book is full of illustrations so clear, that to look at them now

provokes the wonder that his schemes found so little encouragement. Five thousand dollars were appropriated by Congress March 30, 1810, for submarine torpedo experiments. Discouragement evidently followed: for our government in 1811, following the example of France and England rejected his plans for a submarine torpedo boat.

“The Battle of the Kegs” was too often referred to in connection with Fulton’s projects. This threw a humorous but not luminous glow over the whole matter. It gave to a serious scientific su

part issues from a spring, which gushes out from under a rock. The

mountains are arid, with surfaces indicating much mineral below.

_Rey_ is the _Rhages_ of TOBIT, and is the city where ALEXANDER rested five days in his pursuit after DARIUS; after he had made a march of _eleven_ days from _Ecbatana_ or _Hamadan_. ARRIAN calls this city one day’s journey from the _Caspian Streights_.

_Rey_ was reduced by HUBBE, the general of JENGHIZ KHAN; and from its scattered population arose the town of _Teheran_. Near the ruins is still a village called _Shah Abdul Azeem_, with a _Z

CHAPTER I. PAGE

Of the Ancient Inhabitants of Spain.—Of the Misrule of Witiza the Wicked. 1

CHAPTER II.

The Rise of Don Roderick.—His Government. 8

CHAPTER III.

Of the Loves of Roderick and the Princess Elyata. 13

CHAPTER IV.

Of Count Julian. 19

CHAPTER V.

The Story of Florinda. 22

CHAPTER VI.

Don Roderick receives an Extraordinary Embassy. 31

CHAPTER VII.

Story of the Marvelous and Portentous Tower. 35

CHAPTER VIII.

Count Julian

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND INFANCY.

Value of Superstitions--Lucky Days and Hours of Birth--The Caul--The Changeling--The Evil Eye--"Up and not Down"--Rocking the Empty Cradle--Teeth, Nails, and Hands--The Maple and the Ash--Unchristened Children.

Around every stage of human life a variety of customs and superstitions have woven themselves, most of which, apart from their antiquarian value, as having been bequeathed to us from the far-off past, are interesting in so far as they illustrate those old-world notions and quaint beliefs which marked the social and domestic

PREFACE

Readers of the modern histories of Russia may wonder by what right Moscow is included among MEDIÆVAL TOWNS, for it is the fashion of recent writers to ignore the history of the mighty Euro-Asian empire prior to the eighteenth century and the reign of Peter the Great. It is at that period this story of the old Muscovite capital ends. To many, then, this account of the town and its vicissitudes during the preceding five centuries may have the charm of novelty; perchance to others, who have wrongly concluded that the old buildings were all destroyed during Napoleon's inva

PREFACE

The Parisienne, in her subtler phases, is a theme for a feminist of genius; and this little book does not venture upon the psychological deep seas.

Grave issues are tangled in the game of fashion-making; but the world through which My Lady of the Chiffons dances lightly to gay music reeks of frivolity, and the story of the fashionable Parisienne and of the haunts in which she obtains and displays her incomparable frocks must needs be a story of folly and extravagance, best told, perhaps, by snap-shots of the inner courts of Vanity Fair.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENT

BOOK I

ROMANO-LOMBARD ARCHITECTS

THE CATHEDRAL BUILDERS

CHAPTER I

THE GUILD OF THE COMACINE MASTERS

In looking back to the great church-building era, _i.e._ to the centuries between 1100 and 1500, do not the questions arise in one's mind, "How did all these great and noble buildings spring up simultaneously in all countries and all climates?" and "How comes it that in all cases they were similar to each other at similar times?"

In the twelfth century, when the Italian buildings, such as the churches at Verona, Bergamo, Com

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

[Sidenote: Scope of the work.]

The main object of this book is to describe in some detail, and as impartially as possible, the dealings of England with Ireland during the reigns of Henry VIII. and his three children. As an introduction to the study of that period, it seemed desirable to give some account of the course of government during those 340 years which had elapsed since the first Anglo-Norman set foot upon the Irish shore. And, seeing that Teutonic invaders had effected a lodgment about three centuries and a half before Henry II.'s