ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR BY

FLORENCE CHOATE
AND
ELIZABETH CURTIS

CUPPLES AND LEON COMPANY
NEW YORK

Copyright, 1920, by Frederick A. Stokes Company

All rights reserved. No part of this
work may be reproduced without the
written permission of the publishers
Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE

It would be pleasant indeed to gather the characters of this book together and listen to the conversation of wholly different but interested couples—for this is a book of contrasts and has been written as such. Lives of the most dramatic and adventurous quality have been gathered from all corners of the earth, and from every age in history, in such a way that they may cover the widest possible variety of human experience.

The publishers believe that such a book would not be complete without some characters that are no less real because they have lived only in the minds of men. No explanation is needed for semi-historical characters like King Arthur, Robin Hood and William Tell, while Don Quixote, the Prince of Madness, and Rip Van Winkle, the Prince of Laziness, have been included, not because they were essentially heroic in themselves (although Don Quixote might well have claimed the laurel) but because they became heroes in the opinion of others through the very qualities that brought about their downfall. As involuntary heroes, they furnish a pleasant contrast to the more serious, actual and transcendental figures of saints, martyrs, warriors, discoverers and statesmen with which these pages are filled; they enrich the "Treasury," widen its range of colors and perform the necessary function of court jesters in the Hall of Fame.

CONTENTS

HEROES OF REALITY

CHAPTER PAGE
I Buddha [ 1]
II Julius Cæsar [ 12]
III Saint Patrick [ 26]
IV King Arthur of Britain [ 33]
V Mohammed [ 42]
VI Alfred the Great [ 52]
VII Robin Hood [ 65]
VIII Saint Elizabeth of Hungary [ 72]
IX Dante [ 80]
X Robert Bruce [ 89]
XI Jeanne d'Arc [ 100]
XII Christopher Columbus [ 114]
XIII William the Silent [ 127]
XIV Queen Elizabeth of England [ 137]
XV Sir Francis Drake [ 146]
XVI Henry Hudson [ 156]
XVII Peter the Great [ 165]
XVIII George Washington [ 172]
XIX John Paul Jones [ 187]
XX Molly Pitcher [ 196]
XXI Napoleon Bonaparte [ 201]
XXII Giuseppe Garibaldi [ 216]
XXIII Abraham Lincoln [ 223]
XXIV Grace Darling [ 236]
XXV Florence Nightingale [ 241]
XXVI Father Damien [ 248]
XXVII Catherine Breshkovsky [ 254]
XXVIII Theodore Roosevelt [ 262]
XXIX Edith Cavell [ 272]
XXX King Albert of Belgium [ 278]
XXXI Maria Botchkareva [ 286]
HEROES OF FICTION
XXXII William Tell [ 297]
XXXIII Don Quixote [ 304]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Jeanne d'Arc drew the arrow from her breast with the courage of a veteran" [ Frontispiece]
FACING PAGE
"King Arthur grasped the magic sword that none but the bravest might hold" [ 36]
"Robin Hood's band made merry by killing the King's deer" [ 68]
"'I have not yet begun to fight,' shouted Paul Jones" [ 188]
"The cannon balls fired by Molly Pitcher fell squarely in the British lines" [ 196]
"Don Quixote suffered nobody to draw water from the well" [ 276]