. "You
remember the story?"

[Illustration: PARLIAMENT OAK.]

"Yes," said Wyllys Wynn. "Thomas a Becket claimed that the power of
the clergy was superior to the power of the king, and Henry pronounced
him a traitor. He was killed at the altar by a party of conspirators,
whose deed had the supposed sanction of the king. Henry did penance at
Thomas a Becket's tomb."

"He stripped his back, and allowed the monks to whip him, did he not?"
said Tommy. "I remember the picture of it in my history."

Distant views of Newstead, so full of strange memories and fantastic
histories, were all the Class could obtain. The ruin looked down upon
the charming old Nottinghamshire woodlands like a picture of the
past, and the spirit of romance and poetry seemed to linger around it
still.

[Illustration: MORTIMER'S HOLE.]

Going next to the fine old town of Nottingham, almost the first thing
which the boys desired to see was Mortimer's Hole. This is a passage
through a sand-rock, more than three hundred feet in length. Through
this passage young Edward entered Nottingham Castle by night, and thus
surprised and captured Mortimer (Earl of March). The wicked Earl was
conveyed by the same passage out of the castle so secretly that the
guards were not aware that it had been entered.

In the evening spent at Nottingham, Tommy Toby was asked about his
story of which he had spoken in connection with the place.

[Illustration: MURDER OF THOMAS A BECKET.]

"It is not a story of Nottingham, but of Gotham, near Nottingham. It
is about the Wise Men."

"Who went to sea in a bowl?" asked Frank.

"No, they were much wiser than that. I will try to tell it in the way
Master Lewis tells his stories: in the rather _decorated_ style."

"I hope you will always have as nice a sense of honor as you show
now," said Master Lewis, "whenever you make the slightest change from
plain truth to parable. You have a tact for story-telling, for one so
young; and you studied up the story of 'The Frolicsome Duke,' which
you told the Club, in a manner that quite surprised us. I hope this
story will prove as entertaining."

THE STORY OF THE WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.

"More than six hundred and fifty years ago, there reigned in England a
king, named John. They called him _Sansterre_ or Lackland, for, unlike
his brothers, he had received from his father no fiefs.

"He was the son of Henry Plantagenet, a good king, as kings went in
those rude times, who governed Eng