. But probably it will
be conceded by all, that here Fiction finds its lawful province, and
that it may reasonably help, by no improbable nor groundless conjecture,
to render connected and clear the most broken and the darkest fragments
of our annals.

I have judged it better partially to forestall the interest of the
reader in my narrative, by stating thus openly what he may expect, than
to encounter the far less favourable impression (if he had been hitherto
a believer in the old romance of Bona of Savoy), [I say the old romance
of Bona of Savoy, so far as Edward's rejection of her hand for that
of Elizabeth Gray is stated to have made the cause of his quarrel with
Warwick. But I do not deny the possibility that such a marriage had
been contemplated and advised by Warwick, though he neither sought
to negotiate it, nor was wronged by Edward's preference of his fair
subject.] that the author was taking an unwarrantable liberty with the
real facts, when, in truth, it is upon the real facts, as far as they
can be ascertained, that the author has built his tale, and his boldest
inventions are but deductions from the amplest evidence he could
collect. Nay, he even ventures to believe, that whoever hereafter shall
write the history of Edward IV. will not disdain to avail himself of
some suggestions scattered throughout these volumes, and tending to
throw new light upon the events of that intricate but important period.

It is probable that this work will prove more popular in its nature
than my last fiction of "Zanoni," which could only be relished by those
interested in the examinations of the various problems in human life
which it attempts to solve. But both fictions, however different and
distinct their treatment, are constructed on those principles of art
to which, in all my later works, however imperfect my success, I have
sought at least steadily to adhere.

To my mind, a writer should sit down to compose a fiction as a painter
prepares to compose a picture. His first care should be the conception
of a whole as lofty as his intellect can grasp, as harmonious and
complete as his art can accomplish; his second care, the character of
the interest which the details are intended to sustain.

It is when we compare works of imagination in writing with works of
imagination on the canvas, that we can best form a critical idea of the
different schools which exist in each; for common both to the author
and the painter are th