Romance Stories

Grey Wethers In the English village of King's Avon, across the downs from Marlborough, young Clare Warrener lives in the big manor house with her gentleman father. But she is increasingly drawn out to the downs where young Nicholas Lovel spends his days tending sheep. Though Nicholas is handsome and capable, his family is the subject of suspicion around town. Few have been inside the cottage where his mother is housebound, and his brother Olver is known to be simple. Joan of the Sword Hand Loud rang the laughter in the hall of the men-at-arms at Castle Kernsberg. There had come an embassy from the hereditary Princess of Plassenburg, recently established upon the throne of her ancestors, to the Duchess Joan of Hohenstein, ruler of that cluster of hill statelets which is called collectively Masurenland, and which includes, besides Hohenstein the original Eagle's Eyrie, Kernsberg also, and Marienfield. All for Love The story begins with John Dryden's dedication of the play to an aristocratic patron, Thomas Osborne. He praises Osborne for his loyalty to the crown during the English Civil War. This praise leads Dryden to a larger consideration of the merits of the English constitutional monarchy, which he calls the best form of government in the world.