The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Black Arrow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Title: The Black Arrow
a Tale of Two Roses

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Release Date: August 7, 2008 [eBook #848]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK ARROW***

Transcribed from the 1899 Charles Scribner's Sons edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org

THE BLACK ARROW--A TALE OF THE TWO ROSES

Critic on the Hearth:

No one but myself knows what I have suffered, nor what my books have
gained, by your unsleeping watchfulness and admirable pertinacity. And
now here is a volume that goes into the world and lacks your
_imprimatur_: a strange thing in our joint lives; and the reason of it
stranger still! I have watched with interest, with pain, and at length
with amusement, your unavailing attempts to peruse _The Black Arrow_; and
I think I should lack humour indeed, if I let the occasion slip and did
not place your name in the fly-leaf of the only book of mine that you
have never read--and never will read.

That others may display more constancy is still my hope. The tale was
written years ago for a particular audience and (I may say) in rivalry
with a particular author; I think I should do well to name him, Mr.
Alfred R. Phillips. It was not without its reward at the time. I could
not, indeed, displace Mr. Phillips from his well-won priority; but in the
eyes of readers who thought less than nothing of _Treasure Island_, _The
Black Arrow_ was supposed to mark a clear advance. Those who read
volumes and those who read story papers belong to different worlds. The
verdict on _Treasure Island_ was reversed in the other court; I wonder,
will it be the same with its successor?

_R. L. S._

SARANAC LAKE, April 8, 1888.

PROLOGUE--JOHN AMEND-ALL

On a certain afternoon, in the late springtime, the bell upon Tunstall
Moat House was heard ringing at an unaccustomed hour. Far and near, in
the forest and in the fields along the river, people began to desert
their labours and hurry towards the so