1902. The classic age of the swashbuckler might well be said to have begun with Weyman, who was ordained the greatest of the yellow '90s swashbuckling romancers. In Kings' Byways is a scarce collection of a dozen short stories of old France, the majority set around the year 1600 chronicling the struggles of the League and the Huguenots, Cardinal Mazarin, the Duke of Guise, Henry of Navarre and other historical figures. The book is divided into three sections. Part I. contains seven tales: Flore; Crillion's Stake; For the Cause; The King's Strategem; The House on the Wall; Hunt the Owler; and The Two Pages. Part II. includes: The Diary of a Statesman with three related episodes; Episode of the Fowl in the Pot; Episode of the Boxwood Fire; and Episode of the Snowfall. Part III., called King Terror set in the late 1700s, has two tales: A Daughter of the Gironde and In the Name of the Law.