And confronting
Louis stands another figure, not less prominent in their own day, not
less striking when viewed from our day,--that of Charles the Bold, of
Burgundy.

The career of this latter prince has generally been regarded as merely a
romantic episode in European history. Scott has painted it in vivid
colors in two of his most brilliant fictions,--"Quentin Durward," and
"Anne of Geierstein." But, perhaps from this very notion in regard to
its lack of historical importance, the reality has never been depicted
in fulness or with detail, except in M. de Barante's elegant
_rifacimento_ of the French chroniclers of the fifteenth century. That
the subject was, however, one of a very different character has been
apparent to the scholars in France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland,
who during the last twenty years have made it a special object of their
researches. A stronger light has been thrown upon every part of it, and
an entirely new light upon many portions. Charles has assumed his
rightful position, as the "Napoleon of the Middle Ages," whose ambition
and whose fall exercised, a powerful influence on the destinies of the
principal European states.

But the labors through which this has been accomplished are as yet
unknown to the general mass of readers. The results lie scattered in
quarters difficult of access, and in forms that repel rather than
attract the glance. Chronicles written in tough French and tougher
German have been published in provincial towns, and have scarcely found
their way beyond those localities. Various learned societies and
commissions have edited documents which would be nearly unintelligible
without a wide comparison and complete elucidation. Single, isolated
points have been treated and discussed by those who took for granted a
familiarity on the part of the reader with the general facts of the
case. To combine this mass of evidence, to sift and establish it, and to
weave it into a symmetrical narrative, is the aim of the work before us.
The idea was conceived while the author was engaged in assisting the
late Mr. Prescott in cognate branches of study. That great and generous
writer entered heartily into the project, and made use of the ample
facilities which he is well known to have possessed for the collection
of the necessary materials. The correspondence which he opened for this
purpose led to the belief that he had himself undertaken the task; and
great satisfaction was expressed by