With the life or the character, the adventures or the humours, the errors or the good qualities, of Maltravers himself, I have nothing to do, except as the narrator and inventor.
* In some foreign journal I have been much amused by a credulity of this latter description, and seen the various adventures of Mr.Maltravers gravely appropriated to the embellishment of my own life, including the attachment to the original of poor Alice Darvil; who now, by the way, must be at least seventy years of age, with a grandchild nearly as old as myself.
E.B.L.
A WORD TO THE READER PREFIXED TO THE FIRST EDITION OF 1837.
THOU must not, my old and partial friend, look into this work for that species of interest which is drawn from stirring adventures and a perpetual variety of incident.

To a Novel of the present day are necessarily forbidden the animation, the excitement, the bustle, the pomp, and the stage effect which History affords to Romance.

Whatever merits, in thy gentle eyes, _Rienzi_, or _The Last Days of Pompeii_, may have possessed, this Tale, if it please thee at all, must owe that happy fortune to qualities widely different from those which won thy favour to pictures of the Past.

Thou must sober down thine imagination, and prepare thyself for a story not dedicated to the narrative of extraordinary events--nor the elucidation of the characters of great men.

Though there is scarcely a page in this work episodical to the main design, there may be much that may seem to thee wearisome and prolix, if thou wilt not lend thyself, in a kindly spirit, and with a generous trust, to the guidance of the Author.