es--such, for instance, as
every detail of the French invasion, the capture of Wolfe Tone, and
the attack on Monte di Faccio--are described with rigid exactness, the
writer is most sincere in the expression of his conviction. For the
truth of incident purely personal, it is needless to press any claim,
seeing that the hero owns no higher name than that of--A Soldier of
Fortune.

MAURICE TIERNAY

THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE

CHAPTER I. 'THE DAYS OF THE GUILLOTINE'

Neither the tastes nor the temper of the age we live in are such as
to induce any man to boast of his family nobility. We see too many
preparations around us for laying down new foundations, to think it
a suitable occasion for alluding to the ancient edifice. I will,
therefore, confine myself to saying, that I am not to be regarded as a
mere pretender because my name is not chronicled by Burke or Debrett. My
great-grandfather, after whom I am called, served on the personal staff
of King James at the Battle of the Boyne, and was one of the few who
accompanied the monarch on his flight from the field, for which act of
devotion he was created a peer of Ireland, by the style and title of
Timmahoo--Lord Tiernay, of Timmahoo the family called it--and a very
rich-sounding and pleasant designation has it always seemed to me.

The events of the time, the scanty intervals of leisure enjoyed by
the king, and other matters, prevented a due registry of my ancestors'
claims; and, in fact, when more peaceable days succeeded, it was
judged prudent to say nothing about a matter which might revive unhappy
recollections, and open old scores, seeing that there was now another
king on the throne 'who knew not Joseph'; and so, for this reason and
many others, my greatgrandfather went back to his old appellation of
Maurice Tiernay, and was only a lord among his intimate friends and
cronies of the neighbourhood.

That I am simply recording a matter of fact, the patent of my ancestors'
nobility, now in my possession, will sufficiently attest: nor is its
existence the less conclusive, that it is inscribed on the back of his
commission as a captain in the Shanabogue Fencibles--the well-known
'Clear-the-way-boy s'--a proud title, it is said, to which they imparted
a new reading at the memorable battle aforementioned.

The document bears the address of a small public-house called the
'Nest,' on the Kells road, and contains in one corner a somewhat lengthy
score for potables,