Chapter I: Preface

IN the following pages I have tried to give a faithful picture of life in England and in France during the first decade of the Nineteenth Century. The invasion scare, the state of National feeling in our land, the conditions which prevailed among British prisoners in France, the descriptions of French conscripts and French dungeons, etc., are in accordance with reality. My authorities have been many, including volumes written and published at the time, long since out of print. One chief authority for dungeon-scenes is the "Narrative" of Major-General Lord Blayney, himself four years a captive at Verdun and elsewhere; but his account by no means stands alone. My aim has been in no case to overdraw, but to be true to those things which actually were.

Some old MS. letters, handed down in my own family, belonging to that date, have been no inconsiderable help.

In the central figure of the tale I have sought to draw a portrait, true again to life, of him who in an age of British heroes ranked par excellence as England's foremost soldier-hero; of him about whom, twenty years later, Sir George Napier wrote—"That great and good soldier ... to whom I looked up as the first of men;" of him about whom, half a lifetime after the Battle of Coruña, Sir Charles Napier, the famous conqueror of Scinde, could sadly say—"Thirty-eight years ago the great Moore fell: I have never seen his equal since!"

To these past testimonies may be added that of Lord Wolseley, who has kindly granted his permission for the dedication of this book to himself. In a speech made not long ago, Lord Wolseley spoke of Moore as "one of the greatest soldiers we ever had," who, "if he had not been killed at Coruña, would probably have been the Commander in the Peninsular Wars, and have won the great battle which annihilated Napoleon's power at Waterloo."

And indeed, the extraordinary lustre of Sir John Moore's character and career, together with the radiant glory with which the close of his life was crowned, form a picture scarcely to be excelled. No man ever lived more exclusively, or fought with more absolute self-abandonment, for his country—"that country," to quote once more from Sir George Napier, "which he loved with an ardour equal to the Roman patriot's, and had served to the hour of his death with a zeal and gallantry equalled by few, surpassed by none." This at a time, it may be added, when the very existence of Great Britain as a Nation was at stake.

Perhaps the best clue to the keynote of Moore's history may be found in a sentence culled from one of his letters to his mother—"And so I hope that, whatever happens, England will not be able to say we have not done our duty."

EASTBOURNE,
August 1900.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. A TRIP TO PARIS IN 1803

II. SWEET POLLY'S GRENADIER

III. A MAN AMONG TEN THOUSAND

IV. DOLEFUL TIDINGS

V. GENERAL INDIGNATION

VI. THE DUKE'S PARTICULAR FRIEND

VII. PRISONERS OF WAR

VIII. THE THREATENED INVASION

IX. OUR HERO

X. THE FRENCH FLEET SIGNALLED

XI. A MISTAKEN READING

XII. ORDERED TO VERDUN

XIII. A FRENCH CONSCRIPT

XIV. IN A FORTIFIED TOWN

XV. FROM OVER THE WATER

XVI. ORDERED TO VALENCIENNES

XVII. IN THE YEAR 1807

XVIII. ALTERED LOOKS

XIX. ROY'S IMPRUDENCE

XX. ORDERED TO BITCHE

XXI. A GLIMPSE OF LOVELY POLLY

XXII. THE WAY OF THE WIND

XXIII. IN VIEW OF CAPTAIN PEIRCE

XXIV. A BITTER EXPERIENCE

XXV. LIFE IN A FRENCH DUNGEON

XXVI. A PRISON TRAGEDY

XXVII. A BARRED WINDOW

XXVIII. MOST FRIENDLY OF FRENCHMEN

XXIX. THE DEAR OLD COUNTRY

XXX. SIR JOHN MOORE

XXXI. ORDERED TO SPAIN

XXXII. TWO MIGHTY MEN

XXXIII. CAPTIVES STILL

XXXIV. AT SALAMANCA

XXXV. MOORE'S BOLD VENTURE

XXXVI. A HAZARDOUS RETREAT

XXXVII. A VISIT FROM MOORE BY NIGHT

XXXVIII. THE BATTLE OF CORUÑA

XXXIX. MOORE'S LAST VICTORY

XL. A WARRIOR TAKING HIS REST

XLI. AT VERDUN ONCE MORE

XLII. LUCILLE'S APPEAL

XLIII. THE RELEASE OF ONE

ILLUSTRATIONS

HIS SABRE DESCENDED IN ONE SWIFT SWEEP Frontispiece

PROMPTLY DOWN UPON THIS WITH BOTH KNEES WENT THE TALL GRENADIER

HE MOUNTED AND RODE OFF

"I SAY, HADN'T YOU BETTER GIVE ME THAT LITTLE THING TO HOLD?"

HE HAD TO WORK AT THE BAR IN A DIFFICULT AND CRAMPED POSITION

SIR JOHN GLANCED ROUND BEFORE SPEAKING

ROY

A TALE IN THE DAYS OF

SIR JOHN MOORE