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Transcriber's Notes:

   1.  Page scan source: Google Books
       https://books.google.com/books?id=zeQxAQAAMAAJ
       (University of Minnesota)






Appletons'
Town and Country
Library
No. 265



FORTUNE'S MY FOE






By J. BLOUNDELLE-BURTON.
------------------------
Each, 12mo, cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents.
------------------------
Fortune's my Foe.

Mr. Bloundelle-Burton has proved his ability to interest readers so
thoroughly that it is sufficient merely to announce this new and
entertaining romance. His story moves briskly as usual, and there is a
constantly sustained interest and plenty of dramatic action.


The Clash of Arms.

"Well written, and the interest is sustained from the beginning to the
end of the tale"--_Brooklyn Eagle_.

"Vividness of detail and rare descriptive power give the story life
and excitement."--_Boston Herald_.


Denounced.

"The author of 'Denounced' is second to none in the romantic
recounting of the tales of earlier days. A story of the critical times
of the vagrant and ambitious Charles I, it is so replete with incident
and realistic happenings that one seems translated to the very scenes
and days of that troublous era in English history."--_Boston Courier_.


The Scourge of God.

"The story is one of the best in style, construction, information, and
graphic power, that have been written in recent years."--_Dial,
Chicago_.


In the Day of Adversity.

"Mr. Burton's creative skill is of the kind which must fascinate those
who revel in the narratives of Stevenson, Rider Haggard, and Stanley
Weyman. Even the author of 'A Gentleman of France' has not surpassed
the writer of 'In the Day of Adversity' in the moving interest of his
tale."--_St. James's Gazette_.

---------------
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.






FORTUNE'S MY FOE

_A ROMANCE_



BY
JOHN BLOUNDELLE-BURTON
AUTHOR OF THE SCOURGE OF GOD, THE CLASH OF ARMS,
DENOUNCED, IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY, ETC.





NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1899






COPYRIGHT, 1898, 1899,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

_All rights reserved_.






CONTENTS.

   CHAPTER
          PROLOGUE--OFF CARTAGENA.
      I.--THE LION AND THE JACKAL.
     II.--AN HEIRESS.
    III.--A "COUNTRY CLOD."
     IV.--AN UNKNOWN VISITOR.
      V.--THE HAPPY MAN.
     VI.--LOVE'S CONTEST.
    VII.--THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE.
   VIII.--FOREBODINGS.
     IX.--THE END OF THE FIRST ACT.
      X.--"THE MIGNONNE."
     XI.--THE COLONISTS.
    XII.--VENGEANCE IS SWEET.
   XIII.--A BROKEN SWORD.
    XIV.--BUFTON IS IMPLACABLE.
     XV.--PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT.
    XVI.--WEAVING THE NET.
   XVII.--A DISCOVERY.
   XVIII.--RUSE CONTRE RUSE.
    XIX.--THE SECOND MAN.
     XX.--ARIADNE'S COMPASSION.
    XXI.--A DIVINE DESPAIR.
   XXII.--"AS YE SOW."
  XXIII.--QUIBERON






FORTUNE'S MY FOE.




PROLOGUE.

OFF CARTAGENA.


The storm of the night was over. The winds had subsided almost as
quickly as they had risen on the previous evening--as is ever the case
in the West Indies and the tropics generally. Against a large number
of ships of war, now riding in the waters off Boca Chica, the waves
slapped monotonously in their regularity, though each crash which they
made on the bows seemed less in force than the preceding one had been;
while the water looked less muddy and sand- than it had done
an hour or so before. Likewise the hot and burning tropical sun was
forcing its way through the dense masses of clouds which were still
banked up beneath it; there coming first upon the choppy waters a
gleam--a weak, thin ray; a glisten like the smile on the face of a
dying man who parts at peace with this world; then, next, a brighter
and more cheery sparkle. Soon the waves were smoothed, nought but a
little ripple supplying the place of their recent turbulence; the sun
burst forth, the banks of clouds were dispersed, the bright glory of a
West Indian day shone forth in all its brilliancy. The surroundings,
which at dawn might well have been the surroundings of the Lower
Thames in November, had evaporated, departed; they were now those of
that portion of the globe which has been termed for centuries the
"World