What is a holy shade, Edmund?”
“It is a poetical expression, my dear, meaning that we of the present day are grateful to the founder, Henry the Sixth, who was a religious, and probably a learned man, although very unfortunate as a king.”
“Oh,” cried Ellen, “I remember all about him; he was deposed by Edward the Fourth, whose two sons were afterwards murdered in the Tower by their wicked uncle, Richard the Third.”
“I remember that,” said Matilda, timidly, yet with that kind of pleasure which indicated a sense of approaching her superior in knowledge, and being sensible that this was the only kind of superiority worth possessing.
Scarcely, however, had she spoken, when Charles, throwing himself into a theatrical attitude, exclaimed—“Ay! but do you remember the man that looked like him—to this same Henry, ‘Who drew Priam’s curtains in the dead of night, and would have told him half his Troy was burnt?’”
“No, indeed,” said both the girls, staring.
Charles burst into a loud laugh at their innocent surprise at his violent gesticulation and grimace.
“I know what you mean,” said Ellen, rather poutingly; “yes, I know it very well, though I don’t choose to talk about things of that kind, because I have always been told that none but ignorant and foolish people did so.”
“But I entreat you,” said Charles, “to tell me what you think I mean, for I am sure you surprise me now as much as I did you.”
“Why, I suppose Henry’s holy shade means spirit, and it was that which drew Priam’s curtains in the dead of night, (or which he thought did,) though it was probably only the housemaid.”