copies contain a Prologue; and that the Prologue tells us all that has
hitherto been known about the author.

The date of the lost Latin original is 1461, as the author himself avers.
He also, in his Prologue, states the purpose of his work. At the bidding
of an unnamed Abbot of Dunfermline, who must have been Richard Bothwell,
he is to abbreviate "The Great Chronicle," and "bring it up to date," as
we now say. He is to recount the events of his own time, "with certain
other miraculous deeds, which I who write have had cognisance of, seen,
and heard, beyond the bounds of this realm. Also, lastly, concerning a
certain marvellous Maiden, who recovered the kingdom of France out of the
hands of the tyrant, Henry, King of England. The aforesaid Maiden I saw,
was conversant with, and was in her company in her said recovery of
France, and till her life's end I was ever present." After "I was ever
present" the copies add "etc.," perhaps a sign of omission. The monkish
author probably said more about the heroine of his youth, and this the
copyists have chosen to leave out.

The author never fulfilled this promise of telling, in Latin, the history
of the Maid as her career was seen by a Scottish ally and friend. Nor
did he ever explain how a Scot, and a foe of England, succeeded in being
present at the Maiden's martyrdom in Rouen. At least he never fulfilled
his promise, as far as any of the six Latin MSS. of his Chronicle are
concerned. Every one of these MSS.--doubtless following their incomplete
original--breaks off short in the middle of the second sentence of
Chapter xxxii. Book xii. Here is the brief fragment which that chapter
contains:--

"In those days the Lord stirred up the spirit of a certain marvellous
Maiden, born on the borders of France, in the duchy of Lorraine, and the