



Produced by David Widger





THE DALTONS:

OR,

THREE ROADS IN LIFE


By Charles James Lever


With Illustrations By Phiz.


In Two Volumes

Vol. I.


Boston: Little, Brown, And Company

1895.



To LORD METHUEN.


MY DEAR METHUEN, Some idle folk have pretended that certain living
characters have been depicted under the fictitious names of these
volumes. There is, I assure you, but one personality contained in it,
and that is of a right true-hearted Englishman, hospitable, and manly
in all his dealings; and to him I wish to dedicate my book, in testimony
not only of the gratitude which, in common with all his countrymen here,
I feel to be his due, but in recognition of many happy hours passed in
his society, and the honor of his friendship. The personality begins and
ends with this dedication, which I beg you to accept of, and am

Ever yours faithfully,

CHARLES LEVER.

PALAZZO CAPPONI, FLORENCE, Feb. 28, 1852.




PREFACE.


IF the original conception of this tale was owing to the story of an old
and valued schoolfellow who took service in Austria, and rose to rank
and honors there, all the rest was purely fictitious. My friend had made
a deep impression on my mind by his narratives of that strange life,
wherein, in the very midst of our modern civilization, an old-world
tradition still has its influence, making the army of to-day the
veritable sons and descendants of those who grouped around the bivouac
fires in Wallenstein's camp. Of that more than Oriental submission that
graduated deference to military rank that chivalrous devotion to the
"Kaiser" whicli