PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION.
On returning to New-York, after an absence
of some years, I was agreeably surprised to find
not a copy unsold of a large edition of this work.
In presenting a second, I avail myself of the occasion
to apologize for its defects, of which I am
perfectly conscious. It was written with the unsettled
mind of a traveller, in the stolen intervals
of more imperative occupations; and circumstances,
moreover, compelled me to part with it before
it had received the time and care which it was my
intention to bestow. It thus possesses the claims
to forbearance of a painting prematurely dismissed
from the easel, when the artist has but little more
than marked his first rapid outlines; when the background
and many of the figures are indistinct, because
almost untouched; and when only the prominent
heads are finished. I felt, also, as I toiled,
the disadvantages of a pencil unguided by experience
and uninspired by success. The book was
offered to the public with great timidity; indeed,
the manuscript was once laid on the fire; and only
rescued from the summary criticism of the flames
by one more confident than myself in its chance
of favour. For its rapid sale, and the general indulgence
of the press, I tender my grateful acknowledgments.
They must form my apology for
a second attempt, in which I shall venture upon a
yet unappropriated incident of our revolution—a
theme wonderfully rich in romantic story, whose
reality scarcely needs the aid of imagination to
startle and enchant.
