AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF WAR"
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS
THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE
NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET
PREFACE.
The biographies or sketches which compose this volume are prepared from memoranda, the result of historical reading for my military romances.
The Memoir of Colonel John Cameron first appeared, with that of Count Lally, &c., in the Dublin University Magazine for 1854; and though he cannot strictly be considered, a Soldier of Fortune, it is given here with the rest. It was carefully compiled from a mass of private papers and letters submitted to me by his brother, Sir Duncan Cameron, Bart.; from several letters written to me by his brother officers; the MSS. Records of the 92nd Highlanders; and—like the sketch of Count O'Connell—from information readily afforded to me by the authorities at the War-Office and Horse Guards.
In several instances, the brief Biographie Universelle, edited by Michaud, has been of service to me in fixing dates—especially in the account of the Lacys.
The Thirty Years' War, the Septennial War, and the War of the Spanish Succession formed an ample field of enterprise for those Scots and Irish who, having nothing better to do at home, sold their swords and their valour to the highest bidder; and who, having but little hope of attaining rank in the service of Britain, sought fortune, fame, and a new home in the camp of the stranger. Thus many of the military wanderers who form the subject of these detached Memoirs belonged to the Sister Isle.