says one of her sisters. From that day all love of +amusement and pleasure seemed gone. New feelings had been stirred within +her; she felt there was something more to live for than mere pleasure; a +nobler spirit was moving within her, that showed her there lay work around +her to be done, and work specially for her to do. And she soon found the +work; an old man, who was dying, wanted comfort and care; a little boy +called Billy from the village needed teaching. Slowly other little boys +came to be taught, and in a few months she had a school of seventy. She +taught them in an empty laundry, no other room being large enough. + +Life went on thus till she was twenty. The more she saw of Quakers, the +more firmly she believed they were right; she now wore their dress,--a +plain slate-coloured skirt with a close handkerchief and cap, with no +ornaments of any kind. In the summer of this year she married Joseph Fry, +also a Quaker, engaged in business in London, where they accordingly went +to live. Leaving her old home was a great trial to her, for the "very +stones of the Norwich streets seemed dear to her." + +A new sphere of work now opened before her; she was surrounded by the +poor, workhouses claimed her attention, the sick and dying begged for a +sight of the simple Quaker woman, whom "to see was to love," and whose +gentle words always comforted them. + +In 1809, Mr. and Mrs. Fry and their five children moved into the country +for a time, for rest after the smoke and din of the crowded city life. +Here Elizabeth Fry was very happy; she loved to live out of doors with her +little children, to explain to them the growth of a flower, the structure +of a bee's wing or caterpillar; they would all go long rambles together +with baskets and trowels to get ferns and wild flowers to plant in their +garden at home. Then, refreshed and strengthened, she was again ready to +take up her London work. + +It was in 1813 that she first entered the prison at Newgate, and the +special work of her life began. She found the prison and prisoners in a +disgraceful state, and her womanly heart was touched with pity for the +poor creatures who were compelled to live in these unhealthy wards and +cells. Many had not sufficient clothing, but lived in rags, sleeping on +the floor with raised boards for pillows. Little children cried for food +and clothes, which their unhappy mothers could not give them. In the same +room they slept, ate, cooked, and washed; in the bad air they fell ill, +and no one came to nurse them or comfort them, no one came to show them +how to live an honest, upright life, when their prison-life was over. Sick +at heart, Elizabeth Fry went home, determined to help these miserable +people in some way or other. Then trouble came to her. Her little Betsy, a +lovely child of five, died, and long and bitter was her grief. + +"Mama," said the child, soon before her death, "I love everybody better +than myself, and I love thee better than everybody, and I love Almighty +better than thee." + +Sorrow was making Elizabeth Fry more and more sympathetic and able to +enter into the sufferings of those around her. + +At last she was able to work again, and with her whole heart she set +herself to improve the prisons. + +She got the prison authorities to let the poor women have mats to sleep +on, especially those who were ill, and she begged to be alone with the +convicts for a few hours. The idleness, ignorance, and dirt of these women +shocked her. How could the poor little children, pining for food and fresh +air, ever grow up to be good women in the world, into which they might be +turned out any time? How could those wretched women ever learn to be +better and happier by being thrown into those unhealthy cells with others +as bad or worse than themselves, if no one ever tried to teach them how to +live better lives, and start afresh in the world? She proposed to start a +school for the children, and the prisoners thanked her with tears of joy. +They had not known such kindness before; they had never been spoken to so +gently; the noise and fighting ceased, and they listened to the simple +Quaker's words. + +So an empty cell was made into a school-room, and one of the prisoners was +made school-mistress. Mrs. Fry and a few other ladies helped to teach, and +the children soon got on, and learnt to like their lessons. Still the +terrible sounds of swearing, fighting, and screaming went on; Mrs. Fry met +with failure and discouragement on every side; the utter misery and +suffering sickened her, and she would sometimes wonder if she should have +strength to go on. But she found she had. + +Soon others came forward to help, and not long after we find a very +different scene. Instead of the inhuman noises that reached the ear +before, comparative stillness reigned; most of the women wore clean blue +aprons, and were sitting round a long table engaged in different kinds of +work, while a lady at the head of the table read aloud to them. + +The news of this reformation soon spread. Newspapers were full of it; +pamphlets were sent round; the public awoke to the evils of prison-life, +and the voice of the people made itself heard; and Queen Charlotte herself +sought an interview with Elizabeth Fry, the leader of this important +work. + +To improve the state of convict ships was the next work for Mrs. Fry. Up +to this time the vessels were terribly over-crowded; the women had nothing +to do all day during the voyage; their children were separated from them, +and all were marked with hot irons, so that if by any chance they escaped, +they might be found again. Part of the vessel was made into a school for +the children; pieces of print were collected for the women to make into +patchwork, and a matron was chosen to nurse those who were ill. + +Mrs. Fry herself went to bid the emigrants farewell. She stood in her +plain Quaker dress at the door of the cabin with the captain; the women +stood facing her, while sailors climbed up to the rigging to hear her +speak. The silence was profound for a few moments. Then she spoke to them +a few hopeful, encouraging words, and prayed for them; many of the convict +women wept bitterly, and when she left, every eye followed her till she +was out of sight. From this time she visited every convict ship with women +on board leaving England till 1841, when she was prevented by illness. + +Elizabeth Fry had a wonderful power of winning hearts by her gentle and +earnest way of speaking. One day she went over a large Home for young +women; as she was going away the matron pointed out two as being very +troublesome and hard to manage. Mrs. Fry went up to them, and holding out +a hand to each, she said, looking at them with one of her beautiful +smiles: "I trust I shall hear better things of thee." + +The girls had been proof against words of reproach and command, but at +these few heartfelt words of hope and kindness, they both burst into tears +of sorrow and shame. + +In 1839 Elizabeth Fry went to Paris, in order to visit the workhouses, +prisons, and homes on the continent, and to stir up the people to enquire +into their arrangements. + +A few days after her arrival she went to a little children's hospital. As +she entered the long ward, the only sound audible was a faint and pitiful +bleating like a flock of little lambs. A long row of clean white cots was +placed all round the room; on a sloping mattress before the fire a row of +babies were lying waiting their turn to be fed by the nurse with a spoon. +The poor little things were swathed up, according to the foreign custom, +so tightly that they could not move their limbs. For some time Mrs. Fry +pleaded with the Sister of the ward to undo their swathings, and let their +arms free, and, as she did so at last, one of the babies, who had been +crying piteously, ceased, and stretched out its arms to its deliverer. + +Everywhere, abroad and at home, among old and young, she was welcomed as a +friend; from the head of the land to the poorest prisoner, she was loved, +for "it was an honour to know her in this world." Through illness and +intense suffering she struggled on with duty and work, until she was no +longer able to walk. She was still wheeled to the meetings in a chair, but +the work of her life was ended. Then sorrow upon sorrow came to her; her +son, sister, and a little grandchild all died within a short time of one +another. + +"Can our mother hear this and live?" cried her children. A long year of +intense pain and suffering followed, and then, one autumn evening, +Elizabeth Fry died. Universal was the mourning for her; vast crowds +assembled in the Friend's burying ground, near her old country home at +Plashet, silently and reverently to attend the simple Quaker funeral, and +to do honour to Elizabeth Fry, now laid at rest beside her little child. + + + + +MARY SOMERVILLE (1780-1872). + + +Mary Somerville, whose parents' name was Fairfax, was born in Scotland on +the day after Christmas in the year 1780. Her father was away at sea; he +had begun life early as a midshipman, and had been present at the taking +of Quebec in 1759. He had left his wife in a little seaport town on the +Scotch coast just opposite Edinburgh, in a house whose garden sloped down +to the sea and was always full of bright flowers. The Scotch in this part +lived a primitive kind of life; we are told that all the old men and women +smoked tobacco in short pipes, and the curious way in which a cripple or +infirm man got his livelihood. One of his relations would put him into a +wheelbarrow, wheel him to the next neighbour's door, and there leave him. +The neighbour would then come out, feed the cripple with a little oatcake +or anything she could spare, and wheel him onto the next door. The next +neighbour would do the same, and so on, and thus the beggar got his +livelihood. + +Here it was that Mary lived with her mother, her brother Sam, and +sometimes her father. + +Now Mrs. Fairfax was very much afraid of thunder and lightning, and when +she thought a storm was coming on, she used to prepare by taking out the +steel pins which fastened on her cap, in case they might attract the +lightning. Then she sat on a sofa at some distance from the fireplace, and +read aloud descriptions of storms in the Bible, which frightened her +little daughter Mary more than the storm itself. The large dog Hero, too, +seems to have shared in the general fear of thunder, for, at the first +clap, he would rush howling indoors and place his head on Mary's knee. +Thus, with shutters closed, they awaited the utter destruction they +expected, but which never came. + +When Mary was seven, her mother made her useful at shelling peas and +beans, feeding the cocks and hens, and looking after the dairy. Once she +had put some green gooseberries into some bottles, and taken them to the +kitchen, telling the cook to boil the bottles uncorked, and when the fruit +was enough cooked, to cork and tie them up. In a short time the whole +house was alarmed by loud screams from the kitchen. It was found they +proceeded from the cook, who had disobeyed orders, and corked the bottles +before boiling, so of course they exploded. This accident interested Mary +very much, and in after years she turned it to account in her reading of +science. + +She was devoted to birds, and would watch the swallows collecting in +hundreds on the house roofs to prepare for their winter flight. She always +fed the robins on snowy mornings, and taught them to hop in and pick up +the crumbs on the table. All through her life this love of birds +continued; and, when she was quite old, and her little mountain sparrow +died, having been her constant companion for eight years, she felt its +death very much. + +When she was between eight and nine, her father came back from sea, and +was quite shocked to find his little daughter still a wild, untrained +child, unable to write, and only reading very badly, with a strong Scotch +accent. So, after breakfast every morning, he made her read a chapter from +the Bible and a paper from the "Spectator." But she was always glad when +this penance was over, and she could run off with her father into the +garden, and take a lesson in laying carnations and pruning fruit trees. + +At last one day her father said: "This kind of life will never do; Mary +must at least know how to write and keep accounts." + +So Mary was sent to a boarding school kept by a Miss Primrose, where she +was very unhappy. Fancy the wild, strong Scotch child, used to roaming +about the lanes, wandering by the sea at her own will, caring for no +lessons but those of Nature, suddenly enclosed in a stiff steel support +round her body, a band drawing her shoulders back till the shoulder-blades +met, a steel rod with a semicircle passing under her chin to keep her head +up, and thus bound up having to learn by heart pages of Johnson's +dictionary; not only to spell the words and give their parts of speech and +meaning, but to remember the order in which they came! Such was the strict +discipline through which Mary Fairfax passed for one long year. Once home +again, she was like a wild animal escaped from a cage, but still unable so +much as to write and compose a letter. + +When the tide went out, she would spend hours and hours on the sands, +watching closely the habits of the starfish and sea-urchins, collecting +shells, and wondering at curious marks of fern leaves and shells on +blocks of stone. She had no one to tell her they were fossils, or to +explain to her their curious forms. + +Still her people at home were not satisfied with the way she "wasted her +time," and she was sent to the village school to learn plain needlework. +The village schoolmaster also came on the winter evenings to teach her the +use of the globes, and at night she would sit up at her own little window +trying to learn about the stars and moon. And yet, fond as she was of +stars, the dark nights had their terrors for her. + +One night, the house being full, she had to sleep in a room apart from the +rest of the house, under a garret filled with cheeses, slung by ropes to +the rafters. She had put out her candle and fallen asleep, when she was +awakened by a tremendous crash and a loud rolling noise over head. She was +very frightened; there were no matches in those days, so she could not get +a light; but she seized a huge club shod with iron, which lay in the room, +and thundered on the bedroom door till her father, followed by the whole +household, came to her aid. It was found that some rats had gnawed the +ropes on which the cheeses hung, and all the cheeses rolled down. However, +Mary got no comfort, but only a good scolding for making such an uproar +and disturbing the household in the night. + +When she was thirteen, her mother took a small house in Edinburgh, and +Mary was sent to a writing-school, and also taught music and arithmetic. + +One day, when she was getting up, she suddenly saw a flash in the air. +"There is lightning!" she cried to her mother. + +"No," answered Mrs. Fairfax, "it is fire;" and on opening the shutters +they found the next house but one was burning fiercely. They dressed +quickly, and sent for some men to help pack the family papers and silver. + +"Now let us breakfast; it is time enough to move our things when the next +house takes fire," said her mother, calmly showing the presence of mind +one would not have expected from a woman so afraid of a thunder-storm. + +At last Mary obtained what she had so long wished for, a Euclid, and she +worked at it by day and night. "It is no wonder the stock of candles is +soon exhausted," said the servants, "for Miss Mary sits up till a very +late hour;" and accordingly an order was given that the candle should be +put out as soon as she was in bed. So she had to content herself by +repeating the problems at night by heart, till she knew well the first six +books. + +She had learnt to paint, too, in Edinburgh, and her landscapes at this +time were thought a great deal of by various people. + +In 1797 her father was in a naval battle against the Dutch, and for his +brave action he was knighted. + +"You ask for the promotion of your officers, but you never ask a reward +for yourself," were words addressed to him on his return. + +"I leave that to my country," answered Fairfax. And his daughter tells us +that his country did little for him, and his wife had nothing to live on +but L75 a year at his death in 1813. + +In 1804 Mary Fairfax married a cousin, a Mr. Greig, and went to live in +London. She was very poor, her mother could afford her but a small outfit, +and gave her L20 to buy a warm wrap for the winter. Mrs. Greig lived a +lonely life, for her husband was out all day for three years, at the end +of which time she returned to her old home, a widow, with two little boys, +one of whom died soon after. + +Then she threw her whole self into the study of mathematics and astronomy. +At last she succeeded in solving a prize problem, and was awarded a silver +medal with her name upon it, which greatly delighted and encouraged her. +When she had money enough she bought a little library of books on her +favourite subjects, which have since been presented to the College for +Women at Cambridge. + +Her family and those around her thought her very foolish to read so hard +at subjects they thought so useless. When, some years later, she was going +to marry Dr. Somerville, his sister wrote to say she did hope the "foolish +manner of life and studies" might be given up, so that she might make a +"respectable and useful wife to her brother." + +Her husband, however, encouraged her in her study of science; he saw +nothing "foolish" in it at all, and he helped her to collect minerals and +curious stones. + +They travelled abroad a good deal, and then settled in London, where Mary +Somerville gave up a good deal of her time to teaching her little +children. Here she published a book on Physical Geography, which is very +well known and used still. It was a great undertaking for a woman, and +made a stir in the world of science. + +But she was not entirely given up to science. We find her making with her +own hands a quantity of orange marmalade for a friend, who had brought her +back minerals from a foreign land, to take on his next voyage, and she +enjoyed an evening at the play as much as anyone. + +The long illness and death of their eldest child fell very heavily on Mrs. +Somerville, and for a time she could not even work. Then they moved to +Chelsea. Here she was asked to write an account of a French book which she +had read on astronomy, a book which only some twenty people in England +knew, and _she_ was chosen above all the learned men to write on this +difficult subject. It was a vast undertaking; the more so as she still saw +and entertained friends, not wishing to drop society altogether. + +Moreover, it was not known what she was writing, as, if it turned out a +failure, it was not to be printed. In the middle of some difficult problem +a friend would call and say, "I have come to spend a few hours with you, +Mrs. Somerville," and papers and problems had to be hidden as quickly as +possible. + +When it was finished, the manuscript was sent to the great astronomer +Herschel, who was delighted with it. + +"Go on thus," he wrote, "and you will leave a memorial of no common kind +to posterity." + +Mrs. Somerville never wrote for fame, but it was very pleasant to have +such praise from one of the greatest men of science living. The success of +her book proved its value, and astonished her. Seven hundred and fifty +copies were sold at once, and her name and her work were talked of +everywhere. Her bust was placed in the Great Hall of the Royal Society; +she was elected a member of the Royal Academy in Dublin, and of the +Natural History Society at Geneva. A bust of her was made the figurehead +of a large vessel in the Royal Navy, which was called "Mary Somerville," +and lastly, she received a letter from Sir Robert Peel, saying he had +asked the king, George IV., to grant her a pension of L200 a year, so that +she might work with less anxiety. + +Here was success for the self-taught woman, raised by her own efforts +higher than any woman before her in any branch of science, and it is +pleasant to find her the same modest character after it as she was before. + +Her health being broken, she went to Paris. Here she still went on +writing; but being very weak and ill, she was obliged to write in bed till +one o'clock. The afternoons she gave up to going about Paris and seeing +her friends. + +Some years after, her husband being ill, they went abroad to Rome, where +they made many friends. One friend is mentioned as having won Mrs. +Somerville's heart by his love for birds. The Italians eat nightingales, +robins, and other singing birds, and when the friend heard this, he cried: + +"What! robins! our household birds! I would as soon eat a child!" + +In 1860 her husband died in Florence. To occupy her mind, Mrs. Somerville +began to write another book. She was now over eighty, and her hand was not +so steady as it used to be, but she had her eyesight and all her +faculties, and with her pet mountain-sparrow sitting on her arm, she +wrote daily from eight in the morning till twelve. + +Five years later she had the energy to go all over an ironclad ship, which +she was very curious to see. + +"I was not even hoisted on board," she wrote to her son, but mounted the +ladder bravely, and examined everything in detail "except the stoke-hole!" + +At the age of ninety she still studied in bed all the morning, but "I am +left solitary," she says, with pathos, "for I have lost my little bird, +who was my constant companion for eight years." + +One morning her daughter came into the room, and being surprised that the +little bird did not fly to greet her as usual, she searched for it, and +found the poor little creature drowned in the jug! + +In 1870 an eclipse of the sun interested Mrs. Somerville very much; it +came after a huge thunder-storm, and was only visible now and then between +dense masses of clouds. The following year there was a brilliant Aurora +lighting up the whole sky; many ignorant people were very frightened, +because it had been said the world was coming to an end, and they thought +that a bright piece of the Aurora was a slice of the moon that had +"already tumbled down!" + +Though at the age of ninety-two her memory for names and people failed, +she could still read mathematics, solve problems, and enjoy reading about +new discoveries and theories in the world of science. + +Some months before her death, she was awakened one night at Naples to +behold Mount Vesuvius in splendid eruption. It was a wonderful sight. + +A fiery stream of lava was flowing down in all directions; a column of +dense black smoke rose to more than four times the height of the mountain, +while bursts of fiery matter shot high up into the smoke, and the roaring +and thundering never ceased for one single moment. + +Three days later extreme darkness surprised everyone; Mrs. Somerville saw +men walking along the streets with umbrellas up, and found that Vesuvius +was sending out an immense quantity of ashes like fine sand, and neither +land, sea, nor sky were visible. + +In the summer Mrs. Somerville and her daughters went out of Naples, and +took a pleasant little house near the sea. + +She still took a keen interest in passing events; she knew she could not +live much longer, and she worked on to the actual day of her death, which +took place in the autumn of 1872. + +Mrs. Somerville stands alone as the greatest woman in the world of +science; she was entirely self-taught, and it was by her own efforts she +rose to be what she was--a woman of untiring energy, with wonderful power +of thought and clearness of mind, a woman in advance of her times. + + + + +ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1809-1861). + + +Elizabeth Barrett Browning is the greatest "woman poet" England has ever +had. Though some of her poetry is difficult to understand, owing to her +depth of thought and great reading, yet many of her prettiest and most +touching poems have been written about little children; she with her +pitiful heart felt for the sorrows they could not express, and has told us +about them; she has told us about little Lily, who died when she was "no +taller than the flowers," of the little factory children, who only cried +in their playtime, and only cared for the fields and meadows just to "drop +down in them and sleep," of little Ellie sitting alone by the stream +dipping her feet into the clear cool water and dreaming the hours away. + +Elizabeth Barrett always looked on Malvern as her native place, though she +was not actually born there, but in Durham, in 1809. + +The early years of her life seem to have been very happy; we hear of her +as a little girl with clusters of golden curls, large tender eyes, and a +sweet smile. She herself has not told us much about her early years, but +the glimpses she has given us are very bright. Her father had a country +house near Malvern, and over the Malvern Hills the child loved to roam. +She liked to be out all day with the flowers and the bees and the sun. + +"If the rain fell, there was sorrow," she says, and she laid her curly +head against the window, while her little finger followed the "long, +trailing drops" down the pane, and, like other children, she would gently +sing, "Rain, rain, come to-morrow," to try and drive it away. When she +went out, it was not along the sheep paths over the hills that she cared +to go, but to wander into the little woods, where the sheep could not +stray. Now and then, she tells us, one of them would venture in, but its +wool caught in the thickets, and with a "silly thorn-pricked nose" it +would bleat back into the sun, while the little poet-girl went on, tearing +aside the prickly branches with her struggling fingers, and tripping up +over the brambles which lay across her way. + +At eight years old and earlier she began to write little verses, and at +eleven she wrote a long "epic" poem in four books called the "Battle of +Marathon," of which fifty copies were printed, because, she tells us, her +father was bent on spoiling her. She spent most of her time reading Greek, +either alone or with her brother; she so loved the old Greek heroes, and +would dream about them at night; she loved the old Greek stories, she "ate +and drank Greek," and her poetry is mixed with Greek ideas and thoughts +and names, even from a child. + +She had one favourite brother; with him she read, with him she talked; +they understood one another, and entered into one another's thoughts and +fancies. He called her by a pet name, when they were little children +together, because the name Elizabeth seemed so "hard to utter," and "he +calls me by it still," she adds pathetically in later life, when that life +was no longer all sunshine and laughter, and when the brother had been +taken from her. But these were happy days, these days of childhood, never +forgotten by Elizabeth Barrett, who looked back to them afterwards, and +remembered how she sat at her father's knee, and how lovingly he would +look down at the little poet and reward her with kisses. + +When she was older the family moved to London, and there Elizabeth Barrett +became very ill. She had always been fragile and delicate, and now she was +obliged to lie all day in one room in the London house. When she grew a +little stronger, and the cold weather was coming on, the doctor ordered a +milder climate, and she was moved to Torquay, her favourite brother going +with her. She had been there a year, and the mild sea-breezes of +Devonshire had done her good, when fresh trouble came to her. + +One fine summer morning her brother with a few friends started in a little +sailing-vessel for a few hours' trip. They were all good sailors, and +knowing the coast well, they sent back the boatmen, and undertook the +management of the boat themselves. The idea of danger never seems to have +occurred to them. They had not got far out, when suddenly, just as they +were crossing the bar, in sight of the very windows, the boat went down, +and the little crew perished--among them Elizabeth Barrett's favourite +brother. He was drowned before her very eyes, and, already ill and weak, +she nearly sank under the weight of the blow. + +The house she lived in at Torquay was at the bottom of the cliffs close to +the sea, but now the sound of the waves no longer soothed her; they +sounded like moanings from the sea. She struggled back to life, but all +was changed for her. Still she clung to Greek and literature, and she +would pore over her books till the doctor would remonstrate, and urge some +lighter reading. He did not know that her books were no hard study to her; +reading was no exertion, but a delight and comfort to her, changing the +current of her thoughts from the sad past, and helping her to wile away +the long hours of sickness. However, to make others happy about her, she +had her little edition of Plato bound so that it looked like a novel, and +then she could read it without being disturbed or interfered with at all. + +She tried to forget her ill health and weariness, and some of her letters +at this time were so bright and amusing, that we see how well she +succeeded in throwing herself into the lives of those around her. At last +she was well enough to be moved in an invalid carriage with "a thousand +springs" to London, in short journeys of twenty miles a day. There for +seven long years she lived in one large, but partly darkened room, seeing +only her own family and a few special friends. + +Her poems were sad, beautiful, and very tender; never once does she allude +in words to the terrible blow which had swept so much sunshine and +happiness from her young life, but her writings are full now of wild +utterances and passionate cries, now calming down into sleepy lullabies +for the little children she had such sympathy with. She did not put her +name to many of her works, but readers were startled from time to time by +the wonderful new poems, until at last they were traced to the sick room +of Elizabeth Barrett. In her sick room lived "Flush," a little dog given +her by a friend; he was dark brown with long silken ears and hazel eyes, +but, better than these, such a faithful heart, and + + "... of _thee_ it shall be said, + This dog watched beside a bed + Day and night unweary; + Watched within a curtained room, + Where no sunbeam brake the gloom + Round the sick and dreary." + +He would push his nose into her pale, thin hand, and lie content for +hours, till the quick tears of his mistress would sometimes drop on to his +glossy head, and he would spring up eagerly, as if to share the trouble if +he only could. + +Here is a story about Flush which shows his devotion. The little terrier +was stolen, and his mistress shed many tears for her lost favourite. She +was accused of being "childish," but she could not help it. + +"Flushie is my friend, my companion, and loves me better than he loves the +sunshine without," she cried. + +At last the thief was found, and he gave up the dog for some money, +saying, "You had better give your dog something to eat, for he has tasted +nothing for three days!" + +But Flush was too happy to eat; he shrank away from the plate of food +which was given him, and laid down his head on his mistress's shoulder. + +"He is worth loving, is he not?" asked Elizabeth Barrett, when she had +told this story to a friend. + +One of her best-known poems is "The Cry of the Children." For the little +overworked children in the large factories her human heart was stirred. +She knew what a life they led from early morning till late at night, amid +the rushing of the great iron wheels, or working underground in the damp +and dark, and she could not be silent. + + "Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers, + Ere the sorrow comes with years? + They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, + And _that_ cannot stop their tears. + The young lambs are bleating in the meadows, + The young birds are chirping in the nest, + The young fawns are playing with the shadows, + The young flowers are blowing towards the west-- + But the young, young children, O my brothers, + They are weeping bitterly! + They are weeping in the playtime of the others, + In the country of the free." + +They seem to look up with their "pale and sunken faces," and to cry that +the world is _very_ dreary; they take but a few steps, and get so tired, +that they long for rest. It is true, they say, sometimes they die very +young. There was one--little Alice--died lately; they go and listen by her +grave and _she_ never cries; no one calls _her_ up early, saying, "Get up, +little Alice; it is day!" time to go off to the droning, droning wheels in +the factories, and--"It is good when it happens," say the children, "that +we die before our time." It is no good to call them to the fields to +play, to gather big bunches of cowslips, to sing out, as the little +thrushes do:-- + + "For oh!" say the children, "we are weary, + And we cannot run and leap; + If we cared for any meadows, it were merely + To drop down in them and sleep." + +For the great wheels never stop; the little heads may burn, the little +hearts may ache, till the children long to moan out:-- + + "O ye wheels--stop--be silent for to-day!" + +Here were the children in their misery, life-like, only too true and real; +and then the poet pleads for them, pleads that they may be taught there +_is_ something in life as well as the great grinding wheels; pleads that +the lives of the little factory children may be made happier and brighter. + +And England heard the cry of the children. The following year fresh laws +were made about the employment of children in factories; they were not to +be allowed to work under the age of eight, and not then unless they were +strong and healthy; they were not to work more than six hours and a half a +day, and to attend school for three hours. + +Three years after this poem was written Elizabeth Barrett married Robert +Browning, the poet, and together they went off to Italy, where the softer +air and mild climate brought back her health for a time. + +"She is getting better every day," wrote her husband; "stronger, better +wonderfully, and beyond all our hopes." + +One of Mrs. Browning's happiest poems is the story of little Ellie and the +swan's nest. + +"Little Ellie sits alone," she begins, "'mid the beeches of a meadow." +Then she goes on to tell us of her shining hair and face; how she has +thrown aside her bonnet, and is dipping her feet into the shallow stream +by which she sits. As she rocks herself to and fro she thinks about a +swan's nest she has found among the reeds, with two precious eggs in it; +then the vision of a knight, who is to be her lover, rises before her. He +is to be a noble man, riding on a red-roan steed shod with silver; he is +to kneel at her feet, and she will tell him to rise and go, "put away all +wrong," so that the world may love and fear him. Off he goes; three times +he is to send a little foot page to Ellie for words of comfort; the first +time she will send him a white rosebud, the second time a glove, and the +third time leave to come and claim her love. Then she will show him and +him only the swan's nest among the reeds. Little Ellie gets up, ties on +her bonnet, puts on her shoes, and goes home round by the swan's nest, as +she does every day, just to see if there are any more eggs; on she goes, +"pushing through the elm-tree copse, winding up the stream, +light-hearted." Then, when she reaches the place, she stops, stoops down, +and what does she find? The wild swan had deserted her nest, a rat had +gnawed the reeds, and "Ellie went home sad and slow." If she ever found +the lover on the "red-roan steed"-- + + "Sooth I know not: but I know + She could never show him--never + That swan's nest among the reeds!" + +It was at Florence that Mrs. Browning's little son was born, "her little +Florentine" as she loves to call him; she has drawn us many a picture of +him with his blue eyes and amber curls, lit up to golden by the Italian +sun. + + "My little son, my Florentine, + Sit down beside my knee," + +she begins in one poem, and then she tells him in verse a tale about +Florence, and the war in Italy, and when it was over the child had grown +very grave. For Mrs. Browning loved Italy with all her heart, and she +watched the great struggle for Italian unity, which was going on, very +anxiously. From time to time she wrote patriotic poems to encourage the +oppressed, and to express her delight at their victories. + +At the same time England was not forgotten. + +"I am listening here in Rome," she wrote, when pleading for the ragged +schools of London. Still, though under the clear Italian skies, she can +see the ragged, bare-footed, hungry-eyed children begging in the London +streets. It is a disgrace to England, she cries; she knows they cannot all +be fed and clothed, but-- + + "Put a thought beneath the rags + To ennoble the heart's struggle," + +so that by gentle words the children may learn "just the uses of their +sorrow." And again Mrs. Browning's appeal was not in vain. + +One of her last poems was a very sad one, called "Little Mattie." + +Mrs. Browning had, even in Italy, suffered very much from bad health, and +in 1861 she died. She was buried beside a grassy wall in the English +burial-ground just outside Florence, the city she loved so well, in Italy, +"my Italy" as she has called it, the land where Keats and Shelley lie. + + + + +FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE (born 1820). + + +Of the early and private life of Florence Nightingale there is no need to +speak, but you should know what good work she has done for her country, +how she left her English home to go and nurse the poor soldiers who were +wounded in battle in the Crimea, and how well she did the work that she +undertook to do. Not only did she work out of England, but in England she +has improved some of our hospitals, taught some of our English nurses how +to work better, and has made nursing into the happier labour it is now, +instead of the drudgery it was too often before. + +She was born in Florence in 1820, and therefore named after that town, but +her home was always in Derbyshire. She was always fond of nursing, and her +early ambition was to improve the system of nursing, and to get many +things done that she saw would make pain and suffering more bearable in +our English hospitals. + +Now in Germany, in a little village[1] on the great Rhine, is a large +building where women are trained as nurses for sick people. They all wear +full black skirts and very white aprons, deep white collars and caps, and +all the sick people come from the village and villages round to be nursed +by them. There was no training-school for women in England, so it was to +this kind of hospital home that Florence Nightingale went in 1851, and +there she worked for three months. They were three happy months, and she +learnt the best German rules of nursing, and saw how a large hospital +ought to be managed; and so she got some of the training which fitted her +for the great work which she undertook some years later. On her return to +England, she became head of a London hospital for women. + + [1] Kaiserswerth. + +But before you hear about her work, and how she nursed our soldiers, you +must know about the war in the Crimea, how our soldiers were wounded, and +why they wanted good nursing. + +For several years a dispute had been going on between Russia and Turkey, +and at last Russia pushed her troops into Turkey, and Turkey declared war. +England and France had promised some time before to help Turkey if she +needed help, and now they found themselves at war. English and French +steamers kept hurrying backwards and forwards from the Black Sea to try +and make peace;--but it was impossible; so armies were sent, and Lord +Raglan, who had lost one arm at Waterloo, fighting under the great Duke of +Wellington, was given the command of the English army. Now at the south of +Russia is a peninsula called the Crimea, and the allied armies of England, +France, and Turkey knew that if they could take a large town in the Crimea +called Sebastopol, the Russian fleet in the Black Sea would be rendered +powerless for a long time. So they chose this town for their attack. But +they were divided from it by the river Alma, and here the Russian army +was posted in great strength on a line of steep rocky hills on the other +side of the river. They thought that the English and French would never +dare to cross the river in the face of their fire. But the allied armies +were very brave. The order was given to cross the river; the men waded the +stream, and, under a deadly fire from the Russians, they scaled the +heights bravely. The Russians were brave, but badly commanded, and before +long they fled, leaving the allied armies victorious. The English had +fought their first battle, gained their first victory in the Crimea, and a +loud British cheer rose from the troops as they stood on the well-won +heights, and struck terror into the hearts of the retreating Russians. Our +soldiers had fought nobly, but three thousand lay dead or wounded on the +field of battle. + +Great were the rejoicings in England when news of the victory arrived, but +the joy was mixed with sorrow at the terrible accounts of the English +soldiers who were wounded so badly on the field. All night the doctors +worked, trying to dress their wounds, and relieve their pain, and have +them carried to hospitals and tents. But the work was enormous, and there +were not enough doctors to perform it, and no proper nurses to take charge +of the hospitals. The cry for doctors and nurses reached England, and +England responded readily to the call. Many Englishwomen offered +themselves to go out and nurse the sick soldiers, and their offer was +accepted by the Government. + +One of the first to volunteer was Miss Nightingale, and owing to her great +experience she was entrusted with choice of nurses, and the leadership of +them. It was a difficult matter to choose the fittest nurses out of the +many who offered themselves, but at last the work was done, and one +October day Miss Nightingale and thirty-seven nurses left Folkestone by +steamer for the East. They were received by a crowd at Boulogne to wish +them "God speed" on their mission, and then some of the chief citizens +entertained them at dinner. The fisherwomen of Boulogne in their plain +bright skirts and coloured shawls, carried all the luggage themselves up +from the steamer, amid the cheers of the people. + +All through France the nurses were received with sympathy and respect; for +France and England were joined in a common cause, and France had already +sent out nurses for their sick soldiers. + +Then Miss Nightingale and her little band sailed from Marseilles to +Constantinople. They had a very stormy passage, but arrived at +Constantinople on November 4th, 1854, on the eve of another great battle. + +The battle of Balaclava--made famous by the Charge of the Light Brigade, +in which so many brave lives were lost through a mistaken order--was over, +but November 5th, the day after Miss Nightingale arrived, was to be made +famous by another splendid victory over the Russians. + +It was a misty winter morning, and the day had hardly dawned, when the +Russians advanced, sure of victory, to the plateau of Inkermann, where a +scanty British force was collected. So thick was the fog that the English +knew nothing till, in overwhelming numbers, the Russians appeared pressing +up the hill. At once the fighting began, and the soldiers bravely kept +their post, driving back the Russians time after time as they mounted the +slopes. All day the battle lasted, and the English were getting exhausted +when a French army arrived, and the Russians were soon in full retreat, +having been beaten by an army taken unawares and only a fourth part of +their own number. This battle is famous because the soldiers, not the +generals, won the day. + +The wounded soldiers were taken to the hospital at Scutari, where Miss +Nightingale had only just arrived. + +The hospital was already full; two miles of space were occupied by beds, +and there were over two thousand sick and wounded soldiers. Then the +wounded from Inkermann were brought across the water, and landed at the +pier; those who could, walked to the great barrack hospital; those who +were too badly hurt to walk were carried on stretchers up the steep hill +leading to the hospital. It was a large square building outside, and +inside were large bare wards with rows and rows of closely packed beds. +There seemed no room for the heroes of Inkermann, but beds were made up +all along the passages as close as possible, and the wounded men were laid +in them. + +It was a cheering sight to the sick soldiers to see Miss Nightingale and +the nurses moving about the wards. They all wore aprons, and bands with +"Scutari Hospital" marked on them, plain skirts and white caps. The men +had never been nursed by women before, only by men, some of them very +rough, some knowing nothing of sickness and unable to dress their wounds. +But these nurses moved about from bed to bed, quickly and quietly, +attending to each sufferer in turn, and working for hours and hours with +no rest. Some of the soldiers were too ill even to know where they were, +until they slowly returned to life, and found themselves no longer lying +on the battle-field, but in the hospital, being cared for and looked after +by Miss Nightingale or one of her band. The nurses had a hard time of it; +the Turkish bread was so sour they could hardly eat it; what butter they +had was bad, and the meat, one of them said, "was more like moist leather +than food." + +But they worked on through the day, often through the night as well, +carrying out the doctor's orders, giving medicine, supplying lint and +bandages, and giving lemonade to the thirsty soldiers. There was barely +room to pass between the beds,--so closely were they packed. Here and +there a little group of doctors would stand over a bed talking over a bad +case, while those soldiers who could walk would go to the bed of a +comrade, to help pass some of the long hours away. + +The winter was bitterly cold. The men on the bleak heights before +Sebastopol were only half fed, their clothes were in rags, they had to +sleep on the damp ground, and toil for many hours every day in the +trenches ankle deep in water and mud. Many hundreds died, many more +sickened, and were taken to the hospital. Besides the large kitchen which +supplied all the general food, the nurses had another, where jelly, +arrowroot, soup, broth, and chickens were cooked for those who were too +ill to eat the usual hospital fare. Here Miss Nightingale would cook +herself, if there were some urgent case, and with her own hands feed the +sick and dying men. She had a great power of command over the soldiers; +many a time _her_ influence helped a wounded man through the dreaded +operations. He would sooner die than meet the knife of the surgeon. Then +Miss Nightingale would encourage him to be brave, and, while she stood +beside him, he, with lips closely set and hands folded, set himself for +_her_ sake to endure the necessary pain. And the soldiers would watch her +gliding down the wards, and long for their turn to come, when she would +stand by their special bed and perhaps speak some special word to them. + +Then the men under her, the orderlies who had to obey her in everything, +did it without a murmur. + +"During all that dreadful period" not one of them failed her in devotion, +obedience, ready attention; for her sake they toiled and endured, as they +would not have toiled and endured for anyone else. + +"Never," she said, "never came from any one of them a word or look which a +gentleman would not have used," and the tears would come into her eyes as +she thought how amid those terrible scenes of suffering, disease, and +death, these men, accustomed to use bad language, perhaps to swear, never +once used a bad expression which might have distressed her--their "Lady in +Chief." But Miss Nightingale had very uphill work; among other things, +when she first went to the hospital, she found there was no laundry, and +only seven shirts had been washed belonging to the soldiers; so she had a +laundry formed as soon as possible, and there was a grand improvement in +the cleanliness of the hospital. + +One December day great excitement ran through the wards of the great +Scutari hospital, when it became known that a letter from the Queen had +arrived. + +"I wish," wrote the Queen, "Miss Nightingale and the ladies to tell these +poor noble wounded and sick men, that no one takes a warmer interest, or +feels more for their sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism more +than their Queen. Day and night she thinks of her beloved troops." Copies +of this letter were made, and read aloud in each ward, and as the last +words, followed by "God save the Queen," were uttered, a vigorous "Amen" +rose from the sick and dying men. They liked the Queen's sympathy, and +they loved to think, in that far-off land, that England was thinking of +them. + +The rejoicings in the wards over an English newspaper were great; small +groups of soldiers would collect round the stove, while one would stand in +the middle, perhaps with only one arm, or his head bound up, and read to +his eager listeners the news of England and the news of the war, which was +still being waged around them, and in which they were keenly interested. +For the long siege of Sebastopol, in which many of them had taken part, +was still going on. In the spring came the unexpected news of the death of +Nicholas, Emperor of Russia. "Nicholas is dead--Nicholas is dead!" was +murmured through the wards, and the news travelled quickly from bed to +bed. + +"How did he die?" cried some. "Well," exclaimed one soldier, "I'd rather +have that news than a month's pay!" One man burst into tears, and slowly +raising his hands, he clasped them together, and sobbed out "Thank God!" + +In the summer Miss Nightingale went to visit the camp hospitals near +Balaclava and to take some nurses there. She rode up the heights on a +pony, while some men followed with baggage for the hospitals, and she was +warmly greeted by the sick soldiers. A little later she was seized with +fever, and carried on a litter to one of the hut hospitals, where she lay +for some time in high fever. When at last she was well enough to be moved, +she was carried down and placed on board a vessel bound for England. But +she felt there was more work to be done, and though still weak and ill she +returned to her post at the Barrack Hospital. + +In the autumn of 1855 the interest among the soldiers became intense, as +it was known that Sebastopol could not hold out much longer. + +At last in September it was announced that Sebastopol was a heap of ruins. +The effect in the wards was electric. "Sebastopol has fallen," was the one +absorbing thought. Dying men sat up in their beds, and clasped their +hands, unable to utter more than the one word "Sebastopol." "Would that I +had been in at the last," murmured one, wounded while the siege was yet +going on. + +With the fall of Sebastopol the war was at an end, and peace was signed +the following spring. But Miss Nightingale still remained at Scutari, till +the English had finally left Turkey in the summer of 1856. England had +resolved to give her a public welcome, but she shrank from it, and quietly +arrived at her home in Derbyshire unrecognized. But England wanted to show +her gratitude to her in some way for the good work she had done, and the +soldiers wanted to share. So a fund was started, called the "Nightingale +Fund." And very heartily did all join in the home movement. The soldiers, +both those who were wounded and those who were not, gave all they could, +so universal was the feeling of thankfulness and gratitude to Miss +Nightingale, who had given up so much for their sakes, and risked her life +to ease their sufferings and cheer their long hours of pain. + +At Miss Nightingale's special wish the Fund was devoted to the formation +of a training-school for nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital in London. For up +to this time no woman could be properly trained in England, and there were +not many who could afford to go to the training home on the Rhine in +Germany. + +The Queen presented Miss Nightingale with a beautiful jewel; it was +designed by the Prince Consort; the word "Crimea" was engraved on it, and +on the back were the words, "To Florence Nightingale, as a mark of esteem +and gratitude for her devotion towards the Queen's brave soldiers. From +Victoria R., 1855." + +In 1858 she wrote a book called "Notes on Nursing," and it soon became +very popular; in it she tries to show how much harm is done by _bad_ +nursing. + +"Every woman," she says, "or at least almost every woman in England has at +one time or another of her life charge of the personal health of somebody, +in other words every woman is a nurse." And then she tells the women of +England, what a good nurse ought to be, how quiet and clean, how obedient +to the doctor's orders, how careful about food and air. "Windows are made +to open, doors are made to shut," she remarks, and if nurses remembered +this oftener, it would be better and happier for their patients. + +But her life was chiefly lived in those two years at the Scutari hospital; +the many difficulties she met with at first, the struggle against dirt and +bad food, the enormous amount of extra work to be got through in the day +because others would not do their full share, the terribly anxious cases +she had to nurse,--all these told on her health. + +"I have been a prisoner to my room from illness for years," she tells us, +but she did more good, brave, noble work in those two years than many a +woman has done in a lifetime. + +One of our poets has written about Miss Nightingale. He was reading one +night of the "great army of the dead" on the battle-fields of the Crimea, + + "The wounded from the battle plain + In dreary hospitals of pain, + The cheerless corridors, + The cold and stony floors," + +and as he pictured this desolate scene, he seemed to see a lady with a +little lamp moving through the "glimmering gloom," softly going from bed +to bed; he saw the "speechless sufferer" turn to kiss her shadow, as it +fell upon the darkened walls. And then he adds: + + "A Lady with a Lamp shall stand + In the great history of the land, + A noble type of good, + Heroic Womanhood." + + +CHISWICK PRESS:--C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COUNT, CHANCERY LANE. + + + + +THE YORK READERS + + +An entirely new series of PRIMERS and READERS, beautifully printed in a +specially bold and clear type, and illustrated throughout in colours and +in black and white. The volumes are strongly and artistically bound in +cloth covers. + +The INFANT PRIMERS and READERS comprise the following: + + York Primer, No. 1 24 pp. 3_d._ + York Primer, No. 2 32 pp. 4_d._ + York Infant Reader 64 pp. 6_d._ + York Introductory Reader 96 pp. 8_d._ + York Reader, Book I (_for Stand. I_) 128 pp. 9_d._ + York Reader, Book II (_for Stand. II_) 160 pp. 10_d._ + York Reader, Book III (_for Stand. III_) 1_s._ + York Reader, Book IV (_for Stand. IV_) 1_s._ 3_d._ + York Reader, Book V (_for Standards V, VI, and VII_) 1_s._ 6_d._ + +The subject matter is well graduated, and includes from the first book +simple and entertaining lessons on Nature. The object throughout the +series has been to encourage the observing faculties of the children. The +conversational style is largely introduced, without being obtrusive. The +Word-building Exercises are thoroughly graduated, and simple Outline +Drawings (white on black) are introduced. These are all illustrative of +the text, and should encourage "Drawing from Memory." + +The INTRODUCTORY READER is written to meet a long-felt want in Infant +Schools, viz., a book suitable for the more advanced children in the 1st +Class, and at the same time preparatory to Standard I. + + + +BELL'S BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS + +Price SIXPENCE each. + +The special feature of these Books is that, even from the most elementary +grade, they possess the interest which a connected narrative, however +simple in wording, seldom fails to excite; and by this means make the +reading-lesson a pleasure instead of a dull piece of routine. + + +_Suitable for Infants._ + + AESOP'S FABLES. Chosen and retold in easy words, by A. P. 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