Although I had never been in Switzerland, and numerous mistakes must of course have occurred in my attempts to describe the local scenery of that romantic region, I must not conclude without a statement highly gratifying to myself, that the work met with a reception of more than usual cordiality among the descendants of the Alpine heroes whose manners I had ventured to treat of; and I have in particular to express my thanks to the several Swiss gentlemen who have, since the novel was published, enriched my little collection of armour with specimens of the huge weapon that sheared the lances of the Austrian chivalry at Sempach, and was employed with equal success on the bloody days of Granson and Morat. Of the ancient doublehanded _espadons_ of the Switzer, I have, in this way, received, I think, not less than six, in excellent preservation, from as many different individuals, who thus testified their general approbation of these pages. They are not the less interesting, that gigantic swords, of nearly the same pattern and dimensions, were employed, in their conflicts with the bold knights and men-at-arms of England, by Wallace, and the sturdy foot-soldiers who, under his guidance, laid the foundations of Scottish independence. The reader who wishes to examine with attention the historical events of the period which the novel embraces will find ample means of doing so in the valuable works of Zschokké and M. de Barante--which last author's account of the Dukes of Burgundy is among the most valuable of recent accessions of European literature--and in the new Parisian edition of Froissart, which has not as yet attracted so much attention in this country as it well deserves to do. W.S. ABBOTSFORD, _Sept. 17, 1831_. FOOTNOTE: [1] Owen Pugh's Elegies of Lewarch Hen, Pref., p. 46. The place of these meetings was set apart by forming a circle of stones round the _Maen Gorsedd_, or Stone of the Gorsedd. ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN; OR, THE MAIDEN OF THE MIST. CHAPTER I. The mists boil up around the glaciers; clouds Rise curling fast beneath me, white and sulphurous, Like foam from the roused ocean ... ... I am giddy. _Manfred._