Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-21

sided at the Court Of Naples IN the later |
s.a, collection tor Of his tales that Shakespeare
derived his basic idea for Rome" ana
Juliet
A long time ago in Spain there
lived a cavalier of ancient and noble
family, who had an only son gifted
with such grace and good looks and
a kindly nature, who was named
Aries. As sometimes happened. this
youth. in company with certain OF
his compa MONS. was unwittingly in
volved i'm midnight riot. when, being
forced to use blows in his defense, it
CHANGED that he slew with his own
hand noble youth, dependent and
favorite OF the king. Wherefore, fear
ing the wrath of the King of Spain,
he resolved to adventure in other
IL nds. So. having taken leave of his
father, he set forth with two horses
and few attendants and as much
money as his haste would allow him
10 gather together.
Having heard that a great war was
IA ging in France. he resolved To go
there 10 make a test of his valor
After he had joined The army Of the
King Of France. he found himself the
man-at.arms for a prominent count,
captain general of the army and
kinsman Of the king. Aries, when
he received the wage due him for his
services, spent the same To array him
self "a best he could and he began to
hear himself coura geously, not only in
the strife of battle, but in the storm
ing Of cities and castles and in every
other affair that was part Of a sol
dier's life Indeed, the renown of his
name increased so rapidly that he be-
came as much a model Of prowess and
va Tor to the French as he was A terror
and alarm Of the foes OF France.
Thus he gained the favor OF his
own captain so that he was regarded
as the captains other self. And the
love Of the king for his kinsman ex-
tended to this brave warrior also, so
that Aries was numbered among the
most honored and highly favored Of
that great army. He was made
knight and a field marshal with much
honor. and given an increase of wealth
as we'll In fact. Aries came to fight
beside the king, so much was he in
the royal favor.
That Winter, however, when the
army was in retirement, Aries was
honored at the court of France. IN
Paris There he was az well liked
hv the ladies' as he had been by his
fellow soldiers and his superiors on
the field Of battle. Indeed, it was the
kings own daughter who fell straight
way in love with him. and could not
rest for thoughts of the valiant knight
who had instantly ca ptiVated her pas
sionate heart.
Because she knew no one to whom
she could with safety intrust this
fierce love of hers. the princess de-
cided to give the knight himself to
I'D nv GiUnG-G0mP
secret and some well-nigh plain to
everybody-that she was melting and
consuming with love for him. OF
course. Aries readily grasped the pur-
pose of these signs. and although she
seemed marvelouslv beautiful in his
evcs-as n princess should to such
valorous knight-he determined that
he was no person to aspire to the love
of so royal a maiden. He remember
ed the many favors he had received at
the hands of her father. and decided
righteously to ignore her rather polo
advances.
So at first Aries was cunning
enough to pretend not to understand
the approa ches of love that the prin-
cess was making toward him. she
was daily vexed by this, and often
wept bitterly in her grief at such
failure She thought he must be ex-
tremely Indifferent toward her. and
even cruel As last resort, there
fore. she sat herself down to write
out the full strength of her love on
pa per, and have the message delivered
to the knight. 1t would he a message
that should move a heart of marble
for she was going to threaten to take
her own life if she could not receive
the attentions of this knight whom
she so violently loved.
So she wrote her message, sealed
it. and gave it to a trusted page. This
boy, however. was more loyal to the
king than to the kings daughter, ana
SO he took this letter-guessing 1t to
be of some special mportance-and AL
lowed the king to read it. The mon
arch was greatly astOnished to learn
of this astounding boldness and un-
ladylike forwardness on the part of
his daughter, and at first he was very
angry. At last he decided to have the
message delivered and see what the
knight would do.
Aries read the letter also in great
astonishment. He saw clearly what
the princess was up to, and he decided
that his only course was to ignore her,
as he had always done. He owed it to
her father. and besides, there was alb
solutely no possibility of any one of
his low rank ever marrying princess
Of the blood royal. However, he was
afraid to seel1 to spurn her advances
too harshly. lest she contrive with her
influence at court to do him some IN
jury out of revenge, so he added in
his reply that he would be glad to
marry her. but only with her fathers
free and full consent. Which was true
enough. although it was farthest from
her thoughts that the King would ever
look favorably upon such marriage
or even think it possible.
The King, to whom the page
brought this message also, was sur
prised and Sratified at the virtue and
honesty of his beloved knight. He
could not imagine a better or more
gentlemanly reply to the unseeming
advances of his daughter. Verify, he
began to think, this knight deserved
the girl even if he was not of the
proper rank to be eligible for her
hand.
Indeed, the more the King thought
about it the more it seemed to him
that the way out of the difficulty was
to make it possible for Aries TO marry
the princess. Certainly she would
make him a good wife, for there