IX. AT GEOFFREY'S WINDOW 75 X. A FAMOUS KITCHEN BOY 85 CHRONOLOGY 101 ILLUSTRATIONS MEDIEVAL LONDON _Frontispiece_ (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.) KINGS IN ARMOR _Page_ 27 (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.) HENRY III. SAILING HOME FROM GASCONY, 1243 " 61 (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.) KNIGHT IN ARMOR " 87 (From Green's _Short History of the English People_.) INTRODUCTION Supposing you were asked to enter a Great Palace? And within that palace, you were told, were more than a thousand golden doors? And those doors opened into rooms and upon gardens and balconies, all of which were the most beautiful of palace rooms and gardens? And some were more beautiful than anything the world had ever known before? Do you think you would go through the gate to that palace? And if you were told that in the palace were lamps so bright that they lighted not only the palace, but cast a glow over the whole world? And that these lamps hung from chains the ends of which you could not see, just as Pryderi was not able to see the ends of the hanging golden chains in the palace which he entered? And once within the Great Palace you were not only better for being there, but also happier and stronger and more beautiful, and never any more could you be lonely? It sounds like an Aladdin's lamp, does it not, which, once seen and touched, could bring so much beauty and power into our lives! Indeed, it is Aladdin's lamp--the lamp of men's minds and souls. And the Great Palace is the Palace of English Literature.