IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.


NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON & CO., 90, 92 & 94 GRAND ST.
1871.




PREFACE.


As these pages have passed through the press, mingled feelings of pain
and pleasure have actuated my heart. Who shall speak the regret that
she, to whom its composition was a work of love, cannot participate in
the joy which its publication would have occasioned--who shall tell of
that anxious pleasure which I feel in witnessing the success of each and
all the efforts of her pen?

THE DAYS OF BRUCE must be considered as an endeavor to place
before the reader an interesting narrative of a period of history, in
itself a romance, and one perhaps as delightful as could well have been
selected. In combination with the story of Scotland's brave deliverer,
it must be viewed as an illustration of female character, and
descriptive of much that its Author considered excellent in woman. In
the high minded Isabella of Buchan is traced the resignation of a heart