The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Little Duke, by Charlotte M. Yonge

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Little Duke
Richard the Fearless

Author: Charlotte M. Yonge

Release Date: June 20, 2008 [eBook #3048]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE DUKE***

Transcribed from the 1905 Macmillan and Co. edition by Janet Haselow,
Marian Taylor and David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

THE LITTLE DUKE

RICHARD THE FEARLESS

BY THE AUTHOR OF
"THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE,"
ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1905

_All rights reserved_

RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

_Originally published elsewhere_. _Transferred in_ 1864. _First Edition
printed_ (S) _for Macmillan and Co. November_ 1864 (_Pott_ 8_vo_).
_Reprinted_ 1869, 1872, 1873, 1876, 1878, 1881 (_Globe_ 8_vo_), 1883,
1885, 1886, 1889. _New Edition_ 1891, (_Crown_ 8_vo_), 1892, 1894, 1895,
1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1903, 1905.

CHAPTER I

On a bright autumn day, as long ago as the year 943, there was a great
bustle in the Castle of Bayeux in Normandy.

The hall was large and low, the roof arched, and supported on thick short
columns, almost like the crypt of a Cathedral; the walls were thick, and
the windows, which had no glass, were very small, set in such a depth of
wall that there was a wide deep window seat, upon which the rain might
beat, without reaching the interior of the room. And even if it had come
in, there was nothing for it to hurt, for the walls were of rough stone,
and the floor of tiles. There was a fire at each end of this great dark
apartment, but there were no chimneys over the a