The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-02-11
kings exchequer being 'thrco barbed arrows

ring . excnequer being 'throo Oarbed Arrows
for all services"
Earl Peter in time grew weary Of stormy
England and returned to his own mountains
Of Savoy, and one master and another sue
eeoded to their namesake, al equally quarrel
some, and more or les tangled In scheme and
plot But dukes and princes Of the blood
dwelt in it and made it royal ground The
captive John Of France died there, and John
of Gaunt came and went in the steep little
street, and bowed his naughty neck in tho
chapel where the poet Chaucer welded
Philippa, daughter Of knight of Hainault,
and sang Of the event In notes that have out
lasted the palace
On the morrow,
When every thought aud every sorrow
Disodged was out Of mine heart,
With every woe and every smart,
Unto a tent, prince and princess,
Methought brought mo and my mistress
With ladies', knights and squiers,
And great host of ministers,
Which tent was church parochial.
The Savoy then was in its prime, and for
two centuries il held place, its beauty and
stateliness far beyond that of any other palace
in the realm, till Wat Tyler and his men,
mad with rage at long oppression and wrong
from its owners, swept down upon it, tore to
shreds the silk and velvet hangings beat up
the gold and silver plate and flung it into the
Thames, crushed the jewels in mortars and
poured their dust into the rivers, and at last,
drunk with choice wines and delight in the
ravages of their own hands, came upon some
barrels supposed to contain money, and flung
them with carved cabinets and chains into
the huge bonfire in the palace yard.
That ended the story of the palace, for
ryuppnVdpr does ifs uprk off opt not
only the Savoy, but many house near it,
went up in the mighty explosion, leaving
only smoking ruin to tell the tale For
atonement it may be, after generation or so
Of waste, hospital rose on the old grounds,
but neither endowment nor gifts availed to
lift the curse resting on it, and it passed
from hospital infested by sham cripples,
thieves and vagabonds to a barrack, and at
last prison for debtors The chapel held
its place, and near it Charles ii established a
French church, to which the inquisitive Pepys
went at once, recording his impressions
in his diary for Oct. %, 1902. 1t had
become also illegal sanctuary for fraudulent
debtors, and there were wild conflicts be-
tween them and energetic constables who
dared the shadowy precinct Later an even
worse fate fell upon it, and so little scruple
remained that its advantages as place for
secret marriage were openly advertised in
the papers of the day. In The Public Adver-
tiser Of Jan g. 1854, may be read:
"BY Acknowledging performed
with the utmost privacy, secrecy and regu.
larity at the ancient royal chapel Of st.
John the Baptist, in the Savoy, where regu-
lar and authentic registers have been kept
from the time of the Reformation to this day,
being 200 years and upward. The expense
not more than one guinea, the five shilling
stamp included. There are five private ways
to this chapel by land and two by water"
Something of the beauty of the old palace
remained, even at this pass, but by 1916 it
was settled that the ruins must be removed.
Never did old London offer u more difficult
task. The masses of flint and stone and
brick were eight and ten feet thick The
work of Chaucer's time was not to be de-
stroyed by the screwjack, and the maSons at
last were forced to dig pickax holes, loosen
the foundations, faSten ropes to them, and so
pull the stones inward The foundations for
Waterloo bridge cover what is left of the site
Of the old palace, and the doom follows even
here, for this is the Bridge of Sighs," from
which year after year sad souls go to their
death. The old church still stands, though
fire has destroyed the chief ornainentation
Of the past Tho churchyard, long ago
sealed, holds still the ancient graves,
and the plane trees grow green
among them. Over the way, the Savoy
tavern bar is haunted by actors, printers,
penny-a-liners, and dray drivers, and who
shall say what shades of dead kings come
with them, their crowned ghosts marveling
greatly at the work that time has wrought
$50 run the sands Of life through this
quiet hour glass; so glides the life away in
the old precinct. AT its base n river runs
for all the world; at its summit is the brawl
ing, raging Strand; on either side are dark
ness and poverty and vice, the gloomy Adel-
phi aches, the Bridge of Signs that men call
Waterloo But the Precinct troubles itself
little with the noise and turmoil it sleeps
well through lie, without its iitful fever"
HELEN CAMPBELL
PRETTY Romance