The Project Gutenberg EBook of Friends, though divided, by G. A. Henty

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Title: Friends, though divided
A Tale of the Civil War

Author: G. A. Henty

Release Date: March 14, 2004 [EBook #11565]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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FRIENDS THOUGH DIVIDED

A TALE OF THE CIVIL WAR

BY

G.A. HENTY

AUTHOR OF "IN TIMES OF PERIL," "THE YOUNG FRANCTIREURS,"
"THE YOUNG BUGLERS," ETC, ETC.

PREFACE

My dear lads: Although so long a time has elapsed since the great civil
war in England, men are still almost as much divided as they were then
as to the merits of the quarrel, almost as warm partisans of the one
side or the other. Most of you will probably have formed an opinion as
to the rights of the case, either from your own reading, or from hearing
the views of your elders.

For my part, I have endeavored to hold the scales equally, to relate
historical facts with absolute accuracy, and to show how much of right
and how much of wrong there was upon either side. Upon the one hand, the
king by his instability, bad faith, and duplicity alienated his best
friends, and drove the Commons to far greater lengths than they had at
first dreamed of. Upon the other hand, the struggle, begun only to win
constitutional rights, ended--owing to the ambition, fanaticism, and
determination to override all rights and all opinions save their own, of
a numerically insignificant minority of the Commons, backed by the
strength of the army--in the establishment of the most complete
despotism England has ever seen.

It may no doubt be considered a failing on my part that one of my heroes
has a very undue preponderance of adventure over the other. This I
regret; but after the scale of victory turned, those on the winning side
had little to do or to suffer, and one's interest is certainly with the
hunted fugitive, or the slave in the Bermudas, rather than with the
prosperous and well-to-do citizen.

Yours very sincerely,

G.A. HENTY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. The Eve o