To David Whitelaw
My Dear David,
Since the narratives collected here as well as in the preceding volume underthe title of the Historical Nights Entertainment—narratives originallypublished in The Premier Magazine, which you so ably edit—owe their being toyour suggestion, it is fitting that some acknowledgment of the fact should bemade. To what is hardly less than a duty, allow me to add the pleasure ofdedicating to you, in earnest of my friendship and esteem, not merely thisvolume, but the work of which this volume is the second.
Sincerely yours,
Rafael Sabatini
London, June, 1919.
| Preface |
| I. THE ABSOLUTION Affonso Henriques, First King of Portugal |
| II. THE FALSE DEMETRIUS Boris Godunov and the Pretended Son of Ivan the Terrible |
| III. THE HERMOSA FEMBRA An Episode of the Inquisition in Seville |
| IV. THE PASTRY-COOK OF MADRIGAL The Story of the False Sebastian of Portugal |
| V. THE END OF THE “VERT GALANT” The Assassination of Henry IV |
| VI. THE BARREN WOOING The Murder of Amy Robsart |
| VII. SIR JUDAS The Betrayal of Sir Walter Ralegh |
| VIII. HIS INSOLENCE OF BUCKINGHAM George Villiers’ Courtship of Anne of Austria |
| IX. THE PATH OF EXILE The Fall of Lord Clarendon |
| X. THE TRAGEDY OF HERRENHAUSEN Count Philip Königsmark and the Princess Sophia Dorothea |
| XI. THE TYRANNICIDE Charlotte Corday and Jean Paul Marat |
The kindly reception accorded to the first volume of the Historical NightsEntertainment, issued in December of 1917, has encouraged me to prepare thesecond series here assembled.
As in the case of the narratives that made up the first volume, I set out againwith the same ambitious aim of adhering scrupulously in every instance toactual, recorded facts; and once again I find it desirable at the outset toreveal how far the achievement may have fallen short of the admitted aim.
On the whole, I have to confess to having allowed myself perhaps a widerlatitude, and to having taken greater liberties than was the case with theessays constituting the previous collection. This, however, applies, whereapplicable, to the parts rather than to the whole.
The only entirely apocryphal narrative here included is the first—“TheAbsolution.” This is one of those stories which, if resting upon no sufficientauthority to compel its acceptance, will, nevertheless, resist all attempts atfinal refutation, having its roots at least in the soil of fact. It is given inthe rather discredited Portuguese chronicles of Acenheiro, and finds place,more or less as related here, in Duarte Galvao’s “Chronicle of AffonsoHenriques,” whence it was taken by th