, bearing back with me, in all such seasons,
new increase to that pleasurable gratitude which is, perhaps, the rarest,
nor the least happy sentiment, that experience leaves to man. Some
differences, it may be,--whether on those public questions which we see,
every day, alienating friendships that should have been beyond the reach
of laws and kings;--or on the more scholastic controversies which as
keenly interest the minds of educated men,--may at times deny to us the
idem velle, atque idem nolle; but the firma amicitia needs not those
common links; the sunshine does not leave the wave for the slight ripple
which the casual stone brings a moment to the surface.

Accept, in this dedication of a work which has lain so long on my mind,
and been endeared to me from many causes, the token of an affection for
you and yours, strong as the ties of kindred, and lasting as the belief
in truth. E. B. L.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The author of an able and learned article on MABILLON [6] in the
"Edinburgh Review," has accurately described my aim in this work;
although, with that generous courtesy which characterises the true
scholar, in referring to the labours of a contemporary, he has overrated
my success. It was indeed my aim "to solve the problem how to produce
the greatest amount of dramatic effect at the least expense of historical
truth"--I borrow the words of the Reviewer, since none other could so
tersely express my design, or so clearly account for the leading
characteristics in its conduct and completion.

There are two ways of employing the materials of History in the service
of Romance: the one consists in lending to ideal personages, and to an
imaginary fable, the additional interest to be derived from historical
groupings: the other, in extracting the main interest of romantic
narrative from History itself. Those who adopt the former mode are at
liberty to exclude all that does not contribute to theatrical effect or
picturesque composition; their fidelity to the period they select is
towards the manners and costume, not towards the precise order of events,
the moral causes from which the events proceeded, and the physical
agencies by which they were influenced and controlled. The plan thus
adopted is unquestionably the more popular and attractive, and, being
favoured by the most illustrious writers of historical romance, there is
presumptive reason for supposing it to be also th