In Dantzig--the Dantzig of "Barlasch of the Guard"--Merriman made a stay
in a bitter mid-winter, visiting also Vilna and Koenigsberg; part of the
route of the Great Retreat from Moscow he traced himself. He was
inclined to consider--and if an author is not quite the worst judge of
his own work he is generally quite the best--that in "Barlasch" he
reached his high-water mark. The short stories, comprised in the volume
entitled "Tomaso's Fortune," were published after his death. In every
case, the _locale_ they describe was known to Merriman personally.
At the Monastery of Montserrat--whence the monk in "A Small World" saw
the accident to the diligencia--the author had made a stay of some days.
The Farlingford of "The Last Hope" is Orford in Suffolk: the French
scenes, as has been said, Merriman had visited with Mr. Weyman, whose
"Abbess of Vlaye" they also suggested. The curious may still find the
original of the Hotel Gemosac in Paris--not far from the Palais d'Orsay
Hotel--"between the Rue de Lille and the Boulevard St. Germain."

"The Last Hope" was not, in a sense, Merriman's last novel. He left at
his death about a dozen completed chapters, and the whole plot carefully
mapped out, of yet another Spanish book, which dealt with the Spain of
the Peninsular War of 1808-14. These chapters, which were destroyed by
the author's desire, were of excellent promise, and written with great
vigour and spirit. His last trip was taken, in connection with this
book, to the country of Sir Arthur Wellesley's exploits. The plot of the
story was concerned with a case of mistaken identity; the sketch of a
Guerilla leader, Pedro--bearing some affinity to the Concepcion Vara of
"In Kedar's Tents"--was especially happy.

It has been seen that Merriman was not the class of author who "sits in
Fleet Street and writes news from the front." He strongly believed in
the value of personal impressions, and scarcely less in the value of