most as carefully treasured.

Since that time it has run through a score of editions, at long
intervals out of print, and again revived at the public call with an
eagerness of distribution which few modern romances have enjoyed. Its
author, Hannah Foster, was the daughter of Grant Webster, a well-known
merchant of Boston, and wife of Rev. John Foster, of Brighton,
Massachusetts, whose pedigree, but few removes backward in the line of
her husband,[A] interlinked, as has been already hinted, with that of
the "Coquette." Thus did they hold towards each other that very
significant relationship--especially in the past century--of "_cousins_"
a relationship better heeded and more earnestly recognized and
cherished than that of nearer kin at the present day. Therefore, not
only by family ties, but by similarity of positions and community of
interests, was she brought into immediate acquaintance with the
circumstances herein combined, and especially qualified to write the
history with power and effect. Nor is this the only work which bears the
impress of her gifted pen. There is still another extant, of which I
need not at this time and place make mention, besides many valuable
literary contributions to the scattered periodicals of that day. It is
to be regretted here that a short time previous to her death she
destroyed the whole of her manuscripts, which might, in many respects,
have been particularly valuable.

She has, however, transmitted her genius and her powers, which find
expression and appreciation in two daughters still living in Montreal,
Canada East, one of whom is the gifted author of "Peep at the Pilgrims,"
"Sketches from the Life of Christ," and "Confessions of an early
Martyr," all of which have been very popular; the first having been
republished here within a short period, and also in England with still
greater success. The other daughter, the widow of the late Dr. Cushing
who, while firm at his post as physician at the Emigrant Hospital, fell
a victim to that terrible malady, ship fever, in 1846, is also author of
many minor works, and co-editor of the "Snowdrop," a monthly publication
of much merit in Montreal. Mrs. Foster died in that place, at the
residence of her daughter, Mrs. Cushing, April 17, 1840, at the advanced
age of eighty-one years.

It may seem, however, at a period so long subsequent to the actual
transpiration of events herein recorded, that little could be said to
throw light or interest