The True Story Book. Various

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       Various

      The True Story Book

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664611567

Table of Contents

       INTRODUCTION

       PLATES

       A BOY AMONG THE RED INDIANS

       CASANOVA'S ESCAPE

       ADVENTURES ON THE FINDHORN

       THE STORY OF GRACE DARLING

       THE 'SHANNON' AND THE 'CHESAPEAKE'

       CAPTAIN SNELGRAVE AND THE PIRATES

       THE SPARTAN THREE HUNDRED

       PRINCE CHARLIE'S WANDERINGS

       CHAPTER I

       CHAPTER II

       CHAPTER III

       CHAPTER IV

       TWO GREAT MATCHES

       THE STORY OF KASPAR HAUSER

       AN ARTIST'S ADVENTURE

       THE TALE OF ISANDHLWANA AND RORKE'S DRIFT

       HOW LEIF THE LUCKY FOUND VINELAND THE GOOD

       THE ESCAPES OF CERVANTES

       THE WORTHY ENTERPRISE OF JOHN FOXE, AN ENGLISHMAN, IN DELIVERING TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX CHRISTIANS OUT OF THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TURKS AT ALEXANDRIA, JANUARY 3, 1577

       BARON TRENCK

       THE ADVENTURE OF JOHN RAWLINS

       THE CHEVALIER JOHNSTONE'S ESCAPE FROM CULLODEN

       THE ADVENTURES OF LORD PITSLIGO

       THE ESCAPE OF CÆSAR BORGIA FROM THE CASTLE OF MEDINA DEL CAMPO

       THE KIDNAPPING OF THE PRINCES

       THE CONQUEST OF MONTEZUMA'S EMPIRE

       The Youth of Cortés

       The Wonders of Mexico

       The Beginning of the Expedition

       The March to Mexico

       The Occupation of Mexico.

       Fighting in Mexico.

       The Night or Horror.

       The Siege and Surrender of Mexico.

       ADVENTURES OF BARTHOLOMEW PORTUGUES, A PIRATE

       THE RETURN OF THE FRENCH FREEBOOTERS [29]

       THE OUTDOOR WORLD

INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

      It is not without diffidence that the editor offers The True Story Book to children. We have now given them three fairy books, and their very kind and flattering letters to the editor prove, not only that they like the three fairy books, but that they clamour for more. What disappointment, then, to receive a volume full of adventures which actually happened to real people! There is not a dragon in the collection, nor even a giant; witches, here, play no part, and almost all the characters are grown up. On the other hand, if we have no fairies, we have princes in plenty, and a sweeter young prince than Tearlach (as far as this part of his story goes) the editor flatters himself that you shall nowhere find, not in Grimm, or Dasent, or Perrault. Still, it cannot be denied that true stories are not so good as fairy tales. They do not always end happily, and, what is worse, they do remind a young student of lessons and schoolrooms. A child may fear that he is being taught under a specious pretence of diversion, and that learning is being thrust on him under the disguise of entertainment. Prince Charlie and Cortés may be asked about in examinations, whereas no examiner has hitherto set questions on 'Blue Beard,' or 'Heart of Ice,' or 'The Red Etin of Ireland.' There is, to be honest, no way of getting over this difficulty. But the editor vows that he does not mean to teach anybody, and he has tried to mix the stories up so much that no clear and consecutive view of history can possibly be obtained from them; moreover, when history does come in, it is not the kind of history favoured most by examiners. They seldom set questions on the conquest of Mexico, for example.

      That is a very long story, but, to the editor's taste, it is simply the best true story in the world, the most unlikely, and the