The musicians--the pipers and the harpers--sang his praises, and
told of his mighty deeds, and, no doubt, their refrain was very
much the same as the one that has been preserved for us in the
jingle of Mother Goose:
"O, none so rare as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three."
But if the pleasure-loving old king was listless, young Helena
was not. The misty records speak of her determined efforts, and
though it is hard to understand how a girl of fifteen can do any
thing toward successful generalship, much can be granted to a
young lady who, if the records speak truth, was, even while a
girl, "a Minerva in wisdom, and not deficient in statecraft."
So, while she advised with her father's boldest captains and
strengthened so wisely the walls of ancient Colchester, or
Camalodunum, that traces of her work still remain as proof of her
untiring zeal, she still cherished the hope of British freedom
and release from Rome. And the loving old king, deep in his
pleasures, still recognized the will and wisdom of his valiant
daughter, and bade his artists make in her honor a memorial that
should ever speak of her valor.
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