THE WING-AND-WING, OR LE FEU-FOLLET; A TALE, BY THE AUTHOR OF *THE PILOT," "RED ROVER," "TWO ADMIRALS," Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, bv J. FENIMORE COOPER, in the office of the clerk of the district court of the United States in and for the northern district of New York. wungrawn front 1.Y: State Library J. FAGAN, STEREOTYPER. C. SHERMAN, PRINTER. (2) PREFACE. THE question, of how much of the following legend is severely true, and how much fiction, is left in doubt, with the express intention, that such historians, as having nothing useful to do, may employ their time in drawing the lines for their own amuse ment. As to the scene chosen for this tale, no apology is deemed necessary. To invent excuses for carrying a man, either physically or in the imagination, into a sea like the Mediterranean, and on a coast like that of Italy, would be an affectation of which we have no idea of being guilty. It is true-nay, it is probable-that we may render the execution unequal to the design, but there can be no great harm in nobly daring, except to him who is injured by his own failure. We hope that they who have ever beheld the scenes we have faintly and so imperfectly described, will pardon our defects, for the good we have intended them; and that those who have never been so fortunate, will find even our tame pictures so much superior to the realities they have elsewhere witnessed, as to fancy we have succeeded. Of Raoul Yvard, Ghita Caraccioli, and the Little Folly, we have no more to say than is to be found in the body of the work. As Sancho told the knight, they |