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IT is with deepest regret that this volume, completing the edition of Mandeville's Travels, is given to the world as the orphaned heir of its scholarly editor. Some months before the great war, Professor Hamelius, of the University of Liége, called on me and expressed his wish to undertake some piece of work for the Society, if a suitable text could be suggested. I bethought me of Mandeville's Travels as the most noteworthy link between English literature and Liége, and proposed that he should consider whether he would undertake the task. I heard nothing from him for a time, and during the perilous days of the siege of Liége he was often in my mind. Shortly after, having done his duty manfully, he reported himself as being safe and sound, and working hard at Mandeville in the British Museum. It was not only, however, this Middle English text that claimed his devotion. He wrote an account of the siege in which he had borne his part, and did much to enlighten English readers on Belgian literature and on matters of common interest between his own and this country. He gave some striking lectures to University and other audiences, and became recognised here as almost an unofficial representative of the intellectual life of Belgium. He was keenly alert, open-minded, and most painstaking, and soon gained the affectionate regard of those who knew the tender sensitiveness of the seemingly severe scholar. Throughout the whole period of the war he was constantly at work on what had become his absorbing interest, this edition of Mandeville's Travels. Great was his joy when in 1919 Vol. I, the text, was issued by the Society, fittingly dedicated to General Leman, the defender of Liége. The gallant General has passed away; and now, alas, the patriot editor has not lived to witness the publication of the completion of his