55

LOUIS SEVENTEENTH: THE BOY KING WHO NEVER REIGNED 91

EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE: THE BOY WARRIOR 131

TYRANT TAD: THE BOY IN THE WHITE HOUSE 145

S. F. B. MORSE: WHO INVENTED THE TELEGRAPH 169

DAVID FARRAGUT: THE BOY MIDSHIPMAN 179

MOZART: THE BOY MUSICIAN 197

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

MIDSHIPMAN FARRAGUT ON THE "ESSEX" _Frontispiece_

DAVID AND GOLIATH Facing p._ 70

THE BLACK PRINCE AT CRECY " 136

TYRANT TAD AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN " 154

DAVID FARRAGUT " 186

TEN BOYS FROM HISTORY

STEPHEN AND NICHOLAS:

Boy Crusaders

"To the sea of fools
Led the path of the children."

_Old Epigram._

Just a word about the Crusades, or Holy Wars, before we begin our
story.

A war is generally a conflict between nations, countries, or individuals,
for possession of land or a throne, but the Holy Wars were not such.
They were expeditions made by those Christians who were determined to
rescue the Sepulchre, or tomb, of Christ and the City of Jerusalem,
from the rule of unbelievers.

For eighty-eight years Christian kings ruled in Palestine, then all the
land was conquered by the Mohammedans, except a few cities, and the
Christians sent out another, and still another, and another expedition
to subdue the enemy, but all were useless. The Holy City and the Holy
Sepulchre were still in the hands of infidels, who persecuted the
pilgrims who visited the Holy Tomb; and the Christians sent a
heart-rending cry to all Europe for help, but Europe was slow to answer
the appeal, and it was several years after Pope Innocent ordered a new
Crusade, before an army departed for the scene of conflict.

It was during this interval that the Children's Crusade or Holy War,
took place--of which we are about to read.

But first let us go back to the city of Chartres, on the 25th day of
April, 1212, when a surging crowd of men and women is filling every
street and by-way of the quaint city.

What are the crowds watching so eagerly? A procession of priests and
laymen, carrying banners and black-draped crosses,