The notes, after mature deliberation, have been placed at the foot of the
pages instead of at the end of the book.

So many criticisms concerning the title "Uarda" have recently reached my
ears, that, rather by way of explanation than apology, I will here repeat
what I said in the preface to the third edition.

This title has its own history, and the more difficult it would be for me
to defend it, the more ready I am to allow an advocate to speak for me,
an advocate who bears a name no less distinguished than that of G. E.
Lessing, who says:

"Nanine? (by Voltaire, 1749). What sort of title is that? What
thoughts does it awake? Neither more nor less than a title should
arouse. A title must not be a bill of fare. The less it betrays of the
contents, the better it is. Author and spectator are both satisfied, and
the ancients rarely gave their comedies anything but insignificant
names."

This may be the case with "Uarda," whose character is less prominent than
some others, it is true, but whose sorrows direct the destinies of my
other heroes and heroines.

Why should I conceal the fact? The character of "Uarda" and the present
story have grown out of the memory of a Fellah girl, half child, half
maiden, whom I saw suffer and die in a hut at Abu el Qurnah in the
Necropolis of Thebes.

I still persist in the conviction I have so frequently expressed, the