Michel and Angele: Introduction

Introduction

If it does not seem too childish a candour to say so, Michel and Angele
always seems to me like some old letter lifted out of an ancient cabinet
with the faint perfume of bygone days upon it. Perhaps that is because
the story itself had its origin in a true but brief record of some good
Huguenots who fled from France and took refuge in England, to be found,
as the book declares, at the Walloon Church, in Southampton.

The record in the first paragraphs of the first chapter of the book
fascinated my imagination, and I wove round Michel de la Foret and Angele
Aubert a soft, bright cloud of romance which would not leave my vision
until I sat down and wrote out what, in the writing, seemed to me a true
history. It was as though some telepathy between the days of Elizabeth
and our own controlled me--self-hypnotism, I suppose; but still, there it
was. The story, in its original form, was first published in 'Harper's
Weekly' under the name of Michel and Angele, but the fear, I think, that
many people would mispronounce the first word of the title, induced me to
change it when, double in length, it became a volume called 'A Ladder of
Swords'.

As it originally appeared, I wrote it in the Island of Jersey, out at the
little Bay of Rozel in a house called La Chaire, a few yards away from
the bay itself, and having a pretty garden with a seat at its highest
point, from which, beyond the little bay, the English Channel ran away to
the Atlantic. It was written in complete seclusion. I had no visitors;
there was no one near, indeed, except the landlord of the little hotel in
the bay, and his wife. All through the Island, however, were people whom
I knew, like the Malet de Carterets, the Lemprieres, and old General
Pipon, for whom the Jersey of three hundred years ago was as near as the
Jersey of to-day, so do the Jersiais prize, cultivate, and conserve every
hour of its recorded history.

As the sea opens out to a vessel making between the promontories to the
main, so, while writing this tale which originally was short, the larger
scheme of 'The Battle of the Strong' spread out before me, luring me, as
though in the distance were the Fortunate Isles. Eight years after
Michel and Angele was written and first published in 'Harper's Weekly',
I decided to give it the dignity of a full-grown romance. For years I had
felt that it had the essentials for a larger canvas, and at the earnest
solicitation of Messrs. Harper & Brothers I settled to do what had long
been in my mind. The narrative grew as naturally from what it was to
larger stature as anything that had been devised upon a greater scale at
the beginning; and in London town I had the same joy in the company of
Michel and Angele--and a vastly increased joy in the company of
Lempriere, the hulking, joyous giant--as I had years before in Jersey
itself when the story first stirred in my mind and reached my pen.

While adverse reviews of the book were few if any, it cannot be said that
this romance is a companion in popularity with, for instance, The Right
of Way. It had its friends, but it has apparently appealed to smaller
audiences--to those who watch the world go by; who are not searching for
the exposure of life's grim realities; who do not seek the clinic of the
soul's tragedies. There was tragedy here, but there was comedy too; there
was also joy and faith, patience and courage. The book, taken by itself,
could not make a permanent reputation for any man, but it has its place
in the scheme of my work, and I would not have it otherwise than it is.

A NOTE

There will be found a few anachronisms in this tale, but none so
important as to give a wrong impression of the events of Queen
Elizabeth's reign.

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