Zigzag Journeys in Europe Part 26

The guide left the party a few minutes, and then returned with a bunch of keys.

He led the way to a small room in which the little sons of Edward had been lodged, to be accessible to the murderers. Here the unhappy children were smothered in bed. The room, apart from its dreadful a.s.sociations, was a pleasant one looking out on the Thames.

The party was next shown the stairs at the foot of which the remains of the princes were discovered.

"I can imagine," said Ernest Wynn, "the life of the boys in the Tower.

How they went from window to window and looked out on the Thames, the sunlight, and the sky as we do now; how they saw the bright, happy faces pa.s.s, and children in the distance at play; how they watched, it may be, the lights in their dead father's palace at night, and how they wondered why the freedom of the gay world beyond the prison was denied them. It is said that an old man who loved them used to play on some instrument in the evening under the walls of the Tower, and thus express to them his sympathy which he could not do in words."

"The burial of Richard III., who caused the death of the royal children," said Master Lewis, "was almost as pitiful as that of the princes themselves. After the fatal battle, his naked body was thrown upon a sorry steed and carried over the bridge to Leicester amid derision and scorn. For two hot summer days it was exposed to the jeers of the mob, and then was laid in a tomb costing 10 1_s._, to rest fifty years. The tomb was dashed in pieces during the Reformation, the bones thrown into the river and the stone coffin, according to tradition, used as a horse-trough."

The collection of armor in an apartment of the Tower called the Horse Armory, a building over one hundred and fifty feet long, presented a spectacle that filled our visitors with wonder. It seemed like a sudden reproduction of the faded days of chivalry. On each side of the room was a row of knights in armor, in different att.i.tudes, looking as though they were real knights under some spell of enchantment, waiting for the magic word to start them into life again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BURIAL OF RICHARD.]

The Jewel Tower did not so much excite the boys' astonishment. It was like a costumer's shop; and even the royal crown of England wore an almost ridiculous look, civilization and republican progress have so far outgrown these theatrical playthings. The Queen's diadem, as it is called, was indeed a glitter of diamonds, and the royal sceptres of various devices carried one back to the days of Queen Esther.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TOWER OF LONDON.]

"Among the stories told of the prisoners in the Tower," said Master Lewis, "there is one that is pleasant to remember. Sir Henry Wyat was confined here in a dark low cell, where he suffered from cold and hunger. A cat came to visit him at times, and used to lie in his bosom and warm him. One day the cat caught a pigeon and brought it to him to eat. The keeper heard of p.u.s.s.y's devotion to the prisoner, and treated him more kindly. When Wyat was released, he became noted for his fondness for cats."

Leaving the Tower, the boys stopped to look at the Traitor's Gate, which had clanged behind so many ill.u.s.trious prisoners brought to the prison in the fatal barge; Cranmer, More, Anne Boleyn, bad men and good men, how it swung behind them all, and ended even hope! With sober faces the boys turned away.

The Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park presented the boys, on the day after their visit to the Tower, a more cheerful scene. Who that has read of the London "Zoo" has not wished to visit it? Here specimens of the whole animal kingdom may be seen, and one wanders among the immense cages, artificial ponds, bear-pits, enclosures of tropical animals, reptile dens, feeling as free and secure as Adam appears in the picture of Naming the Creation.

Here, unlike a menagerie, the animals all have room for the comforts of existence. The rhinoceroses have a pond in which to stand in the mud, and the hippopotami may sport as in their native rivers.

The British Museum, with its Roman sculptures, Elgin marbles, and almost innumerable cla.s.sic antiquities, and St. Paul's with its fifty monuments of England's heroes and benefactors, presented to the Cla.s.s an extended view of the world's history. Sight-seeing became almost bewildering, and when it was asked what place they next should visit, Tommy Toby replied,--

"I feel as though I had seen almost enough."

"Let us visit Madame Tussaud's wax works," said Master Lewis.

"Are they like Mrs. Jarley's 'wax figgers?'" said Tommy; "if so I would like to go. Who was Madame Tussaud?"

"She was a little French lady who took casts of faces of great men, sometimes after their death or execution, and who died herself some twenty or more years ago, at the age of ninety years."

The price of the exhibition was a shilling, and--

"For the Chamber of Horrors a sixpence hextra," said the man admitting the party. Each one paid the "hextra" sixpence.

There were three hundred figures in all, supposed to be exact representations of the persons when living. In a room called the Hall of Kings were fifty figures of kings and queens, reproducing to the life these generally condemned players on the stage of English history.

A clever, winsome old man sat on one of the benches in the place, holding a programme in his hand, and now and then raising his head, as from studying the paper, to scrutinize one or another of the astonishing works of art.

Tommy sat down beside the much interested, benevolent-looking old gentleman, and said,--

"It was not _George_ Wilkes Booth who killed President Lincoln, it was--

"Well, if this don't cap the whole! Why, _you_ are a 'figger,' too."

And so the mild, attentive-looking old gentleman proved to be.

The Chamber of Horrors revived the feeling the visitors had felt in the Tower. It was a collection of representations of criminals. Among the relics is the blade of the guillotine used during the Reign of Terror in France, which is said to have cut off two thousand heads.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOLSEY SERVED BY n.o.bLES.]

Hampton Court Palace, the gift of Cardinal Wolsey to Henry VIII., and probably the most magnificent present that a prelate ever gave a king, next received our tourists' attention. The palace originally consisted of five courts, only a part of which now remain, but which a.s.sist the fancy in stereoscoping the old manorial splendor. Here Wolsey lived in vice-regal pomp, and had nearly one thousand persons to do his house-keeping, and n.o.ble lords, on state occasions, waited upon him upon bended knees.

The establishment at this time contained fifteen hundred rooms.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHITEHALL.]

Edward VI., the last of the boy-kings of England, a youth noted for his piety and love of learning, was born here, and here spent in scholarly occupations a part of his short life. Catharine Howard, who for a long time held the affections of Henry VIII., and who in his best years greatly influenced his conduct by her wisdom and accomplishments, was first acknowledged as queen here; and here also Henry married another Catharine,--Catharine Parr, his sixth and last wife. b.l.o.o.d.y Mary kept Christmas here in 1557, when the great hall was lighted with one thousand lamps.

Our visitors found Hampton Court open to the public,--a place of rare freedom where people go out from London and enjoy the grounds much as though it were their own. It is in fact a grand picture gallery and a public garden.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOLSEY'S PALACE.]

"Wolsey gave this palace to the king," said Master Lewis; "and the king was sporting in the palace when he received the news of the death of the Cardinal, who was stricken with a mortal sickness near Leicester Abbey, soon after having been arrested for high treason. The sad event did not seem to give the king the slightest pain. Such is the value of the presents of a corrupt friendship.

"Charles I. resided here at times. Here he brought his young bride when all London was reeking with the pestilence.

"Charles had three beautiful children, and was fond of their company.

Once, it is said, when he was with them at a window of Hampton Court Palace, a gypsy appeared before him and asked for charity. He and the children laughed at her grotesque appearance, which angered her, when she took from her basket a gla.s.s and held it up to the king. He looked into it and saw his head severed from his shoulders.

"The king gave her money.

"'A dog shall die in this room,' she said, 'and then the kingdom which you will lose shall be restored to your family.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: DEATH OF CARDINAL WOLSEY.]

"Many years pa.s.sed; and Oliver Cromwell, attended by his faithful dog, came to Hampton Court Palace and slept in this room. When he awoke in the morning, the dog was dead.

"'The kingdom has departed from me,' he said, recalling the gypsy's prophecy; and so it proved.

"Of course the story of the gypsy's mirror is untrue, but the legend is a part of the old romance of the palace; and such poetic incidents, though false colored lights, serve to impress the facts of history more vividly on the mind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHILDREN OF CHARLES I.]

"This legend of Charles I.," continued Master Lewis, "reminds me of a more pleasant story, which I will tell you, now that you are at the palace where the king brought his bride when life looked so fair and promising. I will call the story--

THE d.u.c.h.eSS'S WONDERFUL PIE.

"There were gala days at Paris,--wedding days. Then the new Queen of England, Henrietta Maria, who had been married amid music and rejoicings and strewings of flowers, made a journey to the sea, that she might embark for England and see her new husband to whom she had been married by proxy. There were more rejoicings when she landed at Dover.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLIVER CROMWELL.]