Historical Fiction

Two Penniless Princesses

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 magnific...

Chapters

1. Chapter 1

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 t...

2. Chapter 2

The Lady of Glenuskie, as she was commonly called, was a near kinswoman of the Royal House, Lilias Stewart, a grand-daughter of King Robert II., and thus first cousin to the lat...

3. Chapter 3

Beyond York that species of convoy, which ranged between protection and supervision, entirely ceased; the Scottish party moved on their own wa oftener through heath, rock, and m...

4. Chapter 4

‘I thought King Henry had resembled thee, In courage, courtship, and proportion: But all his mind is bent to holiness, To number Ave-Maries on his beads: His champions are the p...

5. Chapter 5

It suits not with the main thread of our story to tell of the happy and peaceful meetings between the Lady of Glenuskie and her old friend, who had given up almost princely rank...

6. Chapter 6

‘We would have all such offenders cut off, and we give express charge that, in the marches through the country, there be nothing compelled from the villages.’ --King Henry V.

7. Chapter 7

‘Where throngs of knights and barons bold, In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize Of wit or arms, whi...

8. Chapter 8

At Chalons, the Sieur de Terreforte and his son Olivier, a very quiet, stiff, and well-trained youth, met Sir Patrick and the Lady of Glenuskie. Terreforte was within the provin...

9. Chapter 9

A terrible legacy of the Hundred Years’ War, which, indeed, was not yet entirely ended by the Peace of Tours, was the existence of bands of men trained to nothing but war and ra...

10. Chapter 10

‘O St. Andrew! St. Bride! Our Lady of Succour! St. Denys!--all the lave of you, that may be nearest in this fremd land,--come and aid him. It is the Master of Angus, ye ken--the...

11. Chapter 11

It was the early twilight of a summer’s morning when Ringan crept up to the shelter of pine branches under which George Douglas was sleeping, after hotly opposing Gebhardt, who...

12. Chapter 12

Sigismund and Eleanor might ride on together in a species of paradise, as having not only won each other’s love, but acted out a bit of the romance that did not come to full rea...