Project Gutenberg's The Armourer's Prentices, by Charlotte M. Yonge

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Title: The Armourer's Prentices

Author: Charlotte M. Yonge

Illustrator: W.J. Hennessy

Release Date: April 27, 2007 [EBook #21222]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARMOURER'S PRENTICES ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Armourers' Prentices

By Charlotte M. Yonge
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This is a story about two young orphans from Hampshire, who travel to
London in search of relatives. On the way they rescue a prominent City
of London figure after he has been attacked by highwaymen, and in this
way they become attached to his household in the City. The date is the
early years of Henry the Eighth, when the religious world of England is
simmering not only with the new views on religion, but also with the
problems of the King and his Divorces. We meet great figures like Dean
Colet, famous even to this very day for his charitable foundations,
Thomas More, and other great figures of the pre-Reformation years.

It is a very lively story that rings true at every turn, and is worth
while reading for those who would like a further understanding of the
late Tudor Court, and the customs in the City, prevailing at the time of
the Reformation.
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THE ARMOURERS' PRENTICES

BY CHARLOTTE M. YONGE

CHAPTER ONE.

THE VERDURER'S LODGE.

"Give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament, with that I
will go buy me fortunes."

"Get you with him, you old dog."

_As You Like It_.

The officials of the New Forest have ever since the days of the
Conqueror enjoyed some of the pleasantest dwellings that southern
England can boast.

The home of the Birkenholt family was not one of the least delightful.
It stood at the foot of a rising ground, on which grew a grove of
magnificent beeches, their large silvery boles rising majestically like
columns into a lofty vaulting of branches, covered above with tender
green foliage. Here and there the shade beneath was broken by the
gilding of a ray of suns