The Project Gutenberg EBook of Roland Cashel, by Charles James Lever

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Title: Roland Cashel
Volume I (of II)

Author: Charles James Lever

Illustrator: Phiz.

Release Date: August 19, 2010 [EBook #33468]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROLAND CASHEL ***

Produced by David Widger

ROLAND CASHEL

By Charles James Lever.

With Illustrations By Phiz,

In Two Volumes. Vol. I.

Boston: Little, Brown, And Company. 1907.

To G. P. B. JAMES, Esq.

Dear James,--You, once upon a time, dedicated to me a tale of deep and
thrilling interest Let me now inscribe to you this volume on the plea
of that classic authority who, in the interchange of armour, "gave Brass
for Gold."

It is, however, far less to repay the obligation of a debt by giving you
a "Roland"--not for your "Oliver," but your "Stepmother"--than for the
pleasure of recording one "Fact" in a bulky tome of Fiction, that I now
write your name at the head of this page,--that fact being, the warm
memory I cherish of all our pleasant hours of intercourse, and the
sincere value I place upon the honor of your friendship.

Yours, in all esteem and affection,

CHARLES LEVER.

Palazzo Ximenes, Florence, Oct 20, 1849.

PREFACE.

I first thought of this story--I should say I planned it, if the
expression were not misleading--when living at the Lake of Como. There,
in a lovely little villa--the "Cima"--on the border of the lake, with
that glorious blending of Alpine scenery and garden-like luxuriance
around me, and little or none of interruption or intercourse, I had
abundant time to make acquaintance with my characters and follow
them into innumerable situations, and through adventures far more
extraordinary and exciting than I dared afterwards to recount.

I do not know how it may be with other story-tellers, but I have to own
for myself that the personages of a novel gain over at times a degree
of interest very little inferior to that inspired by living and real
people, and that this is especially the case when I have found myself in
some secluded spot and seeing little of the world. To such an ascendancy
has this