Though the time, as essential to such compositions, is in comparison with the duration of the War extremely limited, all its leading incidents are introduced in the permitted shapes of narrative, episode, allusion, and apostrophe. The historical part of the work invites the closest examination, as well as the local colouring, to which a six years’ constant residence in the Peninsula has enabled me, I trust, to impart some truth and vivacity. I have lived in the midst of revolts, revolutions, and military movements; my experience almost equals that of an actual campaigner; and I have witnessed even portions of three sieges--those of Seville and Barcelona in 1843, and that of Almeida in Portugal in 1844. Copious historical and explanatory notes are annexed to each canto, and the description of the battle grounds is made accurate by personal observation of many of them, which I have embodied in the notes. The theatre of that portion of the War which enters into the action of the poem itself presents very felicitous subjects for description, the ground being the gigantic Pyrenees, and the combats there sustained being more like those of Titans than of men. In addition to much oral testimony, the authorities I have consulted are very numerous, and as fidelity has been my constant aim their language will be found frequently cited in the notes. The principal of these are Napier’s _History of the War in the Peninsula_, Southey’s _History of the Peninsular War_, Foy’s _Histoire de la Guerre de la Péninsule_, Gurwood’s _Despatches of the Duke of Wellington_, Jones’s _Journals of the Sieges in Spain_, Belmas’s _Journals of Sieges_, compiled from official documents by order of the French government, Captain Cooke’s _Memoirs_, Captain Pringle’s _Ditto_, Captain Batty’s _Campaign of the left Wing of the Allied Army in the Western Pyrenees_, Gleig’s _Subaltern, Annals of the Peninsular War_, De la Pène’s _Campagnes de 1813 et 1814_, and Pellot’s _Mémoires des Campagnes des Pyrénées_.