"]
exclaiming in character,' Ma conscience! if my father the Bailie had
been alive to hear that ma health had been proposed by the Author of
Waverley,' etc., which, as you may suppose, had a most excellent
effect."
CHAPTER XXVII
NAPIER'S "PENINSULAR WAR"--CHOKER'S "BOSWELL"--"THE FAMILY LIBRARY,"
ETC.
The public has long since made up its mind as to the merits of Colonel
Napier's "History of the Peninsular War." It is a work which none but a
soldier who had served through the war as he had done, and who,
moreover, combined with practical experience a thorough knowledge of the
science of war, could have written.
At the outset of his work he applied to the Duke of Wellington for his
papers. This rather abrupt request took the Duke by surprise. The
documents in his possession were so momentous, and the great part of
them so confidential in their nature, that he felt it to be impossible
to entrust them indiscriminately to any man living. He, however,
promised Napier to put in his hands any specified paper or document he
might ask for, provided no confidence would be broken by its
examination.
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