With this information the Editor leaves the book to children, assuring them that the stories are _true_, except perhaps that queer tale of 'Orthon'; and some of the Sagas also may have been a little altered from the real facts before the Icelanders became familiar with writing. CONTENTS PAGE _Wilson's Last Fight_ 1 _The Life and Death of Joan the Maid_ 19 _How the Bass was held for King James_ 92 _The Crowning of Ines de Castro_ 99 _The Story of Orthon_ 105 _How Gustavus Vasa won his Kingdom_ 114 _Monsieur de Bayard's Duel_ 122 _Story of Gudbrand of the Dales_ 125 _Sir Richard Grenville_ 132 _The Story of Molly Pitcher_ 137 _The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of Captain Richard Falconer_ 141 _Marbot's March_ 150 _Eylau. The Mare Lisette_ 162 _How Marbot crossed the Danube_ 175 _The piteous Death of Gaston, Son of the Count of Foix_ 186 _Rolf Stake_ 191 _The Wreck of the 'Wager'_ 195 _Peter Williamson_ 213 _A Wonderful Voyage_ 226 _The Pitcairn Islanders_ 238 _A Relation of three years' Suffering of Robert Everard upon the Island of Assada, near Madagascar, in a Voyage to India, in the year 1686_ 247 _The Fight at Svolder Island_ 252 _The Death of Hacon the Good_ 261 _Prince Charlie's War_ 265 _The Burke and Wills Exploring Expedition_ 324 _The Story of Emund_ 346 _The Man in White_ 354 _The Adventures of 'the Bull of Earlstoun'_ 358 _The Story of Grisell Baillie's Sheep's Head_ 366 _The Conquest of Peru_ 371 _LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS_ _PLATES_ _'In the Borghese gardens practised that royal game of golf'_ _Frontispiece_ _Just as his arm was poised I fired_ _To face p._ 10 _Joan in church_ " 24 _Joan rides to Chinon_ " 38