to catch and keep that thought proper. Then came Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, the king's nephew, and the Earls of Gloucester, Pembroke, and Warenne, each having in their company a hundred illustrious knights, wearing their lords' armour; and when they had alighted from their palfreys, they also set them free, that whoever chose might take them unquestioned. And the aqueduct in Cheapside poured forth white wine and red, like water, for those who would to drink at pleasure."

In 1227, when the Welsh flew to arms, and when Edward—not displeased with the opportunity of making his former conquests in that principality absolute-assembled all his military tenants for the purpose of crushing that gallant people, Eleanor never for a moment hesitated to share his dangers and fatigues; and, accordingly, we find her the companion of her warlike consort during all his campaigns. In 1283 she gave birth to her daughter, the Princess Isabella, in Rhuddlan Castle, in Flintshire; and the following year, when she again promised to become a mother, Edward conducted her to the magnificent castle of Caernarvon, which he had recently built.

The gateway in Caernarvon Castle through which the beautiful queen passed to the apartments which had been provided her is still known as Queen Eleanor's gate. For the purpose of rendering her more secure against any attack of the Welsh barons, she was lodged in the Eagle Tower, a building of vast height, and of extremely grand and imposing appearance. "It was an eyry," says Miss Strickland, "by no means too lofty for the security of the royal Eleanor and her expected infant, since most of the Snowdon barons still held out, and the rest of the principality were fiercely chafing at the English curb. This consideration justifies the tradition which points out a little dark den, built in the thickness of the walls, as the chamber where the faithful queen gave birth to her son Edward, The chamber is twelve feet in length and eight in breadth, and is without a fire-place. discomforts were somewhat modified by hangings of tapestry, of which some marks of tenters still appear in the walls. Queen Eleanor was the first person who used tapestry as garniture for walls in England, and she never needed it more than in her dreary lying-in chamber in Caernarvon Castle." The oaken cradle of the infant Edward-hung by rings and staples to two upright pieces of wood, of rude workmanship, but with considerable attempt at ornament is still preserved in Caernarvon Castle. It has rockers, and is crowned by two birds, probably either doves or eagles.

Its

The queen was confined on the 26th of April, 1284, at which period Edward was negotiating with the Welsh barons at Rhuddlan

Castle. He immediately hastened to Caernarvon, where, three days. afterwards he was waited upon by a vast assemblage of the Welsh, who came to tender him their allegiance, and to implore him to confer on them a prince who should be a native of Wales, and who should speak the same language as themselves. Edward, without hesitation, promised to give them a prince of unexceptionable manners, a Welshman by birth, and one who could speak no other language. As soon as their acclamations of joy and promises of obedience had ceased, he ordered his infant son to be brought into the assembly, and, assuring them that he was a native of Wales, and that the first words he should be taught to speak should be Welsh, he presented him to them as their prince. By the death of Alphonso, the king's eldest son, young Edward shortly afterwards became heir to the English monarchy; the principality of Wales was annexed to the crown, and from this period it has given a title to the eldest son of the king of England. The Welsh ever bore an affection to the unfortunate Edward the Second; partly from his having been born amongst them, and partly from his having been their nominal prince. During his worst misfortunes they ever remained true to him, and after his death bewailed him in "lamentable songs.'

Shortly after the birth of her son, Eleanor removed to Conway Castle, another of the magnificent structures erected by her husband in Wales. "Here," says Miss Strickland, "all the elegancies of an age further advanced in luxury than is generally supposed, were assembled round her. Many traces of her abode at Conway exist; among others, her state bedchamber retains some richness of ornament; it opens on a terrace commanding a beautiful view. Leading from the chamber is an arched recess, called by tradition Queen Eleanor's oriel

"In her oriel there she was,

Closed well with royal glass;
Filled it was with imag'ry,
Every window by and bye."

It is raised by steps from the floor, and beautifully adorned with painted glass windows. Here the Queen of England, during her levée on rising, sat to receive the ladies qualified to be presented to her, while her tirewomen combed and braided those long tresses which are the glory of a Spanish donna, and which her statues show Eleanor of Castile possessed."

In 1290, the unsettled state of affairs in Scotland rendered it imperative on Edward to hasten to that country. He had not only affianced his son Edward of Caernarvon to Margaret, the infant Queen of Scotland, but he had sent the bishop of Durham and his agents to

take possession of that country in their joint names, when he heard of the death of the young queen on a voyage to Norway. He had left his beloved queen in good health, but scarcely had he reached the Borders when he was overtaken by a messenger, who informed him that Eleanor was lying dangerously ill at Herdly, near Grantham, in Lincolnshire. Forgetting the necessities of state, and the dictates of ambition, in the dread of losing one so dear to him, Edward, turning his back on Scotland, hurried rapidly to Herdly; but before he arrived, his faithful Eleanor had breathed her last.

The grief of Edward at losing his queen is said to have been violent in the extreme; and, indeed, the manner in which he solemnised her obsequies affords sufficient evidence of his admiration, his distress, and his love. During the thirteen days which the royal procession occupied in proceeding from Grantham to Westminster Abbey, the king never quitted the body, and in each town in which it rested caused it to be met by the ecclesiastics of the place, who carried it before the high altar of the cathedral or church, where they performed over it solemn requiems for the repose of the soul of the deceased. "The king," says Daniel," in testimony of his great affection to her, and as memorials of her fidelity and virtues-in which she excelled all womankind as much as she did in dignity-all along the road in the places where the body rested, erected goodly crosses, engraven with her image." There were formerly thirteen of these beautiful memorials, of which those of Northampton and Waltham alone remain. The most celebrated of them-the work of Cavalini-was that at Charing Cross, so called from Edward's constantly calling his queen, ma chère reine— and this dear Queen's Cross stood nearly where the equestrian statue of Charles the First now stands. This interesting relic of a past age was unfortunately regarded by the fanatics as a relic of Popish superstition, and, in a moment of religious phrensy, was rased to the ground by an illiterate rabble.

"To our nation," says Walsingham, "Queen Eleanor was a loving mother, the column and pillar of the whole realm; therefore, to her glory, the king her husband caused all those famous trophies to be erected wherever her noble corse did rest, for he loved her above all earthly creatures. She was a godly and modest princess, full of pity, and one that showed much favour to the English nation; ready to relieve every man's grief that sustained wrong, and to make them friends that were at discord." Queen Eleanor died on the 29th of November, 1290, in the forty-seventh year of her age.

MARGUERITE OF FRANCE,

SECOND QUEEN OF EDWARD THE FIRST.

THE disconsolate monarch, Edward the First, who passed the earlier period of his widowerhood in devising and executing the most splendid memorials of his beloved Eleanor, having left nothing undone that affection and grief could suggest to do honour to her memory, sunk from a state of restless and active affliction to one of the most profound and morbid melancholy. Accustomed for years to the fond companionship, the wise counsels, and the ready sympathy of the most faultless of wives, he pined in his lonely wretchedness; and though actively engaged in the commencement of that war with Scotland, which, with little intermission, occupied the remaining years of his reign, nothing could drive from his heart the brooding sorrow that preyed upon him, until at last he turned his thoughts to a second marriage.

Hearing much of the charms of Blanche, daughter of Philip le Hardi, the late, and sister of Philip le Bel, the present King of France, Edward sent ambassadors to ascertain whether the reputation she had acquired was merited, and with authority, if such were the case, to treat for her hand. The reports of her exquisite beauty being fully confirmed by those deputed to judge, Edward became so enamoured of her yet unseen perfections, that he entered upon the terms for the marriage with a haste and want of caution greatly out of keeping with his usual wise and thoughtful mode of proceeding.

Philip le Bel, crafty and unprincipled, resolved to take advantage of the anxiety of his brother-in-law elect to complete the match, and declared that before he would consent, Edward should settle the duchy of Guienne on any son he might have by Blanche, after which it was to descend to the heirs of this son, finally reverting to England in the event of a failure of issue in that line. To this the king agreed, and surrendered the duchy to Philip according to the forms of feudal tenure. No sooner, however, was this done, than the faithless Philip refused to ratify the treaty. He persisted in retaining Guienne for himself; and instead of his beautiful sister Blanche, for whom he now contemplated a marriage with the eldest son of the Emperor of Austria, substituted in