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Excerpt from History of the War in the Peninsula, Vol. 1: Under Napoleon, to Which Is Prefixed a View of the Political and Military State of the Four Belligerent Powers In publishing the first part of a work which is far from having received a final revision, I think myself hound to give the Reader some details, in order to meet the reproaches which may possibly he made to it by severe criticism, and to satisfy the wishes of a more friendly interest as to what it contains. When in 1814 my husband returned into the bosom of private life, he conceived the idea of writing the History of the Peninsular War, a war in which he had been engaged for seven years, and the narrative of which, mingled with political considerations, seemed destined to he the commencement of his apprenticeship to a new career. From that moment he devoted himself to it, with that conscientious research and activity of mind which he displayed in every thing he undertook. After collecting numerous materials in France and England, he proceeded to write, uninterruptedly, what I now publish. The first half of the work was revised by himself, rather with a view to improve the arrangement and division of his materials, as is proved by the corrections, which are entirely in his own handwriting,) than to purify the style, a labour which he deferred until a later period. The second half was written over only once; if was his first idea; it was, as it were, an improvisation. In 1817, his bad state of health having compelled him to interrupt his labours, he left the work imperfect and never afterwards revised it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In r