e wasn't going to forfeit his life. I fancy any of us
would have done the same, too. He showed the Archbishop his press and
explained how the Bibles had been printed."

"It was a pity he had to."

"It was something of a pity," answered Mr. Cameron. "And yet the secret
must have come out sometime, I suppose, for subsequently Faust quarreled
with Gutenburg and by and by set up a press of his own at Metz, and with
two printing presses in the same town, and the workmen necessary to run
them mingling with the populace, it was impossible to keep such an
invention from the public. Gradually it became common property and it
had become universal when Metz was sacked in the Franco-Prussian War,
its printing rooms destroyed, and the workmen scattered."

"Did that put an end to printing?" questioned Paul.

"No. On the contrary it spread the art over France and Germany. By 1500
there were over fifty presses on the continent. In the meantime William
Caxton, an English merchant, traveled to Holland to buy cloth, and there
became so much interested in the books he saw and the tale of how they
were printed that he purchased some type and, bringing it home, set up a
printing press in London not far from Westminster Abbey. The first
English book to be printed was dated 1474 and was called 'The Game of
Chess.' Then came a Bible which was presented to the king. From this
time on there was practically an end to the handwritten books made by
the monks in cloisters and monasteries. Occasionally such a volume was
made for the very rich because, as I told you, the elegant still
considered paper and the printed book too common and cheap for their
use. But with the steady improvement of ink and paper and the awakening
desire of the masses to read what was printed came the dawn of religious
liberty and the birth of learning."

"It is a wonderful story!" cried Paul, much moved.

"A book in itself, isn't it?" said his father. "It is an interesting
fact, however, that Latin and the Latin text continued to be the
language of the printed book for some time; this was not only because of
an established precedent, but because the Renaissance in Italy revived
an interest in classic literature. But by and by people demanded books
in their native tongue. They wished to read something besides the
classics--literature that was alive and a part of their own era. The
written _novello_, or story, began to take the place of the ballads
which the _trouveurs_,