Composed 1804.—Published 1820
[The Poem]
[The] following Tale was written as an Episode, in a work from which its length may perhaps exclude it.[A] The facts are true; no invention as to these has been exercised, as none was needed.—W. W. 1820.
[[Written] at Town-end, Grasmere. Faithfully narrated, though with the omission of many pathetic circumstances, from the mouth of a French lady,[B] who had been an eye-and-ear witness of all that was done and said. Many long years after, I was told that Dupligne was then a monk in the Convent of La Trappe.—I. F.]
This was included among the "Poems founded on the Affections."—Ed.