e period of which we are speaking,
Ludlow Castle was sacked and destroyed. The ruins of it, however,
remain to the present day, and they are visited with much interest by
great numbers of modern travelers.

Lady Cecily, as we have already seen, was in many respects a noble
woman, and a most faithful and devoted wife and mother; she was,
however, of a very lofty and ambitious spirit, and extremely proud of
her rank and station. Almost all her brothers and sisters--and the
family was very large--were peers and peeresses, and when she married
Prince Richard Plantagenet, her heart beat high with exultation and
joy to think that she was about to become a queen. She believed that
Prince Richard was fully entitled to the throne at that time, for
reasons which will be fully explained in the next chapter, and that,
even if his claims should not be recognized until the death of the
king who was then reigning, they certainly would be so recognized
then, and she would become an acknowledged queen, as she thought she
was already one by right. So she felt greatly exalted in spirit, and
moved and acted among all who surrounded her with an air of stately
reserve of the most grand and aristocratic character.

[Illustration: CASTLE AND PARK OF THE MIDDLE AGES.]

In fact, there has, perhaps, no time and place been known in the
history of the world in which the spirit of aristocracy was more lofty
and overbearing in its character than in England during the period
when the Plantagenet family were in prosperity and power. The nobles
formed then, far more strikingly than they do now, an entirely
distinct and exalted class, that looked down upon all other ranks and
gradations of society as infinitely beneath them. Their only
occupation was war, and they regarded all those who were engaged in
any employments whatever, that were connected with art or industry,
with utter disdain. These last were crowded together in villages
and towns which were formed of dark and narrow streets, and rude and
comfortless dwellings. The nobles lived in grand castles scattered
here and there over the country, with extensive parks and
pleasure-grounds around them, where they loved to marshal their
followers, and inaugurate marauding expeditions against their rivals
or their enemies. They were engaged in constant wars and contentions
with each other, each thirsting for more power and more splendor than
he at present enjoyed, and treating all beneath him with the u