, to believe they had
before them the work of some new candidate for their favour.
    After a considerable part of the work had been finished and printed, the
Publishers, who pretended to discern in it a germ of popularity, remonstrated
strenuously against its appearing as an absolutely anonymous production, and
contended that it should have the advantage of being announced as by the Author
of Waverley. The author did not make any obstinate opposition, for he began to
be of opinion with Dr. Wheeler, in Miss Edgeworth's excellent tale of
»Manoeuvring,« that »Trick upon Trick« might be too much for the patience of an
indulgent public, and might be reasonably considered as trifling with their
favour.
    The book, therefore, appeared as an avowed continuation of the Waverley
Novels; and it would be ungrateful not to acknowledge that it met with the same
favourable reception as its predecessors.
    Such annotations as may be useful to assist the reader in comprehending the
characters of the Jew, the Templar, the Captain of the mercenaries, or Free
Companions, as they were called, and others proper to the period, are added, but
with a sparing hand, since sufficient information on these subjects is to be
found in general history.
    An incident in the tale, which had the good fortune to find favour in the
eyes of many readers, is more directly borrowed from the stores of old romance.
I mean the meeting of the King with Friar Tuck at the cell of that buxom hermit.
The general tone of the story belongs to all ranks and all countries, which
emulate each other in describing the rambles of a disguised sovereign, who,
going in search of information or amusement into the lower ranks of life, meets
with adventures diverting to the reader or hearer from the contrast betwixt the
monarch's outward appearance and his real character. The Eastern tale-teller has
for his theme the disguised expeditions of Haroun Alraschid, with his faithful
attendants Mesrour and Giafar, through the midnight streets of Bagdad; and
Scottish tradition dwells upon the similar exploits of James V., distinguished
during such excursions by the travelling name of the Goodman of Ballengeigh, as
the Commander of the Faithful, when he desired to be incognito, was known by
that of Il Bondocani. The French minstrels are not silent on so popular a theme.
There must have been a Norman original of the Scottish metrical romance of Rauf
Colziar, in which Charlemagne is introduced as the unknown guest of a
charcoal-man.2 It seems to have been the original of other poems of the kind.
    In merry England there is no end of popular