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Reproduction of the original: The Bruce and Wallace by The Minstrel Henry
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From the author of Black Ransom and Montana Dawn—a Booklist Top 10 Westerns of the Decade—comes a tale of desperate times and deadly bargains in the Old West. He calls himself Neville. As he rides the lonely desert trail to Commercial City, the sweat on his brow is not from heat, but from knowing what awaits him. For the sake of his family, Neville accepted a grim bargain. When he gets to Commercial City, he will confess to a murder he did not commit. Neville’s life started out tough and got worse from there. He made his share of mistakes, and never knew a place he could call home—until he met the woman who would become his wife. All he wants now is to provide for her and their children. And he’d give his life to do it. So when a killer offers money for his family in exchange for his confession, Neville accepts his fate…until the sheriff of Commercial City begins to question Neville’s guilt.
So little is known, with respect to Henry the Minstrel, that I can scarcely pretend to add any thing to the meagre account which has been given of him by former writers. As we cannot certainly fix the time, we can form no conjecture even as to the place, of his birth. Almost all that can be viewed as an historical record concerning him, is that with which we are supplied by Major. Integrum librum, he says, Guillelmi Vallacei Henricus, a natiuitate luminibus captus, meae infantiae tempore cudit; et quæ vulgo dicebantur, carmine vulgari, in quo peritus erat, conscripsit; (ego autem talibus scriptis solum in parte fidem impertior); qui historiarum recitatione coram principibus victum et vestitum quo dignus erat nactus est. Hist. Lib. IV. c. 15. "Henry, who was blind from his birth, in the time of my infancy composed the whole Book of William Wallace; and committed to writing in vulgar poetry, in which he was well skilled, the things that were commonly related of him. For my own part, I give only partial credit to writings of this description. By the recitation of these, however, in the presence of men of the highest rank, he procured, as he indeed deserved, food and raiment."