The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-02-09
THE DAILY EVENING TELEGRAPH PHILADELPHIA, I'll

stair, with the royal arms4 What men are those
with tabard and clarionY Who is that proud
and beautiful woman, her fair face fred with
rage, who steps into her galley, but whose foot
appears to scorn the plank on which il treads
She is the Queen; wife of the great builder:
Elinor Of Provence, called by her minstrels
Elinor la Belle. poetess, friend of singers,
q lover OF music, she is said to have brought
song and art into the English court from her
native land. The first of our laureates came in
her train. She has flushed the palace with Jest
and joust, with tinkle of oitherns, with olang OF
horns. But the Queen has faults, for which her
gracious talent and her peerless beauty fail to
atone. Her greed is high, her anger ruthless.
Her court is filed with an outcry Of merchants
who have been mulcted of queen-geld, a
wraDgle OF friars who have been robbed by
her kith and kin, roar of tiremen and
jewellers clamorous for their debts, murmur
of knights and barons protesting against her
loans, a clatter of poor Jews objecting to be
spoiled. Despite her gifts Of birth aud wit,
Einor la Belle is the most unpopular princess
in the world. She has been living at the
Tower, which her husband loves; but she feels
that her palace is kind of jail; she wishes to
get away, and she has sent for her barge and
watermen, hoping to escape from her people,
and to breathe the free afr Of her Windsor
home. Will the Commons let her 60
Proudly her barge puts off. The tabards bend
and the clarions blare. But the Commons, who
wait her coming on London Bridge, dispute
her passage and drive her back with curses,
crying Drown the witch Drown the witch i
Unable to pass the bridge, Elinor hassto turn
her keel, and, with passionate rage in her
heart, to find her way back. Her son, the
young and fiery Edward, never forgets this
insult to his mother; by-and-hy he will
seek revenge for it on Lewes field; and by mad
pursuit of his revenge, he will lose the great
fight and imperil his fathers crown"
FIRST ESCAPE FROM THE TOWER.
"The first offender ever lodged within its
walls contrived to escape from his guards, to
let himself down from window, and to slip
through the postern to his boat. This bold
offender was Ralph of Durham, called the
Firebrand and the Lion, who for many years
had been treasurer and iusticiar to the Nor
man kings. On the death of Rufus he was
seized by the Commons until the new kings
pleasure should be known about him; and
Henry the Scholar, who had good deeds rather
than good rights to befriend him in his con-
test with Robert for the crown, sent the un-
popular prelate to the Tower. Henry
Ralph, though lodged in the keep
which he had helped to build, was treated
like guest. He lived in the upper rooms,
on the tier now known as the banqueting-
floor; his rooms having plenty of space and
light, good fireplace, private closet, and
free access to ST. Johns chapel. William de
Vaudeville, Constable of the Tower, was
day were paid from the Kings exchequer for
his diet. He was suffered to have his own
servants and chaplains in his rooms, and
to send out for such wines and meats as
his stomach craved and his purse could
buy. One of the richest men in England, he
could buy good deal; one Of the cleverest
men in England, he could scheme long way.
/ pY,t hafor 70 and
in self-defense, Ralph tried how far he could
reckon on the virtues of his pastoral staff. A
bishop was not only baron of the realm, but
a prince of the universal Church. No doubt
he had exercised lay functions, acting as a
fnancier sitting as Judge; but still he was a
priest, on whom secular laws were held to have
no binding force. On this ground he appealed
to. o.Anfelm, then Lord Primate, as to his brother
and his chief. Anselm, who had just come
/ back from that exile into which he had been
driven by Ralph and his master, was in NO
sanity humor. out on this caiti1f, cried the
Lord Primste, Il know him not, neither as
brother nor as priest Anselm took the part OF
Henry, whom his flock was beginning to call
CATER GoQdricnn, and TO love with exceeding
warmth on account Of Goody Maud, the young
Saxon princess whoIA he had taken from q
convent to make his wife. Failing in this
appeal, Ralph took counsel with his wits. The
stout Norman knights who kept guard in his
chamber were Jolly fellows, fond of good
cheer, and lusty at a song. On this weak
ness he began to play. Sending for good
wine, and giving orders to his cook, he in,
vited to his table a belt of boisterous
knights. When folks looked up at the keep,
in which their enemy was Gagged, they saw
lights in the windows rather late, anu
haply went to bed in the pious hope that
their bad bishop was going quickly to his
doom. At length his scheme was ripe. Ask.
ing the knights to supper he sent out fol
jars of wine; a potent liquor which, in due
time, laid those warriors asleep on bench and
floor. The time was winter (the date Feb
ruary, ll0l), and night came down quickly
on the Tower. When the guards were all
drunk, the sober bishop arose from his table,
drew a long coil Of rope from one of the jars,
passed into the south room, tied his cord to
the window shaft, and taking his crozier with
him, let himself down. He was a fat, heavy
man; the cord was rather short, and he fell
some feet TO the ground. But trusty servants
who were in waiting picked him up, and hur-
ried him away into a boat, by which he
escaped, with his staff and his money, TO
France. The window from which he escaped
is sixty.tive feet from the ground"
MAUD THE FAIR.
''ln the reign OF King John, the White
Tower received one Of the first and fairest of a
long line Of female victims, in that Maud
FitzwalteT, who was known to the singers OF
her time as Maud the Fair. The father of this
beautiful girl was Robert Lord Fitzwalter, OF
Castle Baynard on the Thames, one of Johns
greatest barons; yet the King during fit Of
violence with his Queen, Isabella of Angou-
ltme, fell madly into love with this young
girl. AS neither the ladV herself nor her