PREFACE

Louis Enault was born in 1824, at Isigny, a small seaport in Norman dy. His parents destined him for the bar, indeed he went so far as to complète his law course and even practised for a short time. In this profession he was successful ; but after the révolution of February, 1848, that cost Louis-Philippe his throne, he gave up law and began to Write literary and art criticisms for newspapers and periodicals.

During the outbreak of June, 1848, he was imprisoned, and soon after being released went to England, Ireland and Scotland. From that time on he became an indefatigable traveler. While in Germany he translated Goethe's Werther^ and after returning to France he gave to the public a very good translation of Unde Tonus Cabin. Later on, he went to Italy, then to the Orient, where he visited Egypt, Arabia, the Holy Land, Damascus, Asia-Minor, Turkey and Greece. After resting in France for some time, he set out again and went through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Lapland, and in returning visited Hungary, Bohemia and Poland.

He is a very highly educated man, being both docteur en lettres and en droite and for a long time he contributed to the Pays^ Constitutionnel^ Revue Contemporaine, Figaro , etc. His style, although not faultless, is remarkable for its brilliancy and spirit, His stories are always clever, witty, full of inter-

est, and, what is much more important, his morals are un-