CHAPTER VII.
The children never failed to join their mamas at the usual time, and sometimes were almost inclined to believe it was dark, and time to shut the shutters, earlier than the ladies wished. This evening they had a lesson in good humor, for a visitor stayed so long that the period for commencing arrived and passed, without his giving any signs of leaving; but he was scarcely down stairs before they began to arrange themselves round the fire.
"While Mr. White was here, mama," said Edward, "I formed our first picture."
"I noticed," remarked his aunt, "that you were the quietest of the party, and it is now accounted for. By exercising your mind, you ensured polite behaviour. We are all quite ready to listen."
"Although I wish to represent a field of battle, I shall only call your attention to one part of it. A single, armed man is fighting desperately for his life; his helmet is so beaten by the blows it has received, that all shape is lost. He seems to desire to aim his chief fury at a person apparently of some importance, who shews no disposition to meet the attack: his followers, however, are less scrupulous, and he is killed on the banks of a brook which long remained stained with his blood."
"What was your hero like, Edward?"
"There seems," he replied, "a difference of opinion on that point. Some historians say that although his features were homely, the expression was princely and sensible; others inform us, that he was deformed, and unpleasing in every way."
The next question was, "Do most of them agree in saying that he had one shoulder higher than the other, and was sometimes called Crookback?"
"Yes. But who can tell me what he exclaimed as he rushed on to the Earl of Richmond?"
"Treason! Treason! Treason!" readily cried Willie.
"As you are in such a hurry to answer, Willie, you shall entertain us next," said his mother.
"Certainly, mama, I have a story quite ready; and you must all fancy you see a sacred edifice, which has been the scene of many of our interesting historical annals. We are on the outside, and against its holy walls we see a scaffold erected, but there is no execution to be perpetrated. A youth of singularly dignified and fascinating appearance stands with a paper in his hand, from which he reads a declaration to the crowds, who have flocked from all quarters."
This story puzzled the children for a long time; even the ladies could not at first remember the fact. "Was he a king?" asked one.
"No; he on that occasion confessed that he was not of royal blood."
"Was he the only impostor obliged to relinquish his pretensions in that reign?" enquired Mrs. Arabin.
The answer that he was the second, solved the mystery.
Annie next took her turn, and gave an account of the meeting of two kings. It was in another country, although the ground on which it took place belonged to the English; the different suites were lodged around their respective masters. At the moment I have selected, the two latter appear to have been wrestling; one has been conquered, and has fallen; he is of a fresh and ruddy complexion, and of an athletic form, which shew great expertness in his companion to have vanquished him."
"It is certainly an uncommon thing," said Willie, "for two monarchs to fight like schoolboys; is it really in English history?"
Wolsey arriving at Leicester.
"Yes. I have merely related facts; they gave more than one proof of their familiarity, and one had a few days before gone to the other early in the morning whilst he was yet asleep. This unceremonious visit seems to have produced the freedom of intercourse I have just described."
"Whom can you mean, Annie?"
"I think I can tell you," said Emily; "the incident you have mentioned was at the time believed to be a mere jest, but the vanquished never entirely forgave his opponent; they were a French and an English king."
"You have discovered the truth," replied Mrs. Macdonald, "and I will now continue. A cavalcade has approached an abbey; a sick man, scarcely able to bear the exertion, is mounted on a mule; he shows every symptom of approaching death, but even then his former life might be traced in the troubled expression still visible on his face; his days have been spent in intrigues. The entreaty for admission into the monastery is granted, and the abbot kindly receives him. He is lifted from the mule, and carried to his bed, from which he never rose again."
"The only similar instance I can now remember," said Edward, "is that of Charles V., and this would be the history of Germany instead of England."
"You have," rejoined his aunt, "guessed the period of my account nearer than you think. Charles V. went to the monastery of St. Justus some time before his death, which was in the year 1558; the person I have brought before your notice was taken to Leicester Abbey almost in his last hours, and it was twenty-eight years before the emperor's death."
"I think," added Mrs. Arabin, "both were more than once concerned in the same schemes and intrigues."
"Was not your hero disappointed of becoming a pope, mama?"
"I see by your question that he is known to you. This prelate's ambition and consequent life of struggle, affords one of the strongest lessons in history, and his latter days were rendered miserable by the passions of his earlier career. I think, Mary, you must remember his rooms at Hampton Court."
"Yes, I do, mama; a beautiful carved wood screen was said to have belonged to him."
"I will now resume our game," said Mrs. Arabin. "A lady is seen sitting with one attendant, who appears to have been trying to lighten her cares by playing a mandolin; but her mistress's brow, although serene, is overcast; she knows she has been treated unjustly; she may also mourn for a little daughter, whose prospects are blighted by her mother's troubles. There are traces of splendor around, and the books and employments of the recluse convince us of her talents and accomplished tastes."
"Do you mean Lady Jane Grey, aunt?"
"No, my dear; my heroine had numbered more years than the poor young creature of whom you are thinking."
"Was she a queen?"
"She had been."
"Then I can tell you; she was the divorced wife of a king of England. Do please, Louisa, make haste, and we can have one more anecdote before tea, although we were so late in beginning."
"I must not hurry my story too much, or you will not be able to guess it. Picture to yourselves a garden, which in the days I speak of would have been considered a beautiful specimen of horticulture, but which we should now think stiff and formal; the long, straight, broad walks, however, present an appearance of grandeur, which we see in none of the present day. A pulpit had been placed among the green boughs, from which a holy and venerable man is preaching to a small congregation; in the centre of the group is a young man, so attentively listening that hours have past away, and he is not yet tired. His countenance is remarkably attractive and beautiful, especially his eyes, whilst religious reverence for the doctrine he hears, is shewn in his whole deportment."
"Going to church in the open air!" exclaimed Alfred; "I am very glad, mama, that you do not take me to a beautiful garden every Sunday; I am afraid I should watch the birds and butterflies instead of listening."
"I trust, my dear child," replied his mother, "that in these happier days, we may never know the privation of not having a house of God to enter."
"Could not this young gentleman find one, mama?"
"Not so easily as we could; the religion we profess was not then so firmly established, although Louisa's hero did all in his power to spread it throughout his dominions. But I believe his habit of attending Latimer in the royal garden, was from preferring the open air to the more confined atmosphere of a chapel."
"Thank you, mama, you have told us of whom Louisa was thinking; your mentioning Latimer and the royal gardens tells the secret."
"I certainly did not mean to enlighten you; but I am glad I have done so, as now you need not keep poor baby waiting for her tea."
1. Death of Richard III. A.D. 1485.
2. Perkin Warbeck's public declaration of his imposture. A.D. 1499.
3. Henry VIII. and Francis I. meeting on the "Field of the Cloth of Gold."
4. Death of Cardinal Wolsey. A.D. 1530.
5. Catherine of Aragon. A.D. 1536.
6. Edward VI. and Bishop Latimer. A.D. 1553.