Produced by Al Haines. *ADVENTURES* *OF* *AN AIDE-DE-CAMP:* *OR,* *A CAMPAIGN IN CALABRIA.* BY JAMES GRANT, ESQ. AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF WAR." _Claud._ I look’d upon her with a soldier’s eye, That liked, but had a rougher task in hand Than to drive liking to the name of love: But now I am returned, and that war thoughts Have left their places vacant; in their rooms Come thronging soft and delicate desires, All prompting me how fair young Hero is, Saying how I liked her ere I went to war. SHAKSPEARE. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., CORNHILL. 1848. London: Printed by STEWART and MURRAY, Old Bailey. *CONTENTS.* CHAPTER I.—The Landing in Calabria II.—The Pigtail III.—The Visconte Santugo IV.—Double or Quit V.—Truffi the Hunchback VI.—The Calabrian Free Corps VII.—The Battle of Maida VIII.—The Cottage.—Capture of the Eagle IX.—Lives for Ducats!—Bianca D’Alfieri X.—A Night with the Zingari XI.—The Hunchback Again! XII.—The Hermitage XIII.—The Hermit’s Confession XIV.—The Siege Of Crotona XV.—The Abduction.—A Scrape XVI.—The Summons of Surrender XVII.—Marching ’Out’ with the Honours of War XVIII.—Another Dispatch XIX.—Narrative of Castelermo XX.—The Villa Belcastro XXI.—Sequel to the Story of Castelermo *PREFACE.* The very favourable reception given by the Press and Public generally, to "The Romance of War," and its "Sequel," has encouraged the Author to resume his labours in another field. Often as scenes of British valour and conquest have been described, the brief but brilliant campaign in the Calabrias (absorbed, and almost lost, amid the greater warlike operations in the Peninsula) has never, he believes, been touched upon: though a more romantic land for adventure and description cannot invite the pen of a novelist; more especially when the singular social and political ideas of those unruly provinces are remembered. Indeed it is to be regretted that no narrative should have been published of Sir John Stuart’s Neapolitan campaign. It was an expedition set on foot to drive the French from South Italy; and (but for the indecision which sometimes characterized the ministry of those days) that country might have become the scene of operations such as were carried on so successfully on the broader arena of the Spanish Peninsula.