In the Preface to the privately printed volume we are informed by Mr. Wise, that— The manuscript of ‘The Adventures of Ernest Alembert’ consists of sixteen octavo pages, measuring 7 1/4 by 4 1/2 inches, stitched in a wrapper of coarse brown paper, with the following title written in Charlotte’s hand upon the front: ‘The Adventures of Ernest Alembert. A Tale by C. Brontë. May 25, 1880.’ The book is written in a free running hand, far more readily deciphered than the minute characters employed in the majority of these early books. Unlike most of these it has no title-page save that on the wrapper, but a large portion of the final page is occupied by an inscription, after the manner of a colophon. C. W. H. THE ADVENTURES OF ERNEST ALEMBERT A TALE BY C. BRONTË May 25, 1830. CHAPTER I MANY years ago there lived in a certain country a youth named Ernest Alembert. He came of an ancient and noble race: but one of his ancestors having been beheaded in consequence of a suspicion of high treason, the family since that time had gradually decayed, until at length the only remaining branch of it was this young man of whom I write. His abode was a small cottage situated in the midst of a little garden, and overshadowed by the majestic ruins of his ancestral castle. The porch of his hut, adorned by the twisting clematis and jessamine, fronted the rising sun, and here in the cool summer mornings he would often sit and watch its broad orb slowly appearing above the blue distant mountains. The eminence on which his cottage was built formed one side of a wide valley, watered by a stream whose hoarse voice was softened into a gentle murmur ere it reached the summit of a hill. The opposing rocks which guarded the vale on the other side were covered by a wood of young ash and sycamore trees, whose branching foliage, clothing them in a robe of living green, hid their rugged aspect, save where some huge fragment, all grey and moss-grown, jutted far over the valley, affording a fine contrast to the leafy luxuriant branch which perhaps rested on the projection, and imparting an appearance of picturesque wildness and variety to the scene. The valley itself was sprinkled with tall shady elms and poplars, that shaded the soft verdant turf ornamented by cowslips, violets, daisies, golden cups, and a thousand other sweet flowers, which shed abroad their perfumes when the morning and evening summer dews, or the rains of spring, descend softly and silently to the earth. On the borders of the stream a few weeping willows stood dipping their long branches into the water, where their graceful forms were clearly reflected. Through an opening in the vale this noisy river was observed gradually expanding and smoothing until at last it became a wide lake, in calm weather a glassy unruffled mirror for all the clouds and stars of heaven