Epigraph

"Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,

Who ne'er the mournful, midnight hours

Weeping upon his bed has sate,

He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers."




CHAPTER I. THE HERO.



In John Lyly's Endymion, Sir Topas is made to say; "Dost thou
know what a Poet is? Why, fool, a Poet is as much as one should
say,--a Poet!" And thou, reader, dost thou know what a hero is? Why,
a hero is as much as one should say,--a hero! Some romance-writers,
however, say much more than this. Nay, the old Lombard, Matteo Maria
Bojardo, set all the church-bells in Scandiano ringing, merely
because he had found a name for one of his heroes. Here, also, shall
church-bells be rung, but more solemnly.

The setting of a great hope is like the setting of the sun. The
brightness of our life is gone. Shadows of evening fall around us,
and the world seems but a dim reflection,--itself a broader shadow.
We look forward into the coming, lonely night. The soul withdraws