Now this care that the ancients showed ought to be a custom of to-day, and inasmuch as our memory is weaker than theirs was, and less mindful of the good that it receiveth, so much the more careful should we be to keep ever before us the benefits bestowed on us by others, since we cannot afford to forget them without manifest injury to ourselves. And because we received of God great benefit in the deeds hereinafter recorded, in three ways--firstly, by the many souls that have been already saved, and yet will be saved, of the lineage of our captives; secondly, by the great benefits we all of us receive from the said actions; thirdly, by the great honour that our realm is now gaining in many parts by subjecting to itself so great a power of enemies, and so far from our own land--for all these reasons we will put this history in remembrance to the praise of God, and to the glorious memory of our aforesaid Lord, and to the honour of many good servants of his, and other worthy persons of our country who toiled manfully in the doing of the aforesaid actions. Finally, because our said Chronicle is especially dedicated to this Lord,[F] let us begin at once to speak of his habits and of his virtues, and of his appearance also, in accordance with the custom of various authors of credit whose chronicles we have seen. [Footnote F: "This Lord," the "aforesaid Lord," and so on, is of course Henry.] CHAPTER II. The Author's invocation. O thou Prince little less than divine! I beseech thy sacred virtues to bear with all patience the shortcomings of my too daring pen, that would attempt so lofty a subject as is the recounting of thy virtuous deeds, worthy of so much glory. For the eternal duration of these thy actions, if the end of my attempt be profitable, will exalt thy fame and bring great honour to thy memory, giving a useful lesson to all those princes that shall follow thine example. For of a certainty it is not without cause that I ask pardon of thy virtues, knowing my insufficiency to compass such a task, and that I have more just reason to expect blame for doing less than I ought, than for saying over much. Thy glory, thy praises, thy fame, so fill my ears and employ my eyes that I know not well where to begin. I hear the prayers of the innocent souls of those barbarous peoples, almost infinite in number, whose ancient race since the beginning of the world hath never seen the divine light, but who are now by thy genius, by thy infinite expense, and by thy great labours, brought into the true path of salvation, washed in the waters of baptism, anointed with the holy oil, and freed from that wretched abode of theirs, knowing at this present what darkness lay concealed under the semblance of light in the days of their ancestors. I will not say with what filial piety, as they contemplate the divine power, they are ever praying for a reward to thy great merits--for that is a matter which