PREFACE. It is with some diffidence, yet not without hope of its favourable acceptance, that the Author presents to his military and naval friends, chiefly, the following unpretending little Volume. It derives its claims to their perusal from no literary merit of its own, real or pretended, but entirely from the interesting character and the instructive piety of its subject. True, it is the record of no military chieftain of daring prowess and of brilliant exploit-of no warrior, the hero of an hundred battles, and connected with the exciting incidents of a long and a splendid campaign-but rather the simple recollections of a young female, claiming no higher rank in the service than an "Officer's Daughter," and disappearing from the scenes and associations of earth with scarcely eighteen summers' radiance upon her head. And yet, retiring as was her life, and unaffected and brief as is its history, the few events with which that life was connected, the grace with which it was sanctified, and the holiness with which it was adorned, will replenish heaven with glory, and eternity with song, when earth-born grandeur and renown shall, like a dream, have passed for ever away. She was, indeed, the true warrior, for in the morning of life she entered upon the Christian warfare, combating by faith, "not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness in high places." Hers was the splendid victory,—for she 'overcame' all these foes by the the Lamb.' blood of And by her is now chanted the song of triumph that never ceases, and around her brow is bound the garland of conquest that never withers. With all her natural vigour of mind, sweetness of disposition, and personal loveliness, her moral nature was yet sinful, she was simple and ignorant; and this she acknowledged, felt, and deplored. But by the sovereign grace of God, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,' she became an humble and an enlightened believer in Jesus,-a Christian in the truest sense, and of the highest style. Reader, peruse these pages in the spirit of prayer, that the same Holy Spirit may instruct, sanctify, and prepare you for heaven. LEAMINGTON, July 1848. |