Little Charles was four years old when he reached Windsor Castle. They
celebrated his arrival with great rejoicings, and a day or two
afterward they invested him with the title of Duke of York, a still
higher distinction than he had before attained. Soon after this, when
he was perhaps five or six years of age, a gentleman was appointed to
take the charge of his education. His health gradually improved,
though he still continued helpless and feeble. It was a long time
before he could walk, on account of some malformation of his limbs. He
learned to talk, too, very late and very slowly. Besides the general
feebleness of his constitution, which kept him back in all these
things, there was an impediment in his speech, which affected him very
much in childhood, and which, in fact, never entirely disappeared.

As soon, however, as he commenced his studies under his new tutor, he
made much greater progress than had been expected. It was soon
observed that the feebleness which had attached to him pertained more
to the body than to the mind. He advanced with considerable rapidity
in his learning. His progress was, in fact, in some degree, promoted
by his bodily infirmities, which kept him from playing with the other
boys of the court, and led him to like to be still, and to retire from
scenes of sport and pleasure which he could not share.

The same cause operated to make him not agreeable as a companion, and
he was not a favorite among those around him. They called him _Baby_
Charley. His temper seemed to be in some sense soured by the feeling
of his inferiority, and by the jealousy he would naturally experience
in finding himself, the son of a king, so outstripped in athletic
sports by those whom he regarded as his inferiors in rank and station.

The lapse of a few years, however, after this time, made a total
change in Charles's position and prospects. His health improved, and
his constitution began to be confirmed and established. When he was
about twelve years of age, too, his brother Henry died. This
circumstance made an entire change in all his prospects of life. The
eyes of the whole kingdom, and, in fact, of all Europe, were now upon
him as the future sovereign of England. His sister Elizabeth, who was
a few years older than himself, was, about this time, married to a
German prince, with great pomp and ceremony, young Charles acting the
part of brideman. In consequence of his new position as heir-apparent
to the th