meagre. Miss Alleyne did 'The Kidnapping of the Princes,' Mrs. Plowden the 'Story of Kaspar Hauser.' Miss Wright reduced the Adventures of Cortés from Prescott, and Mr. Rider Haggard has already been mentioned in connection with Isandhlwana.

Here the editor leaves The True Story Book to the indulgence of children, explaining, once more, that his respect for their judgment is very great, and that he would not dream of imposing lessons on them, in the shape of a Christmas book. No, lessons are one thing, and stories are another. But though fiction is undeniably stranger and more attractive than truth, yet true stories are also rather attractive and strange, now and then. And, after all, we may return once more to Fairyland, after this excursion into the actual workaday world.

CONTENTS

PAGE A Boy among the Red Indians 1 Casanova's Escape 16 Adventures on the Findhorn 29 The Story of Grace Darling 41 The 'Shannon' and the 'Chesapeake' 48 Captain Snelgrave and the Pirates 52 The Spartan Three Hundred 64 Prince Charlie's Wanderings 68 Two Great Matches 105 The Story of Kaspar Hauser 113 An Artist's Adventure 122 The Tale of Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift 132 How Leif the Lucky found Vineland the Good 153 The Escapes of Cervantes 161 The Worthy Enterprise of John Foxe 168 Baron Trenck 176 The Adventure of John Rawlins 186 The Chevalier Johnstone's Escape from Culloden 193 The Adventures of Lord Pitsligo 207 The Escape of Cæsar Borgia from the Castle of Medina del Campo 213 The Kidnapping of the Princes 219 The Conquest of Montezuma's Empire 224 Adventures of Bartholomew Portugues, a Pirate 326 The Return of the French Freebooters 330

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