THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; 56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; AND 250. f. 304. BODL PREFAC E. Not much need be written by way of preface to the following pages. The scenes and personages here introduced, are, to some extent, imaginary. At the same time it should be understood that the writer has attempted, in his story, to produce a correct and faithful (if a scanty and imperfect) picture of the times of which he treats. Indeed, the leading events of the story are derived from history. For instance, the accounts of the dangers to which Protestants were exposed, and the persecutions they suffered, in the reigns of Henry VIII. and his daughter Mary, are but the reproduction of true records which tell of "the patience and faith of the saints" of those days. Similarly, the description given of the national distresses and privations of the latter reign, is drawn from sources open to all, and known by all who have any acquaintance with the domestic and social history of our country. So also, the account of the attempted invasion of England, by the Spanish Armada, and its defeat and dispersion, owes what interest it possesses to sober truth. To place together, therefore, these several scraps of history, and to give them vivacity and uniformity by the introduction of imaginary characters who may be supposed to have lived in those |