And in spite of the terrible sickness he had, as the consequence of all
he had endured, did Louis Seventeenth of France, actually live and
escape, to grow up a free citizen in a free country where were neither
kings, queens nor tyranny, but liberty, equality and fraternity, not in
word but in truth? Who can say positively when so much has been
affirmed on all sides of the much argued question?
Difficult, indeed, it is to decide whether little Louis Seventeenth,
the Dauphin of France, the king who never reigned, died in the Temple,
a victim of the Reign of Terror, or escaped to new lands and a new
life.
As we turn the pages of history and read the thrilling story, let each
decide for himself the fate of the courageous, charming little
sovereign. Each must study out the mystery, and solve the riddle if he
can. And whatever one may read or decide, there in the church of the
Madeleine in Paris, may be found this memorial to the little King who
never reigned.
IN MEMORY
of
LOUIS XVII
WHO
AFTER HAVING BEHELD HIS ILLUSTRIOUS
PARENTS
SWEPT AWAY BY A DEATH
WHICH SORROW REFUSES TO RECOUNT
AND AFTER HAVING DRAINED TO THE
VERY DREGS
THE CUP OF ADVERSITY
WAS, WHILE STILL YOUNG
AND ALMOST ON LIFE'S THRESHOLD
CUT DOWN BY THE SCYTHE OF DEATH
HE DIED JUNE VIII--M. DCC. LXXXXV.
HE LIVED X YEARS, II MONTHS & XII DAYS
EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE:
The Boy Warrior
Many of you who have visited Queens College, Oxford, will have seen
there, hanging in the gallery above the hall, an old engraving of a
quaint vaulted room, where it is said the greatest soldier of his age
lived while a student in the college.
This afterwards famous student, who was then about twelve years old was
Edward Plantagenet, Prince of Wales, later called the Black Prince. He
was also sometimes called the Prince of Woodstock, doubtless, from the
fact that he was born in the old palace at Woodstock, in 1330.
He was the son of Edward Third and Queen Philippa, and was one of those
rare persons who combine in their characters qualities of both his
father and mother. Everyone knows the story of the siege of Calais,
when the sternness of King Edward and the gentleness of Queen Philippa
were so strikingly shown, and it was the union of those two qualities
which gave their son, Edward, that high place which he justly occupies,
not only among our English princes, but in the history of all Europe.
He was undoubtedly sent to Queens College, not only because it was the
most famous college of that day, but also because it took its name from
his mother, Queen Philippa, having been founded by her chaplain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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