The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman by Charles Dickens

Lord Bateman sets sail for adventure and returns with a story of captivity, rescue, and broken vows. Captured in Turkey and imprisoned in a strange tree-like dungeon, he is freed by the Turk's beautiful daughter, who gives him wine, falls in love with him, and asks what reward her loyalty will earn. Bateman promises her his lands and his faith, but years pass before she comes to claim what he swore. When Sophia arrives at his castle after seven years, she finds him on the verge of marrying another woman. News of her beauty and costly dress throws Bateman into turmoil, and he angrily realizes she has crossed the sea to hold him to his word. His bride's mother pleads for her daughter, but Bateman dismisses the new marriage as fleeting and unworthy beside the vow he made. The ballad builds to a dramatic reversal as he chooses the woman who saved him. At the same time, playful notes treat the simple ballad as mock-epic, inflating its rustic language, romance, and sentiment into grand literary drama. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.