The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lysbeth, by H. Rider Haggard

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Title: Lysbeth
A Tale Of The Dutch

Author: H. Rider Haggard

Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #5754]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LYSBETH ***

Produced by John Bickers; Dagny

LYSBETH

A Tale Of The Dutch

By H. Rider Haggard

First Published 1901.

DEDICATION

In token of the earnest reverence of a man of a later generation for his
character, and for that life work whereof we inherit the fruits to-day,
this tale of the times he shaped is dedicated to the memory of one of
the greatest and most noble-hearted beings that the world has known; the
immortal William, called the Silent, of Nassau.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

There are, roughly, two ways of writing an historical romance--the first
to choose some notable and leading characters of the time to be treated,
and by the help of history attempt to picture them as they were; the
other, to make a study of that time and history with the country in
which it was enacted, and from it to deduce the necessary characters.

In the case of "Lysbeth" the author has attempted this second method. By
an example of the trials, adventures, and victories of a burgher family
of the generation of Philip II. and William the Silent, he strives to
set before readers of to-day something of the life of those who lived
through perhaps the most fearful tyranny that the western world has
known. How did they live, one wonders; how is it that they did not die
of very terror, those of them who escaped the scaffold, the famine and
the pestilence?

This and another--Why were such things suffered to be?--seem problems
worth consideration, especially by the young, who are so apt to take
everything for granted, including their own religious freedom and
personal security. How often, indeed, do any living folk give a grateful
thought to the forefathers who won for us these advantages, and many
others with them?

The writer has sometimes heard travellers in the Netherlands express
surprise that even in an age of almost universal decoration its noble
churches are suffered to remain