4. He would not hear thy voice, fair child; The face that once like spring-time smiled, 5. A rose's brief, bright life of joy, 6. And has he left his birds and flowers; And through the long, long summer hours, 7. And by the brook and in the glade Oh, while my brother with me played,' 1 DRÔÔP ING. Sinking or hanging 2 THÖÛ 'LT. Thou wilt. XXIV. — WRECK OF THE WHITE SHIP. DICKENS. 1. In the year one thousand one hundred and twenty, King Henry the First of England went over to Normandy with his son, Prince William, and a great retinue,' to have the Prince acknowledged' as his successor3 by the Norman nobles, and to contract a marriage' between him and the daughter of the Count of Anjou. 6 2. Both these things were triumphantly done, with great show and rejoicing; and on the twenty-fifth of November the whole retinue prepared to embark at the port of Barfleur for the voyage home. 3. On that day, and at that place, there came to the King, Fitz-Stephen, a sea-captain, and said: "My liege, my father served your father all his life, upon the sea. He steered the ship with the golden boy upon the prow,' in which your father sailed to conquer England. I beseech you to grant me the same office. I have a fair vessel in the harbor here, called the White Ship, manned by fifty sailors of renown. I pray you, Sire, to let your servant have the honor of steering you in the White Ship to England!" 4. "I am sorry, friend," replied the King, "that my vessel is already chosen, and that I cannot, therefore, sail with the son of the man who served my father. But the Prince and all his company shall go along with you, in the fair White Ship, manned by the fifty sailors of renown.' 5. An hour or two afterward, the King set sail in the vessel he had chosen, accompanied by other vessels, and, sailing all night with a fair and gentle wind, arrived upon the coast of England in the morning. While it was yet night, the people in some of those ships heard a faint wild cry come over the sea, and wondered what it was. 6. Now the Prince was a young man of eighteen, who bore no love to the English, and had declared that when he came to the throne he would yoke them to the plough like oxen. 7. He went aboard the White Ship, with one hun dred and forty youthful nobles like himself, among whom were eighteen noble ladies of the highest rank. All this gay company, with their servants and the fifty sailors, made three hundred souls aboard the fair White Ship. 8. "Give three casks of wine, Fitz-Stephen," said the Prince," to the fifty sailors of renown! My father, the King, has sailed out of the harbor. What time is there to make merry here, and yet reach England with the rest?" 66 "before morning, 9. Prince," said Fitz-Stephen, my fifty and the White Ship shall overtake the swiftest vessel in attendance on your father, the King, if we sail at midnight! 10. Then, the Prince commanded to make merry; and the sailors drank out the three casks of wine; and the Prince and all the noble company danced in the moonlight on the deck of the White Ship. 11. When, at last, she shot out of the harbor of Barfleur, there was not a sober seaman on board. But the sails were all set, and the oars all going merrily. Fitz-Stephen had the helm. The gay young nobles and the beautiful ladies, wrapped in mantles of various bright colors to protect them from the cold, talked, laughed, and sang. The Prince encouraged the fifty sailors to row harder yet, for the honor of the White Ship. 12. Crash! A terrific cry broke from three hundred hearts. It was the cry the people in the distant vessela of the King heard faintly on the water. The White Ship had struck upon a rock-was filling-going down! 13. Fitz-Stephen hurried the Prince into a boat, with "Push off," he whispered; "and some few nobles. row to the land. It is not far, and the sea is smooth. The rest of us must die." He never in 14. But as they rowed away fast from the sinking ship, the Prince heard the voice of his sister, MARIE, the Countess of Perche, calling for help. his life had been so good as he was then. He cried in an agony, "Row back at any risk! I cannot bear to leave her!" 15. They rowed back. As the Prince held out his arms to catch his sister, such numbers leaped in that the boat was overset; and in the same instant the White Ship went down. 16. Only two men floated. They both clung to the main-yard of the ship, which had broken from the mast, and now supported them. One asked the other who he was? He said, "I am a nobleman, Godfrey by name, the son of Gilbert de L'Aigle. And you?" said he. "I am Berold, a poor butcher of Rouen," was the anThen they said together, "Lord be merciful to us both?" and tried to encourage one another, as they drifted in the cold benumbing sea on that unfortunate November night. swer. 9 17. By-and-by, another man came swimming toward them, whom they knew, when he pushed aside his long wet hair, to be Fitz-Stephen. "Where is the Prince?' said he. "Gone! Gone!" the two cried together. "Neither he, nor his brother, nor his sister, nor the King's niece, nor her brother, nor any one of all the brave three hundred, noble or commoner,10 except we three, has risen above the water!" Fitz-Stephen, with a ghastly" face, cried "Woe! woe to me!" and sunk to the bottom. 18. The other two clung to the yard for some hours. At length the young noble said faintly, "I am exhausted, and chilled with the cold, and can hold no longer. Farewell, good friend! God preserve you!" So he dropped and sunk; and of all the brilliant crowd, the poor butcher of Rouen alone was saved. In the morning some fishermen saw him floating in his sheepskin coat, and got him into their boat — the sole relater1 of the dismal tale. 19. For three days no one dared to carry the intelligence to the King. At length, they sent into his presence a little boy, who, weeping bitterly, and kneeling at his feet, told him that the White Ship was lost, with all on board. The King fell to the ground like a dead man, and never, never afterward was seen to smile. 1 RĚT'I-NUE. A train of attendants. 5 MARRIAGE. Legal union of a man 7 PRÖŵ. The fore part of a ship. 9 BE-NUMBING (-num'ing). That 10 COM'MON-ER. One of the com mon people, a person of a rank below the nobility. 11 GHAST'LY. Deadly pale, ghost-like. 12 RE-LATER. One who relates or tells, a narrator. O, LET us never lightly fling A barb of woe to wound another! O, never let us haste to bring |