



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




A Forgotten Hero, or, Not for Him, by Emily Sarah Holt.

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This shortish book takes us to the end of the thirteenth century, and,
although the people in the book are mostly high-born, the scene is a
very domestic one.  It gives us a good understanding of the way life was
lived in those days.  Recommended for its social interest.
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A FORGOTTEN HERO, OR, NOT FOR HIM, BY EMILY SARAH HOLT.



CHAPTER ONE.

CASTLES IN THE AIR.

  "O pale, pale face, so sweet and meek, Oriana!"

  Tennyson.

"Is the linen all put away, Clarice?"

"Ay, Dame."

"And the rosemary not forgotten?"

"I have laid it in the linen, Dame."

"And thy day's task of spinning is done?"

"All done, Dame."

"Good.  Then fetch thy sewing and come hither, and I will tell thee
somewhat touching the lady whom thou art to serve."

"I humbly thank your Honour."  And dropping a low courtesy, the girl
left the room, and returned in a minute with her work.

"Thou mayest sit down, Clarice."

Clarice, with another courtesy and a murmur of thanks, took her seat in
the recess of the window, where her mother was already sitting.  For
these two were mother and daughter; a middle-aged, comfortable-looking
mother, with a mixture of firmness and good-nature in her face; and a
daughter of some sixteen years, rather pale and slender, but active and
intelligent in her appearance.  Clarice's dark hair was smoothly brushed
and turned up in a curl all round her head, being cut sufficiently short
for that purpose.  Her dress was long and loose, made in what we call
the Princess style, with a long train, which she tucked under one arm
when she walked.  The upper sleeve was of a narrow bell shape, but under
it came down tight ones to the wrist, fastened by a row of large round
buttons quite up to the elbow.  A large apron--which Clarice called a
barm-cloth--protected the dress from stain.  A fillet of ribbon was
bound round her head, but she had no ornaments of any kind.  Her mother
wore a similar costume, excepting that in her case the fillet round the
head was exchanged for a wimple, which was a close hood, covering head
and neck, and leaving no part exposed but the face.  It was a very
comfortable article in cold weather, but an eminently unbecoming one.

These two ladies were the wife and daughter of Sir Gilbert Le Theyn, a
knight of Surrey, who held his manor of the Earl of Cornwall; and the
date of the day when they thus sat in the window was the 26th of March
1290.

It will strike modern readers as odd if I say that Clarice and her
mother knew very little of each other.  She was her father's heir, being
an only child; and it was, therefore, considered the more necessary that
she should not live at home.  It was usual at that time to send all
young girls of good family, not to school--there were no schools in
those days--but to be brought up under some lady of rank, where they
might receive a suitable education, and, on reaching the proper age,
have a husband provided for them, the one being just as much a matter of
course as the other.  The consent of the parents was asked to the
matrimonial selection of the mistress, but public opinion required some
very strong reason to justify them in withholding it.  The only
exception to this arrangement was when girls were destined for the
cloister, and in that case they received their education in a convent.
But there was one person who had absolutely no voice in the matter, and
that was the unfortunate girl in question.  The very idea of consulting
her on any point of it, would have struck a mediaeval mother with
astonishment and dismay.

Why ladies should have been considered competent in all instances to
educate anybody's daughters but their own is a mystery of the Middle
Ages.  Dame La Theyn had under her care three girls, who were receiving
their education at her hands, and she never thought of questioning her
own competency to impart it; yet, also without a question, she sent
Clarice away from her, first to a neighbouring knight's wife, and now to
a Princess, to receive the education which she might just as well have
had at home.  It was the command of Fashion;