eglected opportunities and
mistaken opinions; but, as I am about to present you with my narrative,
the moral--if there be one--need not be anticipated.

I believe I have nothing else to premise, save that if my tale have
little wit, it has some warning; and as Bob Lambert observed to the
hangman who soaped the rope for his execution, "even that same 's a
comfort." If our friend Lorrequer, then, will as kindly facilitate my
debut, I give him free liberty to "cut me down" when he likes, and am,

Yours, as ever,

TOM BURKE.

To T. O'Flaherty, Esq.

PREFACE.

I WAS led to write this story by two impulses: first, the fascination
which the name and exploits of the great Emperor had ever exercised on
my mind as a boy; and secondly, by the favorable notice which the Press
had bestowed upon my scenes of soldier life in "Charles O'Malley."

If I had not in the wars of the Empire the patriotic spirit of a great
national struggle to sustain me, I had a field far wider and grander
than any afforded by our Peninsular campaigns; while in the character of
the French army, composed as it was of elements derived from every rank
and condition, there were picturesque effects one might have sought for
in vain throughout the rest of Europe.

It was my fortune to have known personally some of those who filled
great parts in this glorious drama. I had listened over and over to
their descriptions of scenes, to which their look, and voice, and manner
imparted a thrilling intensity of interest. I had opportunities of
questioning them for explanations, of asking for solutions of this and
that difficulty which had puzzled me, till I grew so familiar with the
great names of the time, the events, and even the localities, that when
I addressed myself to my tale, it was with a mind filled by my topics to
the utter exclusion of all other subjects.

Neither before nor since have I ever enjoyed to the same extent the
sense of being so entirely engrossed by a single theme. A great tableau
of the Empire, from its gorgeous celebrations in Paris to its numerous
achievements on the field of battle, was ever outspread before me, and
I sat down rather to record than to invent the scenes of my story. A
feeling that, as I treated of real events I was bound to maintain
a degree of accuracy in relation to them, even in fiction, made me
endeavor to possess myself of a correct knowledge of localities, and,
so far as I was able, with a due estimate