DEEDS THAT WON THE EMPIRE
HISTORIC BATTLE SCENES
BY W. H. FITCHETT, LL. D.
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY
FIRST EDITION (Smith, Elder & Co.) . . . November 1897
Twenty-ninth Impression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . October 1914
Reprinted (John Murray) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 1917
Reprinted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 1921
PREFACE
The tales here told are written, not to glorify war, but to nourishpatriotism. They represent an effort to renew in popular memory thegreat traditions of the Imperial race to which we belong.
The history of the Empire of which we are subjects—the story of thestruggles and sufferings by which it has been built up—is the bestlegacy which the past has bequeathed to us. But it is a treasurestrangely neglected. The State makes primary education its anxiouscare, yet it does not make its own history a vital part of thateducation. There is real danger that for the average youth the greatnames of British story may become meaningless sounds, that hisimagination will take no colour from the rich and deep tints ofhistory. And what a pallid, cold-blooded citizenship this must produce!
War belongs, no doubt, to an imperfect stage of society; it has a sideof pure brutality. But it is not all brutal. Wordsworth's daring lineabout "God's most perfect instrument" has a great truth behind it.What examples are to be found in the tales here retold, not merely ofheroic daring, but of even finer qualities—of heroic fortitude; ofloyalty to duty stronger than the love of life; of the temper whichdreads dishonour more than it fears death; of the patriotism whichmakes love of the Fatherland a passion. These are the elements ofrobust citizenship. They represent some, at least, of the qualities bywhich the Empire, in a sterner time than ours, was won, and by which,in even these ease-loving days, it must be maintained.
These sketches appeared originally in the Melbourne Argus, and arerepublished by the kind consent of its proprietors. Each sketch iscomplete in itself; and though no formal quotation of authorities isgiven, yet all the available literature on each event described hasbeen laid under contribution. The sketches will be found to behistorically accurate.
CONTENTS
THE FIGHT OFF CAPE ST. VINCENT
THE FIRE-SHIPS IN THE BASQUE ROADS
THE MAN WHO SPOILED NAPOLEON'S "DESTINY"