With Frederick the Great: A Story of the Seven Year's War
G. A. Henty, Wal Paget
Paperback
(Quiet Vision Pub, Sept. 28, 2007)
The story is laid in France and is, therefore, written from theFrench point of view. The names, places, and dates have beenchanged; but circumstances and incidents are true. There were agood many English among the franc tireurs, and boys of from fifteento sixteen were by no means uncommon in their ranks. Having beenabroad during the whole of the war, I saw a good deal of theseirregulars, and had several intimate friends amongst them. Upon thewhole, these corps did much less service to the cause of Francethan might have been reasonably expected. They were too often badlyled, and were sometimes absolutely worse than useless.But there were brilliant exceptions, and very many of thosedaring actions were performed which while requiring heroism andcourage of the highest kind are unknown to the world in general,and find no place in history. Many of the occurrences in this taleare related, almost in the words in which they were described tome, by those who took part in them; and nearly every fact andcircumstance actually occurred, according to my own knowledge.Without aspiring to the rank of a history, however slight, thestory will give you a fair idea of what the life of the franctireurs was, and of what some of them actually went through,suffered, and performed.G. A. Henty