Ruins and Old Trees, Associated with Memorable Events in English HistoryRoberts, Mary
History
Ruins and Old Trees, Associated with Memorable Events in English History
Roberts, Mary
England -- Antiquities; England -- Description and travel; Trees -- England
The infant prince is about to be baptized, and this with no greater
ceremony than if he had been a poor man's child. A poor man's child might
have more to gladden him, smiling faces and fresh air, but around this son
of a throneless monarch are sad countenances and gloomy walls. No costly
gifts are presented, and for attendants there remain but one or two kind
friends, faithful among faithless thousands. No cloth of gold adorns the
Gothic font of hewn stone, round which the little band of fond and
faithful friends are gathered, while the sacred ceremony is performed by
the sub-prior, who gives to the young prince the name of his father. Those
who promise for him, poor child, that he shall renounce the pomps and
pleasures of the world, when his noble patrimony seems lost to him, are
his grandmother and the Lady Scrope, that devoted woman, who adheres to
the queen in all her trials. The good abbot, Thomas Milling, performs the
office of godfather, no other man being either willing or at hand to do
the desolate one that service.
Hark now to the sound of cheerful voices. They come from those who no
longer fear to be regarded as adherents of the house of York. King Edward
is returned, and with him a gallant company of gentlemen are seen pressing
onward to the sanctuary. One moment more, the bolted doors fly open, and
the king and queen, with their three little girls, are preparing to leave
the sanctuary; the infant prince, borne in the arms of his nurse, and his
blithe and gladsome sisters, making the old walls resound with their
joyous voices. Men speak much concerning the valorous conduct of Queen
Margaret, and all which she has done and suffered in order to replace her
husband on the throne. But they speak more of the gentle Elizabeth; how
she had sat down in meekness and in patience within the walls of that
dismal place, where murderers and traitors had harboured in other times,
waiting quietly till it pleased the Most High to send her better days,
sojourning, indeed, in trouble, heaviness, and sorrow, yet sustaining it
as became a Christian woman, having much to fear, yet hoping against
hope.[52]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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