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Elsin Grey.]
_The_
RECKONING
BY
ROBERT W. CHAMBERS
AUTHOR OF "CARDIGAN," "THE MAID-AT-ARMS," "THE KING IN YELLOW," ETC.
NEW YORKA. WESSELS COMPANY1907
Copyright, 1905, byROBERT W. CHAMBERS
_Published September, 1905_
PRESS OFBRAUNWORTH & CO.BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERSBROOKLYN, N.Y.
PREFACE
The author's intention is to treat, in a series of four or fiveromances, that part of the war for independence which particularlyaffected the great landed families of northern New York: the Johnsons,represented by Sir William, Sir John, Guy Johnson, and Colonel Claus;the notorious Butlers, father and son; the Schuylers, Van Rensselaers,and others.
The first romance of the series, Cardigan, was followed by the second,The Maid-at-Arms. The third in order is not completed. The fourth is thepresent volume.
As Cardigan pretended to portray life on the baronial estate of SirWilliam Johnson, the first uneasiness concerning the coming trouble, thefirst discordant note struck in the harmonious councils of the LongHouse, so, in The Maid-at-Arms, which followed in order, the authorattempted to paint a patroon family disturbed by the approaching rumbleof battle. That romance dealt with the first serious split in theIroquois Confederacy; it showed the Long House shattered though notfallen; the demoralization and final flight of the great landed familieswho remained loyal to the British Crown; and it struck the key-note tothe future attitude of the Iroquois toward the patriots of thefrontier--revenge for their losses at the battle of Oriskany--and endedwith the march of the militia and Continental troops on Saratoga.
The third romance, as yet incomplete and unpublished, deals with thewar-path and those who followed it, led by the landed gentry of TryonCounty, and ends with the first solid blow delivered at the Long House,and the terrible punishment of the Great Confederacy.
The present romance, the fourth in chronological order, picks up thethread at that point.
The author is not conscious of having taken any liberties with historyin preparing a framework of facts for a mantle of romance.