Project Gutenberg's Two Penniless Princesses, by Charlotte M. Yonge

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Title: Two Penniless Princesses

Author: Charlotte M. Yonge

Posting Date: December 3, 2008 [EBook #2942]
Release Date: December, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO PENNILESS PRINCESSES ***

Produced by Sandra Laythorpe

TWO PENNILESS PRINCESSES

By Charlotte M. Yonge

CHAPTER 1. DUNBAR

''Twas on a night, an evening bright
When the dew began to fa',
Lady Margaret was walking up and down,
Looking over her castle wa'.'

The battlements of a castle were, in disturbed times, the only
recreation-ground of the ladies and play-place of the young people.
Dunbar Castle, standing on steep rocks above the North Sea, was not
only inaccessible on that side, but from its donjon tower commanded a
magnificent view, both of the expanse of waves, taking purple tints from
the shadows of the clouds, with here and there a sail fleeting before
the wind, and of the rugged headlands of the coast, point beyond point,
the nearer distinct, and showing the green summits, and below, the
tossing waves breaking white against the dark rocks, and the distance
becoming more and more hazy, in spite of the bright sun which made a
broken path of glory along the tossing, white-crested waters.

The wind was a keen north-east breeze, and might have been thought too
severe by any but the 'hardy, bold, and wild' children who were merrily
playing on the top of the donjon tower, round the staff whence fluttered
the double treasured banner with 'the ruddy lion ramped in gold'
denoting the presence of the King.

Three little boys, almost babies, and a little girl not much older, were
presided over by a small elder sister, who held the youngest in her lap,
and tried to amuse him with caresses and rhymes, so as to prevent his
interference with the castle-building of the others, with their small
hoard of pebbles and mussel and cockle shells.

Another maiden, the wind tossing her long chestnut-locks, uncovered, but
tied with the Scottish snood, sat on the battlement, gazing far out over
the waters, with eyes of the