Closely following “The Lion of the North“, my sisters and I commenced “Won by the Sword” by G. A. Henty. The reading of both of these books, was part of our study of both France and Germany.
George Alfred Henty was an Englishman who lived from December 8, 1832 – November 16, 1902. He was a married man with children. Mr. Henty was the author of at least 144 books, many of which, if not all, are written to impart real history to the reader. His works include “The Cat of Bubastes”, “Bonnie Prince Charlie” and “The Lion of the North”. For reasons best known to himself, Mr. Henty chose to use his first initials and his last name for a pen name thus becoming known as “G. A. Henty”.
“Won by the Sword” was first published by Blackie & Son, London on June 1, 1899. Thanks to our Pastor’s family, I was able to borrow a printed copy of this book, instead of relying on our Palm. It was published by Preston/Speed in the year 2000. They assure the reader in the “Introduction” that the spelling, grammar and punctuation remain the same as they appeared in the original versions. The book contains twenty one chapters and is 373 pages in length.
“Won by the Sword – A Story of the Thirty Years War”, continues and finishes telling of the war, begun in “The Lion of the North”. The death of Gustavus Adolphus had dealt a severe blow to the protestant side of the war. The Austrian Catholic Emperor Ferdinand, who wanted control more than anything else, was winning. France, though predominately Catholic, realized the dangers that would threaten themselves if the persecuted protestants lost and Ferdinand won, so they decided to assist the former in the war. In the midst of all this, Mr. Henty places a orphan, Scottish lad of fifteen named Hector Campbell. Finding favor with General Turenne because of his vast knowledge of the “art of war”, he employs Hector as his aide-de-camp. In less than four years, Hector rises to the position of Colonel in the French army. Due to his ability to think and act quickly and command his regiment well, he becomes a military hero to many – but not to all. When danger threatens the Cardinal of France, Hector secretly aids him but what will happen if those who caused the danger find it was Hector who thwarted them?
This book was very long and full of the accounts of the battles fought in the latter part of thirty years war. The battles were for the most part, retold in a manner interesting and informative, though if you did not remember the French, Austrian and Italian names of the general’s and colonels in the opposing armies, you just might become a little confused when their regiment joins and changes the course of the battle!
As a fun side note: I read this book to my sisters as usual giving each character an accent depending on their nationality… I was astonished at how many accents I had to attempt in one book! I used Scottish, French, Italian, German, English and Irish. I confess there were a few times when the Frenchman sounded Scottish and the Italian sounded French because I forgot what accent went to what character!
This book was very informative and enjoyable and I would highly recommend it.
To the KING be all the glory!