The rhyme posted in explanation of this attack, makes the protagonist Richard ('Dick') Shelton, ward of Sir Daniel, curious about the death of his father Sir Harry Shelton. The story begins with the Tunstall Moat House alarm bell, rung to summon recruits for its absent lord Sir Daniel Brackley, to join the Battle of Risingham at which the outlaw 'fellowship' known as 'the Black Arrow' begins to strike with its 'four black arrows' for the 'four black hearts' of Brackley and three of his retainers: Nicholas Appleyard, Bennet Hatch, and Sir Oliver Oates, the parson. The novel is set in the reign of 'old King Henry VI' (1422-1461, 1470-1471) and during the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487). If (('gtm=off') const isAppRedirect = ('appRedirect') Ĭonst isAndroid = /Android/i.test(erAgent) Ĭonst isIphone = /iPhone|iPad|iPod/i.test(erAgent) Not content with weaving a plot that shall hold the reader spell-bound, he perfects his style with such care that not a superfluous or an ill-fitting word is to be found from start to finish. Stevenson writes with a pen so much more graphic, poetic, and incisive than the ancient chroniclers. The only preparation a boy needs for enjoying 'The Black Arrow ' is some slight acquaintance with Shakespeare or Walter Scott nay, if he have but skimmed the briefest history of the brave old medieval times, and knows what a part in them the long-bow and the cross-bow played, and what a salet is, and what a lance, he will need no further introduction to this tale of the early days of Richard Crookback-a tale 'retold' (like that of the search for buried treasure) 'exactly in the ancient way.' Or if the telling differ from that to which he is accustomed, it will be because Mr.

The publishers of 'Young Folks' having asked for a successor to Treasure Island, Stevenson turned to the period of the Wars of the Roses as a setting for a tale of adventure frankly written for youthful readers.

The black arrow a tale of the two roses