One of the 28th

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One of the 28th

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Title: One of the 28th
Author: G. A. Henty
Release Date: December 9, 2004 [eBook #14313]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONE OF THE 28TH***
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ONE OF THE 28TH
A Tale of Waterloo
by
G. A. HENTY
Author of Bonnie Prince Charlie, With Clive in India, The Dragon and the Raven, The Young Carthaginian, The Lion of the North Illustrated
A.L. Burt Company Publishers, New York

PREFACE
Although in the present story a boy plays the principal part, and encounters many adventures by land and sea, a woman is the real heroine, and the part she played demanded an amount of nerve and courage fully equal to that necessary for those who take part in active warfare. Boys are rather apt to think, mistakenly, that their sex has a monopoly of courage, but I believe that in moments of great peril women are to the full as brave and as collected as men. Indeed, my own somewhat extensive experience leads me to go even further, and to assert that among a civil population, untrained to arms, the average woman is cooler and more courageous than the average man. Women are nervous about little matters; they may be frightened at a mouse or at a spider; but in the presence of real danger, when shells are bursting in the streets, and rifle bullets flying thickly, I have seen them standing kitting at their doors and talking to their friends across the street when not a single man was to be seen.
There is no greater mistake than to think women cowards because they are sometimes nervous over trifles. Were it necessary, innumerable cases could be quoted from history to prove that women can, upon occasion, fight as courageously as men. C?sar found that the women of the German tribes could fight bravely side by side with the men, and the Amazons of the King of Dahomey are more feared by the neighboring tribes than are his male soldiers. Almost every siege has its female heroines, and in the Dutch War of Independence the female companies at Sluys and Haarlem proved themselves a match for the best soldiers of Spain. Above all, in patient endurance of pain and suffering, women are immeasurably superior to men. I emphasize this point because I know that many boys, simply because they are stronger than girls, are apt to regard them with a sort of contempt, and to fancy themselves without the least justification, not only stronger but braver and more courageous--in fact superior beings in every way.
G. A. HENTY

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Unexpected News
CHAPTER II.
A Country Visit
CHAPTER III.
Run Down
CHAPTER IV.
The Privateer's Rendezvous
CHAPTER V.
The British Cruisers
CHAPTER VI.
Home Again
CHAPTER VII.
A Commission
CHAPTER VIII.
Startling News
CHAPTER IX.
Mr. Tallboys' Visitor
CHAPTER X.
On Detachment
CHAPTER XI.
Still-Hunting
CHAPTER XII.
The Cave Among the Rocks
CHAPTER XIII.
More Startling News
CHAPTER XIV.
The New Housemaid
CHAPTER XV.
In Belgium
CHAPTER XVI.
Found at Last
CHAPTER XVII.
Quatre Bras
CHAPTER XVIII.
Waterloo
CHAPTER XIX.
The Rout
CHAPTER I.
UNEXPECTED NEWS.
"I have written to ask Ralph Conway to come and stay for a time with me." The announcement was a simple one, but it fell like a bombshell in the midst of the party at breakfast at Penfold Hall. The party consisted only of the speaker, Herbert Penfold, and his two sisters. The latter both exclaimed "Herbert!" in a tone of shocked surprise. Mr. Penfold was evidently prepared for disapprobation; he had spoken in a somewhat nervous tone, but with a decision quite unusual to him. He had finished his last piece of toast and emptied his last cup of tea before making the announcement, and he now pushed back his chair, rose to his feet, and said: "Yes; I have been thinking of having him here for some time, and I suppose that as master of this house I am at liberty to ask whom I like; at any rate I would rather have no discussion on the subject."
So saying, without giving his sisters time to reply, he walked hastily to the door and went out. Miss Penfold and Miss Eleanor Penfold gazed at each other in speechless astonishment. So accustomed were they to settle everything that took place at Penfold Hall, that this sudden assumption of authority on the part of their brother fairly staggered them. Miss Penfold was the first to speak:
"This is terrible, Eleanor! To think that after all these years Herbert's thoughts should still be turning toward that woman. But it is only what might be expected. The ingratitude of men is terrible. Here we