'I was once more in the power of the French, and I believe it would have gone hard with me had I been brought back to Brest, but, by good fortune, we were retaken by the Viper. I had almost forgot to tell you that in that engagement I was wounded in two places; I lost four fingers off my left hand, and my leg was shot off. If I had had the good fortune to have lost my leg and use of my hand on board a king's ship instead of on board a privateer, I should have been entitled to clothing and maintenance during the rest of my life, but that was not my chance: one man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and another with a wooden ladle. However, blessed be God! I enjoy good health, and will for ever love liberty and old England. Liberty, property, and old England for ever, huzza!'

Thus saying, he limped off, leaving me in admiration of his intrepidity* and content; nor could I avoid acknowledging that an habitual acquaintance with misery serves better than philosophy to teach us to despise it.

*Intrepidity, bravery.

THE LOSS OF THE WHITE SHIP

A. D. 1120.

(CHARLES DICKENS.)

*

AND now his queen, Maud the Good, unhappily died. It was a sad thought for that gentle lady, that the only hope with which she had married a man whom she had never loved the hope of reconciling the Norman and English races-had failed. At the At the very time of her death, Normandy and all France was in arms against England; for, so soon as his last danger was over, King Henry had been false to all the French powers he had promised, bribed, and bought, and they had naturally united against him. After some fighting, however, in which few suffered but the unhappy common people, who always suffered, whatsoever was the matter, he began to promise, bribe, and buy again; and by those means, and by the help of the Pope, who exerted himself to save more bloodshed, and by solemnly de

* Henry I. was youngest son of William the Norman, conqueror of England. His wife Maud was niece of Edgar, of the old royal race of England.

claring, over and over again, that he really was in earnest this time, and would keep his word, the king made peace.

*

One of the first consequences of this peace was, that the king went over to Normandy with his son Prince William and a great retinue to have the prince acknowledged as his successor by the Norman nobles, and to contract the promised marriage (this was one of the many promises the king had broken) between him and the daughter of the Count of Anjou. Both these things were triumphantly done, with great show and rejoicing; and, on the twenty-fifth of November, in the year one thousand one hundred and twenty, the whole retinue prepared to embark at the port of Barfleur, for the voyage home.

On that day, and at that place, there came to the king, Fitz-Stephen, a sea-captain, and said:

'My liege, my father served your father all his life upon the sea. He steered the ship with the golden boy upon the prow, in which your father sailed to conquer England.

I beseech you to grant me the same office. I

* Retinue, company.

† Liege, lord.

have a fair vessel in the harbour here, called the White Ship, manned by fifty sailors of renown. I pray you, sire, to let your servant have the honour of steering you in the White Ship to England.'

'I am sorry, friend,' replied the king, 'that my vessel is already chosen, and that I cannot, therefore, sail with the son of the man who served my father. father. But the prince and all his company shall go along with you in the fair White Ship, manned by the fifty sailors of renown.'

An hour or two afterwards, the king set sail in the vessel he had chosen, accompanied by other vessels, and, sailing all night with a fair and gentle wind, arrived upon the coast of England in the morning. While it was yet night, the people in some of those ships heard a faint wild cry come over the sea, and wondered what it was.

Now, the prince was a dissolute, debauched young man of eighteen, who bore no love to the English, and had declared that when he came to the throne he would yoke them to the plough like oxen. He went aboard the White Ship, with one hundred and forty youthful nobles like himself, among whom

were eighteen noble ladies of the highest rank. All this gay company, with their servants and the fifty sailors, made three hundred souls aboard the fair White Ship.

'Give three casks of wine, Fitz-Stephen,' said the prince, 'to the fifty sailors of renown. My father the king has sailed out of the harbour. What time is there to make merry here, and yet reach England with the rest?'

'Prince,' said Fitz-Stephen, 'before morning my fifty and the White Ship shall overtake the swiftest vessel in attendance on your father the king, if we sail at midnight!'

Then the prince commanded to make merry, and the sailors drank out the three casks of wine; and the prince and all the noble company danced in the moonlight on the deck of the White Ship.

When at last she shot out of the harbour of Barfleur, there was not a sober seaman on board. But the sails were all set, and the oars all going merrily. Fitz-Stephen had the helm. The gay young nobles, and the beautiful ladies, wrapped in mantles of various bright colours to protect them from the cold, talked, laughed, and sang. The prince en