upon the guilty Dudley, but also upon the innocent Queen. The
manner of Amy's murder is pure conjecture; but it should not be
far from what actually took place. The possibility of an
accident--extraordinarily and suspiciously opportune for Dudley
as it would have been--could not be altogether ruled out but for
the further circumstance that Lady Robert had removed everybody
from Cumnor on that day. To what can this point--unless we accept
an altogether incredible chain of coincidence--but to some such
plotting as I here suggest?

In the remaining six essays in this volume the liberties taken
with the absolute facts are so slight as to require no apology or
comment.

R. S.

London, June, 1919.





CONTENTS



I. THE ABSOLUTION
Affonso Henriques, First King of Portugal
II. THE FALSE DEMETRIUS
Boris Godunov and the Pretended Son of Ivan the Terrible