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A TREASURY OF HEROES AND HEROINES
A Record of High Endeavour and Strange Adventure
from 500 B.C. to 1920 A.D.
by
CLAYTON EDWARDS
Author of "The Story of Evangeline"
Illustrated in Colour by Florence Choate and Elizabeth Curtis
[Illustration: JEANNE D'ARC DREW THE ARROW FROM HER BREAST WITH THE
COURAGE OF A VETERAN--_See page 100_]
Cupples and Leon Company
New York
Copyright, 1920, by Frederick A. Stokes Company
All rights reserved. No part of this
work may be reproduced without the
written permission of the publishers
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE
It would be pleasant indeed to gather the characters of this book
together and listen to the conversation of wholly different but
interested couples--for this is a book of contrasts and has been
written as such. Lives of the most dramatic and adventurous quality
have been gathered from all corners of the earth, and from every age in
history, in such a way that they may cover the widest possible variety
of human experience.
The publishers believe that such a book would not be complete without
some characters that are no less real because they have lived only in
the minds of men. No explanation is needed for semi-historical
characters like King Arthur, Robin Hood and William Tell, while Don
Quixote, the Prince of Madness, and Rip Van Winkle, the Prince of
Laziness, have been included, not because they were essentially heroic
in themselves (although Don Quixote might well have claimed the laurel)
but because they became heroes in the opinion of others through the
very qualities that brought about their downfall. As involuntary
heroes, they furnish a pleasant contrast to the more serious, actual
and transcendental figures of saints, martyrs, warriors, discoverers
and statesmen with which these pages are filled; they enrich the
"Treasury," widen its range of colors and perform the necessary
function of court jesters in the Hall of Fame.
CONTENTS
HEROES OF REALITY
CHAPTER PAGE
I BUDDHA 1
II JULIUS CAESAR 12
III SAINT PATRICK 26
IV KING ARTHUR OF BRITAIN 33
V MOHAMMED 42
VI ALFRED THE GREAT 52
VII ROBIN HOOD 65
VIII SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY 72
IX DANTE 80
X ROBERT BRUCE 89
XI JEANNE D'ARC 100
XII CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 114
XIII WILLIAM THE SILENT 127
XIV QUEEN ELIZABETH OF ENGLAND 137
XV SIR FRANCIS DRAKE 146
XVI HENRY HUDSON 156
XVII PETER THE GREAT 165
XVIII GEORGE WASHINGTON 172
XIX JOHN PAUL JONES 187
XX MOLLY PITCHER 196
XXI NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 201
XXII GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI 216
XXIII ABRAHAM LINCOLN 223
XXIV GRACE DARLING 236
XXV FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 241
XXVI FATHER DAMIEN 248
XXVII CATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY 254
XXVIII THEODORE ROOSEVELT 262
XXIX EDITH CAVELL 272
XXX KING ALBERT OF BELGIUM 278
XXXI MARIA BOTCHKAREVA 286
HEROES OF FICTION
XXXII WILLIAM TELL 297
XXXIII DON QUIXOTE 304
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"Jeanne d'Arc drew the arrow from her breast with the
courage of a veteran" _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
"King Arthur grasped the magic sword that none but the bravest
might hold" 36
"Robin Hood's band made merry by killing the King's deer" 68
"'I have not yet begun to fight,' shouted Paul Jones" 188
"The cannon balls fired by Molly Pitcher fell squarely in the
British lines" 196
"Don Quixote suffered nobody to draw water from the well" 276
A TREASURY OF HEROES AND HEROINES
CHAPTER I
BUDDHA
About five hundred years before the birth of Christ a mighty king
reigned in India over the land of the Sakyas, from which the snowy tops
of the Himalaya Mountains could be seen. His name was Suddhodana and he
had two wives called Maya and Pajapati; but for a long time they bore
him no children, and the King despaired of having an heir to his
throne. Then Queen Maya bore a son and after he was born, the legends
tell us, she had a dream in which she saw a great multitude of people
bowing to her in worship. Wise men were summoned to interpret the
dream, and they told her that the King's son, so golden in color and so
well formed, was destined for greatness as surely as rivers ran to the
sea--that he would become either a mighty conqueror who would subdue
all the people of the earth, or a holy saint, a "Buddha" (the word for
one enlightened) who would have more power over the minds of men than
the mightiest conqueror could gain over their bodies.
All this was confirmed in the minds of the wise men on account of the
wonderful portents that took place at the birth of the child: flowers
bloomed in barren places and springs gushed from dry rock on the day
when the Prince was born. He was named by the King, "Siddartha,"--a
word meaning one who always succeeds in what he undertakes--and because
of the portents at his birth the King himself bowed down to his own son
and did him homage.
Now the King desired greatly that the first of the two prophecies
should come to pass. He wished the Prince to be a conqueror, not a
Buddha, and extend the power of the Sakyas by the sword through every
part of the world. And he did everything in his power to bring this end
about and to weaken the possibility that his son should ever be a holy
man.
When the child was still very young a further prophecy was made to the
King--namely that the Prince would only become a Buddha after he had
seen four common sights which for him would be four omens--an old man,
a sick man, a dead man and a holy man in the yellow robe of a beggar.
Then and then only, said the prophecy, the Prince would leave his
country; furthermore, if he remained at home for a certain length of
time he would never leave at all, but would turn all his attention to
the art of war, and his armies would sweep over the face of the earth
like a devouring flame.
The King summoned his counsellors. He commanded them to make sure that
no sick men or old men, no funeral escorts or beggars should ever be
allowed on the streets of the city when the Prince was passing. All
ugly sights were to be kept from him; he was to be surrounded with such
pleasures and such beauties that he would never desire to leave his
home; he was to know nothing of the meaning of death; poverty was to be
hidden; suffering and sorrow of all sorts were to be concealed in his
presence. In these ways, thought the King, any desire to be a priest
would be stifled in the Prince, and he would at last become a mighty
conqueror as the prophecy had foretold.
In pleasure and luxury, surrounded by beautiful attendants, fed on the
most delicious viands, hearing no sounds save music, laughter and the
voices of delight, Prince Siddartha passed his boyhood. The King
allowed him to study under wise men (who taught him only the most
carefully prepared lessons), and it was notable that he easily learned
all that was imparted to him and in a short time appeared to be wiser
than his instructors. It was notable too that he possessed
extraordinary skill at arms, for the King sent to him also the keenest
archers and the mightiest swordsmen in his dominions, to teach him the
art of war. These men whispered to each other that no more terrible
warrior had ever been born than Siddartha, who soon was more than a
match for the best of them and whose strength in comparison with theirs
was as three to one.
When a young man the Prince was married to his cousin Yasodhara. His
mother had died in his earliest childhood, but that sad event took
place too early for him to remember. Now he was happy in the possession
of the most beautiful wife in all his father's dominions, for Yasodhara
had been chosen for him on account of her great loveliness as well as
for her sunny and gracious nature. Truly in all the history of the
world no son of fortune had more in the way of love, treasure, beauty,
and all things that make for happiness than the blessed Prince
Siddartha!
Up to his twenty-ninth year no sorrowful sight had come before his
eyes, and he knew nothing of Death, Sickness or Old Age. Then, however,
he stepped into his chariot one day to visit the pleasure grounds of
the city, and on his way thither an old man ran across the street and
fell in front of the horses and barely escaped death. Siddartha was
startled at the sunken eyes, the wrinkled yellow cheeks and the gray
locks of an old man, and turning to his attendant asked him what
terrible misfortune had brought such a fate upon a fellow creature. And
the attendant, inspired, we are told, by Heavenly spirits, said to the
Prince that what he had seen was nothing but old age and the lot of all
men--a lot to which he himself and the Prince with him must surely come
in time.
Sadly the Prince rode back to the Palace with his appetite for pleasure
spoiled for the day, and when his father heard what had taken place he
was greatly alarmed, for the first of the omens had now been fulfilled.
It was not long before Siddartha looked also on Sickness. Try as he
might the King could not keep sorrowful sights from the eyes of his son
any longer. One day as the Prince went out behind his splendid horses,
a man, writhing in the agony of disease, lay by the roadside, and the
Prince was told that he suffered from some complaint of the body such
as all men are heir to. And again he returned to the Palace more sad at
heart than on the occasion when he had seen Old Age.
When the Prince next went to drive in his chariot another terrible
sight met his eyes. He beheld a still form carried upon a bier and
asked his companion what it might be. He was told that he was now in
the presence of Death, who came at last for all men, cutting them off
from their friends and relatives and bearing them away, none knew
whither. And the Prince returned to the Palace in deeper sadness than
ever. Of what worth were all the joys that surrounded him if they were
to be taken from him after he had learned to love them, and how might a
man take pleasure in Love and Life if these were to be snatched away as
soon as he had grown to realize their full value? The Prince could no
longer take delight in the pleasures that surrounded him, or even in
the love of his wife, who was about to bear him a child. And he was
sick at heart with the fear that he would lose the things that he
loved.
When the King heard that three of the four omens had been fulfilled, he
trembled with apprehension and stationed guards at all the city gates
to intercept the Prince should he fly from home; for now that the
prophecy had so far been fulfilled the King was sure it would soon be
completed. Nevertheless he sent his soldiers to scour the streets for
beggars and holy men and drive them away from the city.
Only a few days afterward, the Prince again went forth in his chariot
just as a beggar in yellow robes approached the walls. There was an
expression of great peace upon the beggar's countenance, and he seemed
far happier than the Prince himself. Siddartha asked the attendant who
the man might be and what he did, and he received the reply that the
stranger was a priest and sought happiness through giving up all the
joys of the earth and begging his bread from door to door--and it
seemed to the Prince as though a great light had suddenly burst through
the clouds of his unhappiness, and he knew that he too must give up his
palace and his pleasures, his wife and his future child and fare forth
as a priest. Surely, thought the Prince, all the things that he enjoyed
were no better than wraiths of mist that rose from the river in the
morning, since like the mist they were forever changing, and must
surely be terminated in sickness, old age or death itself; and he
resolved to search for things more lasting than the happiness and
pleasure of his youth.
He also resolved to leave his kingdom and become a beggar in a foreign
land, attempting to find through fasting and contemplation the truth
that must lie behind the changing forms of life, for he knew well that
there must be some deep cause for all the things that he had witnessed
and some impelling force behind the universe. Otherwise the whole earth
and all that was in it and all things that breathed upon its bosom
would be idle and wicked delusions. And the Prince knew too that in him
lay the power to discover the truth if he should search for it
diligently and give his whole heart and mind to this one purpose.
Just then a messenger came to him telling him that his wife had borne
him a son. On hearing this the Prince cried out that he wished it were
otherwise, for his new-born son would be a hindrance to his design and
an added bond that he must tear from his heart before he could go away.
That night, however, when all lay sleeping the Prince and one faithful
servant made their way secretly from the Palace. It had strangely come
to pass, perchance through the work of spirits, that all the guards at
the Palace and the city gates were asleep, and the two went forth
unhindered, riding on horse-back; and they spurred their horses to the
utmost so when the morning came they would be far away. Then the Prince
gave his attendant, who was named Channa, all the money and jewels that
he possessed and told him to return to the Palace and tell the King
that he, the Prince, had gone forth in search of enlightenment and
would some day become a Buddha.
When Channa departed, the Prince gave his fine clothes to a beggar who
was passing and took in return the beggar's faded yellow robe, and he,
who had been used to all the luxuries of the Court, went from door to
door begging his food and eating the bitter bread of poverty.
He crossed the river called the Ganges and came at last to a city named
Rajagha. And here he soon attracted attention because his appearance
and mien were so noble that even his coarse clothes and his new way of
life could not disguise him. He called himself a prince no longer, but
instead took the name of Gotama, this being one of the names of the
family from which he sprang.
In course of time the King of the new country where the Prince was
begging his bread and meditating on Life and Death desired to see the
holy man of whom he had heard much talk, and he offered the Prince
lands and riches. But the Prince told him that he had already laid
aside far greater riches than these, and that nothing in life mattered
to him except his quest for the truth, which one day he would surely
find. And the King, whose name was Bimbasara, asked him when he had
found the truth to return and teach it to the people of his
country--and this the Prince promised to do.
For a long time the Prince lived in a cave not far from Rajagha and
studied the faith of India as it was then taught, but his studies
brought him no nearer to gaining the truth. So he went into the
wilderness, where, he believed, fasting and meditation might bring him
the things he sought.
He traveled southward for many miles and entered the very heart of the
great Indian jungle, teeming with poisonous snakes and filled with
savage beasts. Here he prayed and fasted, seeking enlightenment; and he
carried out his fasts with such severity that he nearly died as a
result of them.
While in the jungle the Prince met five other holy men who were so much
impressed with his fasts and his thoughtful demeanor that they became
his disciples. But when he ceased to fast because he did not come any
nearer the truth by going hungry, these disciples left him, believing
that he had strayed from the path of the truth and never would gain the
enlightenment he sought.
After several years the Prince left the jungle and commenced traveling
through the country, begging his food wherever he happened to be. And
now he was close to gaining the vision that he so greatly desired, for
without his knowledge his years of thought and of self-denial had borne
their fruit.
One day, bitterly discouraged, and heartsick with his many failures and
temptations, he seated himself beneath a peepul tree with the firm
resolve that he would not stir from the spot until he gained the truth
that he sought. And while he sat there, the legends tell us, he was
assailed by all the powers of darkness and evil, and devils crowded
upon him so thickly that they darkened the sky and threw all Nature
into convulsions in which the earth shook and the air was filled with
thunder. All night the Prince sat motionless and all through the night
the evil forces strove to turn him from the truth that they knew he was
about to achieve. In the morning they departed, and the Prince as he
sat, saw flowers spring up and blossom all around him with miraculous
swiftness. The air seemed purer than ever before, the sun was
wonderfully bright and a peaceful serenity seemed to enfold the entire
earth. And when night came and the stars awoke, the truth for which the
Prince had been seeking flowed into his soul. He had indeed become a
Buddha.
Gone were the temptations and the sorrows in a divine peace--a peace
that became the reward of all disciples of the religion that he
founded. This peace was called by him Nirvana and his disciples say he
is the only man who attained it in his lifetime, for Nirvana is
supposed to come only to the spirits of the dead, who have purified
themselves not in one life, but in many. In Buddha's belief (for as
Buddha we shall now know him), human beings live many times and receive
the reward or the punishment of past existences in those that follow.
This belief is known as "the transmigration of souls." It is the
foundation of the faith of Buddha which is believed in to-day by
millions of persons in India and China, as well as in other countries.
In the truth that Buddha had acquired he learned many things. Chief of
them, as he believed, are four great facts of life and nature from
which the soul cannot escape--that there will always be sorrow and
suffering in the world; that these are caused by clinging to things
that are always changing or dying; that the only way to obtain peace is
to renounce these things and care for them no longer; and that the only
way to live is to walk in the paths of righteousness, honesty, virtue,
and to believe in the Buddhist faith.
Buddha also believed that animals have souls just as men do, and that
by some good action these animal souls become the souls of men. Then
the souls go through many existences. If they are righteous they
approach the peace of Nirvana, which is attainable only when they are
entirely purified; if they are unrighteous they are cast down again
into lower forms of life and once more have to struggle upward toward
the truth. There is no escape from the consequences of sin in the
Buddhist faith. Just so certainly as a man sins he will be punished for
it--if not in this life in the next one--and if his sin is sufficiently
deadly he will lose again the form of a man and return to the shape of
a snake or a lizard to expiate his wickedness through countless
generations.
Heaven and Hell have a place in the belief of Buddha also. They are
different from the Heaven and Hell that Christians know because in the
Buddhist religion they are only temporary abodes for the spirit between
its many existences on earth.
When his new faith had come to him, Buddha left the jungle to preach it
to mankind. On his way he met the five disciples that had deserted him
and he told them that the truth had indeed come to him and that he was
now a Buddha. After they heard him preach they were converted, and
after three months the number of Buddha's disciples had increased to
sixty, who, like himself, gave all their worldly possessions to assume
the garments of beggars and ask for their bread from door to door.
Buddha then told his disciples that they must go in different
directions and teach all that desired to learn. He himself went back to
Rajagha where King Bimbasara, who desired to know the truth, was
living. And he preached to King Bimbasara and converted him, and the
King presented Buddha with a bamboo grove in which he might hold his
assemblies and preach to the many thousands that now came to hear his
sermons.
The fame of Buddha's teachings soon reached his native city and his
father, the old King Suddhodana, yearned to see the son who might have
been a great conqueror but who had chosen to be one of the most
enlightened teachers that the world has ever seen. So he sent a retinue
to greet Buddha and ask him to return to his native city. One thousand
men went forth upon this errand, but none returned, for all were
converted by Buddha and remained to listen to his teachings and then to
spread the faith themselves. Then King Suddhodana sent another
thousand, and these too remained with Buddha. At last, however, he sent
one messenger, the same Channa who had accompanied the Prince when he
left the city, and the faithful Channa bore the message to Buddha.
Buddha decided to visit his father and see his family once more, for he
desired to bring the faith to the land of the Sakyas. With thousands of
his followers accompanying him he went to the royal city and met his
father without the walls. And the father's heart was heavy to see how
the son had changed, for Buddha was no longer young, strong and
handsome, but wrinkled and emaciated, with gray hair and a bent figure
from the hardships he had endured in many years of wandering and
preaching.
Buddha would not enter the city of his countrymen but preached in a
banyan grove without the walls. And when he preached he converted many
of his former friends and relatives. His wife whom he had deserted and
who had grieved for him ever since, gained happiness once more, for she
too, became converted to the Buddhist faith, and entered the Buddhist
sisterhood, becoming a nun. Even the King himself was finally converted
by Buddha's teaching, and we are told that he too entered the faith and
became a disciple. The son that Buddha had only seen once when a day
old became a disciple also, and, when he had mastered the teachings of
Buddhism, was made a monk in the Buddhist order.
Buddha lived to be eighty years old and all the rest of his life was
spent in traveling through the world and preaching the faith wherever
he went. The land that he visited most frequently lay on both sides of
the river Ganges and for thousands of years has been called the
Buddhist Holy Land. Wise men of all ages have believed in the faith as
he taught it, and even to-day and in modern European nations there are
those that profess to be of the Buddhist faith.
The order of monks that was founded by Buddha is the oldest existing
religious order in the world. For nearly two thousand five hundred
years these monks have practised renunciation and high thinking and
have worn the yellow robes of the holy man and the beggar.
Many tales and legends sprang up concerning Buddha even in his
lifetime. In fact it is only through legends that we know he was ever a
Prince at all. He had a marvelous faculty for controlling the anger of
wild beasts and once tamed an elephant that had killed many people,
simply by speaking to it in a quiet tone, at which the great animal,
which had been raging through the streets of Rajagha, followed him like
a dog. A tale of his great wisdom that is still told by his disciples,
is of a woman who had lost her child through Death and who came before
Buddha maddened with grief, begging him to bring the child back to life
or at least to provide some comfort from the sorrow that tortured her.
And Buddha told her to get mustard seed from a house that Death had
never visited and when she had done so to bring it to him and he would
bring the child back to life.
The poor woman went from door to door asking if Death had visited
there, and in every home the answer was "yes!" Nowhere could she find a
house that was free from the blight of Death. Then the woman saw that
the only happiness lay in renouncing the ties that bound her to other
human beings and in seeking the peace of Nirvana, for Buddha had taken
this way of teaching her that Death is the common lot of all; and she
entered the Buddhist sisterhood and found there the happiness that she
sought.
Buddha was supposed to have lived many times and there are many tales
of his deeds in previous lives. Some of them tell of happenings when he
was an animal and how he finally acquired the human form. Others tell
of his good deeds when his spirit had entered the human body but was
not yet ennobled sufficiently to become a Buddha.
There are hundreds of such tales in the Buddhist faith. Some deal with
Buddha himself; some with his disciples. In all the stories, however,
the virtue of self-sacrifice and of renunciation is strongly painted.
It is the cornerstone of the Buddhist religion.
When Buddha grew very old he called his disciples around him and
enjoined them to preach the faith after he had passed away for he knew
that at last the hand of Death was near. He died in a little town in
the depths of the jungle, and heavenly music sounded and the trees
burst into blossom as his spirit passed away. He was given a funeral
with all the honor due to a mighty king and after his body was burned,
eight cities requested a share of his ashes. These were placed in eight
great tombs, and the ruins can be seen to the present day.
After the death of Buddha the religion that he preached rapidly spread
through Asia. To-day it is taught in very different forms in different
countries, and the Buddhism of Thibet in China has many elaborate
ceremonies attached to it that the Buddhism of India lacks completely.
Unlike most of the great religions of the world, Buddhism has never
been spread by the sword, but has crept into the minds of men through
its own power. And everywhere it is granted that Buddha was a great man
and a great teacher, and that many of the principles he taught are
second only to those included in the Christian faith.