The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain (desktop ebook reader TXT) 📖

Hall—a command assisted and supported by the perfectly

trustworthy promise that if she did not deny that he was Miles Hendon,

and stand firmly to it, he would have her life; whereupon she said, “Take

it!”—she did not value it—and she would not repudiate Miles; then the

husband said he would spare her life but have Miles assassinated! This

was a different matter; so she gave her word and kept it.

 

Hugh was not prosecuted for his threats or for stealing his brother’s

estates and title, because the wife and brother would not testify against

him—and the former would not have been allowed to do it, even if she had

wanted to. Hugh deserted his wife and went over to the continent, where

he presently died; and by-and-by the Earl of Kent married his relict.

There were grand times and rejoicings at Hendon village when the couple

paid their first visit to the Hall.

 

Tom Canty’s father was never heard of again.

 

The King sought out the farmer who had been branded and sold as a slave,

and reclaimed him from his evil life with the Ruffler’s gang, and put him

in the way of a comfortable livelihood.

 

He also took that old lawyer out of prison and remitted his fine. He

provided good homes for the daughters of the two Baptist women whom he

saw burned at the stake, and roundly punished the official who laid the

undeserved stripes upon Miles Hendon’s back.

 

He saved from the gallows the boy who had captured the stray falcon, and

also the woman who had stolen a remnant of cloth from a weaver; but he

was too late to save the man who had been convicted of killing a deer in

the royal forest.

 

He showed favour to the justice who had pitied him when he was supposed

to have stolen a pig, and he had the gratification of seeing him grow in

the public esteem and become a great and honoured man.

 

As long as the King lived he was fond of telling the story of his

adventures, all through, from the hour that the sentinel cuffed him away

from the palace gate till the final midnight when he deftly mixed himself

into a gang of hurrying workmen and so slipped into the Abbey and climbed

up and hid himself in the Confessor’s tomb, and then slept so long, next

day, that he came within one of missing the Coronation altogether. He

said that the frequent rehearsing of the precious lesson kept him strong

in his purpose to make its teachings yield benefits to his people; and

so, whilst his life was spared he should continue to tell the story, and

thus keep its sorrowful spectacles fresh in his memory and the springs of

pity replenished in his heart.

 

Miles Hendon and Tom Canty were favourites of the King, all through his

brief reign, and his sincere mourners when he died. The good Earl of Kent

had too much sense to abuse his peculiar privilege; but he exercised it

twice after the instance we have seen of it before he was called from

this world—once at the accession of Queen Mary, and once at the

accession of Queen Elizabeth. A descendant of his exercised it at the

accession of James I. Before this one’s son chose to use the privilege,

near a quarter of a century had elapsed, and the ‘privilege of the Kents’

had faded out of most people’s memories; so, when the Kent of that day

appeared before Charles I. and his court and sat down in the sovereign’s

presence to assert and perpetuate the right of his house, there was a

fine stir indeed! But the matter was soon explained, and the right

confirmed. The last Earl of the line fell in the wars of the

Commonwealth fighting for the King, and the odd privilege ended with him.

 

Tom Canty lived to be a very old man, a handsome, white-haired old

fellow, of grave and benignant aspect. As long as he lasted he was

honoured; and he was also reverenced, for his striking and peculiar

costume kept the people reminded that ‘in his time he had been royal;’

so, wherever he appeared the crowd fell apart, making way for him, and

whispering, one to another, “Doff thy hat, it is the King’s Ward!”—and

so they saluted, and got his kindly smile in return—and they valued it,

too, for his was an honourable history.

 

Yes, King Edward VI. lived only a few years, poor boy, but he lived them

worthily. More than once, when some great dignitary, some gilded vassal

of the crown, made argument against his leniency, and urged that some law

which he was bent upon amending was gentle enough for its purpose, and

wrought no suffering or oppression which any one need mightily mind, the

young King turned the mournful eloquence of his great compassionate eyes

upon him and answered—

 

“What dost THOU know of suffering and oppression? I and my people know,

but not thou.”

 

The reign of Edward VI. was a singularly merciful one for those harsh

times. Now that we are taking leave of him, let us try to keep this in

our minds, to his credit.

 

FOOTNOTES AND TWAIN’S NOTES

 

{1} For Mark Twain’s note see below under the relevant chapter heading.

 

{2} He refers to the order of baronets, or baronettes; the barones

minores, as distinct from the parliamentary barons—not, it need hardly

be said, to the baronets of later creation.

 

{3} The lords of Kingsale, descendants of De Courcy, still enjoy this

curious privilege.

 

{4} Hume.

 

{5} Ib.

 

{6} Leigh Hunt’s ‘The Town,’ p.408, quotation from an early tourist.

 

{7} Canting terms for various kinds of thieves, beggars and vagabonds,

and their female companions.

 

{8} From ‘The English Rogue.’ London, 1665.

 

{9} Hume’s England.

 

{10} See Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull’s Blue Laws, True and False, p. 11.

 

NOTE 1, Chapter IV. Christ’s Hospital Costume.

 

It is most reasonable to regard the dress as copied from the costume of

the citizens of London of that period, when long blue coats were the

common habit of apprentices and serving-men, and yellow stockings were

generally worn; the coat fits closely to the body, but has loose sleeves,

and beneath is worn a sleeveless yellow under-coat; around the waist is a

red leathern girdle; a clerical band around the neck, and a small flat

black cap, about the size of a saucer, completes the costume.—Timbs’

Curiosities of London.

 

NOTE 2, Chapter IV.

 

It appears that Christ’s Hospital was not originally founded as a SCHOOL;

its object was to rescue children from the streets, to shelter, feed,

clothe them.—Timbs’ Curiosities of London.

 

NOTE 3, Chapter V. The Duke of Norfolk’s Condemnation commanded.

 

The King was now approaching fast towards his end; and fearing lest

Norfolk should escape him, he sent a message to the Commons, by which he

desired them to hasten the Bill, on pretence that Norfolk enjoyed the

dignity of Earl Marshal, and it was necessary to appoint another, who

might officiate at the ensuing ceremony of installing his son Prince of

Wales.—Hume’s History of England, vol. iii. p. 307.

 

NOTE 4, Chapter VII.

 

It was not till the end of this reign (Henry VIII.) that any salads,

carrots, turnips, or other edible roots were produced in England. The

little of these vegetables that was used was formerly imported from

Holland and Flanders. Queen Catherine, when she wanted a salad, was

obliged to despatch a messenger thither on purpose.—Hume’s History of

England, vol. iii. p. 314.

 

NOTE 5, Chapter VIII. Attainder of Norfolk.

 

The House of Peers, without examining the prisoner, without trial or

evidence, passed a Bill of Attainder against him and sent it down to the

Commons … The obsequious Commons obeyed his (the King’s) directions;

and the King, having affixed the Royal assent to the Bill by

commissioners, issued orders for the execution of Norfolk on the morning

of January 29 (the next day).—Hume’s History of England, vol iii. p 306.

 

NOTE 6, Chapter X. The Loving-cup.

 

The loving-cup, and the peculiar ceremonies observed in drinking from it,

are older than English history. It is thought that both are Danish

importations. As far back as knowledge goes, the loving-cup has always

been drunk at English banquets. Tradition explains the ceremonies in

this way. In the rude ancient times it was deemed a wise precaution to

have both hands of both drinkers employed, lest while the pledger pledged

his love and fidelity to the pledgee, the pledgee take that opportunity

to slip a dirk into him!

 

NOTE 7, Chapter XI. The Duke of Norfolk’s narrow Escape.

 

Had Henry VIII. survived a few hours longer, his order for the duke’s

execution would have been carried into effect. ‘But news being carried to

the Tower that the King himself had expired that night, the lieutenant

deferred obeying the warrant; and it was not thought advisable by the

Council to begin a new reign by the death of the greatest nobleman in the

kingdom, who had been condemned by a sentence so unjust and tyrannical.’

—Hume’s History of England, vol. iii, p. 307.

 

NOTE 8, Chapter XIV. The Whipping-boy.

 

James I. and Charles II. had whipping-boys, when they were little

fellows, to take their punishment for them when they fell short in their

lessons; so I have ventured to furnish my small prince with one, for my

own purposes.

 

NOTES to Chapter XV.

 

Character of Hertford.

 

The young King discovered an extreme attachment to his uncle, who was, in

the main, a man of moderation and probity.—Hume’s History of England,

vol. iii, p324.

 

But if he (the Protector) gave offence by assuming too much state, he

deserves great praise on account of the laws passed this session, by

which the rigour of former statutes was much mitigated, and some security

given to the freedom of the constitution. All laws were repealed which

extended the crime of treason beyond the statute of the twenty-fifth of

Edward III.; all laws enacted during the late reign extending the crime

of felony; all the former laws against Lollardy or heresy, together with

the statute of the Six Articles. None were to be accused for words, but

within a month after they were spoken. By these repeals several of the

most rigorous laws that ever had passed in England were annulled; and

some dawn, both of civil and religious liberty, began to appear to the

people. A repeal also passed of that law, the destruction of all laws,

by which the King’s proclamation was made of equal force with a statute.

—Ibid. vol. iii. p. 339.

 

Boiling to Death.

 

In the reign of Henry VIII. poisoners were, by Act of Parliament,

condemned to be BOILED TO DEATH. This Act was repealed in the following

reign.

 

In Germany, even in the seventeenth century, this horrible punishment was

inflicted on coiners and counterfeiters. Taylor, the Water Poet,

describes an execution he witnessed in Hamburg in 1616. The judgment

pronounced against a coiner of false money was that he should ‘BE BOILED

TO DEATH IN OIL; not thrown into the vessel at once, but with a pulley or

rope to be hanged under the armpits, and then let down into the oil BY

DEGREES; first the feet, and next the legs, and so to boil his flesh from

his bones alive.’—Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull’s Blue Laws, True and False,

p. 13.

 

The Famous Stocking Case.

 

A woman and her daughter, NINE YEARS OLD, were hanged in Huntingdon for

selling their souls to the devil, and raising a storm by pulling off

their stockings!—Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull’s Blue Laws, True and False, p.

20.