Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England The Armourers' Prentices By Charlotte M. Yonge ________________________________________________________________ This is a story about two young orphans from Hampshire, who travel to London in search of relatives. On the way they rescue a prominent City of London figure after he has been attacked by highwaymen, and in this way they become attached to his household in the City. The date is the early years of Henry the Eighth, when the religious world of England is simmering not only with the new views on religion, but also with the problems of the King and his Divorces. We meet great figures like Dean Colet, famous even to this very day for his charitable foundations, Thomas More, and other great figures of the pre-Reformation years. It is a very lively story that rings true at every turn, and is worth while reading for those who would like a further understanding of the late Tudor Court, and the customs in the City, prevailing at the time of the Reformation. ________________________________________________________________ THE ARMOURERS' PRENTICES BY CHARLOTTE M. YONGE CHAPTER ONE. THE VERDURER'S LODGE. "Give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament, with that I will go buy me fortunes." "Get you with him, you old dog." _As You Like It_. The officials of the New Forest have ever since the days of the Conqueror enjoyed some of the pleasantest dwellings that southern England can boast. The home of the Birkenholt family was not one of the least delightful. It stood at the foot of a rising ground, on which grew a grove of magnificent beeches, their large silvery boles rising majestically like columns into a lofty vaulting of branches, covered above with tender green foliage. Here and there the shade beneath was broken by the gilding of a ray of sunshine on a lower twig, or on a white trunk, but the floor of the vast arcades was almost entirely of the russet brown of the fallen leaves, save where a fern or holly bush made a spot of green. At the foot of the slope lay a stretch of pasture ground, some parts covered by "lady-smocks, all silver white," with the course of the little stream through the midst indicated by a perfect golden river of shining kingcups interspersed with ferns. Beyond lay tracts of brown heath and brilliant gorse and broom, which stretched for miles and miles along the flats, while the dry ground was covered with holly brake, and here and there woods of oak and beech made a sea of verdure, purpling in the distance.