StoryTitle("caps", "A Prisoner's Valentine") ?>
StoryOrigin("center", SmallCapsText("BY MILLICENT OLMSTED (Adapted)")) ?>
InitialWords(42, "Charles, Duke of Orleans,", "smallcaps", "nodropcap", "noindent") ?>
who was taken prisoner at the
battle of Agincourt in 1415, and detained in England
twenty-five years, was the author of the earliest known
written valentines. He left about sixty of them. They were
written during his confinement in the Tower of London, and
are still to be seen among the royal papers in the British
Museum.
One of his valentines reads as follows:—
PoemStart() ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Wilt thou be mine? dear Love, reply—", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "Sweetly consent or else deny.", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "Whisper softly, none shall know,", "") ?> PoemLine("L0", "", "Wilt thou be mine, Love?—aye or no?", "") ?>