motives and policy of the agents in an event the most memorable in
Europe; and to convey a definite, if general, notion of the human
beings, whose brains schemed, and whose hearts beat, in that realm of
shadows which lies behind the Norman Conquest;

"Spes hominum caecos, morbos, votumque, labores,
Et passim toto volitantes aethere curas." [2]

I have thus been faithful to the leading historical incidents in the
grand tragedy of Harold, and as careful as contradictory evidences
will permit, both as to accuracy in the delineation of character, and
correctness in that chronological chain of dates without which there
can be no historical philosophy; that is, no tangible link between the
cause and the effect. The fictitious part of my narrative is, as in
"Rienzi," and the "Last of the Barons," confined chiefly to the
private life, with its domain of incident and passion, which is the
legitimate appanage of novelist or poet. The love story of Harold and
Edith is told differently from the well-known legend, which implies a
less pure connection. But the whole legend respecting the Edeva faira
(Edith the fair) whose name meets us in the "Domesday" roll, rests
upon very slight authority considering its popular acceptance [3]; and
the reasons for my alterations will be sufficiently obvious in a work
intended not only for general perusal, but which on many accounts, I
hope, may be entrusted fearlessly to the young; while those
alterations are in strict accordance with the spirit of the time, and
tend to illustrate one of its most marked peculiarities.

More apology is perhaps due for the liberal use to which I have
applied the superstitions of the age. But with the age itself those
superstitions are so interwoven--they meet us so constantly, whether