to
preserve in speaking of things which powerfully appealed to his loves and
his hates.

I therefore commit this book to the public once more with its
imperfections on its head; with its prophecies unfulfilled, its hopes
baffled, its observations in many instances rendered obsolete by the swift
progress of events. A changed Europe--far different from that which I
traversed twenty years ago--suffers in a new fever-dream of war and
revolution north of the Pyrenees; and beyond those picturesque mountains
the Spanish monarchy enjoys a new lease of life by favor of circumstances
which demand a chronicler of more leisure than myself. I must leave what I
wrote in the midst of the stirring scenes of the interregnum between the
secular monarchy and the short-lived Republic--whose advent I foresaw, but
whose sudden fall was veiled from my sanguine vision--without defense or
apology, claiming only that it was written in good faith, from a heart
filled with passionate convictions and an ardent love and devotion to what
is best in Spain. I recorded what I saw, and my eyes were better then than
now. I trust I have not too often spoken amiss of a people whose art,
whose literature, whose language, and whose character compelled my highest
admiration, and with whom I enjoyed friendships which are among the
dearest recollections of my life.

John Hay.

Lafayette Square, Washington,
_April_, 1890.

Contents.

The Pike County Ballads.

Jim Bludso
Little Breeches
Banty Tim
The Mystery of Gilgal
Golyer
The Pledge at Spunky Point

Wanderlieder.

Sunrise in the Place de la Concorde
The Sphinx of the Tuileries
The Surrender of Spain
The Prayer of The Romans
The Curse of Hungary
The Monks of Basle
The Enchanted Shirt
A Woman's Love
On Pitz Languard
Boudoir Prophecies
A Triumph of Order
Ernst of Edelsheim
My Castle in Spain
Sister Saint Luke

New And Old.

Miles Keogh's Horse
The Advance Guard
Love's Prayer
Christine
Expectation
To Flora
A Haunted Room
Dreams
The Light of Love
Quand-Meme
Words
The Stirrup Cup
A Dream of Bric-a-Brac
Liberty
The White Flag
The Law of Death
Mount Tabor
Religion and Doctrine
Sinai and Calvary
The Vision of St. Peter
Israel
Crows at Washington
Remorse
Esse Quam Vlderi
When the Boys Come Home
Lese-Amour
Northward
In the Firelight
In a Graveyard
The Prairie