But what I myself beheld, that I shall relate, especially concerning certain accidents not known to the general, by reason of which ignorance the whole truth can scarce be understood.

For, if Heaven visibly sided with France and the Maid, no less did Hell most manifestly take part with our old enemy of England.

And often in this life, if we look not the more closely, and with the eyes of faith, Sathanas shall seem to have the upper hand in the battle, with whose very imp and minion I myself was conversant, to my sorrow, as shall be shown.
First, concerning myself I must say some few words, to the end that what follows may be the more readily understood.
I was born in the kingdom of Fife, being, by some five years, the younger of two sons of Archibald Leslie, of Pitcullo, near St.Andrews, a cadet of the great House of Rothes.

My mother was an Englishwoman of the Debatable Land, a Storey of Netherby, and of me, in our country speech, it used to be said that I was "a mother's bairn." For I had ever my greatest joy in her, whom I lost ere I was sixteen years of age, and she in me: not that she favoured me unduly, for she was very just, but that, within ourselves, we each knew who was nearest to her heart.

She was, indeed, a saintly woman, yet of a merry wit, and she had great pleasure in reading of books, and in romances.