Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the Marches

Under One Sceptre
Or
Mortimer's Mission
The Story of the Lord of the Marches
EMILY SARAH HOLT
AUTHOR OF MISTRESS MARGERY, THE WHITE ROSE OF LANGLEY, ETC.
The gesture was heroic. If his hand Accomplished nothing—well, it is not proved— That empty hand thrown impotently out Were sooner caught, I think, by One in Heaven, Than many a hand that reaped a harvest in, And keeps the scythe's glow on it. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
NEW EDITION
LONDON JOHN F. SHAW AND CO. 48 PATERNOSTER ROW 1899
PREFACE.
A great authority once pronounced Don Quixote to be the saddest book ever written. The very word quixotic has come to imply not only unusual, but absurd action. Yet what would the world be if all the Quixotes, secular or religious, were taken out of it? There are not a few of them among the ranks of those of whom the highest authority has pronounced that the world is not worthy. They generally come to be understood at last—but it is often not till the next century.
This is the story of a Don Quixote who lived, fought, and died, five hundred years ago. Like his prototype, he too tilted with the windmills and tried to liberate the captive lions. And the windmills stood firm against his spear, and the lions turned upon and tore him. It usually is so. The energy seems totally wasted—the heroism vain and lost. Yet now and then the windmill falls, discovered to be really an enchanter's castle, revealing rotten foundations and evil things: and then men remember the dead knight who gave the first stroke. Or, more often, they do not remember him.