I have consulted all the authorities I could find, in order to give as accurate a picture of the time as possible. I don't know that it is needful to mention all, but the "Tournois du Roi René d'Anjou," "The Memoirs of St Palaye," "The Boke of St Albans," Sir Thomas Malory's "Mort d'Arthur," and "La joyeuse hystoire du bon Chevalier, le gentil Seigneur de Bayart," have been my chief sources for knightly feats and the accessories of chivalry; while the chroniclers Halle, Grafton, Fabyan, Stowe, Philip de Commines, Bouchet, and the Paston Letters, have been my chief historical guides. Lord Bacon has surveyed the whole period from a loftier standpoint, and in his "Reigne of Henry VIIth," has presented us with a stately specimen of the art of writing history; although, as an old manuscript note in my edition briefly puts it, "it is somewhat more of a picture of a polished prince than a history exactly true, more vouchers and fewer speeches would have given it more strength, though less beauty."

It must be a subject of interest to the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight to know that, in writing of that fatal expedition to Brittany, every one of the old historians speak of the bravery of the predecessors, and, in many cases, the ancestors, of the present dwellers in the island.

It is to be deplored that there is no original account of the expedition of the four hundred, such as exists in the "Herald's" account of the expedition to Dixmude, preserved in John Leland's Collectanea, which happened in the same year (1488). I have tried laboriously to find out the names of the chief inhabitants of the Isle of Wight at that time; but owing to the great danger and discomfort there was in living in the island during the 15th century, arising from the constantly threatened invasions of the French, and their many actual occupations of the island, the chief families appear either to have become extinct in that period, or to have retired to the mainland.

It is also worthy of note, to see how many times the chief manors passed into new families through the female line. This fact is very significant of the troubled state of the times. It was not that the manhood of the island ceased for want of sons, but that these sons met a violent death in the many wars of that age.

In conclusion, I may add that, while the story is mainly written for the young, with which object in view I have paid less attention to the delineation of character than the animation of incident, and the variety of the scene, I trust their elders may also find information about a romantic episode in our local and national history.

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

  1. [HOW THE GERFALCON SPED]
  2. [HOW THE FLEDGLING LEFT THE NEST]
  3. [OF THE FLEDGLING REJOICING IN HIS FREEDOM]
  4. [HOW THE FLEDGLING GREW TO A COCKEREL]
  5. [OF THE COMING TO THE ISLE OF WIGHT]
  6. [HOW THEY CAME TO CARISBROOKE CASTLE]
  7. [HOW THE COCKEREL SHOWED FIGHT]
  8. [HOW THE COCKEREL GOT A FALL]
  9. [HOW THE COCKEREL LEARNT HARDIHOOD]
  10. [HOW THE COCKEREL VAUNTED HIMSELF]
  11. [HOW JOYOUSLY LIFE GOETH]
  12. [HOW THE COCKEREL FELT HE WAS BUT A COCKEREL]
  13. [OF THE SHARPENING OF THE COCKEREL'S SPURS]
  14. [HOW THE COCKEREL USED HIS SPURS]
  15. [HOW THE COCKEREL CROWED]
  16. [HOW THE COCKEREL WAS PETTED]
  17. [HOW THEY WERE AT FAULT]
  18. [HOW THE RUSTY KNIGHT LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON HIS WRATH]
  19. [OF THE PERPLEXITY OF THE LITTLE MAID]
  20. [HOW THE CAPTAIN KEPT TRYST]
  21. [OF THE COMBAT *À OUTRANCE*]
  22. [OF THE VOICE OF THE CHARMER]
  23. [HOW THEY LEFT THE WIGHT]
  24. [OF LA "BEALE FRANCE"]
  25. [OF ST AUBIN DU CORMIER]
  26. [HOW "THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST WERE A' WEDE AWAY"]
  27. ["OF THE CRAWLING TIDE"]
  28. [HOW THE MIST ROSE IN TERQUETÉ BAY]
  29. [HOW THERE'S NO CLOUD WITHOUT ITS SILVER LINING]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

["WHAT ART THOU?" STAMMERED THE PAGE] Front.