Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 9, 1895 - Romances Volume II

DEDICATION
so soon as he had his health again completely, you may re-
member the fortune he was to earn, the journeys he was to go
upon, the delights he was to enjoy and confer, and (among other
matters) the masterpiece he was to make of Prince Otto !
Well, we will not give in that we arejinally beaten. We read
together in those days the story of Braddock, and how, as he
was carried dying from the scene of his defeat, he promised him-
self to do better another time : a story that will always touch a
brave heart, and a dying speech worthy of a more fortunate
commander. I try to be of BraddocWs mind. I stilly mean to
get my health again ; I still purpose, by hook or crook, this book
or the next, to launch a masterpiece ; and I still intend — some-
how, some time or other — to see your face and to hold your
hand.
Meanwhile, this little paper traveller goes forth instead,
crosses the great seas and the long plains and the dark moun-
tains, and comes at last to your door in Monterey, charged with
tender greetings. Pray you, take him in. He comes from a
house where (even as in your own) there are gathered together
some of the wafs of our company at Oakland; a house— for all
its outlandish Gaelic name and distant station — where you are
well beloved.
R L.S.
Skerryvore, Bournemouth.
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