Produced by Chuck Greif, ellinora and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR [Illustration: 1843-1900 Sobre a nudez forte da verdade o manta diáphano da phantasia EÇA DE QUEIROZ] OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR BY EÇA DE QUEIROZ DONE INTO ENGLISH BY EDGAR PRESTAGE OF THE LISBON ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF S. THIAGO [Illustration: colophon] LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY, LTD. 1906 Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty DEDICATED BY PERMISSION, TO HER MAJESTY D. AMELIA, QUEEN OF PORTUGAL TO THE READER Being in Lisbon in October last, I sauntered one evening into the Livraria Bertrand, a recognised meeting-place of men of letters in the Chiado, still the principal street of the Capital, and now known officially as the Rua Garrett, though, in practice, the greater poet has not displaced the lesser. There I found Senhor Francisco Ramos Paz, proprietor of the _Gazeta de Noticias_ of Rio de Janeiro, and our conversation turned on Eça de Queiroz. I happened to say that I had recently published an English version of the _Suave Milagre_ and had one of the _Defunto_ ready for the press, whereupon Senhor Ramos Paz told me that the original MS. of the latter story belonged to him, it having been written for his paper, and that Queiroz had expressed the opinion to his publishers, MM. Lugan et Genelioux of Oporto, that it was his best short story. Finding my own opinion unexpectedly confirmed by so keen a self-critic as the Founder of the Realist School in Portugal, I have the less hesitation in submitting the _Defunto_ (which I have ventured to re-name _Our Lady of the Pillar_) to your appreciation. In the Preface to _The Sweet Miracle_ I referred to some of the leading works of Queiroz, and would only add that those who desire to know more of him and of the romance in Portugal might read with advantage the _Revista Moderna_ for November 20th, 1897, and the suggestive series of essays by Senhor J. Pereira de Sampaio (Bruno) entitled _A Geração Nova_ (Porto, 1886).