Waverley Volume XII by Sir Walter Scott - A complete eBook in pages (2 / 697)

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Waverley Volume XII by Sir Walter Scott
Book, page 2 / 697

      Far less describe, present the very view
        That charm'd the charming Mary Montagu.
                                         DON JUAN.

ADVERTISEMENT.--(1833.)

Sir Walter Scott transmitted from Naples, in February, 1832, an
Introduction for CASTLE DANGEROUS; but if he ever wrote one for a
second Edition of ROBERT OF PARIS, it has not been discovered among his
papers. Some notes, chiefly extracts from the books which he had been
observed to consult while _dictating_ this novel, are now appended
to its pages; and in addition to what the author had given in the shape
of historical information respecting the principal real persons
introduced, the reader is here presented with what may probably amuse
him, the passage of the Alexiad, in which Anna Comnena describes the
incident which originally, no doubt, determined Sir Walter's choice of
a hero.

May, A.D. 1097.--"As for the multitude of those who advanced towards
THE GREAT CITY, let it be enough to say that they were as the stars in
the heaven, or as the sand upon the sea-shore. They were, in the words
of Homer, _as many as the leaves and flowers of spring_. But for
the names of the leaders, though they are present in my memory, I will
not relate them. The numbers of these would alone deter me, even if my
language furnished the means of expressing their barbarous sounds; and
for what purpose should I afflict my readers with a long enumeration of
the names of those, whose visible presence gave so much horror to all
that beheld them?

"As soon, therefore, as they approached the Great City, they occupied
the station appointed for them by the Emperor, near to the monastery of
Cosmidius. But this multitude were not, like the Hellenic one of old,
to be restrained and governed by the loud voices of nine heralds; they
required the constant superintendence of chosen and valiant soldiers,
to keep them from violating the commands of the Emperor.

"He, meantime, laboured to obtain from the other leaders that
acknowledgment of his supreme authority, which had already been drawn
from Godfrey [Greek: Gontophre] himself. But, notwithstanding the
willingness of some to accede to this proposal, and their assistance in

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