omantic fiction naturally includes
the power of such invention, which is indeed one of the requisites of
the art.

Prince David of Scotland, who was actually in the host, and was the hero
of some very romantic adventures on his way home, was also pressed into
my service, and constitutes one of my DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

It is true I had already brought upon the field him of the lion heart.
But it was in a more private capacity than he was here to be exhibited
in the Talisman--then as a disguised knight, now in the avowed character
of a conquering monarch; so that I doubted not a name so dear to
Englishmen as that of King Richard I. might contribute to their
amusement for more than once.

I had access to all which antiquity believed, whether of reality or
fable, on the subject of that magnificent warrior, who was the proudest
boast of Europe and their chivalry, and with whose dreadful name the
Saracens, according to a historian of their own country, were wont to
rebuke their startled horses. "Do you think," said they, "that King
Richard is on the track, that you stray so wildly from it?" The most
curious register of the history of King Richard is an ancient romance,
translated originally from the Norman; and at first certainly having a
pretence to be termed a work of chivalry, but latterly becoming stuffed
with the most astonishing and monstrous fables. There is perhaps no
metrical romance upon record where, along with curious and genuine
history, are mingled more absurd and exaggerated incidents. We have
placed in the Appendix to this Introduction the passage of the romance
in which Richard figures as an ogre, or literal cannibal.

A principal incident in the story is that from which the title is
derived. Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps most
remarkable for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells, periapts,
and similar charms, framed, it was said, under the influence of
particular planets, and bestowing high medical powers, as well as the
means of advancing men's fortunes in various manners. A story of this
kind, relating to a Crusader of eminence, is often told in the west of
Scotland, and the relic alluded to is still in existence, and even yet
held in veneration.

Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee and Gartland made a considerable figure in the
reigns of Robert the Bruce and of his son David. He was one of the chief
of that band of Scottish chivalry who accompanied James, the Good Lord
Douglas, on