Among considerable novelists who have handled historical
subjects--that is to say, who have brought into their story men and
women who really lived and events which have really taken place--you
will find one rule strictly observed, and no single infringement of it
that has been followed by success. This rule is that the historical
characters and events should be mingled with poetical characters and
events, and _made subservient to them_. And it holds of books as
widely dissimilar as _La Vicomte de Bragelonne_ and _La Guerre et la
Paix_; _The Abbot_ and _John Inglesant_. In history Louis XIV. and
Napoleon are the most salient men of their time: in fiction they fall
back and give prominence to D'Artagnan and the Prince André. They may
be admirably painted, but unless they take a subordinate place in the
composition, the artist scores a failure.