Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Dominic Serres (1722–1793), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The fort at Budge Budge near Calcutta proved stubborn against the massed artillery of the East India Company, but a tipsy seaman took it all by himself.
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By Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846), via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ? Public domain.
Amid all the confusion of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington spotted a man in civilian clothes riding busily around on a stocky horse.
© Ian Greig, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Jane Eyre returns to Thornfield Hall and Mr Rochester, and even the thought of Blanche Ingram cannot rob her of happiness.
© Visions of Domino (Klim Levene), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0 generic.
Though Arthur Clough had discovered that to be your own man was a long and toilsome path, it was not a path without hope.
© Markoz, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Richard the Lionheart told Philip, the martial Bishop of Dreux, to decide whether he was a bishop or a knight.
© Joecoolandcharlie, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
When Richard I heard that the town of Verneuil in Normandy was under threat, he made a vow that few could be expected to take so literally.