In memory of Oodnadatta and many wanderings oversea I offer these pictures fromthe past, my dear Vincent, to you, a lover of the present if an aspirant whocan look upon the future with more of hope than fear. Your colleague,
H. Rider Haggard. To Sir Edgar Vincent, K.C.M.G.
Ditchingham,
November, 1913.
It chances that I, the Editor of these pages—for, in truth, that is myhumble function—have recovered a considerable knowledge of a bygone lifeof mine. This life ended in times that are comparatively recent, namely, earlyin the ninth century, as is fixed by the fact that the Byzantine Empress,Irene, plays a part in the story.
The narrative, it will be observed, is not absolutely consecutive; that is