DON RODRIGUEZ

CHRONICLES OF SHADOW VALLEY

By LORD DUNSANY

To WILLIAM BEEBE





CHRONOLOGY

After long and patient research I am still unable to give to the
reader of these Chronicles the exact date of the times that they
tell of. Were it merely a matter of history there could be no
doubts about the period; but where magic is concerned, to however
slight an extent, there must always be some element of mystery,
arising partly out of ignorance and partly from the compulsion of
those oaths by which magic protects its precincts from the tiptoe
of curiosity.

Moreover, magic, even in small quantities, appears to affect time,
much as acids affect some metals, curiously changing its
substance, until dates seem to melt into a mercurial form that
renders them elusive even to the eye of the most watchful
historian.

It is the magic appearing in Chronicles III and IV that has