they conducted--one that startled the whole country when it took
place, and the mournful interest of which will long be remembered.
More on this subject need not be mentioned here. The narrative,
it is hoped, will satisfy all the curiosity of the reader. It has
been very carefully prepared from and according to the evidence;
the art of the romancer being held in close subjection to the
historical authorities. I have furnished only the necessary details
which would fill such blanks in the story as are of domestic
character; taking care that these should accord, in all cases, with
the despotic facts. In respect to these, I have seldom appealed to
invention. It is in the delineation and development of character,
only, that I have made free to furnish scenes, such as appeared to
me calculated to perfect the portraits, and the better to reconcile
the reader to real occurrences, which, in their original nakedness,
however unquestionably true, might incur the risk of being thought
improbabilities.

The reflections which will be most likely to arise from the
perusal of such a history, lead us to a consideration of the social
characteristics of the time and region, and to a consideration of
the facility with which access to society is afforded by the manners
and habits of our forest population. It is in all newly-settled
countries, as among the rustic population of most nations, that the
absence of the compensative resources of wealth leads to a singular
and unreserved freedom among the people. In this way, society
endeavors to find equivalents for those means of enjoyment which
a wealthy people may procure from travel, from luxury, from the
arts, and the thousand comforts of a well-provided homestead. The
population of a frontier country, lacking such resources, scattered
over a large territory, and meeting infrequently, feel the lack of