After writing it, I took wider views of the subject, and also felt uneasy at having deviated unnecessarily from the historical outline of a true story. These two sentiments have cost me more than a year's very hard labour, which I venture to think has not been wasted. After this plain statement I trust all who comment on this work will see that, to describe it as a reprint, would be unfair to the public and to me. The English language is copious and, in any true man's hands, quite able to convey the truth; namely, that one fifth of the present work is a reprint, and four fifths of it a new composition.
ILLUSTRATIONS
| All in a moment she was looking at him, full | [Frontispiece] |
| PAGE | |
| They had taught him penmanship | [4] |
| She turned her head away, and her long eyelashes drooped sweetly | [22] |
| Not more than thirty feet below him were Margaret and Martin | [70] |
| Suddenly a huge dog burst out of the coppice | [102] |
| In that strange and mixed attitude of tender offices and deadly suspicion the trio did walk | [150] |
| Denys saw a steel point come out of the Abbot | [216] |
| They unbonneted and louted low, and she curtsied | [258] |
| The constant lover lay silent on the snow | [272] |
| The black boat driving bottom upward | [430] |
| The slighted beauty started to her feet | [474] |
| "Aha! ladies," said she, "here is a rival an' ye will" | [490] |
| Soon Gerard was at Father Anselm's knees | [506] |
| Margaret had moments of bliss | [548] |
| He scanned, with great tearful eyes, this strange figure that looked so wild | [652] |
| The death of Gerard | [704] |