Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. DON RODRIGUEZ CHRONICLES OF SHADOW VALLEY By LORD DUNSANY To WILLIAM BEEBE CHRONOLOGY After long and patient research I am still unable to give to the reader of these Chronicles the exact date of the times that they tell of. Were it merely a matter of history there could be no doubts about the period; but where magic is concerned, to however slight an extent, there must always be some element of mystery, arising partly out of ignorance and partly from the compulsion of those oaths by which magic protects its precincts from the tiptoe of curiosity. Moreover, magic, even in small quantities, appears to affect time, much as acids affect some metals, curiously changing its substance, until dates seem to melt into a mercurial form that renders them elusive even to the eye of the most watchful historian. It is the magic appearing in Chronicles III and IV that has gravely affected the date, so that all I can tell the reader with certainty of the period is that it fell in the later years of the Golden Age in Spain. CONTENTS THE FIRST CHRONICLE HOW HE MET AND SAID FAREWELL TO MINE HOST OF THE DRAGON AND KNIGHT THE SECOND CHRONICLE HOW HE HIRED A MEMORABLE SERVANT THE THIRD CHRONICLE HOW HE CAME TO THE HOUSE OF WONDER THE FOURTH CHRONICLE HOW HE CAME TO THE MOUNTAINS OF THE SUN THE FIFTH CHRONICLE HOW HE RODE IN THE TWILIGHT AND SAW SERAFINA THE SIXTH CHRONICLE HOW HE SANG TO HIS MANDOLIN AND WHAT CAME OF HIS SINGING THE SEVENTH CHRONICLE HOW HE CAME TO SHADOW VALLEY THE EIGHTH CHRONICLE HOW HE TRAVELLED FAR THE NINTH CHRONICLE HOW HE WON A CASTLE IN SPAIN THE TENTH CHRONICLE HOW HE CAME BACK TO LOWLIGHT THE ELEVENTH CHRONICLE HOW HE TURNED TO GARDENING AND HIS SWORD RESTED THE TWELFTH CHRONICLE THE BUILDING OF CASTLE RODRIGUEZ AND THE ENDING OF THESE CHRONICLES DON RODRIGUEZ THE FIRST CHRONICLE HOW HE MET AND SAID FAREWELL TO MINE HOST OF THE DRAGON AND KNIGHT