Category: Historical Novels
In a small marble-paved court belonging to the newly-built palace of King Joao the First of Portugal, on a splendid summer day in the year 1415, five youths were engaged in earnest consultation. The summer air, the luscious scent of the orange-trees beneath which they were sea...
Twelve or thirteen years after the taking of Ceuta a little group was assembled in the central court of a handsome house in Lisbon. This open space was indeed the summer sitting...
9. CHAPTER NINE.Northberry Manor house was a heavy, grey stone building, with a small court in the centre, and four little round towers at the corners. A moat surrounded it, crossed by a drawbr...
24. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.Meanwhile Leila mused much over the death of Manoel. The dim visions of her childhood were too far away to be attractive. Even Nella, though a tender thought to her, was vague c...
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN.The ill-fated expedition had not long set sail before the king discovered its insufficient numbers, and in all haste he ordered Dom Joao to equip himself and follow his brothers...
20. CHAPTER TWENTY.A party of travellers had come to a halt in the shade of a clump of trees, which pleasantly varied the monotony of the rough, sandy plains, covered with long grass, through whic...
10. CHAPTER TEN.Harry Hartsed arrived in Lisbon while the court was still in mourning for the death of the great and good King Joao the First. He bore various despatches to Sir Walter Northberr...
8. CHAPTER EIGHT.The clear light of an English spring evening was shining down on the grey walls of the convent of Saint Mary, streaming through the golden green of the neighbouring wood, showin...
1. CHAPTER ONE.In a small marble-paved court belonging to the newly-built palace of King Joao the First of Portugal, on a splendid summer day in the year 1415, five youths were engaged in earn...
4. CHAPTER FOUR.The Queen's dying words were fulfilled. The fair wind she had promised sprang up in time, and on Saint James's Day, 1414, such a fleet as had never been known in Portugal before...
19. CHAPTER NINETEEN.Nella Northberry was standing alone by the fountain in the hall of her father's house. The oranges were ripe on the trees, their sweet blossom was passed, and she herself looked...
22. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.The days passed on until October. Fernando saw no more of Catalina, though he still laboured in her neighbourhood; and no incidents broke his life of toil, till one day the Port...
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.On the 22nd of August the fleet of the Infantes set sail from Lisbon, fourteen thousand men having been decided on as the number necessary for the expedition, and in due course...
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN.The Princes Enrique and Fernando, having matured their ideas by much discussion, decided on proposing to the King to make an expedition for the taking of Tangier, similar to the...
25. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.In the meantime the slow years went by for the prisoners of Fez and brought no change in the main features of their lot. One or two, like the poor young Manoel, sank and died, a...
21. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.Flowers--flowers everywhere; one blaze of colour through the royal gardens of Fez. Was not the young King Abdallah about to marry the Princess Hinda, daughter of a neighbouring...
16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN.In the midst of all this turmoil and excitement Eleanor Northberry came back to Portugal. Suitable escorts were so rare that, one having offered itself, she was sent back withou...
5. CHAPTER FIVE.The Christian host approached the pillars of Hercules amid violent storm and tempest. Separated from each other, and scattered far and wide in the darkness of the night, there w...
3. CHAPTER THREE.Many months passed before the crude suggestion of the young Infantes was worked by the King and his ministers into a practicable form; and it is not necessary here to enter into...
23. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.One morning, bright with all the glory of a southern spring, a tall young man, sunburnt, and carrying a merchant's pack, was standing in one of the chief streets watching the pa...
17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.Spite of sadness of heart and severe retrenchments, a certain number of court ceremonials were inevitable, particularly when the convocation of the States-General had filled Lis...
6. CHAPTER SIX.Royal prince though he was, Fernando had never slept under such embroidered coverlets, nor seen such hangings of gold and silver, such carving and fretwork, as met his waking ey...
12. CHAPTER TWELVE.The number of voices raised in favour of the Moorish war concealed the fact of how many regarded it with disapproval. Sir Walter Northberry at once offered himself as a voluntee...
2. CHAPTER TWO.The supper was over, and King Joao was seeking for some relaxation from the cares of state in the society of his wife and children. He and his fair English Queen would then sit...
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.The two Infantes occupied a tent in the centre of the Portuguese camp, and when their messengers returned they came out to the front of it, and, surrounded by their chief office...
18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.Many miles inland, out of sight of the blue sea, on the other side of which was home and freedom, the Portuguese captains waited at Arzella for the news of their deliverance. Th...