any account. But he has thought, with the help of all the best books he could get upon the subject-freely acknowledging his sources of information—he might string together some interesting and important events in the ever memorable period which includes the last half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth centuries.
He has tried to find the best authorities and to put the facts impartially before the reader. A profession of impartiality is generally affectation-seldom true-but the writer feels that if his leaning through all the "Stories" has been with the weak and the oppressed-strong only in the strength of their cause-the generous instincts of the reader will be with him, and forgive a hasty expression.
If the "Stories" amuse a leisure hour-if they awaken some lively sense of gratitude to the brave men who fought and died for freedom-if they lead to a closer and far more complete acquaintance with the period in which these heroes lived, and thus serve as a humble key to open a whole library of good, and learned books-if they do any one of these things, the labour of the writer will not be lost, and he will have the happiness of knowing that he has not altogether missed his aim.
LONDON, November 1st, 1864.