rich and great, yet he was most miserable and
uncomfortable, for his kingdom simply swarmed with rats and mice. They
were everywhere, even in the beds and on the King's table, where they
ate the food which had been prepared for him. When the men of the
_Unicorn_ came to the Court to show the King the goods their ship had
brought, fancy how surprised they were to see rats and mice here,
there, and everywhere! "That cat we have on board," said they, "would
soon stop this." "Then let the cat be sent for at once!" cried the
King. So Dick's cat was brought, and now in the palace, as once in
Dick's garret, she made fierce war on the rats and mice, and before
long she had driven them all away. The King was so delighted that he
bought the cat for ten times more money than he paid for all the
_Unicorn's_ rich merchandise.

When the ship came home, here was fine news for Dick,--no more
kitchen-work for him; he was a rich man now. He became a merchant like
his master, Hugh Fitzwarren, and by-and-by he married Mistress Alice;
and, as Bow bells had promised him, he was made Mayor of London, not
once, but three times. He was a good Londoner and a good Englishman,
for {44} the story says that when King Henry V. came home after he had
conquered France, Whittington entertained him at a great banquet. Look
at the picture of this which faces page 41; near the table a fire is
burning, and Whittington is just going to throw something into it. How
eagerly everyone is watching him, and well they may; for before the
King went to France he had borrowed great sums of money from the City
and its merchants to pay the cost of his wars, and now Whittington is
flinging into the fire the papers in which the King had promised to pay
back 37,000 crowns--that is, L60,000 in our money. Thus he set the
King free from his debt, or, in other words, gave him all this money.
Was not this a princely gift for the great merchant to give the great
King?

Now I must tell you what the Chronicles and Records of London tell us
about Richard Whittington. He was indeed born in the West of England,
but he belonged to a good family. We do not know why and when he came
to the City. In those days it was certainly no disgrace for the
younger sons of good families to be London merchants; for the City was
great and prosperous, able to raise large sums of money to help the
King in his wars; and we read that at a council held at the Guildhall
about this very mat