ent of honour--and that indestructible
element of practical purpose and courageous will, which, defying all
conquest, and steadfast in all peril, was ordained to achieve so vast an
influence over the destinies of the world.

To the Norman Duke, I believe, I have been as lenient as justice will
permit, though it is as impossible to deny his craft as to dispute his
genius; and so far as the scope of my work would allow, I trust that I
have indicated fairly the grand characteristics of his countrymen, more
truly chivalric than their lord. It has happened, unfortunately for that
illustrious race of men, that they have seemed to us, in England,
represented by the Anglo-Norman kings. The fierce and plotting William,
the vain and worthless Rufus, the cold-blooded and relentless Henry, are
no adequate representatives of the far nobler Norman vavasours, whom even
the English Chronicler admits to have been "kind masters," and to whom,
in spite of their kings, the after liberties of England were so largely
indebted. But this work closes on the Field of Hastings; and in that
noble struggle for national independence, the sympathies of every true
son of the land, even if tracing his lineage back to the Norman victor,
must be on the side of the patriot Harold.

In the notes, which I have thought necessary aids to the better
comprehension of these volumes, my only wish has been to convey to the
general reader such illustrative information as may familiarise him more
easily with the subject-matter of the book, or refresh his memory on
incidental details not without a national interest. In the mere
references to authorities I do not pretend to arrogate to a fiction the
proper character of a history; the references are chiefly used either
where wishing pointedly to distinguish from invention what was borrowed
from a chronicle, or when differing from some popular historian to whom
the reader might be likely to refer, it seemed well to state the
authority upon which the difference was founded. [4]

In fact, my main object has been one that compelled me to admit graver
matter than is common in romance, but which I would fain hope may be
saved from the charge of dulness by some national sympathy between author
and reader; my object is attained, and attained only, if, in closing the
last page of this work, the reader shall find that, in spite of the
fictitious materials admitted, he has formed a clearer and more intimate
acquaintance with