We shall soon find something else to amuse us,
and I now perceive there is nothing more
ridiculous than prejudice in eating and drinking."

"Ridiculous?"

"Yes, considering how prevalent it is.
Tartars prefer a roasted joint of tough
horse to the finest haunch of mutton ever
spitted. Chinese have a positive predilection
for rats and mice, and cooked cat is
amongst their most recherché delicacies. A
fine kitten fetches a higher price in their
markets than a pheasant; and a certain
species of ferret cut up into tit-bits, and served
in saucers makes a Mandarin's mouth water.
A Mohammedan considers himself polluted if
a dog touch the skirt of his garment; a Celestial
considers himself blessed if he can only
secure for his dinner a canine hind quarter.
When the cheap restaurants were opened in the
Palais Royal in Paris upon the principle of
prix fixé—one and eightpence for four courses,
a dessert, and a pint of wine—they were daily
crowded with delighted convives."

"And no wonder, at such a price,"
observed Margaret.

"Fricaseed chicken and fricandeau veal
were most extensively called for and especially
relished."

"They are, all the two," said Madame,
idiomatically, "if properly kitchened,
delicious dishes."

"That depends," I continued. "It
happened at exactly the same time there was an
almost simultaneous disappearance of the
plumpest pet dogs in Paris, and—"

"I guess the rest," interrupted Margaret;
"do not make one ill. The fact is," she
continued, with judicial gravity, "one man's
poison is another man's meat."

"And all which does not poison, fattens,"
interposed Madame with economical zeal.

"And there's as good fish in the sea as
ever came out of it," I added with epicurean
forethought. "What new experiment shall
we try tomorrow?"

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE late King's eldest son, the Prince of
Wales, called EDWARD after him, was only
thirteen years of age at his father's death.
He was at Ludlow Castle with his uncle, the
Earl of Rivers. The prince's brother, the
Duke of York, only eleven years of age, was
in London with his mother. The boldest,
most crafty, and most dreaded nobleman in
England at that time was their uncle RICHARD,
Duke of Gloucester, and everybody wondered
how the two poor boys would fare with such
an uncle for a friend or a foe.

The Queen, their mother, being exceedingly
uneasy about this, was anxious that instructions
should be sent to Lord Rivers to raise an
army to escort the young King safely to
London. But, Lord Hastings, who was of the
court party opposed to the Woodvilles, and
who disliked the thought of giving them
that power, argued against the proposal, and
obliged the Queen to be satisfied with an
escort of two thousand horse. The Duke of
Gloucester did nothing, at first, to justify
suspicion. He came from Scotland (where he
was commanding an army) to York, and was
there the first to swear allegiance to his
nephew. He then wrote a condoling letter to
the Queen-Mother, and set off to be present at
the coronation in London.

Now, the young King, journeying towards
London too, with Lord Rivers and Lord Gray,
came to Stony Stratford, as his uncle came
to Northampton, about ten miles distant; and
when those two lords heard that the Duke of
Gloucester was so near, they proposed to the
young King that they should go back and
greet him in his name. The boy being very
willing that they should do so, they rode off
and were received with great friendliness, and
asked by the Duke of Gloucester to stay and
dine with him. In the evening, while they
were merry together, up came the Duke of
Buckingham with three hundred horsemen;
and next morning the two lords and the two
dukes, and the three hundred horsemen, rode
away together to rejoin the King. Just as
they were entering Stony Stratford, the Duke
of Gloucester, checking his horse, turned
suddenly on the two lords, charged them with
alienating from him the affections of his sweet
nephew, and caused them to be arrested by
the three hundred horsemen and taken back.
Then, he and the Duke of Buckingham went
straight to the King (whom they had now in
their power), to whom they made a show of
kneeling down, and offering great love and
submission; and then they ordered his attendants
to disperse and took him, alone with them,
to Northampton.

A few days afterwards they conducted him
to London, and lodged him in the Bishop's
Palace. But, he did not remain there long;
for, the Duke of Buckingham with a tender
face made a speech expressing how anxious
he was for the Royal boy's safety, and how
much safer he would be in the Tower until his
coronation, than he could be anywhere else.
So, to the Tower he was taken, very carefully,
and the Duke of Gloucester was named
Protector of the State.

Although Gloucester had proceeded thus
far with a very smooth countenance—and
although he was a clever man, fair of speech,
and not ill-looking, in spite of one of his
shoulders being something higher than
other—and although he had come into
City riding bare-headed at the King's side,
and looking very fond of him—he had made
the King's mother more uneasy yet; and
when the Royal boy was taken to the Tower,
she became so alarmed that she took sanctuary
in Westminster with her five daughters.

Nor did she do this without reason, for, the
Duke of Gloucester, finding that the lords
who were opposed to the Woodville family