The series of historical stories to which this volume belongs was prepared in conformity with the foregoing recommendations and with the best practice of leading schools. It has been the aim of the authors to make an interesting story of each man's life and to tell these stories in a style so simple that pupils in the lower grades will read them with pleasure, and so dignified that they may be used with profit as text-books for reading. Teachers who find it impracticable to give to the study of mythology and biography a place of its own in an already overcrowded curriculum usually prefer to correlate history with reading and for this purpose the volumes of this series will be found most desirable. The value of the illustrations can scarcely be over-estimated. They will be found to surpass in number and excellence anything heretofore offered in a school-book. For the most part they are reproductions of world-famous pictures, and for that reason the artists' names are generally affixed. CONTENTS Introduction THE GODS OF THE TEUTONS THE NIBELUNGS Chapter I ALARIC THE VISIGOTH (394-410 A.D.) II ATTILA THE HUN (433-453 A.D.) III GENSERIC THE VANDAL (427-477 A.D.) IV THEODORIC THE OSTROGOTH (475-526 A.D.) V CLOVIS (481-511 A.D.) VI JUSTINIAN (527-565 A.D.) VII MOHAMMED (570-632 A.D.) VIII CHARLES MARTEL AND PEPIN (714-768 A.D.) IX CHARLEMAGNE (768-809 A.D.) X HARUN-AL-RASCHID (786-809 A.D.) XI EGBERT THE SAXON (802-837 A.D.) XII ROLLO THE VIKING (Died 931 A.D.) XIII ALFRED THE GREAT (871-901 A.D.) XIV HENRY THE FOWLER (919-936 A.D.) XV CANUTE THE GREAT (1014-1035) XVI THE CID (1040-1099) XVII EDWARD THE CONFESSOR (1042-1066) XVIII WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR (1066-1087) XIX PETER THE HERMIT (1050-1115) XX FREDERICK BARBAROSSA (1152-1190) XXI HENRY THE SECOND AND HIS SONS (1154-1216) XXII LOUIS IX (1226-1270) XXIII ROBERT BRUCE (1306-1329) XXIV MARCO POLO (1254-1324) XXV EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE (1330-1376) XXVI WILLIAM TELL AND ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED (1300-1386) XXVII TAMERLANE (1333-1405) XXVIII HENRY V (1413-1422) XXIX JOAN OF ARC (1412-1431) XXX GUTENBERG (1400-1468) XXXI WARWICK THE KING-MAKER (1428-1471) INTRODUCTION THE GODS OF THE TEUTONS