​

A few friends, who were kind enough to follow “The Rogue’s March” from week to week in its serial course, would have me add foot-notes on the ground that this story, though by no means founded upon facts, is nevertheless largely built up of them. I have, however, my own prejudice against foot-notes to fiction—and I understand that Notes at the end are never read. I may therefore state at the outset that the Newgate scenes are as near the truth as I have been able to make them, with the aid of sundry Parliamentary papers, supplemented by the very kindly assistance of (I believe) the first living authority on the subject. And a certain “broadsheet” is still in existence as described and quoted, with its vile verses, and its illiterate but circumstantial account of the execution of a man who was not executed.

As to the Transportation details, they have been gleaned partly from the Blue-book published in 1837, partly from the New South Wales Calendar ​and the Sydney newspapers of those days, and partly from an admirable work by Mr. Charles White, of Bathurst, N.S.W. To this gentleman’s “Convict Life” (which should be published in the old country too) I owe the experiences of the First Fleeter, with other items which I think must bear the stamp of flagrant fact.

August, 1896.