PREFACE.
The central incident of this novel is that most extraordinary of all punishments known to English criminal law, the _peine forte et dure_.
The story is not, however, in any sense historical.

A sketchy background of stirring history is introduced solely in order to heighten the personal danger of a brave man.

The interest is domestic, and, perhaps, in some degree psychological.

Around a pathetic piece of old jurisprudence I have gathered a mass of Cumbrian folk-lore and folk-talk with which I have been familiar from earliest youth.

To smelt and mould the chaotic memories into an organism such as may serve, among other uses, to give a view of Cumberland life in little, has been the work of one year.
The story, which is now first presented as a whole, has already had a career in the newspapers, and the interest it excited in those quarters has come upon me as a surprise.