The story is laid in France and is, therefore, written from the
French point of view. The names, places, and dates have been
changed; but circumstances and incidents are true. There were a
good many English among the franc tireurs, and boys of from fifteen
to sixteen were by no means uncommon in their ranks. Having been
abroad during the whole of the war, I saw a good deal of these
irregulars, and had several intimate friends amongst them. Upon the
whole, these corps did much less service to the cause of France
than might have been reasonably expected. They were too often badly
led, and were sometimes absolutely worse than useless.
French point of view. The names, places, and dates have been
changed; but circumstances and incidents are true. There were a
good many English among the franc tireurs, and boys of from fifteen
to sixteen were by no means uncommon in their ranks. Having been
abroad during the whole of the war, I saw a good deal of these
irregulars, and had several intimate friends amongst them. Upon the
whole, these corps did much less service to the cause of France
than might have been reasonably expected. They were too often badly
led, and were sometimes absolutely worse than useless.
But there were brilliant exceptions, and very many of those
daring actions were performed which while requiring heroism and
courage of the highest kind are unknown to the world in general,
and find no place in history. Many of the occurrences in this tale
are related, almost in the words in which they were described to
me, by those who took part in them; and nearly every fact and
circumstance actually occurred, according to my own knowledge.
Without aspiring to the rank of a history, however slight, the
story will give you a fair idea of what the life of the franc
tireurs was, and of what some of them actually went through,
suffered, and performed.
G. A. Henty
