Transcriber’s Notes:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfullyas possible, including inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation.
Some corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made.They are marked likethis in the text. The original text appears when hovering the cursorover the marked text. A list of amendments isat the end of the text.
BY THE AUTHOR OF “BERTRAM,” &c.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY,
AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. CHEAPSIDE,
LONDON.
1820.
TO THE
MOST NOBLE
THE
MARCHIONESS OF ABERCORN,
This Romance
Is, by her Ladyship’s permission,
Respectfully inscribed by
The hint of this Romance (or Tale) wastaken from a passage in one of my Sermons,which (as it is to be presumed veryfew have read) I shall here take the libertyto quote. The passage is this.
“At this moment is there one of uspresent, however we may have departedfrom the Lord, disobeyed his will, anddisregarded his word—is there one ofus who would, at this moment, accept all that man could bestow, or earth afford,to resign the hope of his salvation?—No,there is not one—not such a foolon earth, were the enemy of mankindto traverse it with the offer!”
This passage suggested the idea of“Melmoth the Wanderer.” The Readerwill find that idea developed in the followingpages, with what power or success heis to decide.
The “Spaniard’s Tale” has been censuredby a friend to whom I read it, as containingtoo much attempt at the revivificationof the horrors of Radcliffe-Romance,of the persecutions of convents, and theterrors of the Inquisition.
I defended myself, by trying to pointout to my friend, that I had made themisery of conventual life depend less onthe startling adventures one meets with in romances, than on that irritating series ofpetty torments which constitutes the miseryof life in general, and which, amidthe tideless stagnation of monastic existence,solitude gives its inmates leisure toinvent, and power combined with malignity,the full disposition to practise. Itrust this defence will operate more on theconviction of the Reader, than it did onthat of my friend.
For the rest of the Romance, there aresome parts of it which I have borrowedfrom real life.
The story of John Sandal and ElinorMortimer is founded in fact.
The original from which the Wife ofWalberg is imperfectly sketched is a livingwoman, and long may she live.
I cannot again appear before the publicin so unseemly a character as that of awriter of romances, without regretting the necessity that compels me to it. Did myprofession furnish me with the means ofsubsistence, I should hold myself culpableindeed in having recourse to any other,but—am I allowed the choice?