ADVERTISEMENT.
The reader may find or fancy some occasional
differences of fact and inference, date, place, and
period, between this and other narratives relating to
Beauchampe, and the famous Kentucky tragedy of
which he was the unhappy hero. But, as a man of
sagacity, he will naturally discard all bias derived
from any previous reading, in deference to that which
is now submitted him. Ours, in the language of the
quack advertisements, is the only genuine article.
We alone have gone to the fountain head for our
materials. We have good authority for all that is
here given. We can place our hand on the record
at any moment, and we defy all scepticism. Newspapers
are lying things at best—they have told sundry
fibs on this very subject. Pamphlets—and our melancholy
history has induced several—are scarcely better
as authorities;—even the dusty files of the court
should make nothing against the truth of our statements
where they happen to differ. At all events,
the good reader may be assured that our disagreements
are not substantial. They affect none of the
vital truths of the narrative. We agree in all wholesome
respects. Our morals are the same—our results
very nearly so; and if we have made a longer story
of the matter than they have done, it only proves that
we had so much more to say. We need say no more
by way of preparative, and we forbear saying any
thing by way of provocative. Fall to and welcome!
The fare is solid enough, and as for the spices and
the dressing—say nothing in disparagement of these,
if you would not incur the maledictions of the cook.
We Anglicise in this sentence a homely proverb,
which would scarcely tell so well in the original.
