True Stories of Wonderful Deeds - Anonymous (audio ebook reader .txt) 📗

Transcriber's Note: Obvious mis-spellings and printing errors have been corrected. Table of Contents, List of Illustrations and page numbers, each of which is not included in the original, are supplied. Illustration captions marked with ° are supplied. All other inconsistencies are as in the original.

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DECO ART

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TITLE PAGE

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TABLE OF CONTENTS   page The Royal Oak 2 Bonnie Prince Charlie 5 Nelson and Hardy 7 Watt and the Kettle 9 Queen Victoria and her Soldiers 11 The Relief of Lucknow 13 Grace Darling 15 David Livingstone 17 The Battle of Waterloo 19 The Charge of the Light Brigade 22 The Coronation of King Edward VII 24 War 26 A Boy's Heroic Deeds 28 A Cat's Extraordinary Leap 31 A Brave Queen 33 King Alfred and the Cakes 36 Not Angles, but Angels 38 Hereward the Wake 40 Canute 42 The Brave Men of Calais 44 Wat Tyler 47 Bruce and the Spider 50 Richard and Blondel 53 The White Ship 55 Joan of Arc 57 Afloat With A Tiger 59 Queen Margaret and the Robbers 63 William Caxton 67 Sir Philip Sidney 69 The "Revenge" 73 The Pilgrim Fathers 75 Guy Fawkes 77 Cromwell and his Ironsides 79 The Spanish Armada 81 The Defence of Lathom House 84 The Outlawed Archers 86 Elizabeth and Raleigh 88

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS   page King Charles in Hiding 1 King Charles in the Oak 4 Prince Charles at the Battle of Culloden 6 Nelson on the "Victory" at Trafalgar 8 Watching the Boiling Kettle 10 Queen Victoria Visits Her Wounded Soldiers 12 The Highlanders Entering Lucknow 14 Grace Darling Rows Out to the Wreck 16 The Meeting of Stanley and Livingstone 18 British Soldiers at the Battle of Waterloo 20 The Charge of the Light Brigade 21 Aftermath of Battle° 23 King Edward vii and Queen Alexandria 25 Spying on Indians° 27 Saved from the Flood 28 Queen Boadicea 32 Queen Boadicea and Her Soldiers 35 King Alfred Forgets the Cakes 37 The English Prisoners at Rome 39 Hereward and His Men Attack the Normans 41 Canute Orders the Tide to Stop 43 Queen Phillipa Pleads for the Men of Calais 45 The Men of Calais Are Spared° 46 Wat Tyler° 47 Young King Richard Quells the Rebellion 49 Bruce Watching the Spider 51 Richard Lion Heart Fighting in the Holy Land 52 Blondel Sings Beneath Richard's Window 54 Prince William Returns to Save His Sister 56 Joan at the Head of the Army 58 Afloat with a Tiger° 60 The Robbers Discover Queen Margaret and the Prince 64 The Robber Brings Help to Queen Margaret 66 Caxton in His Printing Shop 68 Sir Philip Sidney° 69 Martyred for Praying° 70 Sir Philip Sidney and the Dying Soldier 72 Death of Sir Richard Grenville° 74 The Pilgrim Fathers Entering the New World 76 The Arrest of Guy Fawkes 78 Cromwell Leads His Ironsides to Battle 80 Drake is told that the Armada is Approaching 82 The Little "Revenge" Fights Fifty Spanish Galleons 83 The Countess Receives the Banners 85 Cloudsey Shoots an Apple from the Head of His Son° 87 Raleigh Spreads His Cloak Before Elizabeth 89

Illustrations

King Charles in Hiding

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King Charles in Hiding

The Royal Oak

Contents

There is in Shropshire a fine oak-tree which the country people there call the "Royal Oak". They say it is the great-grandson, or perhaps the great-great-grandson of another fine old oak, which more than two hundred years ago stood on the same spot, and served once as a shelter to an English king. This king was Charles II, the son of the unlucky Charles I who had his head cut off by his subjects because he was a weak and selfish ruler.

On the very day on which that unhappy king lost his head, the Parliament passed a law forbidding anyone to make his son, Prince Charles of Wales, or any other person, king of England. But the Scottish people did not obey this law. They persuaded the young prince to sign a paper, solemnly promising to rule the country as they wished; then they crowned him king. As soon as the Parliament heard of this they sent Cromwell and his Ironsides against the newly-crowned king and his followers, and after several battles the Scottish army was at last broken up and scattered at Worcester.

Charles fled and hid in a wood, where some poor wood-cutters took care of him and helped him. He put on some of their clothes, cut his hair short, and stained his face and hands brown so that he might appear to be a sunburnt workman like them. But it was some time before he could escape from the wood, for Cromwell's soldiers were searching it in the hope of finding some of the king's men. One day, Charles and two of his friends had to climb into the tall oak to avoid being caught. They had with them some food, which proved very useful, for they were obliged to stay in their strange hiding-place for a whole day. The top of the oak-tree had been cut off some few years before this time, and this had made the lower branches grow thick and bushy, so that people walking below could not easily see through them. It was a fortunate thing for Charles, for while he was in the tree, he heard the soldiers beating the boughs and bushes in the wood as they searched here and there, and even caught glimpses of them through the leaves as they rode about below.

When they had gone, without even glancing up into the tall oak-tree, he came down, and rode away from the wood on an old mill-horse, with his friends the wood-cutters walking beside him to take care of him as best they could. The saddle was a poor one, and the horse's pace jolted Charles so much, that at last he cried out that he had never seen so bad a steed. At this the owner of the horse jestingly told him that he should not find fault with the poor animal, which had never before carried the weight of three kingdoms upon its back. He meant, of course, that Charles was king of the three kingdoms of England, and Scotland, and Ireland.

Carried by the old horse, and helped by the poor wood-cutters, Charles at last reached the house of a friend. Here he hid for a time, and then went on to try and escape from the country. This time, so that he might not be discovered, he was dressed as a servant, and rode on horseback, with a lady sitting on a cushion behind him, as was then the fashion. After several more dangers he managed to get on board a ship and sailed away to France.

Illustrations

KING CHARLES IN THE OAK

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KING CHARLES IN THE OAK

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Contents

Prince Charlie was the grandson of King James II, who was driven away from the throne of England because he was a selfish man and a bad ruler. The young prince tried to win the crown back again. He came over to Scotland from France, with only seven followers; but soon a great many of the Scots joined him, for he was so gay, and handsome, and friendly, that all who saw him loved him. They called him "Bonnie Prince Charlie". But though the prince and his followers were very brave, they had no chance against the well-trained soldiers of King George of England. They won a few victories; then they were thoroughly beaten in the battle of Culloden. Thousands of brave Scots were slain, and the prince had to fly for his life.

After this, for many weeks, he hid among the moors and mountains from the English soldiers who were trying to find him. He lived in small huts, or in caves, and many times had nothing but the wild berries from the woods to eat. Once he stayed for three weeks with a band of robbers, who were very kind to him; and though the king offered a large sum of money to anyone who would give him up, not one of his poor friends was false to him.

At last, a young and beautiful Scottish lady, named Flora MacDonald, helped him to escape. She gave him woman's clothes, and pretended that he was her servant, called Betty Burke. Then she took him with her away from the place where the soldiers were searching, and after a time he reached the sea, and got safely away to France.

Illustrations

PRINCE CHARLIE AT THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN

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PRINCE CHARLIE AT THE BATTLE OF CULLODEN

Nelson and Hardy

Contents

Lord Nelson was one of the greatest seamen that ever lived. He commanded the British fleet at the battle of Trafalgar, when the navies of France and Spain were beaten, and England was saved from a great danger. He did not look like a famous