What were our Ancestors About ? 



"Talking about Romeo and Juliet, do you know, when I 

 was at Warsaw, or Cracow, or somewhere, after the siege of 

 Vienna, I saw the mummy of a beautiful princess who had 

 died on her wedding-day ; and that was all that was known 

 about her ; and what an open field for speculation on possible 

 loves, disgusts, jealousies, poisonings, heart-breakings, &c., 

 does it leave to the imagination ! She had been well dried 

 up, and there was the remnant of great beauty still trace- 

 able in the wizened features. There she lay in her glass 

 case ; a real young lady of the dark ages in her wedding- 

 dress." 



"And yet, after all, it is possible she died of angina 

 pectoris ; and neither poisoned herself to escape the arms of 

 a detested bridegroom, nor was poisoned by a black-hearted 

 rival beauty, nor broke her heart for another young man. 

 But what times those middle-ages must have been, since, in 

 spite of theories, one cannot help believing them to have 

 been full of romance and adventure. Think of the Crusades; 

 though, perhaps, our wars in India and at the Cape will 

 seem as romantic to readers a thousand years to come. 

 But then, those Norman skippers, making a run of contra- 

 band lances upon the coast of a kingdom, and cutting a 

 whole province out of its side ! In those days dynasties 

 were founded as easily as you now may get a peerage. What 

 were our ancestors about, when the bastard duke and the 

 Guiscards were coolly taking possession of England and 

 Naples ? Why did they stand with their hands in their 

 pockets, and not take a kingdom and leave it to us ? But 

 if they had, we should only have been princes of the blood, 

 for our elder brothers would have sacked the kingdom. 

 And I should think it would be very indifferent fun being a 

 prince of the blood ; — all the restraint of greatness, with 

 none of the power." 



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