Book of Golden Deeds

Yonge, Charlotte Mary

• Publisher: pubOne.info
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9782819918943
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. As the most striking lines of poetry are the most hackneyed, because they have grown to be the common inheritance of all the world, so many of the most noble deeds that earth can show have become the best known, and enjoyed their full meed of fame. Therefore it may be feared that many of the events here detailed, or alluded to, may seem trite to those in search of novelty; but it is not for such that the collection has been made. It is rather intended as a treasury for young people, where they may find minuter particulars than their abridged histories usually afford of the soul-stirring deeds that give life and glory to the record of events; and where also other like actions, out of their ordinary course of reading, may be placed before them, in the trust that example may inspire the spirit of heroism and self-devotion. For surely it must be a wholesome contemplation to look on actions, the very essence of which is such entire absorption in others that self is forgotten; the object of which is not to win promotion, wealth, or success, but simple duty, mercy, and loving-kindness

GEORGE THE TRILLER

1455

I.

'Why, Lady dear, so sad of cheer?

Hast waked the livelong night?'

'My dreams foreshow my children's woe,

Ernst bold and Albrecht bright.

'From the dark glades of forest shades

There rushed a raging boar,

Two sapling oaks with cruel strokes

His crooked tusks uptore.'

'Ah, Lady dear, dismiss thy fear

Of phantoms haunting sleep!'

'The giant knight, Sir Konrad hight,

Hath vowed a vengeance deep.

'My Lord, o'erbold, hath kept his gold,

And scornful answer spake:

'Kunz, wisdom learn, nor strive to burn

The fish within their lake.'

'See, o'er the plain, with all his train,

My Lord to Leipzig riding;

Some danger near my children dear

My dream is sure betiding.'

'The warder waits before the gates,

The castle rock is steep,

The massive walls protect the halls,

Thy children safely sleep.'

II.

'T is night's full noon, fair shines the moon

On Altenburg's old halls,

The silver beams in tranquil streams

Rest on the ivied walls.

Within their tower the midnight hour

Has wrapt the babes in sleep,

With unclosed eyes their mother lies

To listen and to weep.

What sudden sound is stirring round?

What clang thrills on her ear?

Is it the breeze amid the trees

Re-echoing her fear?

Swift from her bed, in sudden dread,

She to her lattice flies:

Oh! sight of woe, from far below

Behold a ladder rise:

And from yon tower, her children's bower,

Lo! Giant Kunz descending!

Ernst, in his clasp of iron grasp,

His cries with hers is blending.

'Oh! hear my prayer, my children spare,

The sum shall be restored;

Nay, twenty-fold returned the gold,

Thou know'st how true my Lord.'

With mocking grace he bowed his face:

'Lady, my greetings take;

Thy Lord may learn how I can burn

The fish within their lake.'

Oh! double fright, a second knight

Upon the ladder frail,

And in his arm, with wild alarm,

A child uplifts his wail!

Would she had wings! She wildly springs

To rouse her slumbering train;

Bolted without, her door so stout

Resists her efforts vain!

No mortal ear her calls can hear,

The robbers laugh below;

Her God alone may hear her moan,

Or mark her hour of woe.

A cry below, 'Oh! let me go,

I am no prince's brother;

Their playmate I - Oh! hear my cry

Restore me to my mother!'

With anguish sore she shakes the door.

Once more Sir Kunz is rearing

His giant head. His errand sped

She sees him reappearing.

Her second child in terror wild

Is struggling in his hold;

Entreaties vain she pours again,

Still laughs the robber bold.

'I greet thee well, the Elector tell

How Kunz his counsel takes,

And let him learn that I can burn

The fish within their lakes.'

III.

'Swift, swift, good steed, death's on thy speed,

Gain Isenburg ere morn;

Though far the way, there lodged our prey,

We laugh the Prince to scorn.

'There Konrad's den and merry men

Will safely hold the boys -

The Prince shall grieve long ere we leave

Our hold upon his joys.

'But hark! but hark! how through the dark

The castle bell is tolling,

From tower and town o'er wood and down,

The like alarm notes rolling.

'The peal rings out! echoes the shout!

All Saxony's astir;

Groom, turn aside, swift must we ride

Through the lone wood of fir.'

Far on before, of men a score

Prince Ernst bore still sleeping;

Thundering as fast, Kunz came the last,

Carrying young Albrecht weeping.

The clanging bell with distant swell

Dies on the morning air,

Bohemia's ground another bound

Will reach, and safety there.

The morn's fresh beam lights a cool stream,

Charger and knight are weary,

He draws his rein, the child's sad plain

He meets with accents cheery.

'Sir Konrad good, be mild of mood,

A fearsome giant thou!

For love of heaven, one drop be given

To cool my throbbing brow!'

Kunz' savage heart feels pity's smart,

He soothes the worn-out child,

Bathes his hot cheeks, and bending seeks

For woodland berries wild.

A deep-toned bark! A figure dark,

Smoke grimed and sun embrowned,

Comes through the wood in wondering mood,

And by his side a hound.

'Oh, to my aid, I am betrayed,

The Elector's son forlorn,

From out my bed these men of dread

Have this night hither borne!'

'Peace, if thou 'rt wise,' the false groom cries,

And aims a murderous blow;

His pole-axe long, his arm so strong,

Must lay young Albrecht low.

See, turned aside, the weapon glide

The woodman's pole along,

To Albrecht's clasp his friendly grasp

Pledges redress from wrong.

Loud the hound's note as at the throat

Of the false groom he flies;

Back at the sounds Sir Konrad bounds:

'Off hands, base churl,' he cries.

The robber lord with mighty sword,

Mailed limbs of giant strength -

The woodman stout, all arms without,

Save his pole's timber length -

Unequal fight! Yet for the right

The woodman holds the field;

Now left, now right, repels the knight,

His pole f...

Table of contents

• PREFACE
• WHAT IS A GOLDEN DEED?
• THE STORIES OF ALCESTIS AND ANTIGONE
• THE CUP OF WATER
• HOW ONE MAN HAS SAVED A HOST
• THE PASS OF THERMOPYLAE
• THE ROCK OF THE CAPITOL
• THE TWO FRIENDS OF SYRACUSE
• THE DEVOTION OF THE DECII
• REGULUS
• THE BRAVE BRETHREN OF JUDAH
• THE CHIEF OF THE ARVERNI
• WITHSTANDING THE MONARCH IN HIS WRATH
• THE LAST FIGHT IN THE COLISEUM
• THE SHEPHERD GIRL OF NANTERRE
• LEO THE SLAVE
• THE BATTLE OF THE BLACKWATER
• GUZMAN EL BUENO
• FAITHFUL TILL DEATH
• WHAT IS BETTER THAN SLAYING A DRAGON
• THE KEYS OF CALAIS
• THE BATTLE OF SEMPACH
• THE CONSTANT PRINCE
• THE CARNIVAL OF PERTH
• THE CROWN OF ST. STEPHEN
• GEORGE THE TRILLER
• SIR THOMAS MORE'S DAUGHTER
• UNDER IVAN THE TERRIBLE
• FORT ST. ELMO
• THE VOLUNTARY CONVICT
• THE HOUSEWIVES OF LOWENBURG
• FATHERS AND SONS
• THE SOLDIERS IN THE SNOW
• GUNPOWDER PERILS
• HEROES OF THE PLAGUE
• THE SECOND OF SEPTEMBER
• THE VENDEANS
• Copyright