men starved with hunger. Some lived on alms who had once been rich. Some fled the country. Never was there more misery, and never heathens acted worse than these.” So says the old chronicler in bitterness of spirit.
The third book in this group, “The Young Duke,” by Charlotte M. Yonge, though I speak of it last, belongs almost a century earlier, and does not enter England. But it tells of the great-grandfather of William the Conqueror, and it shows from: what sources he was descended, as well as the manners and spirit of Normandy when that duchy began to grow powerful.
Its hero is Richard, known as The Fearless, strong for the right, for generosity and kindness, known also as a gentle and true soul in an age when men were rough and savage. It is the boyhood of this “Young Duke” which we follow in Miss Yonge’s interesting pages. The tale is simply told, but it is crammed with adventure. It was a dangerous business to be a duke or a prince in those days, for many other men coveted and claimed, under one pretense or another, most of the thrones and titles of Europe; it was the strongest who held on, and usually he was killed off before his time, either by the treachery of a friend or on the field of battle. A child like our young Richard, who must depend on his friends rather than himself, ran a double danger.
Norman Richard was taken to the court of Louis IV of France as a hostage. At that time, the Normans were chiefly what the name implies, men from the North, Danes and Vikings from Norway, who had settled in this part of the Frank country. The true Franks liked them little enough, you may be sure, though there was an apparent peace between the two races. Louis and the French were, of course, more powerful in the beginning; but Normandy was growing stronger under its lusty dukes, until the French began to fear their wild and hardier neighbors.
So, in pretended friendliness, Louis takes Richard with him to the court of Laon, where the French kings then lived. He has two sons of his own, with whom Richard is to be educated. Just what befalls him, how he is treated by the young princes and the queen, who hates him Miss Yonge tells in a thrilling manner; finally he escapes, with the aid of one of his true friends and servitors. In time, the situation is completely reversed, and it is the young princes who become hostages in Richard’s own castle.
Wild and cruel as were those old times, there was none the less a spirit of noble Christianity in the world, a spirit showing strongly in several of the rulers and great men. Richard was among these choice souls, as was also his father, known as Duke William of the Long Sword. To be sure, both were usually at war, for war was the natural state of the world in the tenth century. But they strove to be in all things knightly, to forgive their enemies when possible, and to hold no private grudge, even where treachery and murder occurred.
The beauty of these three books is the picture you get from them of actual living conditions back there where England took root. You fee! the real heart-beat of the people, see them at their daily tasks, hear their speech, know for what they hope and struggle, and suffer with them in their losses and their griefs. There is nothing dry or stiff in any of the three. The writers loved their work, loved the strenuous researches necessary to get at their facts, and the study of strange old songs and chronicles, written in ancient tongues long passed away, or at least greatly altered.
You will get a great deal of enjoyment out of all these books, and a fair idea of the period. Next month, we will take up a later time in the life of England, and begin with Scott, who was the master of the historic novel.
