Author's NOTICE (From the First Volume) As the date of the original publication (for the most part in American magazines) is attached to each of the Tales comprised in these volumes, the reader will see that the greater number appeared for the first time many years ago-that the oldest, indeed, are of an almost venerable age; but it is proper to add that these earlier stories have been in every case minutely revised and corrected- many passages being wholly rewritten. In the matter of revision, in shor~ they have been very freely handled; some of the proper names have been altered, and in one instance the title of the story. The first and third Tales in the first volume are the only ones from presented in an English periodical (The English Illustrated Magazine), all the others (the latest of which is of 1878) saw the light on the other side of the Atlantic. It had come to the writer's knowledge that they were being to some extent "hunted up," and there seemed to be good reasons for anticipating further research by re-introducing them. He is confident that they have gained, not lost, freshness by the process of retouching to which they have been subjected. February 1885