xiii her occasional abode in that nunnery. This "convent log-book," as it has been pleasantly termed by one of our reviewers, admits us fully within the grate, and puts us in possession of things that were never intended to be whispered without the walls of that mysterious little world. Much additional light is thrown on the personal history of the exiled royal family, by the incidents that have been there chronicled from the queen's own lips. The fidelity of the statements is verified by their strict agreement with other documents, of the existence of which the sister of Chaillot could not have been aware. We were also permitted to take transcripts of upwards of two hundred original autograph letters of this queen; to which correspondence we are indebted for many touching pictures of the domestic life of the fallen queen and her children, during their residence in the château of St. Germain. Some of the letters have been literally steeped in the tears of the royal writer, especially those which she wrote after the battle of La Hogue, during the absence of king James, when she was in hourly expectation of the birth of her youngest child, and, finally, in her last utter desolation.
The friendly assistance rendered by M. Michelet, in the prosecution of our researches, in the archives of France, demands our grateful acknowledgments. We are also indebted to M. Guizot for inedited documents and royal letters from the Archives des Affaires Etrangères ; nor must the kindness of M. Champollion be forgotten, nor the service rendered by him in the discovery and communication of a large portfolio of inedited Stuart papers, from the archives of St. Germain.
We cannot take our leave of the gentle readers who have kindly cheered us on our toilsome track, by the unqualified approbation with which they have greeted every fresh volume, without expressing the satisfaction it has given us to be able to afford mingled pleasure and instruction to so extensive a circle of friends-friends who, though personally unknown to us, have loved us, confided in our integrity, brought our Queens into their domestic circles, associated them with the sacred joys of home, and sent them as pledges of affection to their dear ones far away, even to the remotest corners of the world. We should be undeserving of the popularity with which this work has been honoured, if we could look upon it with apathy; but we regard it as God's blessing on our labours, and their sweetest reward.
I am now enabled to gratify a long-cherished wish, by republishing