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THE
CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE
THE
CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE
OR
BRITISH HEROES IN FOREIGN WARS
By JAMES GRANT
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 frommemoranda, the result of historical reading for my military romances.
The Memoir of Colonel John Cameron first appeared, with that of CountLally, &c., in the Dublin University Magazine for 1854; and thoughhe cannot strictly be considered, a Soldier of Fortune, it is givenhere with the rest. It was carefully compiled from a mass of privatepapers and letters submitted to me by his brother, Sir Duncan Cameron,Bart.; from several letters written to me by his brother officers; theMSS. Records of the 92nd Highlanders; and—like the sketch of CountO'Connell—from information readily afforded to me by the authoritiesat the War-Office and Horse Guards.
In several instances, the brief Biographie Universelle, edited byMichaud, has been of service to me in fixing dates—especially in theaccount of the Lacys.
The Thirty Years' War, the Septennial War, and the War of the SpanishSuccession formed an ample field of enterprise for those Scots andIrish who, having nothing better to do at home, sold their swords andtheir valour to the highest bidder; and who, having but little hopeof attaining rank in the service of Britain, sought fortune, fame,and a new home in the camp of the stranger. Thus many of the militarywanderers who form the subject of these detached Memoirs belonged tothe Sister Isle.
The Irish troops in the service of France covered themselves withglory, as the Scots had done under Gustavus of Sweden; and by theMemoir of their last Colonel, Count O'Connell, it will be seen thatthey were faithful and true, as they had been valiant, to the end. Theyfilled Europe with the fame of their exploits, and have left theirbones on many a hard-fought battle-field; and, as their song has it,—
"They who survived fought and drank as of yore,
But the land of their heart's hope they never saw more;
For on far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade,
Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade!"