Excerpt from Richard Dare, Vol. 1 of 2 'Dinna curse him, sir; I have heard a good man say that a curse was like a stone flung up to the heavens, and maist like to return on his head that sent it.' - Scott. It was a drowsy afternoon in August. The clock in the Market Place of Dormington had just informed as many of the inhabitants as were awake to listen to its remarks that the time was half-past three, an unprofitable hour for man and beast, when the spirit of slumber descends upon all alike impartially. 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.