The Little Duke: Richard the Fearless

Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by Janet Haselow, Marian Taylor and David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
RICHARD THE FEARLESS
by the author of “THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE,” etc.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
London MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited new york: the macmillan company
1905
All rights reserved
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, bread street hill, e.c., and bungay, suffolk.
Originally published elsewhere . Transferred in 1864. First Edition printed (S) for Macmillan and Co. November 1864 ( Pott 8 vo ). Reprinted 1869, 1872, 1873, 1876, 1878, 1881 ( Globe 8 vo ), 1883, 1885, 1886, 1889. New Edition 1891, ( Crown 8 vo ), 1892, 1894, 1895, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1903, 1905.
On a bright autumn day, as long ago as the year 943, there was a great bustle in the Castle of Bayeux in Normandy.
The hall was large and low, the roof arched, and supported on thick short columns, almost like the crypt of a Cathedral; the walls were thick, and the windows, which had no glass, were very small, set in such a depth of wall that there was a wide deep window seat, upon which the rain might beat, without reaching the interior of the room. And even if it had come in, there was nothing for it to hurt, for the walls were of rough stone, and the floor of tiles. There was a fire at each end of this great dark apartment, but there were no chimneys over the ample hearths, and the smoke curled about in thick white folds in the vaulted roof, adding to the wreaths of soot, which made the hall look still darker.