Chapter I: Preface: To my Young Readers

I remember that, as a boy, I regarded any attempt to mix instruction with amusement as being as objectionable a practice as the administration of powder in jam; but I think that this feeling arose from the fact that in those days books contained a very small share of amusement and a very large share of instruction. I have endeavored to avoid this, and I hope that the accounts of battles and sieges, illustrated as they are by maps, will be found as interesting as the lighter parts of the story. As in my tale, "_The Young Franc-Tireurs_," I gave the outline of the Franco-German war, so I have now endeavored to give the salient features of the great Peninsular struggle. The military facts, with the names of generals and regiments, the dates and places, are all strictly accurate, and any one who has read with care the story of "The Young Buglers" could pass an examination as to the leading events of the Peninsular war.

Yours truly,

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. A Coaching Adventure

CHAPTER II. The Young Pickles

CHAPTER III. Enlisted

CHAPTER IV. A Tough Customer

CHAPTER V. Overboard

CHAPTER VI. Portugal

CHAPTER VII. The Passage of the Douro--Talavera

CHAPTER VIII. A Pause in Operations

CHAPTER IX. "With the Guerillas"

CHAPTER X. Madrid

CHAPTER XI. The Fight on the Coa

CHAPTER XII. Busaco and Torres Vedras

CHAPTER XIII. Albuera

CHAPTER XIV. Invalided Home

CHAPTER XV. Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos

CHAPTER XVI. Salamanca

CHAPTER XVII. Caught in a Trap

CHAPTER XVIII. Just in Time

CHAPTER XIX. Vittoria

CHAPTER XX. Toulouse

THE YOUNG BUGLERS.