E-text prepared by Brownfox and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 27157-h.htm or 27157-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/1/5/27157/27157-h/27157-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/7/1/5/27157/27157-h.zip) 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. by E. S. BROOKS. Illustrated by R. B. Birch and John Schoenberg. [Illustration: MARCUS ANNIUS VERUS, AFTERWARD THE EMPEROR MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. (_From a bust in the Capitoline Museum._)] [Illustration] London: Blackie & Son, 49 & 50 Old Bailey, E.C. Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin. 1886. [Illustration] 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