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Famous StoriesBruce And The SpiderThere was once a king of Scot-land whose name was Robert Br... A Laconic Answer Many miles beyond Rome there was a famous country which we ... Pocahontas There was once a very brave man whose name was John Smith. ... Three Men Of Gotham There is a town in England called Go-tham, and many merry s... Antonio Canova A good many years ago there lived in Italy a little boy who... A Story Of Robin Hood In the rude days of King Rich-ard and King John there were ... The Story Of Regulus On the other side of the sea from Rome there was once a gre... Julius Caesar Nearly two thousand years ago there lived in Rome a man who... The Sword Of Damocles There was once a king whose name was Di-o-nys'i-us. He was ... Maximilian And The Goose Boy One summer day King Max-i-mil'ian of Ba-va'ri-a was walking... The Kingdoms There was once a king of Prussia whose name was Frederick W... The Story Of William Tell The people of Swit-zer-land were not always free and happy ... The White Ship King Henry, the Handsome Scholar, had one son, named Willia... The Ungrateful Guest Among the soldiers of King Philip there was a poor man who ... King Canute On The Seashore A hundred years or more after the time of Alfred the Great ... Grace Darling It was a dark Sep-tem-ber morning. There was a storm at sea... King Alfred And The Beggar At one time the Danes drove King Alfred from his kingdom, a... The Brave Three Hundred All Greece was in danger. A mighty army, led by the great K... Other Wise Men Of Gotham One day, news was brought to Gotham that the king was comin... The Ungrateful Soldier Here is another story of the bat-tle-field, and it is much ... |
THE BLACK DOUGLASIn Scotland, in the time of King Robert Bruce, there lived a brave man whose name was Doug-las. His hair and beard were black and long, and his face was tanned and dark; and for this reason people nicknamed him the Black Douglas. He was a good friend of the king, and one of his strongest helpers. In the war with the English, who were trying to drive Bruce from Scotland, the Black Douglas did many brave deeds; and the English people became very much afraid of him. By and by the fear of him spread all through the land. Nothing could frighten an English lad more than to tell him that the Black Douglas was not far away. Women would tell their chil-dren, when they were naughty, that the Black Douglas would get them; and this would make them very quiet and good. There was a large cas-tle in Scotland which the English had taken early in the war. The Scot-tish soldiers wanted very much to take it again, and the Black Douglas and his men went one day to see what they could do. It happened to be a hol-i-day, and most of the English soldiers in the cas-tle were eating and drinking and having a merry time. But they had left watch-men on the wall to see that the Scottish soldiers did not come upon them un-a-wares; and so they felt quite safe. In the e-ven-ing, when it was growing dark, the wife of one of the soldiers went up on the wall with her child in her arms. As she looked over into the fields below the castle, she saw some dark objects moving toward the foot of the wall. In the dusk she could not make out what they were, and so she pointed them out to one of the watch-men. "Pooh, pooh!" said the watchman. "Those are nothing to frighten us. They are the farmer's cattle, trying to find their way home. The farmer himself is en-joy-ing the hol-i-day, and he has forgotten to bring them in. If the Douglas should happen this way before morning, he will be sorry for his care-less-ness." But the dark objects were not cattle. They were the Black Douglas and his men, creeping on hands and feet toward the foot of the castle wall. Some of them were dragging ladders behind them through the grass. They would soon be climbing to the top of the wall. None of the English soldiers dreamed that they were within many miles of the place. The woman watched them until the last one had passed around a corner out of sight. She was not afraid, for in the dark-en-ing twi-light they looked indeed like cattle. After a little while she began to sing to her child:-- "Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye, Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye, The Black Douglas shall not get ye." All at once a gruff voice was heard behind her, saying, "Don't be so sure about that!" She looked around, and there stood the Black Douglas himself. At the same moment a Scottish soldier climbed off a ladder and leaped upon the wall; and then there came another and another and another, until the wall was covered with them. Soon there was hot fighting in every part of the castle. But the English were so taken by surprise that they could not do much. Many of them were killed, and in a little while the Black Douglas and his men were the masters of the castle, which by right be-longed to them. As for the woman and her child, the Black Douglas would not suffer any one to harm them. After a while they went back to England; and whether the mother made up any more songs about the Black Douglas I cannot tell. Next: THREE MEN OF GOTHAM Previous: BRUCE AND THE SPIDER
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