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Excerpt from Fair Helen: A Tale of the Border Jealous of this preference, and the marked disdain of his rival, Bell became the inveterate foe of Fleming, vowing upon him and Helen the most implacable revenge. For this purpose, having traced the Lovers, in one of their nocturnal rambles, along a sweet segues tered valley, upon the banks of the Kirtle, wrang on a sudden from behind a bush, levelled his deadly tube at Fleming's breast. Helen, hearing his well-known voice, as he exclaimed, with a hellish tone, Die, Traitor, die I threw herself into hzs arms, received the con tents zn her bosom, and died upon the spot. A desperate and mor tal combat ensued between Fleming and the murderer, in which the latter was cut to pieces. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Elderly narrator Harry Langton looks back on the adventures and friends of his youth, transporting the reader to the Scottish Borderlands at the end of the 16th century... The much younger Langton returns to his birthplace to aid an old friend, the brash Adam Fleming, who has fallen for legendary beauty Helen of Annandale. He has also, it seems, fallen foul of a rival for her hand, Robert Bell, a man as violent as he is influential. Fleming confesses to Langton that he fears for his life. In a land where minor lairds vie for power and blood feuds are settled by the sword, Fleming faces a battle to win Helen's hand. By virtue of being the lovers' confidant, Langton is thrust into the middle of this dangerous triangle, and discovers Helen is not so chaste as she is fair. But Langton has his own secrets to keep--and other powers to serve. Someone has noticed Langton's connections to the major players in the Border disputes, and has recruited him in their bid to control the hierarchy of the Border families--someone who would use the lovers as pawns in a game of war. Packed with swordplay, intricate politics, and star-crossed lovers whose actions could change the course of history, Fair Helen is a sumptuous, rousing adventure novel that brings to life one of English poetry's most intriguing heroines.