The Story of Viteau

The Story of Viteau is a historical fiction novel written by the American Frank Richard Stockton

BY the side of a small stream, which ran through one of the most
picturesque portions of the province of Burgundy, in France, there sat,
on a beautiful day in early summer, two boys, who were brothers.

They had been bathing in the stream, and now, having dressed, they were
talking together on the bank.

Raymond, the elder, was about fourteen years old, and his brother Louis
was some eighteen months younger. In form and feature, and in general
disposition and character, they were not unlike many of the boys of our
day, and yet these two young fellows lived more than six hundred years
ago. They were dressed in simple tunics, one green, one brown, and wore
short breeches, dark-colored stockings, and rather clumsy shoes.

The two brothers were very busily engaged in conversation, for they had
a great deal to say to each other, and not much time to say it in. On
the next day Louis was going away from home, to be gone a long, long
time.

Raymond and Louis were the sons of the Countess of Viteau, whose chateau
stood on a little eminence about half a mile away. Their father, the
Count of Viteau, had been one of the most steadfast adherents and
supporters of the Duke of Burgundy, in his endeavors to maintain the
independence of his dukedom against the claims of the French crown, and
had fallen in one of the battles between the Duke's followers and the
army of the Regent, Queen Blanche, who, in those days, ruled France in
the name of her son, the young King, Louis IX., afterward known as Louis
the Just, or St. Louis.

The Duke's forces had been defeated, Burgundy had been compelled to
acknowledge the supremacy of the French crown, and peace reigned in the
kingdom.

The widowed Countess of Viteau now found herself the sole protector and
guardian of her two boys. Fortunately, she had a large estate, but even
this added to her cares and responsibilities, and rendered her less able
to attend to what she had intended should be the aim and business of her
lifethe education of her sons.

Dettagli