A Prince Life -2-

Helped by the signs made by Lord Hertford, Tom managed to behave quite well. He had a doubt at the end of the meal when his nose started itching.Had he ask them to scratch it for him or he could do it himself'?








In the meantime, The King and his assistants were having a serious problema. They could not find anywhere the Great Seal.







It was essential to give course to the execution warrant of Lord Norflok. The King remembered he had given it to his son,a few days ago, to star familiarizing him with royal duties.





Lord Hertford was commanded to ask the Prince for the Great Seal. But considering the Young boy was mad and that he would say he did not recall to mind anything, it seemed a useless move.









So, the King decided to use the smaller seal he used to carry when he went abroad, but with the same value.








Norfolk executed, the path would be free to carry out the ceremony of the proclamation of the heir.

A Prince life.-

In the remaining of that day and in the following one, before being proclaimed officially as the heir of the throne, por Tim had to learn a lot many things.









Lord Hertford in charge of his education, gave precise instructions to him about talking as less as posible and to be attentive to his sign. He had forgotten how to be one.










What is most difficult for Tom to learn, was to let the others help him each time hetook a step.







I t was so difficult and uncomfortable for him that finally, he said he wanted to rest for an hour or two.









Imediately, seven servitors introduced him into his room, as each one of them had, as a duty, the delicate task of removing some of the garments that covered his body.









Others servitors put the sleeping robed on him.







It was the first time in his life that Tom slept in a real bed, and moreover in the bed of a Prince!







When he awoke, before opening his eyes, he thought he had dreamt everything.








But when he did open them, his assistants saw to bring him back to reality.







When the pages dressed him up for first meal, something hey did with the same state as when they undressed him, it was already one o clock.








On the table it was set  the pure gold cutlery for one.








However, the apartment was filled with people.









There was a chaplain, to sa grace to the dishes, a royal diaper, who fastened a napkin around his eck, a cupbearer, a tater, the cook, his assistants, waiters and the majority of the three hundred and eighty four servants at the service of the Prince of Wales.

Tom before King Henry.-

-How are you, My lord? Edward, my Prince?the King greeted him.






-Are you going to go on with your jest with me ?




Tom dropped to the floor saying...





-My Lord, have mercy







The servants lifted him while the King was asking...




-My son, do not you know your father? Say you do, break not my heart.






-Noble sir, I am speaking the truth. I am the meanest among your subjects, being a beggar born.And I am here by mischance. Do not kill me!







-Oh I pray heaven to let me live until I see my son healed!No, calm down, you shall not die! the King said.






Henry tried to speak for a while with the beggar, humorning him, bt it seemed to him that the way of talking and reasoning of Tom was totally similar to his son.And he reached the conclusión that the child had only forgotten temporarily his identity.






-Mad? Who says he is mad? exclaimed then addressing in the present people of the court.








-I think he is not mad and taht illness is temporary not incurable.To ease the rumors, tomorrow, at the latest, the ceremony of his proclaim as heir to the throne will take place.









When the King finished talking. Lord Hertford knelt down in front of him.







And wih great caution and cumlocution he reminded him that the ceremony had to be carried out byte Great Marshal of England, the Duke of Norfolk, who was incoveniently attainted as prisoer in the Tower following the King´s orders.









-Have his head cut so that we can name another Marshal-was the answer of the King.








He immediately sent Tom away and ordered everybody to help him, without him noticing to recover all he had forgotten. I t was essential The Prince should recover his health promptly.

THE FALSE PRINCE.-

Meanwhile, in palace, Tom'sfate ran thruogh different paths, although no less complicated. Once Tom was left alone, turned himself this way and that before the mirror, admiring its delicate smell.






He drew the sword and bowed, kissing the blade as knights did.





He tried each  of the sumptouos chairs and ate all we wanted.






Finally, it ocurred to him that the Prince was long gone.





He began to fear he would be discovered and punish and resolved to fly.






But when he opened the door, he ran across six gorgeous gentlemen servants and two Young pages that started bowing.







Tom steppped back and closed the door frightened.






After a Little while, a page announced him the visit of Lady Jane Grey. When the girl came in she was greatly surprised, as Tom knelt down and said:







- Have mercy, milady! I am not Prince Edward.I am only Tom Canty, from London Bridge.I beg you to take me where the Prince is, he will restore me my rags.







Lady Jane fled away in fright, opened the door and escaped. In very few minutes the news from menial.







From lord to lord and in the palace they all thought the Prince had gone mad.



.He knelt down! was the comment.






He knelt down in front of her, When the rumors spread trought the hig civil servants of the court, a Chamberlain commnicated in the name of the King that, was the false and that nobody should carry it abroad or repeat it.









Finally, Tom came out on a corridor. He could not stay locked in his apartments. Two doctors and some servants were following him in silence.







The nobles he encountered on his way bowed courteusly to him.He soon found himself in a noble apartment.







There, reclined on a diván there dressed with luxurious and rather frayed clothes.




One of his legs,completely bandaged was resting on a pillow. That invalid was the dread King Henry VIII,

The false beggar-

After a while, Edward coul get ride of the persecution and mockey of the rabble that thought he was mad.






He looked around the fround himself in an unknown locality.All he knew was he was within the city of London.





He whashes his feet in a brokwhich flowed then, where far rington Street now is and and started moving on aimlessly.







He walked for a long time and in order to rest, he went into a church that gave shelther to children from the Street.







But he behave with such arrongant manners, that was takenout from there among gilbes and biting, thinking again the was mad.







Dogs pursued him, he walked along dark in wich human beings were piled up as garbage bags.







Until night fell and it started raining.









-Out to this time of night again and surely you have not a single penny in your pocket to bring home.!








The one speaking like this was John Canty Tom,s father.








-Oh, Edward said, so you are his father, then...








-His father? I am your father wretched swine and Iam going to break your bones! move on!





And witthout letting him utter a single Word more, he pulled him up, kicked him, and forced him to walk in front.






- I am the Prince! I am indeed the Prince of Wales! cried Edward.







-Take me to the palace and I assure you, you will be no poor more.Yor son is there.







You have gone stark mad, you are completely crazy.









But made or no mad, you will son find some good biting will help you to recover your wits-Tom fathers answered.








And dragged the Frantic Prince along an alley followed by a swarm of human vermin.

A Prince in the streets.-

When he reached the gate he ordered the guard that had malttreated Tom.


-Open, open the gates right now.


The guard obeyed promply, but as son as Edward Tudor put his foot outside, the soldier gave him a sounding boxon the face that sent him whirling to the roadway.



That is for what you did to me in front of the Prince-the guard said scornfully. The crowd surrounding the palace gates started roaring heartedly.



Edward picked himself out of the mud and said fiercely.

is
-I am the Prince of Wales and my person is sacred. You shall the handed for what you have just done.



The soldier presented arms and answered mockingly



-I salute you gracious Highness, and he added angrily.-Be off, you crazy rubbish!





The crowd surrounded the Prince and hustled him pitiless down the road, shouting and hooting him.



The crowd surrounded the Prince and hstled him pitiless down the road, shouting and hooting him.




-Way for his Royal Highness!Way for his Majesty!

The Prince and the Pauper.-C.1.

In the ancient London, on a certain autumn day a boy was born to a poor family named Canty, who did not want to have any, On the same day, another child was born to the rich Tudor family, who want the birth of that child. And it had so longed for him and so prayed God for him, that people went nearly mad with joy.



London became a sight to see with gay colored banners waving from balconies and housetops, with no less colorful parades along the streets and great night bonfires.



Allof that was taking place while the new born, Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, was sleeping in his crib lapped in silk sheets. Nobody was talking about the other child, Tom Canty, lapped in poor rags.




London was fifteen hundred years old and it had a hundred thousand inhabitants-some think doublé as many.


Its streets were crooked and dirty, especially in the part where Tom Canty lived, not far from London Bridge. The houses were built with Wood. The second story proyecting over the first and the third sticking its elbows out beyond the second, one would say.





The buildings had a structure like a huge skeleton, formed by strong crisscross beams.





Between then it was laid a solid material and the whole thing was coated with plaster.The beams used to be painted with colors, giving the house a very picturesque  look, something that the small Windows glazed with Little diamond shaped panes contributed, too.









A FAMILY OF BEGGARS.



The Canthy tribe lived in Offal Court, a foul that was a true hovel. Tom's fathers, the brutal John Canty and his grandmother were a couple of fiends. They were constantly drunk and they fought each other or anybody else who came in the way. Always, drunk or sober, cursed and swore.






John Canty was a thief and his mother a beggar. Tom'smother and his two sisters, the twins Bet and Nan completely sweet and submissive, were beggars, too.




They begged because the father had not managed to convince them to steal.






This fanily lived packed full in a rickery room on the third floor, in a house that seemed to fall down at any moment.The adults had a total of two beds, while the Young ones slept on some bundles of Straw and covered themselves with remains of blankets.




In the whole neighborhood, these kind of human hives inhabited by dozens of people were very common.






TOM'S FANTASIES.-





As soon as Tom had enough energy to walk, his father sent him to the streets to beg.And when he came home empty-handed, he used to receive a stream of blows.






His mother, then, comforted him and even risking to get beaten herself, would slip to Tom a crust of bread. She had been able to sabe, avolding the father's look.







Even though he was having a hard time, Tom was not conscious of it all, he did not notice it, as that was the only life he knew.





Each morning he went out begging and spent all day long going from one place to another.






In that miserable life, one of the things he liked were the visits to a priest, Father Andrew. That man lived in the same house as Tom and taught him how to read and write and some Latin.



All of that accompanied by readings of kings, fairies and princes tales. Inhis own way, Tom enjoyed the priests books and in his imagination he started picturing a wonderful Word.



A world in wich he was a prince and his life was full of confort and pleasures. As he could not share with anyone his fantasies, because they would have called him mad, he used to stay long hours daydreaming.







Those readings wrought a mark in the beggars manners.His speech was more delicate and complex than his Friends and neigghborhood he became a hero. But this appreciation was not share by his family, always too busy fighting and drinking.




A certain Winter night, cold and rainy as many others, Tom spent long time looking in at cook shop Windows, where greasy fritters and other indelicate and indigestible dishes were displayed. For him these were dainities, as he had never tried them once.





He returned home with a more forlom and sad condition as ever, and even his father was moved-so to speak, and the only gave him a brisk cutting that night before sending him to bed.




That night, as many others, Tom dreamt with a magnificent and charming royal court, where a sweet music was being played and the smells were so delicious, tan the wretchedness of his room, when he awoke, seemed to him so horrible taht he cried bitterly.








THE MEETING.






Tom got up hungry and sauntered away, wandering along the streets with his thoughts busy with the splendors of his night's dreams.



By the farthest from home he had ever traveled up to that moment. The constructions before his eyes were very beatifu.





Those mansions were surrounded by exquisite parks and gardens stretching to the river grounds.






Tom walked among them, staring them in wonder and he finally arrived at the most majestic of all of them. W Palace, crowned with small turrrets and big Golden gate showing the royal symbol.









Tom's pulse accelerated. Who knows if the desire of his dreams was going to be satisfied at last and he would see a real prince.




He approached the gilded gate, guarded by two motionless sentinels.





Many poor people crowded together at a respectul distance, looking at the splandid carriages that were arriving and departing from the magnificent gateways.