[Illustration: _Boxall del^t._ _C. Marr sculp^t._ ST. LEON, “_I took her hand and by my caresses endeavoured to soothe and compose her._” _Page 65._ _London, Published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831._] ST. LEON, BY WILLIAM GODWIN. [Illustration: _He put his hand to the wound; the Animal stirred not._ _Page 273._] LONDON. COLBURN AND BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1831. ST. LEON: A TALE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. BY WILLIAM GODWIN. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude. CONGREVE. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET; BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH AND CUMMING, DUBLIN. 1831. LONDON: Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square. ADVERTISEMENT. The Publishers of the Collection of “STANDARD NOVELS” are extremely desirous that I should furnish them with a few lines, by way of introduction to the appearance of ST. LEON in its present form. I am however at a loss how to oblige them. In the original Preface I frankly stated the sources upon which I had drawn for the idea and conduct of the work. I have therefore no remarks to offer, but these which follow:-- In 1794 I produced the novel of Caleb Williams. I believed myself fortunate in the selection I had made of the ground-plot of that work. An atrocious crime committed by a man previously of the most exemplary habits, the annoyance he suffers from the immeasurable and ever-wakeful curiosity of a raw youth who is placed about his person, the state of doubt in which the reader might for a time be as to the truth of the charges, and the consequences growing out of these causes, seemed to me to afford scope for a narrative of no common interest. I was not disappointed. Caleb Williams was honoured with the public favour.