o
allow his servants to steal his clothes, while he was lying in bed in
the morning.

"Henry, like the Red King before him, thought that Robert's government
was rather loose, and that it would be a very benevolent thing to
relieve the Normans of his misrule. For this reason, he went over to
Normandy with an army, took possession of the country, and established
his own hard rule, thus stealing from his brother the fair-skied duchy
that the Conqueror had given him. Having accomplished this, he settled
it that Robert was a very troublesome fellow, and that the proper
place for him was a prison; and he accordingly put him in one.

"He was not satisfied even then.

"One day there appeared in the apartments of the castle where Robert
was confined some stone-hearted men, by order from the king. They
heated a piece of metal red-hot, and then deliberately burned out poor
Robert's eyes.

"Beautiful, loving eyes they were; and what sights they had seen,--the
minarets of the East glimmering in the hot sun and shady moon, the
cool palm-groves along the Jordan, the splendid streets of Antioch,
the City of the Great King, the Holy Sepulchre with its golden lamps,
Italy with its deep skies and empurpled hills! Twenty-eight years was
poor Robert imprisoned, and then he died."

* * * * *

Frank's contribution was well received.

"I would like to add something to the touching narrative we have just
heard," said Master Lewis. "I would like to tell you about the great
sorrow that came to King Henry, after he had so wronged his brother.
Allow me to relate to you

THE STORY OF THE WHITE SHIP.

"Henry had a son--Prince Henry--whom he intensely loved. The prince
was wild and dissipated, and as much a despot at heart as his father.
He once boasted that, when he became king, he would yoke the English
to the plough, like oxen.

"The king's plottings, and much of his cruel treatment of his brother
Robert, sprang from his strong desire that this son might succeed him
on the throne.

"Did Prince Henry succeed his father as king?

"The people of Normandy and other French territories under the Norman
crown rebelled against Henry. The king, by the aid of the Pope,
pacified the discontented people by fair promises, and a peace was
made, upon which the king and the prince and a great retinue of nobles
went to Normandy, to arrange some very important matters of state.

"During this state visit, the Norman