tended
for the burial of King Henry the Eighth. In the Cathedral, too, you will
find the monuments of those splendid fighting men, Lord Collingwood,
Nelson's friend: Howe and Rodney: Earl St. Vincent, who won the battle
of Cape St. Vincent: Lord Duncan of Camperdown, and many others.

[Illustration: WEST FRONT OF ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL CHURCH.

(_Built by Sir Christopher Wren._)]

In the crypt you will find, if you look for it, the brass tablet which
marks the spot where lie the remains of a man whose history should be an
encouragement to every boy who reads this book. His name was Edward
Palmer. Born without family influence, plainly educated at the grammar
school of his town, he taught himself in the teeth of all
difficulties--that of bad health especially--Arabic, Persian, and all
the languages which belong to that group: at the age of twenty-four he
was so splendid an Oriental scholar that the greatest Orientalist at
Cambridge declared that he could teach him nothing. He was elected to a
Fellowship at St. John's College and became the Lord Almoner's Professor
of Arabic. He mastered, in addition to his Oriental studies, all the
European languages except Russian and the Slavonic group. He explored
the Desert of the Exodus and the Peninsula of Sinai. He did a great deal
of literary work. But he was not buried in St. Paul's Cathedral for
these studies. In the year 1882, when the Egyptian War broke out, he was
sent on a secret mission to the tribes of the Desert. He knew them all:
he could talk their language as well as his own: he was the equal of any
one in his knowledge of Arabic poetry and his power of telling stories:
they welcomed him with open arms: the service that he rendered to his
country for which he was honoured with a funeral at St. Paul's, was that
he prevented these tribes from destroying the Suez Canal. He succeeded
in reaching the British camp at Suez in safety, his task accomplished,
the safety of the Canal assured. He was murdered in return by a party of
Egyptian Arabs sent from Cairo. His bones were recovered by Sir Charles
Warren--who further tracked down and hanged every man connected with the
murder. The road to possible greatness lies open to all, but the way
leads through a difficult and thorny way only to be passed, as Palmer
found, by resolution invincible and by long patient industry.

25. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.

St. Paul's Cathedral stood in the centre of an oval-shaped enclosure
very