 Preface of Hero Tales from History. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson. Hero Tales from History by Smith Burden. Preface. An interest in history and a love of historical reading will be mostly readily acquired by those children who approach this rich field of literature through the medium of stories of the great figures of the past. Such stories have properly selected and told, give children those vivid concrete pictures of men and of events which are bodily essential to any real understanding of bygone days. At the same time, such history stories may be so selected as to hold up bright ideals of conduct and of character. Moreover, by their appeal to the emotions which lie very near to the springs of conduct, they move to action. Tales of gentleness, of honour, of justice, of courage, of fortitude and suffering, of intrepidity and danger, of dauntless resolution, of iron will, inspire children to an emulation of those virtues. These Hero Tales from History have been written in the faith set forth in this paragraph. Through these stories, the author aims to inculcate the fundamental virtues just named, and at the same time to acquaint children with the names and achievements of some of those great men and women whose lives and characters are a part of our racial and national inheritance. In the selection of the tales in this book, the author has drawn upon all ages. Here are mighty men of the ancient world and makers of modern America. Some of the characters chosen as the heroes of these stories are great figures in world history, but the greater part of them were selected because they are among the foremost heroes of our own country and of our own culture. Of course, in a book of this size, many valuable stories had to be omitted, but it is believed that all the tales included are typical and representative. These Hero Tales are not biographies of the men about whom they are told. Neither has any attempt been made to join them into a connected historical narrative. They are just stories from the past told with constant thought of the stage of mental development of the children for whom they are intended. Each story has a hero, each is full of action, and the author has tried to tell each one in clear and simple language. The author has also tried to make each story teach its intended lesson without any moralizing on his part. The history of the past can never become a vital thing to us until the men of the past are live flesh and blood men. It is the author's hope that these Hero Tales from history will help to make three score great figures from our past, something more than names to the children who may enjoy this book. Smith Burden End of Preface Chapter 1 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Larry Wilson Hero Tales from History by Smith Burden Moses, the greatest lawgiver and amicus man. Long ago in the land of Egypt, there lived as slaves to the Egyptians, a race of white people called the Hebrews. There were so many of them that the Egyptians began to be afraid that they would overrun the land. So the cruel king, or the Pharaoh, as he was called, commanded that all the baby boys of the slave race should be thrown into the river Nile. But one little child escaped this fate, for his poor slave mother disobeyed the king and hid her baby in the hut. When he was three months old, his mother was afraid she could not keep him quiet any longer. So she made a basket and plastered it inside with pitch so that it would be watertight and float like a boat. Into this basket boat she put her baby. The mother set the strange little boat on the edge of the river Nile among the tall reeds called bullrushes. Very near the palace where she knew the king's daughter came every day to bathe. It was a cool spot, well guarded and safe from the terrible crocodiles that lived in the Nile. After making sure that the little boat would not sink, the mother went back to her work, leaving her daughter Miriam to see what became of her baby brother. Just as the wise mother had planned, the princess soon came with her ladies in waiting and spied the cradle basket rocking on the waves near the shore. She told one of her maidens to bring it to her. The king's daughter knew too well of her father's command to drown or kill all the boy babies of the Hebrew slaves. So when she found a baby crying there, she pitied the poor mother who had obeyed the king by putting him in the river, still fondly hoping to save his life. When the Pharaoh's daughter saw the baby she said, This is one of the Hebrew's children. There was a pretty look in the face of the little child. He seemed to ask the princess to take him in her arms. The princess herself was married, but she had no children. That baby smiling through his tears touched her mother's heart. How could she help saving this little life from her father's cruel law by claiming him as her own? Just then Sister Miriam bowed before the princess and said, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee? The king's daughter was pleased. Pleased and said, Yes, go. So the happy sister ran and brought her mother to the great stone palace of the Pharaoh's. Then the princess said, As if the mother were only a child's nurse, Take this child away and nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages. So besides saving his life, that mother was royally paid for taking care of her own son instead of working as a slave out in the hot sun. Besides, she had a good chance to tell him as he grew up of the one true God. What if her boy should save his father's people from slavery when he became a man in the palace of the Pharaoh's? In due time, the daughter of the king adopted the young Hebrew as her own son and named him Moses, which means saved, because she had rescued him out of the river. When Moses was old enough, he went to live with his royal mother, where he was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who at that time nearly four thousand years ago were the most learned people in the world. Although he studied in the College of the Priests, who believed in the sun and moon and many other gods, Moses never forgot what his mother had taught him about the true God. Young Prince Moses had a great deal to do while he was growing to manhood. He has said to have become commander in chief of the Egyptian army that conquered the black and savage race living a thousand miles up the Nile. In the Bible story are these words. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out into the brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting in Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Now when Pharaoh heard this, he sought to slay Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian. This Pharaoh was not the father of Moses' foster mother, who was now dead. It is said that this king was afraid Moses would drive him from the throne and become Pharaoh himself. For fourteen long years the exile prince lived in Midian, studying, planning and writing. It was during this time that he made the great decision of his life. He resolved to save his own people, the million Hebrews who were slaves to the Egyptians. At last Moses and his brother Aaron appeared before the Pharaoh and announced that God had demanded that the king should let the children of Israel go free. It was a hard thing to ask, for the Egyptians still needed the great army of slave men to build great pyramids and temples. The king refused and consented and refused again until plague after plague was sent upon the land of Egypt. At last when the king's son and the oldest child of every Egyptian family in the whole country had died in one night, the terrified and heartbroken king called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Rise up and get you forth from among my people both ye and the children of Israel and go. And the people took up their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. This going out of the Hebrew people bound for the promised land nearly four thousand years ago is called the Exodus. To this day it is celebrated by the Jews every year as the Passover. When the Pharaoh realized that the great stone temples and pyramids of Egypt might never be finished, he was afraid because he had let the slave people go. So he ordered out his horses and chariots and drove hard after them till he caught them in camp beside the Red Sea. The frightened Hebrews began to cry and accuse Moses of deceiving them and leading them out into a great trap to be killed like a million helpless sheep by Pharaoh's army. But Moses told the wailing crowds not to be afraid. Before the king's horses and men caught up with them, a strong east wind came up and kept the tide from running in, thus leaving a bare sandbar right in front of them across the arm of the Red Sea. Moses commanded the people to march over as on dry land, an order which they lost no time in obeying. Then the Pharaoh and his horsemen came up behind and drove harder after them upon the sandbar. But the heavy chariot stuck in the mud beneath the sand and when the Egyptians reached the middle, the wind changed and the tide which had been held back so long rushed in and drowned Pharaoh and his army. Then Mary and Moses and Aaron led these million freed slaves in a grand victory course of song about their hair breath escape. But the people were always scolding and complaining against Moses, the dear gentle leader who had saved them from their cruel bondage. It was his patient love for his thankless people while through forty years they wandered in the wilderness that gave Moses the name of being the meekest man that ever lived. About sunny-eyed Moses received from God and gave to the people the ten commandments written on two tablets of stone. He spent his time during the long years of wandering in the wilderness and planning the laws and religion for his beloved people. He himself never entered the Promised Land but died in the wilderness somewhere on a mountain called Nebo. The Bible makes this statement of his death. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there and he buried him in a valley but no man north of his sepulchre unto this day. End of chapter 1 Chapter 2 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Larry Wilson Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham David the Giant Killer King Nearly three thousand years ago a bright handsome Hebrew lad was playing a harp while watching his father's sheep on the hills of Bethlehem. One dark night there was a great stir among the sheep and David saw a bear making off with one of the lambs. There were no guns in those days but David had a sling and he could fling a pebble almost as swift and straight as a boy can shoot a bullet today. So David ran and killed the bear by driving a stone through the big brute's eye into its brain. When he took the trembling lamb back to its mother what should he see but a lion starting off with a sheep in his huge jaws. There was no time to gather pebbles. Grabbing a jagged rock in one hand David seized the great beast by the mane with the other and named quick blows at the lion's eyes breaking his skull before the lion could drop his prey and fight back. That was a great night's work for one lone lad. After quieting his frightened flock David took his harp and made up a song of thanks to the God of Israel for saving him alive from the jaws of the lion and the paws of the bear. Not long after this David's old father sent out to the hills for him. When the youth came down to the house he found Samuel, prophet of God and judge of Israel waiting for him. David's seven older brothers stood around eyeing him strangely as the prophet said, This is he and baptized him by pouring oil on his head. What did the prophet had known before? David asked his father. To be king of Israel instead of Saul. But I am only a boy and king Saul is so big and strong, head and shoulders taller than other men. Why did not the prophet anoint our Iliad? He is almost as tall as the king himself. The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. After that David went back and hurted his father's sheep, but his brothers were jealous of him because he had been anointed to be king. As had often happened in the days of the judges, the heathen Philistines came up and made war against the people of Israel, and the eldest three of David's brothers were in the king's army. Many weeks went by, but no word came from the camp. So the father sent David down with provisions for the brothers and a present for their captain. The shepherd boy found the two armies in camps opposite each other across a narrow valley. Everyone was excited over Goliath, a giant who came down every day into the valley from the army of the Philistines and challenged the king of Israel and all his men. Goliath was nearly 11 feet tall. He wore a bronze helmet about as big as a bushel measure, and his spear was like a weaver's beam. Even King Saul and David's tall brother Iliad were much too small to fight with the Philistine giant. David could not bear to hear Goliath calling the king and his soldiers cowards and repeating wicked words about the God of Israel. So he went and told Saul he would like the chance to go down and fight the insulting giant. The soldiers laughed at this, and Iliad told his young brother to go home and mind his few sheep in the wilderness. But David would not be put off. He told how God had helped him kill a lion and a bear in one night. The lad was so earnest that the king consented to let him try. The only weapon David took were his staff and his sling. On his way to meet the giant he stopped at the brook and picked up five smooth pebbles. Both armies looked on breathless at the strange combat. Great Goliath laughed at little David as if the king of Israel were playing a joke on him. He cursed David by all the gods of the Philistines and yelled, Am I a dog that thou shouldst come to fight me with a stick? For this I will feed thy little carcass to the birds. Then David shouted back to Goliath, I come in the name of the God of Israel whom thou hast defied. All the Israelites and Philistines saw the boy make a quick motion with his sling and heard a thud. The giant dropped his heavy spear, threw up his huge hands and fell with a groan and a great clatter of armor, face downward on the ground. David's first pebble had done the work. It had gone swift and straight through the eye hole in Goliath's brass helmet and sunk deep into his low brutal forehead, killing him almost instantly. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they arose and fled. The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines and they spoiled or looted their tents. King Saul was so thankful that his own life had been saved that the people were spared from being slaves to the Philistines that he made David come and live in his palace as a younger brother to his son Jonathan. This prince was not jealous like David's own brothers. David and Jonathan became such good friends that though this happened nearly 3,000 years ago people say yet that two boys or men who are very friendly with each other are like David and Jonathan. After a time Saul and Jonathan were both killed in a battle with the Philistines then David became king of Israel. He proved to be one of the best rulers. He wrote many of the Bible Psalms and played his harp as he sang them. He planned to build a great house of worship for the God of Israel in Jerusalem. But because he had been a man of war he felt unworthy to do such sacred work. So he left the temple to be built by his son Solomon, the wisest king that ever ruled over Israel. Long, long ago when the world was young and before men began to write books, a kind of men called bards used to wander about the land of Greece from town to town and from court to court playing the harp and singing of the deeds of the people of Israel. They were called the people of Israel. They were called the people of Israel. They were called the people of Israel. The harp and singing of the deeds of the heroes of Greece. As years went on there came to be very many such tales sung by the bards and handed down from father to son. At last there came a day when men learned to write. Then the person whom we call Homer, the earliest and greatest poet in the history of the world, gathered together these hero tales and wrote them in beautiful poetry. This work of collecting these scattered stories of the exploits and adventures of the Greek gods and heroes and making them into one great hero poem called an epic was done nearly 3,000 years ago. Although nobody really knows anything surely about the life of this ancient Homer, the story goes that he was blind and that he was very poor, as poets often are. After his death, when his two great poems had made him famous, seven different cities in Greece claimed each to have been his home. But the facts of his life matter very little when compared with the wonderful stories that he left for all the world to read. His epics were imitated by the greatest poets of Rome, Italy and England and had been translated many times into both poetry and prose. There were two of these epics, the Iliad, picturing the siege and downfall of ancient Ilium, or Troy, and the Odyssey, describing the ten years' wandering of Odysseus or Ulysses on his way back home after the destroying of Troy by the Greeks. The war against Troy, which lasted ten years, was started because Paris, son of Priam, the old king of Troy, carried off from her home Helen, the lovely wife of one of the Grecian kings. The Iliad tells of the bold deeds of many heroes on both sides. The strongest fighter in Troy was Hector, another son of King Priam. Achilles was the greatest hero on the side of the Greeks. One of the most beautiful scenes in art as well as in poetry is that of Hector saying goodbye to his wife and baby boy, and one of the best-known examples of friendship is that of Achilles for his friend Patroclus. The great gods and goddesses for the early Greeks believed in many gods all took sides in the struggle for Troy. Apollo, Minerva, and Juno helped the Greeks. Mars and Venus helped the Trojans. They chose the side of the people who had especially served and worshipped them using their mighty power to help and direct in the long war. After nine years the Greeks pretended that they were going to give up the struggle and sail away to their homes. They built a huge wooden horse to leave as a peace offering, telling the Trojans that it was a gift for them to offer to their gods. The Trojans were only too willing to think that the Greeks were giving up the fight. They would not listen to the Princess Cassandra who warned them of danger saying, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts. In spite of her words the city fathers accepted the strange present and trundled the big horse within their walls. That night some Greek soldiers who were hidden inside the hollow wooden figure jumped out of their hiding place, opened the six gates of Troy, and led in the Grecian army. The great warriors waiting outside swarmed in and soon captured the city. Helen, the stolen queen, sailed back home and lived there in her little Grecian kingdom for many years after her rescue by her royal husband and his brother, another king, with the help of the Greek heroes and the gods who sided with them. Among the Greeks who fought at Troy was Ulysses. His journeys on the way from Troy to Ithaca, the rocky island where he was king, form a wonder story of ancient life and travel. Ulysses' ships were driven about to many strange places. First he came to the land of the lotus eaters, where some of his men ate the lotus flowers and forgot their homes and friends. The rest of them came next to the country of the Cyclops, giant monsters with only one eye in the middle of their foreheads. The chief Cyclops caught the Greeks, shut them up in the cave where he kept his sheep, and ate two of them for his supper every day. Ulysses was clever enough to think of a way by which he and his men might escape. While the giant was out of his cave, he sharpened a steak by burning it in the coals, and when the Cyclops fell asleep after his hearty supper, Ulysses and four of his men drove this sharp steak into his one eye, blinding him. Then the leader tied each of his men under one of the Cyclops' sheep and himself clung to the long hair beneath the largest ram. When the sheep crowded out of the cave, the giant did not know that they were carrying his prisoners with them. Before he discovered the trick, the Greeks were safe on their ship. After another voyage, Ulysses and his men landed on the island of Cersei, a beautiful witch who turned the men all into swine and made them stay with her a long time. But Apollo and Minerva helped Ulysses undo the spell of the charmer. Cersei warned Ulysses against the Sirens, who would tempt them by their singing only to destroy them all, and against Scylla and Charybdis, a risky place for a ship to pass between a great rock and a dangerous whirlpool. The wife of Ulysses also was beset with many trials and dangers. She was surrounded by neighboring princes, each of whom wished to marry her and become king of Ithaca. She kept on with her weaving, putting these suitors off by telling them she would give them her answer when she finished her weaving, and each night she unraveled all the weaving she had done in the daytime. During the twenty long years of Ulysses' absence, Penelope's young son grew to manhood and started out to find his father. He reached home after a vain search just at the time when Ulysses came back. The king of Ithaca was disguised by the goddess Minerva as an old beggar so that no one recognized him but his good old dog. Ulysses arrived at his palace at the very moment when, the suitors having become too urgent, Penelope brought out Ulysses' bow and agreed to marry the man who could bend it and shoot an arrow through six rings placed in a long line, as her heroic husband had been known to do. The feeble-looking beggar was allowed to look on while the princes tried frantically to win the hand and the throne of the fair Penelope. One after another failed in the desperate attempt. Then the seemingly aged stranger asked them to let him try to bend the great stiff bow and shoot the heavy arrow. They laughed at and insulted him, but he took the bow, bent it with ease, and shot the long arrow straight through all the rings just as Ulysses used to do. Penelope gave a cry of joy for she knew then that the stranger was none other than her long-lost husband. Ulysses' disguise suddenly disappeared and with his son's aid he shot the impudent suitors who had tormented his wife all those years. End of chapter 3 Socrates was the son of a sculptor of Athens in the days of Pericles, a ruler who encouraged art and culture and made his city famous for its learning and beauty. As a boy Socrates was taught by his father to carve statues. Nearly a thousand years afterward a traveller in Greece described a group of figures called the graces carved by the youthful Socrates, but the young man was not satisfied with being a sculptor. While he was working at his carving his active mind kept trying to find out the reason for everything. In Athens at this time there were not only many painters and sculptors, but numbers of men called philosophers, who gave all their time to thinking out the meaning of what they saw in the world around them and trying to teach that meaning to such people as would listen to them. These philosophers differed widely from one another in their views. Some of the things they thought would seem very queer to us today, but they were doing their best to find out the truth. A group of philosophers who held the same views was called a school. The schools of philosophy were not like the schools of today. They were simply gathering places in someone's house or on a street corner or in a public porch or in a grove, where men who liked to think came together for talk and debate. Instead of children sitting quietly at desks, a school was made up of grown men walking about and talking a great deal. Socrates found that he was much more interested in listening to what the philosophers thought than he was in carving statues. So he gave up his work with his father and went out to visit the schools. But as he went from one school to another, he could see that no one of them was right in every way. He decided that he could not learn the real truth from them, so he resolved to walk the streets and ask questions of the people he met there. He was so anxious to know that he could learn from anyone he talked with, whether man, woman or child. He met many men who thought they were philosophers when they were not, for it was considered a great thing to be known as a famous thinker, and all men aimed at it. When Socrates met a man who claimed to be wise, he would ask questions as if he himself did not know anything, and he would thus lead on from one thing to another till sometimes he made the man say the very opposite of what he had said before, making him ashamed of himself. This way of drawing out the truth by questions and proving the wrongness of some ways of reasoning is known today as the Socratic method. The Greeks were great believers in beauty. They thought whatever is beautiful must be right. But Socrates saw handsome men and beautiful women leading wrong lives, and he made such people angry by saying so. Socrates himself was far from handsome. He was short and thick-set. His head was bald and his eyes bulged out in a comical way. His nose was broad and flat. His lips were thick and his ears stood out, making him look like the clowns the Greeks laughed at in their great outdoor theaters. More than this Socrates was poor. He had learned, while a young man, but those who had most of the so-called good things of life were the most unhappy. So he made up his mind that the best kind of wealth lay in not wanting much. He did not care for good things to eat. He went barefoot and wore the same thin garment, both summer and winter. The Greeks were fond of art for the sake of art, but Socrates believed in right living and loved art only for heart's sake, for the sake of doing good and making people happy. He also believed that to know is to live, and that in order to live right one must first know what is right. He claimed to have a certain force or voice within which showed him what was right. He was the first of all the wise men of the heathen world to believe that this inner light should be a correct moral guide to right living. Even the gods the Greeks worshipped did things of the worst kind. They were spiteful, cruel, and wicked. So the people did not think it wrong to act as their gods did. They did not understand what Socrates meant when he said he had a voice within himself which told him what he should or should not do. So they thought he was trying to make them believe in a strange god when they had too many already. Socrates was a great lover of his country. When the Greeks went to war he went in the ranks as a private soldier and fought like a hero. In one battle he saved the life of a rich, handsome, brilliant young man who was very popular in Athens. This youth soon learned to love the homely old philosopher and studied with him. Two other great men were pupils of Socrates. One of these became one of the greatest historians and the other a great philosopher. They were both authors and they wrote all that is known today about Socrates who did not leave any writings to show what he believed and taught. Of course most people failed to understand Socrates and so they made him the laughing stock of the town. Yet many young men, led by the youth whose life Socrates had saved came to him to learn how to live and be useful and happy. But the people who were jealous of his influence over the young men of the city accused the old philosopher of teaching them of other gods and thus corrupting their minds. They had him arrested but his students followed him to the prison where he kept on teaching them the right way to live. Socrates was tried by a law court of citizen judges and defended himself very ably. The story of his bold defense is told in a book called The Apology of Socrates by a famous Greek writer named Plato. He spoke of his aim to show people how little they knew so that they might learn more and told his judges what he intended to go on in the same way if they spared his life. He was condemned to die however and thirty days after the trial they gave him a cup of poison called hemlock to drink. After he had taken this he went on talking to his students of the hope of a happier life beyond the grave. This was four hundred years before the birth of Christ. Socrates came nearer the Christian belief than any other philosopher of that ancient time who had no knowledge of the Bible and its teachings. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of Hero Tells from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Philip Watson. Hero Tells from History by Smith Burnham. Alexander, the boy who conquered the world. Alexander was the son of Philip, King of Macedon, a country to the north of Greece. His father was a great general as well as a king. Young Alexander was a strong, active, handsome lad. A story is told of his breaking a wild horse which had been presented to Philip by a neighboring king. This horse was named Busephalus, the Greek word for bullheaded. He reared, bit, snorted and pawed the air that anyone tried to mount him. King Philip was indignant at being given such a present and was about to send back the bull-headed beast as too dangerous to the life or limb of anyone who attempted to ride him. But Alexander noticed that the horse was frightened even at his own shadow. He begged his father to let him conquer such a splendid animal. The lad was so much in earnest that the king decided to let him try. The young prince showed no fear as he walked up beside Busephalus and padded him on the neck. He wanted to keep the horse from being frightened as his fright was the cause of his wildness. By degrees the boy managed to turn the great brute's head toward the sun so that he could not see his shadow. Throwing off his velvet mantle, Alexander suddenly sprang on the horse's back. Instead of trying to restrain or guide the frightened steed, the boy let him go as fast as he would across the plain. When Busephalus grew tired, the brute rider began to turn his head this way and that while speaking kindly and patting him soothingly. When they returned from their long run, Busephalus obeyed the prince's word and touched as a gentle, well-trained horse should. It is said that the huge beast learned to kneel for Prince Alexander to mount and that he carried his young master proudly through many a battle. The king was so pleased with the courage and wisdom Alexander displayed in conquering Busephalus that he said to his son, you should have a larger kingdom than Macedon to rule. As if to fulfill this wish, Philip went to war with several of the neighboring kings and left his sixteen-year-old son to rule over Macedon while he was absent. Then Alexander was allowed to command certain companies of the Macedonian army and this he showed wonderful courage and wisdom. Philip was murdered when Alexander was twenty. Then the kings whom the father had conquered tried to throw off the rule of Macedon. They said, this new king is only a boy. But Alexander answered when he heard it, they think I am a boy. I will show them that I am a man. And he did, not only by defeating the kings and armies his father had beaten, but by conquering the other states around Macedon whose kings had turned in to help Alexander's enemies. At this time the greatest monarch in Asia was Darius, king of the Persians. He sent several nobles of his realm to seek the friendship of Alexander, king of Macedon. These men were surprised when they saw that the young ruler was not interested in their stories of the wealth and splendor of the vast countries of Darius. Instead Alexander wished to hear about the extent of their kingdom, about its different peoples, and about the location of the rivers, roads, and cities. The men from Persia said to members of the court of Macedon, our old king is rich, but your young king is great. Alexander, both king and general, had a strange thirst for power. He left a true friend to control his kingdom in Europe and started east with only a small army to conquer the vast countries on the continent of Asia. King Darius laughed at the very idea of a mere boy with so few soldiers coming to conquer him and the greatest and richest empire in the world. He came to meet the Macedonian army with an armed host about ten times as large as Alexander's. That boy soon routed and scattered the hosts of the Persians and King Darius had to fly for his life, leaving his wife and her mother behind as Alexander's prisoners. The young conqueror was kind to these and to all other prisoners of war. This was wholly different from the custom then for ancient conquerors killed or made slaves of those whom they defeated in battle. Alexander gained two great victories over Darius and captured other kingdoms and walled cities after long sieges and hard-fought battles. While in Asia he came to a temple where there was a puzzle which no one had solved. This was a strange knot and a long leather strip. This knot, it had been prophesized for centuries, could never be undone except by the one who was to conquer Asia. Alexander felt that he must unloose this terrible tangle in some way or other. So when he was brought into the temple which was at a place named Gordium he took his sword and cut the strangely knotted thong in pieces. Ever since then when anyone meets and solves in a surprising way what seems to be an impossible problem he has said to have cut the Gordium knot as Alexander did in the temple at Gordium. The young conqueror marched down into Africa and not only took possession of Egypt the greatest kingdom of that vast region but built near one of the mouths of the wide river Nile a city to which he gave his own name. That city, Alexandria, is still one of the largest cities on the continent of Africa. It became necessary for Alexander to lead his army farther eastward into Asia. After his great successes he began to indulge his appetites in eating and drinking and in other harmful ways. Once in a fit of drunken anger he killed his best friend. This made him ashamed and sad when he came to himself and realized what he had done. Because of his many victories Alexander is called the Great. When he was only 26 he had conquered all the important nations in the world of his day. It was because he had now nothing to strive after that he gave way to evil passions. He has said to have wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. He became ill and died as a result of his excesses leaving no child or relative to rule over the great kingdoms he had acquired. Although Alexander the Great had conquered the world he could not govern himself. Hundreds of years before his day Solomon, the wise, rich king, wrote in his proverbs he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleeth his spirit than he that takeeth the city. End of Chapter 5 CHAPTER 6 OF HERO TELLS FROM HISTORY This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Philip Watson. HERO TELLS FROM HISTORY by Smith Burnham. Four familiar sayings of Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was born at Rome more than 2000 years ago about 100 years before Christ. His family belonged to a noble clan of the patricians. The people of Rome were divided into three classes. Of these the patricians were highest in rank and fewest in number. There were many more in the middle class which at that time was largely made up of free men who could vote and hold office. The lowest class and by far the largest number were the slaves. More than half of the Roman slaves were white, many having blonde hair and blue eyes. These had been brought as captives from the northern countries and sold in Rome. Some of the slaves, especially those who came from the Greek lands in the east were more refined than the ignorant, brutal Roman masters for whom they had to do the hardest and dirtiest kinds of work. Worse than this the Roman law allowed cruel masters to whip, torture and even kill these educated men and women. By right of the might of her wonderful armies Rome made herself mistress of the world. So the patricians and the free men looked with contempt upon other nations and said to themselves to be a Roman is greater than to be a king. The patricians were the proudest Romans and the Caesars were among the haughtiest patricians. Their family belonged to the rich ruling class when little Julius was born. Of course there was no such thing as the Christian religion in Julius Caesar's the only believers in the one true God were the Jews who lived in the little far off country now called the Holy Land. The best educated Romans believed in Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Venus and many other deities who they imagined were ruling over them and who were as selfish and cruel as the Romans themselves. There were no public schools for children in Rome. Instead of millions of printed books there were a few roles of parchment on which words were printed very slowly by hand. Instead of using paper to write on the Romans scratched their letters and messages on tablets of wax with large needles. As there were no newspapers then the people learned what was going on in the world by word of mouth from speakers in the forum and open city square with a stone platform around which crowded thousands of listeners. The highest ambition of the youthful Julius Caesar was to speak well to the people in the region and to win their friendship. He grew to be a tall, handsome, brilliant young man. He was not rich and while his friends led lives of ease and pleasure this young Caesar studied hard. He learned to read and speak Greek because then the greatest poems, orations and plays were in that language. He traveled thousands of miles to Greece and Asia Minor to learn to be a good speaker and writer and though he was a patrician he's real sympathy lay with the poor and the middle class whose side he took almost from boyhood. The Romans governed themselves in some ways as the people of the United States do today. That is their consuls or governors were elected by the patricians and the free men. Sometimes the patricians were in power. At other times the people of the middle class succeeded in electing their leaders but in those cruel times the winning party sometimes killed the chiefs on the other side and treated them all as if they were enemies at war. The uncle of Julius Caesar had been one of the chiefs overthrown in such a civil war and the young man inherited his uncle's love for the cause of the common people. The first deed of Caesar that brought him into public notice took place while he was traveling in the east. A crew of pirates or sea robbers captured him and held him prisoner until a large sum of money or a ransom should be paid. Julius Caesar succeeded in raising the amount and paid it to them to set him free. But before he left the pirates he told them that if he ever caught them he would have his revenge. Then he went and collected men and ships, caught his former captors, won back his ransom money, and ordered the ring leaders crucified. Crucifixion was the Roman penalty for pirates and other thieves. From the time Julius Caesar was 30 years old he was constantly in one office or another in the Roman Republic. One early position was that of director of shows and sports. The Romans had theaters with seats of stone rising one behind another from the central space like the seats in a circus or college stadium. Here thousands of people could see and hear actors, poets, orators and debaters. One of these theaters was so large that 80,000 people could witness the games at one time. Instead of football and baseball the Romans had running races and wrestling matches by athletes and fighters who came from all parts of the world. Most of them were slaves among them were men called gladiators who fought each other with swords until one or the other was killed. The cruel Romans liked this part of the sport best. Julius Caesar provided such splendid shows and games that he made himself very popular with the people. He was elected one office after another and finally after being sent as a kind of governor to Spain was chosen one of the two consuls. The office of consul was the highest in Rome and was somewhat similar to our president. When his term expired Caesar was made governor over the Gauls a half savage people who lived in the country that is now northern Italy, Switzerland, and France. During the nine years while Caesar was in Gaul he had to fight many battles and conquer many dangerous tribes. Besides that he crossed to the island of Britain now called England but Caesar was kind to his enemies and prisoners. His journal which tells of his wars in Gaul is read today as one of the simplest and best books ever written. His wonderful victories and great kindnesses made Caesar the idol of the people but he had enemies at home and a rival another great general named Pompey. The Senate were on the side of Pompey and at last they decreed that if Caesar did not give up his command and dismiss his army by a certain day he would be called an enemy of the country. Pompey and the Senate were against the poorer classes and Caesar knew that if he yielded to this command the common people whose friend he was would lose their freedom. So instead of disbanding his army he marched it to the borders of Italy. He stopped on the bank of a little river called the Rubicon. Anyone who crossed that river with an army was considered an enemy of Rome. When Caesar decided to cross the river and advance with his army against the city he exclaimed, the die is cast. His words meant that he could no more go back than a die once thrown out of the dice box can be taken back. Nowadays when a man decides to do something which may bring great loss to him if he does not win and from which he cannot draw back once he has begun he is said to have crossed the Rubicon. Caesar's fortunes however did not desert him and he succeeded in driving Pompey away and finally conquering him. Within three years after many victorious battles in Greece and Egypt and Asia Minor he returned to Rome in triumph. By this time the Senate were willing to do anything for him that he wanted and the adoring people chose him dictator for ten years. That meant although he was not called king he had almost the same power as a king. Two of Caesar's sayings are often quoted. Once when he was pursuing Pompey he started on a voyage when a storm seemed to be coming up. The sailors were afraid to cross the sea but he said to them, you carry Caesar and his fortunes. They set sail at once and reached the other side in safety. At another time he caught an escaping army in Asia. He announced this victory in three words. Then a Vide Vici. The meaning of which was I came, I saw, I conquered. By his policy of kindness to the people as dictator Caesar so won their love that they came even to worship him as one of their gods. The month and the year in which he was born was at this time named in his honor for our word July is a shortened form of Julius. He governed Rome well and made many useful changes. One thing that he did was to arrange the calendar which before this time was very clumsy. It was he who divided the year into months of so many days each, very much as it is divided now. The climax of Caesar's popularity was reached when he was offered a crown to show that the people of Rome wished him to be their king. He refused this honor three times in public but not all the men of Rome shared in this admiration of Caesar for one party some of whom had been his friends felt that his growing power was not good for Rome. They wanted their country to be a republic and not to be ruled by a king. So they began to plot against Caesar. On the 15th of March, 44 BC just as Caesar was about to take his seat in the presence of the Roman Senate, a group of men gathered round and began plunging their daggers into his body. Among them was Marcus Brutus for whom Caesar had done many kindnesses. When Caesar saw Brutus with his dagger raised to stab him to the heart he exclaimed with a sad smile. And thou, too, Brutus? Then covering his face with his mantle he fell down and died. Of the 23 knife wounds that were found in Caesar's body, Shakespeare wrote that the stab of Brutus was the most unkindest cut of all. Although Caesar was murdered to keep him from bearing the name of king, the mightiest modern times took the name of Caesar as the highest title a king could have as the Kaiser of Germany and the Tsar of Russia. When these two recent Caesars were put down, there remained no ruler in Europe who believed in governing by the cruel Roman law that might makes right. End of chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Hero Tells from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Philip Watson Hero Tells from History by Smith Burnham The Christmas Crowning of Charlemagne About twelve hundred years ago, thousands of Saracens, who were among the followers of Mohammed, crossed the narrow strait from Africa into Spain. The world was then coming out of those centuries of ignorance and fear, which are known as the Dark Ages. The dark-skinned people, Arabs and Africans who followed Mohammed, went about converting people by making them prostrate themselves with their faces turned toward the east and repeat the Mohammedan creed. Those who refused to bow down and repeat this creed were killed. Of course, everyone was very much afraid of missionaries who used such methods as these, and large nations of Asia and Africa had come under Mohammedan control. When they reached the shores of Spain, they thought they were going to convert and conquer Europe, too. The Saracens marched north through Spain and into the country of the Franks, whose great-great-great-grandchildren are the French people of today. Here the victory of the invaders ceased to be so easy, for they were met by a certain Duke Charles, who beat them in a course and drove them back. For his bravery in saving Europe from these dark-skinned enemies, Duke Charles was named Martel, the Frank's word for hammer. Charles the Hammer had a son, Pepin, who was called the short because he was not a tall man, but though he was small, Pepin had a big brave heart. He fought for his country against the Lombards, a savage people in North Italy, and he was rewarded for his valor and made king of the Franks. When Pepin was crowned by the Pope, he had a son, Charles, twelve years old. This Charles was so ambitious that, even while a boy, he began to dream of conquering other nations and becoming king not only of France, but of other lands as well. All through his boyhood he dreamed of what he would do if he were king. It was not many years after his father's reign, in fact, before Charles Martel's grandson had conquered so many nations in the south and so many savage tribes in the north of Europe that he became a king of kings or emperor and received the title of Charlemagne, which means Charles the Great. Perhaps the best thing that Charlemagne ever did was to keep Alquin, a scholar from Britain at his court as a trusted friend and teacher. In those days such men in these palaces were merely chaplains or religious teachers, but Alquin taught the king, the queen and the princes, grammar, spelling, arithmetic, and other common branches. This palace school proved to be such a good thing that the emperor ordered that not only any child of a nobleman, but even of the poorest peasant could come to it if the boy showed talent for learning. The books in the palace school were printed very slowly with a pen, sometimes in bright inks and gold. As there were no public libraries in those days, Alquin searched the world for books for his pupils. These parchment were rare and very costly. Instead of Charles's children going to school, the palace school went with the children as the emperor moved from place to place and from palace to palace. Charlemagne's armies were led by brave knights called paladins. The foremost of these paladins were Roland and Oliver, who fought in combats and tournaments. They were both of heroic size, eight feet tall, and performed the same feats so that one could not be distinguished from the other. A story is told of these two having fought five days on an island in the river Rhine without either of them gaining the least advantage over the other. So now when two people are equal in some great struggle, people exclaim, a Roland for an Oliver. Roland, also called Orlando, was the chief hero and Oliver seemed to have been his reflection or shadow. Roland was a nephew of Charlemagne. He is described in the song of Roland as having a wonderful horse, a miraculous sabre and a magic horn, which he blew so that it could be heard thirty miles. The greatest story told of him is that he commanded the rearguard of Charlemagne's army as they were returning from Spain through a pass in the Pyrenees Mountains. Set upon by a hundred thousand Saracens, Roland blew his magic horn so that his uncle the Emperor heard it eight miles away. In the advancing guard with Charlemagne, however, lurked an evil genius who told the anxious Emperor that Roland's horn was not a signal of distress but that his nephew was hunting stags in the mountains. Roland fought until the one hundred thousand Saracens were slain and he had only fifty of his twenty thousand soldiers left. Then fifty thousand more Saracens came out of the mountains and killed the brave Paladin and his fifty men. While Roland was dying of his wounds, this legend goes on, he threw his magic sword into a poisoned stream. Another version of the story is that Roland died of starvation while trying to find his way wounded and alone through the mountains to catch up with the army. Charlemagne and his valiant Paladins rode and fought in all parts of Europe beating the savage Germans beyond the Rhine and conquering tribes and peoples all over Europe almost as far as Constantinople, the great capital of the Eastern Empire. At last the dream of the twelve-year-old lad at his father's crowning came true when Charlemagne himself was crowned at Rome, the City of the Caesars, as Emperor of the Western World on Christmas Day in the year of our Lord, 800. It is written that the crowning of Charlemagne was prepared as a surprise to him by the Pope and his people in Rome. While Charles and his sons were kneeling before a shrine very early on that Christmas morning, Pope Leo appeared in the great church with a crown of gold set with many precious gems and placed it on the head of the kneeling king, thus proclaiming him Emperor of the Western World. In an instant the Pope, the Cardinals, the priests and the people rose from their knees and chanted these words to Charles the Augustus crowned of God the great and pacific emperor long life and victory. Charlemagne was a wise and good emperor who did many things to help his people. He built a lighthouse at Boulogne to guide ships to port, encouraged farming and made wise laws. He was kind to scholars and his favorite recreation was talking to them. He spoke several languages very well and wrote a great deal. Among his writings were a grammar, poems in Latin and many letters. End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Like Many Waters Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham Alfred, the greatest of the Saxon kings. Over 1,000 years ago the king of the west Saxons on the island of Britain, now England, had four sons. Alfred, the youngest of these was his father's favorite. When his boy was only five his royal father sent him to Rome to be confirmed by the pope. After Alfred came back his queen mother died and his father made a pilgrimage or religious journey to Rome taking young Prince Alfred with many court gentlemen, soldiers and servants. On their way the king and his train were given a royal welcome to Rome of France. Alfred's father fell in love with the beautiful young daughter of the French king and asked her hand in marriage. Her father consented so the royal wedding took place on the Saxon king's return from Rome. Alfred's new mother soon became very fond of him. Young as he was he had learned to play the harp but when he was 12 years old Alfred had not been taught to read. All kinds of learning were for priests and lawyers. When gentlemen made contracts or signed law papers they did not write their names but set their signs and seals there unto as is done today in legal documents. All the books were written on parchment in Latin. One day Alfred saw his French stepmother reading a roll of parchment on which Latin words were printed by hand in many colors. As the lad admired it he would make him a present of the scroll as soon as he learned to read and understand it. He went right out and coaxed a monk or priest to teach him Latin and he soon became the happy owner of the beautiful parchment. Learning to read opened a new world to Prince Alfred. He wrote verses and songs for his harp and began to compose both words and music of hymns to be sung in the cathedral near his father's palace. When Alfred was 14 he died. Each of his three older brothers became king one after another and died within a few years. Alfred was 22 when the last brother died and left him to be king. Some rough people called Danes from the North countries across the sea had landed on the island of Britain and the Saxons were compelled to give battle to them so as not to be killed or made slaves to those rough Northmen. So Alfred had to fight the king. When he began to reign he ruled like all the other kings he had known. His father and brothers had treated people as if they were made only to work and pay their way like cattle so Alfred did the same at first. The fierce Danes kept coming over in larger numbers. In a hard fought battle Alfred was defeated and most of his army was slain. Flying for his life the young king found a hiding place in the hut of a swine herd on Hutin's hogs. This man knew who Alfred was but kept the king's secret from his wife who thought the stranger was a poor soldier from the Saxon army. Many stories are told of what the king did while he lived in the hut of this swine herd. These tales have changed so much all the hundreds of years which have passed since Alfred's time that they are called legends. The best known of these is the story of the king and the cakes. Once when the housewife was going out to do some work she asked him while he was fixing his bows and arrows to mind the cakes she had left baking in the ashes of the fireplace. The distracted king's mind was on higher things than coarse meal cakes. When the woman came in she found them burning. She was so angry that she called Alfred a good for nothing beggar and added that if he could not pay for what she gave him to eat he ought to at least look after her cakes well. Alfred had the good sense to see his own conduct through the poor woman's eyes. So instead of being angry or telling her who he was he said gently I am sorry I was so careless I will try not to forget again. A soft answer turned the way wrath. Alfred had read in the role of proverbs in his Latin Bible. It may have been during the long months he spent in the home of this shepherd that the humble king decided to translate the best parts of the Bible into the Saxon language so that the people could read it. Another story is that Alfred stayed in the hut alone while the family were away fishing. He had only a loaf of bread to last until their return. A beggar came and asked for bread. Alfred broke his little loaf in two, gave the man half and ate his half with the beggar. The swine herd returned that day with fish enough for a family feast. In the night the beggar of the day before appeared as an angel to the captive king and said that God had seen how Alfred had humbled his heart so that he was now fitted to rule his people wisely and well. The Danish army was now encamped not far from the king's hiding place. Encouraged by the vision of the shining pilgrim, Alfred started out to see for himself how strong the enemy were and what they were going to do. So he disguised himself as a wandering musician with his harp. He played and sang for the Danish soldiers and was soon taken before their fierce leader, like David, with his harp before King Saul. The Danes were so pleased with him and his music that they asked him to stay with them. As soon as he had found out all he wanted to know, he took up his harp and left the camp of the enemy. The Danes invited him to come again. Arraying back to the swine herd's hut, Alfred sent word to the people that he was alive and ready to go on with the war against the Danes. The people had been in despair, for they had believed that their brave young king was dead. The Saxon chiefs came at once and knelt to King Alfred. When the poor woman realized who her guest was, she fell on her knees and begged him to forgive all she had said to him. Alfred lifted her tenderly from the ground and told her he would reward her and her loyal husband his throne again. The Danish army was astonished early one morning to hear three trumpet blasts and to see a great army of Saxon soldiers marching to meet them, led by that wandering minstrel. Of course the Saxons gained the victory and made the Danes promise not to come and attack them again. They agreed but did not keep their word long. After that, instead of waiting for the Danes to land in Britain, King Alfred fitted up a fleet of ships so that he could go out and fight them on the sea. This has been called the beginning of the British Navy. Then Alfred improved the years of peace by making laws which allowed the people more rights and privileges. He invented a simple clock of candles by which the people could tell the time of day. He rebuilt the towns that had been destroyed in the war and trained his people not only to fight but to till their farms. He developed wise laws and did much to educate his subjects by having books translated from Latin into Anglo-Saxon, the language of the Saxons. Best of all he translated the Bible into the language of the people. Because of all the acts which taught the people how to make their lives better and happier, he is known in history as Alfred the Great. In one of his histories, King Alfred wrote what he tried to do in his own life. He lived worthily as long as I lived and, after my life, to leave them that should come after my memory in good works. End of Chapter 8 Smith Burnham How William of Normandy Conquered a Kingdom When the first son was born to Robert, Duke of Normandy and Arlette, the daughter of a tanner, the nurse laid the day old baby on the straw carpet of the castle. In those days most of the floors of the houses whether huts or castles were of earth or stone covered with straw which could be cleared out as from a modern way to allow fresh straw to be laid down. When placed on the floor in his little blanket baby William reached out and clutch some of the straw so tightly in his small pink fists that one of those who noticed smiled and said he will to take fast hold on everything he lays his hands on when he grows up. When William was seven Duke Robert, his father being about to make the voyage called some of his nobles together and said, it will resolve to journey to the place where our Lord Christ died and was buried, but because I know this journey is full of dangers I would have it settled who should be Duke if I should die. The nobles and knights took an oath that they would stand by his son William and not let anyone keep him from being Duke of Normandy. Then Duke Robert sailed away and died during the long voyage. William was away hunting in a Norman forest when his faithful fool as they called a sort of clown kept by a king to amuse the court broke in where he lay asleep and shouted, fly oh you will never leave here a living man. The young Duke jumped up dressed in haste and mounted his horse riding through the forest in the moonlight in rivers till he came to the castle of a friend who was sure to be faithful to him. This night and his three sons rode with William to his own castle. It turned out that a number of the Norman lords who had taken the oath to satisfy Duke Robert were now declaring that they would not serve under the low born grandson of a tanner. The fool had learned that they were plotting rebellion of his young master. William, who was now a twenty years old, gathered in army of loyal knights and men and waged fierce warfare against the traitors, who retreated within the walls of a Norman town. The young Duke soon captured the town and proved to these rebels as well as to the men of the neighboring kingdom of France that the grandson of a tanner might be a greater general than the son of a king. At the beginning of a great battle of brave knights against braver knights a champion of heroic size came out from the ranks of the enemy and threw down his gauntlet or glove, challenging any knight of Normandy to come and fight him with the sword. William himself took up the gauntlet and drove his sword through an open place in the big knight's armor so that he fell from his horse, dead. Then, like the Philistines of old when David slew their giant the Duke's enemies fled in all directions. Many of them were slain in battle, others while running away were cut down by the battle axes of Norman knights and many more perished in the flooded river. Those were brutal days when people thought that whatever a great king or noble might do was all right if he only had the power to put it through. An example of such high-handed dealing is William's conquest of England. He had once paid a visit to Edward the Confessor, the priestly king of England. The Duke claimed on his return to Normandy that Edward had promised to leave the kingdom to him as a relative. It happened that Harold, in English Earl, was shipwrecked on the coast of Normandy. William seized Harold, shot him up in prison, and kept him there till he promised to do his best to make William king of England at the death of Edward. Two years later when Edward the Confessor died it was found that in spite of his promise to William he had advised in his will that Harold be elected king by the Twitten, an assembly of English freemen. This body of men took the good old king's advice, chose Harold king, and saw that he was crowned at once. Harold excused himself for breaking his promise to William because King Edward had decided in his favor instead of Williams, and because the oath he had made had been forced from him while he was a prisoner. William, however, was very angry when he heard that Harold had allowed himself to be crowned king of England. Getting together as large an army as he could in Normandy he sailed across the channel. In leaping ashore from his boat his hands upon the ground. Realizing that his soldiers would think this a bad sign he clutched both hands full of earth and rising he held them up exclaiming see, I have a taken possession of this land of England. The Normans took position in the village of Hastings. Harold went into a camp on top of Selnick Hill, now called Battle, about six miles from Hastings, and dug trenches around. Here a great battle began at four o'clock in the morning of the fourteenth of October 1066. In advance of the Norman lines rode a knight in armor bearing the duke's colors singing the song of Rowland, the great paladin in the army of Charlemagne who had lived and fought nearly three hundred years before. It was a brave combat with many knights and nobles on each side. The Norman found the Englishman worthy of his steel. The Saxons entrenched on Battle Hill held their ground so well that William saw he could not gain the day unless he drew them away from that point of vantage. So he ordered retreat, and the honest Saxons chased the flying Normans expecting to catch and slay them. But to their great surprise the Normans turned and fought harder than before. Harold was killed by an arrow shot into his eyes. The Saxon army, without a commander, was thrown into confusion, and thus the day was won by strategy. William, Duke of Normandy, became William the conqueror of England. No one now had a better claim to the throne of England than William, so in the new Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066 he was crowned and took a proud place in history as William I of England. He had to fight four years longer to break down all the opposition from the northern counties. In rewarding the Norman knights and nobles who had helped him gain possession of England the king gave them great estates scattered over the kingdom. William brought to the island many scholars and bishops and did much to establish the Church of England. He was both shrewd and wise in proving his own rights and in strengthening his kingdom. William ruled England with a strong hand for twenty-one years. He forbade the buying and selling of slaves, yet he reduced the Saxon farmers to serfs almost as low as slaves. He ordered a record like a census made and a survey of the kingdom which was recorded in what is called the Sack. It was terribly hard for the good, honest Anglo-Saxon people to see the Normans move into their homes and force them to work like slaves on the very places they themselves had owned. But the Normans had the power and the Saxons could not help themselves. For hundreds of years the Normans spoke the French language and the Saxons the English. The very names of the meats on your table at home are from the conquest nearly nine hundred years ago. The animals in the pastures and stables of England were called by the names the Saxons gave them as cow, calf, sheep, swine. But the meats of those animals when cooked and served upon the tables of the masters are still known by their Norman French names as beef, Norman name for cow, veal, Norman for calf, mutton, sheep, pork, Norman for hog or swine. Milk is a Saxon word but cream is from the French because the Saxons had to milk the cows and drink only milk while they served their Norman lords the cream. The Norman traits of keenness, tact, and worldly wisdom have been mingling for many centuries with the honest, sturdy integrity of the Anglo-Saxons. When the races grew together the nobles became less haughty and cruel and the poor people were lifted up out of their poverty. But it took many centuries for men to learn the lesson that kind hearts are more than coronettes and simple faith than Norman blood. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. These recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham Lion-hearted Richard and Wolf-hearted John The great grandson of William the Conqueror was Henry II of England a great and powerful king. At his death in 1189 he left two sons, Richard As Richard was the older he was at once proclaimed king and duly crowned in Westminster Abbey. He was also Duke of Normandy and thought this a greater honour than to be king of England. About a hundred years before the time of Richard great armies had begun to sail from several of the countries of western Europe to the Holy Land in Syria. The rock-hewn tomb of Jesus near Jerusalem was at possession of the followers of Muhammad Turks, Arabs and Saracens who controlled the country. The Christian people of Europe thought it very wrong that the Saracens owned the Holy City of Jerusalem and could keep Christians from coming to worship at the tomb of their Lord. So throngs of soldiers went to the Holy Land to rescue the Holy Sepulchre or tomb. The wars which they fought for this cause were known as the Crusades. In the first Crusade the Christian knights captured not only the Holy Sepulchre but also the city of Jerusalem. In the second Crusade, about 50 years later the Crusaders were beaten back by the Saracens. Two years before Richard became king the Muhammadans again captured Jerusalem and the sacred tomb. Young King Richard was fired with a holy zeal to win back the Holy City and the Sepulchre and, if possible, to find the cross upon which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. This relic was believed to have been hidden by the Saracens. King Richard made many sacrifices to raise money for a third Crusade. His brother John was glad to have Richard go away on such a distant and dangerous mission leaving the younger brother to rule over England during the king's long absence. John was as cowardly as Richard was brave and down in his heart he hoped the Turk would kill his brother so that he could have the throne. Because of the king's nightly courage he was given the title of Richard Lionheart. If John had been named for the animal he was most like he would have been called John Wolfheart. Richard was joined by King Philip of France and the two kings, with their armies and those of the Archduke of Austria reached the Holy Land in due time. They attacked the walled city of Acre called Acre by the Arabs and captured it after a long hard fight and the loss of many thousands of soldiers. But Richard was as overbearing as he was brave. He ordered other kings and dukes about and his manner was so masterful that he made Philip in the Archduke of Austria very angry. After several bitter quarrels the king of France left Richard to fight on without him. The French king sailed away home with most of his army and plotted with Prince John to injure the absent brother and make John King of England while Richard was still alive. Many tales are told of the struggle between Richard, King of England and Saladin, the Sultan of the Saracens. For hundreds of years after Richard Lionheart's campaign in the Holy Land Arab mothers would frighten their children by warning them that Richard would get them if they were not good. Richard Scott's great novels Ivanhoe and the Talisman are stories of life in England at this time and of nightly tournaments which took place between Richard and Saladin during this crusade. While the crusaders were trying to capture Ascalon it became necessary for them to work like stone masons in rebuilding certain walls. Richard went to work with a royal will and most of the nobles and knights followed his example. King of Austria said he was the son neither of a carpenter nor of a mason and flatly refused to help. This made King Richard so angry that he struck the Archduke a blow with his mailed fist and gave him a resounding kick with his heavy iron boot. With all his holy zeal to take the holy city Richard Lionheart had not learned that he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that takeeth a city. Then the Archduke and his Austrian army also left Richard to fight on alone with his few remaining soldiers. What Richard had found hard enough with the help of the King of France in the Archduke of Austria was impossible without them. But Lionheart was not only a very brave man but a fine general. He defeated the army of Saladin in a great battle at Arsuf and twice led the Christian forces within a few miles of Jerusalem. Chorals among the crusaders, however, made it impossible to continue the war. King Richard also received bad news from home that his brother John was plotting against him aided by King Philip of France. So he and Saladin made a truce to stop fighting for three years, three months, three weeks, and three days. Then the brave King of England started for home. Richard sent his army the long way round by water. While he in a few weeks disguised as pilgrims tried to go the short way by land across Austria and Germany. In spite of his disguise Richard was recognized by an Austrian soldier. When the Archduke heard that Richard was crossing his duke-dom he sent soldiers at once to capture the King who had insulted him. Richard was a prisoner in a great castle for two years. A story is told of a young troubadour or wandering minstrel who started out to find his royal master by playing a lute and singing songs of love and hymns of the crusaders. After months of wandering he sang under a castle wall a favourite song of Richard's and heard, to his great joy, a deep bass voice within the German fortress joining in the hymn. He well knew that the voice was none other than Richard Lionheart's. Saying nothing he hurried away and told some English friends where their lost king was. They rushed to Richard's rescue and paid the Emperor of Germany who was over the Archduke in rank and power a royal ransom to have their brave king set free. When Philip of France heard that Richard was out of prison he sent word to John who had been making believe that his brother the king was dead take care of yourself When Richard reached London John pretended to be very glad to receive his dear brother back as from the dead. Richard reigned only a few years after that for he was killed in one of his wars with Philip of France. While he was as brave as a lion Richard was also as fierce and cruel as the king of beasts. He was not a good man as people today regard manhood but he was much better than his cowardly brother John who became king after Richard's death. End of chapter 10 Chapter 11 of Hero Tales from History This is the LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham Joan of Arc and the Lilies of France 500 years ago a little French peasant girl was working outside the stone hut where her father's large family lived when she heard or thought she heard a voice saying to her Joan, be a good child go often to church. This Joan of Arc was so kind-hearted and so thoughtful for others that her friends made fun of her and said she was not like other girls and her parents feared that she was growing too good to live. But Joan only wondered and smiled said her prayers and went often to church. When she was 12 or 13 she began to see visions and hear what she called the voices saying over and over Joan, trust in God for there is great sorrow in the Kingdom of France. It must be St. Catherine and St. Margaret Joan said to herself as she sat spinning for hours at a time what was the sorrow in France and how could she make things better just by being good? She even doubted whether the vision she had seen and the voices she had heard were anything but her own half-waking dreams. One day she overheard the parish priest of Don Remy where she lived telling of the troubles of France for almost a hundred years the Kings of England had claimed and fought for the right to rule over France and lately under their soldier King Henry V had defeated the French and driven their armies into the southern part of their own land. Henry V had died but his son still claimed the French throne and the French Prince or Dauphin as he was called had not been crowned king because the English held the city of France where all the French kings were crowned. The English armies were pushing southward to lay siege to the French city of Orleans. Joan heard the good priest and her father and mother sighing over the sad day that had come when foreigners were fighting to make slaves of the French people and the Dauphin whom God had given them for their king was now flying from place to place before the armies of England. After that day the voices grew more earnest and definite. Go to the governor they urged her and ask him to give you soldiers and send you to the help of the king. Poor little Joan's heart sank within her and she protested I am only a young girl I don't know how to ride or to fight they will only laugh at me but the voices kept on insisting go go go and we will help you save France. Joan told her parents what the voices were telling her to do. Her father laughed and threatened to punish her if he heard any more of such talk and her mother was afraid her strange little daughter was going to die. Joan's brothers and sisters made fun of her and asked if she wished to marry the Dauphin and be queen of France. But Joan had a kind uncle who loved and sympathized with her. Her mother let her go visit Uncle Durant hoping her poor little girl might forget the voices. When Joan told her uncle what she kept seeing and hearing he promised to help her all he could. So he went with his anxious little niece to the governor of that part of France and stood by her as she told the great man about the voices and repeated the latest command they had given her for him. Send and tell the Dauphin to wait and not offer battle to his enemies because God will give him help before the middle of Lent. Not to the Dauphin but to my lord but my lord wishes that the Dauphin shall be king and hold it in trust. In spite of his enemies he shall be king of France and I will lead him to be crowned. And who is your lord demanded the governor with a sneer? The king of heaven said Joan of Arc proudly the governor who was a rough military man laughed loud and long at the faith of a little peasant girl in a white cap, red petticoat and wooden shoes. Instead of doing as she asked he told her uncle to give her a good whipping to beat the foolishness out of her head and send her home to her father. Baffled and discouraged Joan went home with her uncle but the voices kept saying in her ears Go! Go! Back to the governor she went but he treated her as badly as before. Then they found another man to whom she told her story and added God in heaven has told me to go to the Dauphin with his help I must do it even if I have to go on my knees. This friendly gentleman was deeply touched by her earnest words. The people in the country who knew and believed in Joan of Arc pleaded with the men of influence in the neighborhood and it was at last arranged that Joan should go and tell her story to the young king of France. To see if God were guiding her as she claimed the king changed places with the noble in his court but instead of going up to the pretended king who sat in the seat of honour Joan walked straight to the prince where he stood behind some men of the court. It is easy to believe what we will. The Dauphin listened to the burning words of the peasant girl with the pure Madonna-like face After she had won the king's approval it was not so hard for Joan to go on obeying the voices. Dressed in a suit of armour which shone like silver she led a French army to the relief of Orleans. She carried everywhere a beautiful white banner embroidered with lilies. The English laughed at that silly girl trying to be a man and called her in salty names but Joan did not mind for she felt safe under the protection of the saints in heaven. One day in an attack upon a fort held by the English the maid, as the French army now called her, was wounded in the foot but she would not stop fighting. She mounted her horse again and led the charge as though nothing had happened. The English then thought she was a witch that is, a woman working for the devil. In another battle an arrow was shot through her shoulder so that the Barb stuck out five inches. Then the enemy raised a shout of triumph. The maid can be wounded and killed, they yelled. She is not a witch so we are not afraid of her. But one of Joan's company pulled out the arrow and she led them fiercely in the assault. The English soldiers were frightened for in those days everyone believed in witches. Joan drove the enemy from one place to another until all the South country was cleared of the English forces. Then the maid of Orleans, as she was now called, led the king with his court and the French army to the old city of Ram where he was crowned with great joy and splendor as Charles VII. The maid had put the lilies on her banner as the symbol of purity and of God's love and care over France. The French lily, or fleur-de-lis has been the emblem of France through all the centuries since the days of Joan of Arc, the maid of Orleans. Now the maid, who had done all that the voices had commanded, was ready to return home, to spin and to tend the sheep on the hills of Don Rémy. But the weak-hearted king Charles begged her to stay long enough to drive all the English out of France. Against her wish Joan yielded. While fighting outside the walls of a town not far from Paris, she was surrounded by armed men of the enemy. By mistake or through fear, some French people shut the gate in such haste that the maid was left outside fighting a dozen soldiers single-handed. She was captured and put in a dark, damp prison. Here the poor girl, then only 19, was frightened and tortured to make her sign a paper confessing that she was a wicked witch and that all she had done was by the help of the devil. After waiting a long time in vain for the ungrateful prince whom she had made king of France to come and save her with his army or to pay a large sum of money to ransom her she was compelled to stand an unjust trial during which she was many times abused and insulted. This wicked trial was conducted by a false bishop who condemned that sweet, heroic young girl to be burned at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen on the 24th of May, 1431. Twenty-five years after her death the pope reversed the decision of the corrupt bishop. In 1920, nearly five hundred years after the maid was burned to death, high and holy men in the ancient church to which she belonged took the great step of declaring the peasant girl of Domrémy one of the noble army of martyrs in the communion of saints. Perhaps there is no one who has done so much for the world, yet about whose life so little is known as William Shakespeare. His father was a farmer and market man and his mother was Mary Arden a prosperous farmer's daughter. The father was so highly respected that he was made High Bélif or mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon where the Shakespeare family lived. It was one of the father's duties to give out licenses to players or actors who went from town to town performing their plays. Sometimes they gave their shows out of doors and when theaters were built they were galleries around a space of ground. The people who paid the most stood or sat in the galleries and the poor people saw the play from the ground called the pit. Strolling players were looked upon in those days almost as tramps are today. They had to have licenses like street bands nowadays. They often gave their shows in a town square and took up a collection for their pay. John Shakespeare was fond of these shows and there is no doubt that his son William was taken to see them before he went to the Stratford Grammar School when he was seven years old. Here the boy is said to have studied Latin, writing, and arithmetic. Judging from the specimens that are still to be seen of William Shakespeare's penmanship it was not a great success. One of the great play writers of Shakespeare's time wrote that Will had learned small Latin and less Greek at school. But Latin was the chief study in the schools of that time. It was sung and spoken in church and it was thought necessary for even a farmer's son to study that language. When William was thirteen his father was unfortunate in business and the boy had to leave school to earn his living. He was fortunate that he started in to learn the butcher's trade but it seems more likely that he worked as a lawyer's boy and clerk. If all accounts are true he must have been a mischievous lad for the story goes that he was once taken up for poaching, or shooting a deer in the park of one of the great men in the county. When he was eighteen Will Shakespeare married a farmer's daughter eight years older than himself. By the time he was twenty-one two of these Hamnet and Judith were twins. Hamnet died before he grew to manhood and about all that is known of Judith Shakespeare is that she, like her mother, never learned to read. It was not thought necessary then for farmer's wives and daughters to read and write. A lawyer's clerk with five mouths to feed could hardly find enough to do in Stratford to earn a living so William Shakespeare went to London to seek his fortune. It is said that he began life in the great city by holding horses in front of one of the theatres as they did not have hitching posts in Shakespeare's days. Then he was promoted to be the prompter's boy. One of his duties was to tell the actors when it was time for them to go on the stage and play their parts. Nothing is really known of what the young man from Stratford was doing for six or seven years. He made his living in one way or another in connection with the theatres. At the end of that time a dying actor left some bitter lines about will-shake scene. But another actor at this time called Shakespeare a good man, a graceful actor and a witty writer of plays. Shakespeare seems not to have been a leading actor. It is said that he took the part of the ghost in his own play of Hamlet. He became so successful as a writer that he was demanded to bring his company and produce a play before Queen Elizabeth in one of her palaces. It is recorded that Shakespeare was paid from thirty to seventy-five dollars for one of his plays. While it is true that thirty dollars would buy as much then as three hundred dollars today, yet that was a very small price to pay for the greatest dramas ever written. But the real value of the greatest things of the world cannot be measured by money. Everyone is said to have at least one great chance in life. Shakespeare's door of opportunity was the door of a theatre. He did not wait for it to open. He opened it himself. Shakespeare's life showed that poets are born not made. He had the keenest insight into the human heart and life of all the writers who ever lived. End of Chapter 12 CHAPTER 13 Hero Tales from History This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by John Brandon Hero Tales from History by Smith Burnham Chapter 13 How Cromwell Changed Places with the King In Shakespeare's day Queen Elizabeth came first in the thoughts of all the people of England. She was almost worshiped by the men of wealth and genius whom she gathered at her court and by the people at large. By her cleverness and wisdom she kept England peaceful and prosperous all through her reign. But she never married so when she died her cousin James Stewart King of Scotland became King of England. James had been brought up to think that because he was King everybody must bow to him as the Lord's anointed. It was he and his counsellors who drove the pilgrim fathers out of England because they would not worship God as James wished them to in the Church of England of which he was the head. On his way down to London to be crowned James stopped at the beautiful gate of Sir Oliver Cromwell. In the royal company was the King's eldest son Charles, called by the Scottish people the Bonnie Prince. The little Scotch boy only six years old already thought that the world was created for him and that no other boy had any rights which he Prince Charles was bound to respect. The story goes that Oliver Cromwell sent for his nephew whose name was Oliver Cromwell also to play with the Prince. When little Null as a nicknamed Oliver came in his uncle presented him to the boy Prince. Young Oliver tried to shake hands with Charles. Old Oliver who wanted the boy to bow and kiss the Prince's hand said pay your duty to Prince Charles. I owe him no duty, said Null Cromwell. Why should I kiss that boy's hand? King James only left at the Cromwell lad's spirit and Charles and Null were left to play together. The Prince soon struck the other boy as he was in the habit of doing but Naughty Null struck back and sent the Bonnie Prince howling to the King with royal blood streaming from his little freckled nose. Sir Oliver and the members of the royal party looked with holy horror at the boy who had laid hands on the Lord's anointed. Some of them thought young Oliver ought to be imprisoned in the Tower of London or even beheaded for his wickedness. But King James had sense enough to see that it was well for the Prince to get for tat once in a while so he only looked hard at little Oliver and said Thou art a bold lad and if thou live to be a man my son Charlie would do wisely to be friends with thee. Then he turned to Sir Oliver and the frightened friends standing there saying, harm not the lad he has taught my son a good lesson. If heaven do but give him grace to profit by it if he be tempted to play the tyrant over the stubborn English let him remember little Oliver Cromwell. Young Oliver went to free school and then to a Puritan college in Cambridge University. But he had to leave school on account of the death of his father. Before he was 30 Cromwell was elected to Parliament of which his cousin John Hampton was also a member. Meanwhile King James died and his son the Prince with whom Oliver had quarreled when a boy became King Charles I. King James had been so sensible at times and so foolish at others that he has been called the wisest fool in Europe. But Charles had even less sense than his royal father. He tried to abolish Parliament thus setting up his own will against the will of the people of all England and Scotland. Parliament led by such men as Cromwell and Hampton stood up for the rights of the people against tyranny. All lovers of liberty and human rights are greatly in debt to these two brave men who risk their lives to save their country from the selfish willfulness of kings. Englishmen now were divided into two parties. The King's party were the Cavaliers or Church of England men who wore wigs or long curls and dressed in velvets silks and laces like grown-up Lord Fauntleroy's. The Parliamentary party were called roundheads so named because they cut their hair short as men do today. However Cromwell, who never saw an army until he was 40, was suddenly found to be a great general. Because of their stern, unyielding courage, Cromwell soldiers were called iron sides. They often went into battle with a prayer on their lips or, in a grand chorus, sang a psalm of David while striking valiantly for the right. At last it became necessary to sacrifice King Charles in order to secure the victory for Parliament which stood for the freedom of Englishmen against the tyranny of kings. So a court set up by Parliament loaded to put the King to death and Oliver Cromwell was one of the signers of the death warrant. As James the King's father had driven the pilgrims out of the country, so now the court in Parliament forced the King's sons to leave the country for their country's good. During the few years in which Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of England, he did much to strengthen the nation and to repair the great harm brought upon it by the foolish whims of its extravagant kings. It was then that England learned the terrible lesson which Europe had to be taught three hundred years later that no king has a divine right to do wrong to the people. Hero Tales from History by Smith Bernham Chapter 14 Napoleon, the Corsican boy who ruled Europe Though Napoleon Bonaparte was the greatest soldier of his time he was small in body. His full sight was a little above five feet. The story of his strange career shows how a poor, puny little lad made himself Emperor of France and Master of Europe as kings, generals, and prime ministers bowed like so many servants to his Imperial will. He began while he wore petticoats to wish to be a soldier. He threw away his baby rattle for a brass cannon and his first play things were little iron soldiers. When he was old enough to play with other boys he always chose to be a soldier and small as he was he was the one who told the bigger boys just what to do. Even then if his mother gave him a piece of cake he would go out to the edge of the little town and trade it to an old soldier for some coarse black army bread. As he grew older the soldier longing became his ambition. His health was never very good. He was often nervous, willful, and hard to manage. But he had a keen sense of honour and always despised a coward. Napoleon's home was the rugged island of Corsica. While he was still a little boy he found between some rocks near the shore a cave which he claimed for his own. This is still pointed how to thousands who come to visit the boys' birthplace as Napoleon's grotto. At that time there was a feud between the boys of the town and the shepherd lads on the hills around. Napoleon told the other town boys that if they could do as he said he would make those big country boys stop throwing stones at them whenever they met. The town lads agreed to this. So Napoleon told them to gather stones and pile them in a row a little distance below the fortress which the shepherds had chosen behind some rocks on top of their hill. The pale Bonaparte boy led his young army up till the country youths fired a valley of stones at them. Then he turned and ran down the hill followed by his company. The enemy came out and gave chase pal mel. This was just what Napoleon expected. When the little leader got down to the piles of stones he shouted halt. His soldiers obeyed. Stones. Each boy gathered up as many as he could about face fire. Before the Astana shepherds could stop they were met by a shower of rocks. The big fellows broke and scattered in all directions and two of them were taken prisoner. Captain Bonaparte would not let them go till the other country boys pledged themselves not to touch his men again. Thus eight-year-old Napoleon became the leader of the boys in his hometown. Before he was ten he was sent to a military school in France where sons of noblemen were educated. Some of those French boys were wayward mean and savagely cruel. They made fun of the shy country lad for his rough Crescent ways and speech and because he was small and sallow. Napoleon had entered this school of scholarship and so they sneered at him as the charity boy. He could not speak French at first and pronounce his name so that it sounded like the French words for Nose of Straw. As Napoleon's nose was long, straight and thin they laughed and shouted his nickname Mr. Straw Nose. All this made the proud sensitive lad speechless in rage. He kept himself away from the rest. A garden plot was assigned for each cadet to tend. A few of the others were too idle to take care of theirs so they gave them to Napoleon and he kept them in order as his own. In the center of this little kingdom he built an arbor where he could stay alone to study his plan as he had done in his little cave in La Cica and woe to those who entered there without his permission. He had suffered this sort of life nearly four years before his father and mother managed to visit their boy who was almost a prisoner in military school. Napoleon were the shock the visit gave his mother. When she came to see me at the Bren she was frightened at my thickness. It was indeed much changed I employed the hours of his creation working and often passed the nights in thinking about the days lessons my nature could not bear the idea of not being the first in my class. After finishing at this academy Napoleon went to the military college at Paris. Father Bonaparte's death about this time left the family poorer than ever. Sometimes Napoleon did not have enough to eat but that did not prevent him from studying hard. His great ambition kept him from starving. Sometime after his graduation he was assigned to a small command in Paris. Red, revolutionists were trying to destroy the city. Young Napoleon thought at high time to stop them. A mob gathered in a public square threatening to kill people and burn their houses. He opened fire in the mob and cleared a short order. He was said afterward Bonaparte stopped the French Revolution with a whiff of his great shock. From being the man of the hour Napoleon went on until he became the man of destiny. He was raised to the highest rank and his general Bonaparte became commander-in-chief of the French army in Italy where he gained brilliant victories over the Austrians but the Austrians would not stay beaten. And while Napoleon was away in Egypt Austria started in to win back its control of northern Italy. When Napoleon returned to Paris he was the idol of the people. They elected him consul a kind of president of the French Republic. The Austrians were pleased at this as it would keep the little corporal as the soldiers called Napoleon in Pellis. He would have to send another commander to Italy and the Austrians had gotten such a start that they could win the victory before the French forces could go around the Alps. Austria was already crowing over its triumph and all Europe was laughing because General Bonaparte had been caught napping. When one may morning consul Napoleon the great army came top gaining down in the mountain sides into the plains of Italy as if they had fallen from the sky. In a letter to his older brother Napoleon wrote of this we've dropped here like a thunderbolt and the enemy didn't expect it and hardly believe it yet. He had made his soldiers climb up the Alps mountain in the highest steepest place drinking heavy cannon army supplies after them. By his wonderful feat of crossing the Alps Napoleon won by surprise the victory at Meringo just as he had beaten the shepherd lads when he was a boy of eight. The people now made their hero consul for life. After that it was easy for him to make himself emperor of the French. At his coronation Napoleon snatched the crown out of the hands of the pope to show that he was emperor by the right of his own might. He had emperor Napoleon kept on leading his armies in person. He still had to fight with other nations to hold his place as master of Europe. He gained even more brilliant victories as emperor Napoleon than he had won as general Bonaparte. Not content with his record as a great conqueror he gave the French people the Code Napoleon a set of laws which proved him to be also wise a statesman and law giver. The kings and nobles of Europe always hated Napoleon. They said he was vulgar and called him the Corsican Upstart. But the French people loved him as one of themselves. No general or emperor ever had more devoted followers than Napoleon Bonaparte. Millions of men gave their lives willingly to fight his battles. He waged war after war till there were but few fighting men left in France. Then the people began to think that Napoleon loved them because they could not help him win victories to give him more power and fulfill his high ambition. They began to say among themselves he's sacrificing us for his own glory. While at the height of his power Napoleon exclaimed what are a million lives to a man like me? When the people lost their faith in him Napoleon began to lose instead of his win in his battles. Generals and nobles stopped flattering him and began to fight him. His own brothers and sisters whom he had made kings and queens deserted him. Even his wife were sick of him. Taking with her his only son the idol of his heart. Napoleon's last battle was at Waterloo in Belgium. Because this loss brought him ruined to him the name of the place became a kind of proverb. When overwhelming defeat comes to a great man people say he's met his Waterloo. The conquered conqueror was taken prisoner and sent thousands of miles away as a captive to the bleak island of Saint Helena. He made the best of his hard lot as the fortunes of war. But the years of loneliness endured by this friendless conqueror who all his life had been selfish and merciless and suggested by a well known picture which shows Napoleon on the shore of that far off rock in the southern sea standing with hands clasped behind him looking off across the ocean to where France lay. End of Chapter 14 Bred by Lige Fischer