ERIC BRIGHTEYES

by H. Rider Haggard




DEDICATION

Madam,

You have graciously conveyed to me the intelligence that during the
weary weeks spent far from his home--in alternate hope and fear,
in suffering and mortal trial--a Prince whose memory all men must
reverence, the Emperor Frederick, found pleasure in the reading of my
stories: that "they interested and fascinated him."

While the world was watching daily at the bedside of your Majesty's
Imperial husband, while many were endeavouring to learn courage in our
supremest need from the spectacle of that heroic patience, a distant
writer little knew that it had been his fortune to bring to such a
sufferer an hour's forgetfulness of sorrow and pain.

This knowledge, to an author, is far dearer than any praise, and it is
in gratitude that, with your Majesty's permission, I venture to dedicate
to you the tale of Eric Brighteyes.

The late Emperor, at heart a lover of peace, though by duty a soldier of
soldiers, might perhaps have cared to interest himself in a warrior of
long ago, a hero of our Northern stock, whose days were spent in strife,