School Days of Eminent Men

ise. "It was in this narrow room," says Miss Costello, "once said to have been adorned with gold and vermillion, and other gay hues, that a child was born in secresy and mystery, and that by the imperfect light his beautiful mother looked upon the features of the future hero of Normandy." That good fortune which never deserted William in after-life, shone upon his infancy. He soon became a favorite with his father, and was carefully nurtured and brought up in the castle, where princely attendance was lavished upon him, and up to his ninth year his father bestowed the utmost care upon his education. He was early inured to military exercise : at the age of five he is said to have commanded a battalion of children, at the head of which he went through the usual evolutions. At the age of nine he could already read and explain Caesar's Commentaries: he was removed by his father to the French court, where his education was carefully completed with the aid of the first masters. At Paris, he was brought up with the young French princes, where he received instruction in the military schools ; and he was surpassed by none of his youthful comrades in the varied accomplishments of feudal nobility, or in extensive reading and sound study of the military art. The intervals between his studies he spent either in field-sports, especially hawking and hunting, or in evolutions with the troops, of which he was remarkably fond. Sometimes also he would attend the envoys of the French Kin...