A Forgotten Hero

A Forgotten Hero, by Emily
Sarah Holt

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Title: A Forgotten Hero Not for Him
Author: Emily Sarah Holt
Illustrator: M. Petherick
Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23119]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A
FORGOTTEN HERO ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

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;
and who does not know that Fashion, whether in the thirteenth century
or