Excerpt from The Life of Arthur First Duke of Wellington: Partly From the French of M. Brialmont Partly From Original Documents I have endeavoured, in the following pages, so to describe the career, and paint the character of the great Duke of Wellington, as to leave little which shall be note-worthy, nothing which may be important, to be supplied by future biographers. The restraints under which I lay, while translating M. Brialmont's valuable work, are happily removed. The present Duke, in the exercise of a frank discretion, has, by the publication of "The Supplementary Dispatches," taken the whole world into his confidence up to a certain point; while other editors and compilers, with a more questionable right to do so, have of late partially raised the veil which he had not yet withdrawn. Such partial revelations, however, are often calculated to do harm, where none may have been intended; because, in telling less than the truth, they not unfrequently tell untruths. I have, therefore, felt it my duty to speak out, and to vindicate, in so doing, the Duke's consistency with as little outrage as possible, either to the consistency or to the self-esteem of others. In following the footsteps of the Duke as a soldier, M. Brialmont has been now, as he was before, my principal guide. I have not, however, considered it necessary on the present occasion to adhere very rigidly, either to M. Brialmont's manner of telling the tale, or to his criticisms on particular operations. 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 rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.