AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
The present Work was first published in separate volumes, within a twelvemonth of each other, under the title of ‘Recollections of an Eventful Life,’ and ‘The Peninsular War.’ The favourable reception they met with from the Public, even in their unavoidably imperfect state, far exceeded my most sanguine expectations. Many, indeed, alleged ‘that they were the production of some book-maker,’ and others ‘that some person of literary ability must have assisted the soldier.’ Neither, however, is the fact. Such as the narrative is, it was composed and written by me without the slightest assistance. Indeed, I think it strange that scepticism on that point should have been excited. Why should not a soldier (if he has cultivated his natural abilities) express himself in a tolerable manner as well as an individual of a different class? It would be more strange if a particular grade of men were to engross all the talent existing; and it is only the presuming arrogance of rank, or the overweening conceit of literary pedantry, which would seek to shut the door against the exercise of talent, merely because the individual does not enjoy any of the arbitrary distinctions which they themselves have created.
As to my being really an actor in the scenes I have described, I believe little doubt now exists in the public mind. I could at once dissipate it, by giving my name and the number of my regiment; and I would have done so, were it not that it might point out too minutely some ill-favoured characters which I have given in the work. Fear for myself would not prevent me; but I have no personal enmity to gratify, and I shall feel sufficiently satisfied, if the picture drawn deter others from following their example.
My unsettled situation caused the former Edition of the work to be so hurriedly written, that many errors escaped notice, which, in the present, I have endeavoured to amend. The two volumes are now thrown into one, forming a continued narrative down to the close of the war, and several incidents added, which were omitted in the first Edition. If in its former state it excited an interest in the public mind, I trust it is now rendered more worthy of its approbation. I am aware that there are still imperfections in it that will require indulgence—an indulgence, however, which, I am persuaded, will be readily conceded to the humble station of
THE AUTHOR.