e soil of fact. It is given in the rather discredited Portuguese
chronicles of Acenheiro, and finds place, more or less as related here,
in Duarte Galvao's "Chronicle of Affonso Henriques," whence it was taken
by the Portuguese historical writer, Alexandre Herculano, to be included
in his "Lendas e Narrativas." If it is to be relegated to the Limbo of
the ben trovato, at least I esteem it to afford us a precious glimpse
of the naive spirit of the age in which it is set, and find in that my
justification for including it.

The next to require apology is "His Insolence of Buckingham," but
only in so far as the incident of the diamond studs is concerned. The
remainder of the narrative, the character of Buckingham, the details of
his embassy to Paris, and the particulars of his audacious courtship of
Anne of Austria, rest upon unassailable evidence. I would have omitted
the very apocryphal incident of the studs, but that I considered it of
peculiar interest as revealing the source of the main theme of one
of the most famous historical romances ever written--"The Three
Musketeers." I give the story as related by La Rochefoucauld in his
"Memoirs," whence Alexandre Dumas culled it that he might turn it to
such excellent romantic account. In La Rochefoucauld's narrative it is
the painter Gerbier who, in a far less heroic manner, plays the part
assigned by Dumas to d'Artagnan, and it is the Countess of Carlisle who
carries out the political theft which Dumas attributes to Milady. For
the rest, I do not invite you to attach undue credit to it, which is
not, however, to say that I account it wholly false.

In the case of "The _Hermosa Fembra_" I confess to having blended
together into one single narrative two historical episodes closely
connected in time and place. Susan's daughter was, in fact, herself the
betrayer of her father, and it was in penitence for that unnatural act
that she desired her skull to be exhibited as I describe. Into the story
of Susan's daughter I have woven that of another New-Christian girl,
who, like the Hermosa Fembra, her taken a Castilian lover--in this case
a youth of the house of Guzman. This youth was driven into concealment
in circumstances more or less as I describe them. He overheard the
judaizing of several New-Christians there assembled, and bore word of it
at once to Ojeda. The two episodes were separated in fact by an interval
of three years, and the first afforded Ojeda a strong argument for