doring who my fancy strike;
In forming judgements never long,
And for the most part judging wrong;
In friendship firm, but still believing
Others are treacherous and deceiving,
And thinking in the present aera
That Friendship is a pure chimaera:
More passionate no creature living,
Proud, obstinate, and unforgiving,
But yet for those who kindness show,
Ready through fire and smoke to go.

Again, should it be asked your page,
'Pray, what may be the author's age?'
Your faults, no doubt, will make it clear,
I scarce have seen my twentieth year,
Which passed, kind Reader, on my word,
While England's Throne held George the Third.

Now then your venturous course pursue:
Go, my delight! Dear Book, adieu!

Hague,
Oct. 28, 1794. M. G. L.

ADVERTISEMENT

The first idea of this Romance was suggested by the story of the Santon
Barsisa, related in The Guardian.--The Bleeding Nun is a tradition
still credited in many parts of Germany; and I have been told that the
ruins of the Castle of Lauenstein, which She is supposed to haunt, may
yet be seen upon the borders of Thuringia.--The Water-King, from the
third to the twelfth stanza, is the fragment of an original Danish
Ballad--And Belerma and Durandarte is translated from some stanzas to
be found in a collection of old Spanish poetry, which contains also the
popular song of Gayferos and Melesindra, mentioned in Don Quixote.--I
have now made a full avowal of all the plagiarisms of which I am aware
myself; but I doubt not, many more may be found, of which I am at
present totally unconscious.

VOLUME I

CHAPTER I

----Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; Scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone.
Measure for Measure.

Scarcely had the Abbey Bell tolled for five minutes, and already was
the Church of the Capuchins thronged with Auditors. Do not encourage
the idea that the Crowd was assembled either from motives of piety or
thirst of information. But very few were influenced by those reasons;
and in a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway as in
Madrid, to seek for true devotion would be a fruitless attempt. The
Audience now assembled in the Capuchin Church was collected by various
causes, but all of them were foreign to the ostensible motive. The
Women came to show themselve