Manuscript, lightly corrected, of an English translation of the French original of Mme. de la Fayette's "Zaïde: histoire espagnole" which was published in two parts in 1669 and 1671 under the name of Jean Regnauld de Segrais. This historical romance-adventure novel takes place in Spain around the time of King Alphonso "the Great" III of Leon (ca.848-ca.910). Consalvo, the son of the Count of Castille and the novel's anti-hero, takes up residence with the solitary Alphonso Ximenes of Navarra, who like Consalvo has left behind his place in high society. The two rescue Zayde and Felima, Cypriot noblewomen shipwrecked on the coast of Spain; much of the episodic narrative is concerned with Consalvo's growing love for Zayde despite the language barrier between them, and his adventurous search for her when the two women disappear. Lengthy expository digressions, often in first person or epistolary narrative, are interpolated throughout, perhaps due to collaborative authorship between La Fayette and Segrais.
