fter his release from Banning Heath Asylum,
was shot through the head while leading on a mob of riotous Kentish
yeomen, whom he had persuaded that he was the Messiah!

If the design of Romance be, what it has been held, the exposition of a
useful truth by means of an interesting story, I fear I have but
imperfectly fulfilled the office imposed upon me; having, as I will
freely confess, had, throughout, an eye rather to the reader's
amusement than his edification. One wholesome moral, however, may, I
trust, be gathered from the perusal of this Tale; namely, that, without
due governance of the passions, high aspirations and generous emotions
will little avail their possessor. The impersonations of the Tempter,
the Tempted, and the Better Influence may be respectively discovered, by
those who care to cull the honey from the flower, in the Sexton, in
Luke, and in Sybil.

The chief object I had in view in making the present essay was to see
how far the infusion of a warmer and more genial current into the veins
of old Romance would succeed in reviving her fluttering and feeble
pulses. The attempt has succeeded beyond my most sanguine expectation.
Romance, if I am not mistaken, is destined shortly to undergo an
important change. Modified by the German and French writers--by Hoffman,
Tieck, Hugo, Dumas, Balzac, and Paul Lecroix (_le Bibliophile
Jacob_)--the structure commenced in our own land by Horace Walpole, Monk
Lewis, Mrs. Radcliffe, and Maturin, but left imperfect and inharmonious,
requires, now that the rubbish which choked up its approach is removed,
only the hand of the skilful architect to its entire renovation and
perfection.

And now, having said my say, I must bid you, worthy reader, farewell.
Beseeching you, in the words of old Rabelais, "to interpret all my
sayings and doings in the perfectest sense. Reverence the cheese-like
brain that feeds you with all these jolly maggots; and do what lies in
you to keep me always merry. Be frolic now, my lads! Cheer up your
hearts, and joyfully read the rest, with all ease of your body, and
comfort of your reins."

KENSAL MANOR-HOUSE,
_December 15, 1849_.

ROOKWOOD

_BOOK I_

_THE WEDDING RING_

It has been observed, and I am apt to believe it is an observation
which will generally be found true, that before a terrible truth
comes to light, there are certain murmuring whispers fly before it,
and prepare the minds of men for the rec