PREFACE.


The favor with which a generous public received a former volume of the
writer's, induced her, after a lapse of nearly two years, to essay
another effort of a similar nature.

In the present work, _facts_ were chosen for a basis, as calculated to
interest, where the wildest dream of the novelist would pall upon the
satiated mind. It has been remarked, in a homely phrase by another, that
"what comes from the heart, reaches the heart," and if the present
fruits of long and unremitting mental labor, sustained often amid such
trial and discouragements, as seldom fall to the lot of mortal to bear,
should find sympathy and appreciation with the mass of readers, the aim
of the writer will have been fully accomplished.




CLEMENCE,

THE

SCHOOLMISTRESS OF WAVELAND.




CHAPTER I.