together in those days the story of Braddock, and how, as he was

carried dying from the scene of his defeat, he promised himself to

do better another time: a story that will always touch a brave

heart, and a dying speech worthy of a more fortunate commander. I

try to be of Braddock's mind. I still mean to get my health again;

I still purpose, by hook or crook, this book or the next, to launch

a masterpiece; and I still intend - somehow, some time or other - to

see your face and to hold your hand.

Meanwhile, this little paper traveller goes forth instead, crosses

the great seas and the long plains and the dark mountains, and comes

at last to your door in Monterey, charged with tender greetings.

Pray you, take him in. He comes from a house where (even as in your

own) there are gathered together some of the waifs of our company at

Oakland: a house - for all its outlandish Gaelic name and distant

station - where you are well-beloved.

R. L. S.

Skerryvore,

Bournemouth.

BOOK I - PRINCE ERRANT

CHAPTER I - IN WHICH THE PRINCE DEPARTS ON AN ADVENTURE

You shall seek in vain upon the map of Europe for the bygone state

of Grunewald. An independent principality, an infinitesimal member

of the German Empire, she played, for several centuries, her part in

the discord of Europe; and, at last, in the ripeness of time and at

the spiriting of several bald diplomatists, vanished like a morning

ghost. Less fortunate than Poland, she left not a regret behind

her; and the very memory of her boundaries has faded.

It was a patch of hilly country covered with thick wood. Many

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