Historic Boys: Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times

Part 1

Transcriber's note:

Text surrounded by underscores (_) is italic in the original; text surrounded by hashes (#) is bold in the original.

HISTORIC BOYS

Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times.

E. S. BROOKS.

Illustrated by R. B. Birch and John Schönberg.

AFTERWARD THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.

(From a bust in the Capitoline Museum.)]

London: Blackie & Son, 49 & 50 Old Bailey, E.C. Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin. 1886.

PREFACE.

The world's historic boys and girls have been many. In every age and clime may be found notable examples of young people who, even before they reached manhood or womanhood, have--for good or evil--left their impress on their time.

From these the author of this volume has selected the careers of a dozen young fellows of different lands and epochs, who, even had they not lived out their "teens," could have rightly claimed a place in the world's annals as Historic Boys. They are such also as show that, from the earliest ages, manliness and self-reliance have ever been the chief groundwork of character, and that in this respect the boy of the nineteenth century in no way differs from his brother of the second or the ninth. To bravely front danger, difficulty, or death, if need be, for principle or right, is as commendable and as heroic in the boy brought up amid the surging and restless life of London to-day, as in the lads who trod the narrow streets of Jerusalem, or Rouen, of Florence, or old Rome centuries ago.

These stories of boy life, in the stirring days of old, have been based upon historic facts and prepared with a due regard to historic and chronologic accuracy. Nine of the twelve stories have already appeared in St. Nicholas magazine, but these have been revised and amplified for their present use, while the remaining three were specially prepared for this volume.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

I.--MARCUS OF ROME: THE BOY MAGISTRATE, 1

II.--BRIAN OF MUNSTER: THE BOY CHIEFTAIN, 25

III.--OLAF OF NORWAY: THE BOY VIKING, 44

IV.--WILLIAM OF NORMANDY: THE BOY KNIGHT, 65

V.--BALDWIN OF JERUSALEM: THE BOY CRUSADER, 83

VI.--FREDERICK OF HOHENSTAUFEN: THE BOY EMPEROR, 104

VII.--HARRY OF MONMOUTH: THE BOY GENERAL, 126

VIII.--GIOVANNI OF FLORENCE: THE BOY CARDINAL, 154

IX.--IXTLIL' OF TEZCUCO: THE BOY CACIQUE, 178

X.--LOUIS OF BOURBON: THE BOY KING, 196

XI.--CHARLES OF SWEDEN: THE BOY CONQUEROR, 218

XII.--VAN RENSSELAER OF RENSSELAERSWYCK: THE BOY PATROON, 242

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Part 2

PAGE

Marcus Annius Verus, afterwards Emperor, from a bust in the Capitoline Museum, Frontispiece

Roman Lictors, 7

Annia, the Sister of Marcus, and her pets, 20

"The boy chieftain knelt and kissed the hem of the darling little maiden's purple robe," 36

The Castle of Falaise--Birthplace of William the Conqueror, 70

"'So, hollo, my lord duke,' said Hubert, 'what taketh thee abroad in this guise so early?'" 77

"'Thou the king!' he exclaimed; 'thou that Baldwin of Jerusalem whom men do call the hero of the Jordan!'" 88

Conrad the Emperor quitting the Crusade, 101

"'Cross at thy peril, Baron Kapparon,' cried Frederick of Hohenstaufen," 108

Prince Henry picks up the gage of the Percies' defiance.--"'This shall be my duty,' he said," 140

Hualpilli the Lord of Tezcuco reveals himself,--"'Now who shall say me nay?' he asked," 184

"I'll make them rue their words ere this day's sun cross the dome of the Smoking Hill," 190

Cradle of Charles the boy King of Sweden, 219

Eagle Flag of Sweden, 237

"'Suppawn and malck and rulliches, with chocolate and soft waffles, you know,' said Mistress Margery," 252

"The throng of tenants greeted him with a rousing birthday cheer," 256

HISTORIC BOYS.

MARCUS OF ROME: THE BOY MAGISTRATE.

(Afterward the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.)

A perfect autumn day. Above, the clear sky of Italy; below, a grassy plain, sloping gently down from the brown cliffs and ruined ramparts of old Veii--the city of the ancient Tuscan kings. In the background, under the shade of the oaks, a dozen waiting attendants; and here, in the open space before us, three trim and sturdy Roman youths, all flushed with the exercise of a royal game of ball. Come, boys and girls of to-day, go back with me seventeen and a half centuries, and join the dozen lookers-on as they follow this three-cornered game of ball. They call it the trigon. It is a favorite ball-game with the Roman youth, in which the three players, standing as if on a right-angled triangle, pitch and catch the ball, or pila, at long distances and with the left hand only. It is not so easy as you may think. Try it some time and see for yourself.

"This way--toss it this way, Aufidius; our good Sejus will need more lessons from old Trimalchio, the gladiator, ere he outranks us at trigon."

And with a quick but guarded dash of the left hand the speaker caught the ball as it came spinning toward him, and with as vigorous a "left-hander" sent it flying across to young Sejus.

"Faith, my Marcus," said Sejus, as he caught the ball with difficulty, "the gallop from Lorium has made me somewhat stiff of joint, and I pitch and catch but poorly. Keep the pila flying, and I may grow more elastic, though just now I feel much like our last text from Epictetus, that the good Rusticus gave us yesterday--'a little soul bearing about a corpse.'"

"What then! Art as stiff as that, old Sejus?" gayly shouted Aufidius. "Ho! brace thee up, man," he cried, as he sent the ball whirling across to Marcus; "brace thee up, and use rather the words of our wise young Stoic here--'Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the waters around it.'"

"'T is well applied, Aufidius. But--said I all that?" Marcus inquired.

"Ay, so didst thou, my Marcus. 'T is all down on my tablets." And with merry talk the game went on.

But soon old Ballio, the ordinarius, or upper servant, left the oak shade and said to Marcus: "Come, my master; the water-glass shows that we must soon ride on if we mean to reach Rome by dinner-time."

Part 3

So the game was broken off, and, after a few nibbles at the cakes and sweetmeats which one of the slaves carried to "stay the stomachs" of the travellers, the call "To horse!" was given, and the party moved on toward the city. The spirits of the lads ran high; and though the one called Marcus had a sedate and quiet look, he was roused into healthy and hearty boyishness as, over the Etruscan plains, they galloped on to Rome.

They had been riding, perhaps, a short half hour, when they saw, coming down a cross-road that entered the highway just beyond them, a large flock of sheep returning from their summer pasturage on the hills, in charge of three shepherds and their families. The game and the gallop had made the boys ripe for mischief; for, though close and patient students, they were in their hours of sport as ready for a frolic as are any schoolboys of to-day.

The shepherds, seeing a party of hard riders coming toward them, looked at their sheep anxiously and eyed the strangers suspiciously. For sheep-stealing was of common occurrence in those days, and, when changing pastures, the shepherds were kept constantly on the watch.

The quick eye of Aufidius marked the suspicions of the shepherds.

"Why, Marcus," he exclaimed, "yonder fellows surely take us for highwaymen."

"Highwaymen, indeed!" said Sejus, indignantly. "Dost think the knaves could mistake the noble Marcus Verus for a cowardly sheep-stealer."

"And why not," said Marcus, laughingly. "Man looks at man but as his reason bids him. If shepherds look but for sheep-stealers, to them, at first, all men are sheep-stealers. Come," he added, gayly, "let us not disappoint them. What did our teacher Rusticus tell us but yesterday: 'That which is a hinderance is made a furtherance to an act, and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on the road.' Shall we not put his text to the test? Behold our obstacle on the road! Let us ride down the sheep!"

The spirit of mischief is contagious. Down the highway dashed the whole party, following the lead of Marcus and his cry of "Forward, friends!" while the now terrified shepherds turned their huddling sheep around, and with many cries and much belaboring struggled back to the cross-road to escape the pretended robbers. But the swift horses soon overtook the slow-footed shepherds, and the laughing riders, with uplifted weapons and shouts of seeming victory, were quickly at the heels of the flock. Then came a change. The shepherds, finding that they could not outrun their pursuers, stopped, wheeled around, and stood on the defensive, laying valiantly about them with crook and staff.

"'Go on and increase in valor, O boy! this is the path to immortality,'" shouted the nimble Aufidius, and with this quotation from Virgil, he swooped down and caught up a struggling lamb.

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