The Prince and the Page | Page 4

THE PAGE
by Charlotte M. Yonge

PREFACE

In these days of exactness even a child's historical romance must point

to what the French term its pieces justficatives. We own that ours do
not lie very deep. The picture of Simon de Montfort drawn by his wife's
own household books, as quoted by Mrs. Everett Green in her Lives of
the Princesses, and that of Edward I. in Carte's History, and more
recently in the Greatest of the Plantagenets, furnished the two chief
influences of the story. The household accounts show that Earl Simon
and Eleanor of England had five sons. Henry fell with his father at
Evesham. Simon and Guy deeply injured his cause by their violence,
and after holding out Kenilworth against the Prince, retired to the
Continent, where they sacrilegiously murdered Henry, son of the King
of the Romans--a crime so much abhorred in Italy that Dante represents
himself as meeting them in torments in the Inferno, not however before
Guy had become the founder of the family of the Counts of Monforte
in the Maremma. Richard, the fourth son, appears in the household
books as possessing dogs, and having garments bought for him; but his
history has not been traced after his mother left England. The youngest
son, Amaury, obtained the hereditary French possessions of the family,
and continued the line of Montfort as a French subject. Eleanor, the
only daughter, called the Demoiselle de Montfort, married, as is well
known, the last native prince of Wales, and died after a few years.
The adventure of Edward with the outlaw of Alton Wood is one of the
stock anecdotes of history, and many years ago the romance of the
encounter led the author to begin a tale upon it, in which the outlaw
became the protector of one of the proscribed family of Montfort. The
commencement was placed in one of the manuscript magazines which
are so often the amusement of a circle of friends. It was not particularly
correct in its details, and the hero bore the peculiarly improbable name
of Wilfred (by which he has since appeared in the Monthly Packet).
The story slept for many years in MS., until further reading and thought
had brought stronger interest in the period, and for better or for worse it
was taken in hand again. Joinville, together with the authorities quoted
by Sismondi, assisted in picturing the arrival of the English after the
death of St. Louis, and the murder of Henry of Almayne is related in all
crusading histories; but for Simon's further career, and for his
implication in the attempt on Edward's life at Acre, the author is alone
responsible, taking refuge in the entire uncertainty that prevails as to
the real originator of the crime, and perhaps an apology is likewise due

to Dante for having reversed his doom.
For the latter part of the story, the old ballad of The Blind Beggar of
Bethnal Green, gives the framework. That ballad is believed to be
Elizabethan in date, and the manners therein certainly are scarcely
accordant with the real thirteenth century, and still less with our notions
of the days of chivalry. Some liberties therefore have been taken with it,
the chief of them being that Bessee is not permitted to go forth to seek
her fortune in the inn at Romford, and the readers are entreated to
believe that the alteration was made by the traditions which repeated
Henry de Montfort's song.
It was the late Hugh Millar who alleged that the huge stone under
which Edward sleeps in Westminster Abbey agrees in structure with no
rocks nearer than those whence the mighty stones of the Temple at
Jerusalem were hewn, and there is no doubt that earth and stones were
frequently brought by crusaders from the Holy Land with a view to the
hallowing of their own tombs.
The author is well aware that this tale has all the incorrectnesses and
inconsistencies that are sure to attend a historical tale; but the dream
that has been pleasant to dream may be pleasant to listen to; and there
can be no doubt that, in spite of all inevitable faults, this style of
composition does tend to fix young people's interest and attention on
the scenes it treats of, and to vivify the characters it describes; and if
this sketch at all tends to prepare young people's minds to look with
sympathy and appreciation on any of the great characters of our early
annals, it will have done at least one work.
December 12th, 1865.

CHAPTER I
--THE STATELY HUNTER

"'Now who are thou of the darksome brow Who wanderest here so
free?' "'Oh, I'm one that will walk the green green woods, Nor ever ask
leave of thee.'"--S. M.
A fine