"Zane Grey - Betty Zane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grey Zane)

Etext of Betty Zane
by Zane Grey



BETTY ZANE
BY ZANE GREY




TO THE BETTY ZANE CHAPTER OF
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION
THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR



NOTE


In a quiet corner of the stately little city of Wheeling, West Va.,
stands a monument on which is inscribed:

"By authority of the State of West Virginia to commemorate the siege of Fort
Henry, Sept 11, 1782, the last battle of the American Revolution, this tablet
is here placed."

Had it not been for the heroism of a girl the foregoing inscription would
never have been written, and the city of Wheeling would never have existed.
From time to time I have read short stories and magazine articles which have
been published about Elizabeth Zane and her famous exploit; but they are
unreliable in some particulars, which is owing, no doubt, to the singularly
meagre details available in histories of our western border.

For a hundred years the stories of Betty and Isaac Zane have been familiar,
oft-repeated tales in my family--tales told with that pardonable ancestral
pride which seems inherent in every one. My grandmother loved to cluster the
children round her and tell them that when she was a little girl she had knelt
at the feet of Betty Zane, and listened to the old lady as she told of her
brother's capture by the Indian Princess, of the burning of the Fort, and of
her own race for life. I knew these stories by heart when a child.

Two years ago my mother came to me with an old note book which had been
discovered in some rubbish that had been placed in the yard to burn. The book
had probably been hidden in an old picture frame for many years. It belonged
to my great-grandfather, Col. Ebenezer Zane. From its faded and time-worn
pages I have taken the main facts of my story. My regret is that a worthier
pen than mine has not had this wealth of material.