When all was ready, there came to the King, Fitz- Stephen, a sea-captain, and said :- "My liege, my father served your father all his life, upon the sea. He steered the ship with the golden boy upon the prow, in which your father sailed to conquer England. I beseech you to grant me the same office. I have a fair vessel in the harbour here, called the White Ship, manned by fifty sailors of renown. I pray you, sire, to let your servant have the honour of steering you in the White Ship to England. ""I am sorry, friend, " replied the King, "that my vessel is already chosen, and that I cannot, therefore, sail with the son of the man who served my father. But the Prince, with all his company, shall go along with you, in the fair White Ship, manned by the fifty sailors of renown. "An hour or two afterwards, the King set sail in the vessel he had chosen, accompanied by other vessels, and, sailing all night with a fair and gentle wind, arrived upon the coast of England in the morning. While it was yet night, the people in some of the ships heard a faint, wild cry come over the sea, and wondered what it was.
The Prince went aboard the White Ship with one hundred and forty youthful nobles like himself, among whom wereeighteen noble ladies of the highest rank. All this gay company, with their servants and the fifty sailors, made three hundred souls aboard the fair White Ship.
" Give three casks of wine, Fitz-Stephen, " said the Prince, "to the fifty sailors of renown. My father, the King, has sailed out of the harbour. What time is there to make merry here, and yet reach England with the rest? "" Prince, " said Fitz-Stephen, " before morning, my fifty and the White Ship shall overtake the swiftest vessel in your father"s fleet, if we sail at midnight. "Then the Prince commanded to make merry; and the sailors drank out the three casks of wine; and the prince and all the noble company danced in the moonlight on the deck of the White Ship.
When at last she shot out of the harbour, there was not a sober seaman on board. But the sails were all set, and the oars all going merrily, Fitz-Stephen at the helm.
The gay young nobles and the beautiful ladies, wrapped up in mantles of various bright colours to protect them from the cold, talked, laughed, and sang. The Prince encouraged the fifty sailors to row harder yet, for the honour of the White Ship.
Crash!-a terrific cry broke from three hundred hearts. It was the cry that the people in the distant vessels of the King heard faintly on the water. The White Ship had struck upon a rock, and was going down.
Fitz-Stephen hurried the Prince into a boat with some few nobles. "Push off, " he whispered, "and row to the land. It isnot far, and the sea is smooth. The rest of us must die. "But, as they rowed away fast from the sinking ship, the Prince heard the voice of his half-sister, Marie, calling for help. He never in his life had been so good as he was then. He cried, in an agony, " Row back at any risk! I cannot bear to leave her! "They rowed back. As the Prince held out his arms to catch his sister, such numbers leaped in that the boat was overset. And, in the same instant, the White Ship went down.
Only two men floated-a nobleman, Godfrey by name, and a poor butcher of Rouen. By and by, another man came swimming toward them, whom they knew, when he had pushed aside his long, wet hair, to be Fitz-Stephen.
When he heard that the Prince and all his company had gone down, Fitz-Stephen, with a ghastly face, cried, " Woe, woe to me ! " and sank to the bottom.
The other two clung to the yard for some hours. At length,the young noble said faintly, "I am exhausted, and benumbed with the cold, and can hold on no longer. Farewell, good friend. God preserve you. "So he dropped and sank;and, of all the brilliant crowd, the poor butcher of Rouen alone was saved. In the morning,Dickens at 25
From a portrait by Samuel Lawrence
s o m e f i s h e r m e n s a w h i m floating in his sheep-skin coat,and got him into their boat-the sole relater of the dismal tale.
For three days no one dared to carry the news to the King; at length, they sent into his presence a little boy, who, weeping bitterly, and kneeling at his feet, told him that the White Ship was lost, with all on board.
The King fell to the ground like a dead man, and never afterwards was seen to smile.
Charles Dickens, in A Child"s History of EnglandAuthor.-Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the most famous of English novelists. He was a poor boy and self-educated. As a youth he became a lawyer"s clerk, then a journalist. His keen observation and wide sympathy made him popular as a novelist. Among his works are David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Our Mutual Friend, Great Expectations, Edwin Drood, Martin Chuzzlewit, Sketches by Boz, A Christmas Carol, A Child"s History of England.
General.-Is this like au ordinary history story? Note the means that Dickens uses to make the dead past live-the actual conversations, the vivid deions. What characters are mentioned? Name a cheerful incident, and a sad one. Look up Rouen on the map. Find the story in a larger history and read the account there.
