LIFE OF ABDEL KADER. [Illustration] THE LIFE OF ABDEL KADER, Ex-Sultan of the Arabs of Algeria; WRITTEN FROM HIS OWN DICTATION, AND COMPILED FROM OTHER AUTHENTIC SOURCES. BY COLONEL CHURCHILL, AUTHOR OF “TEN YEARS’ RESIDENCE IN MOUNT LEBANON,” “DRUZES AND MARONITES UNDER TURKISH RULE,” ETC., ETC. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1867. LONDON: VIRTUE AND CO., PRINTERS, CITY ROAD. DEDICATION. * * * * * TO NAPOLEON III., EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. SIRE, OTHERS may claim for themselves the glorious privilege of recording the courage, the sagacity, and the skill with which you wield the destinies of Imperial France. I have claimed, and am proud to have procured at your hands, the humbler but scarcely less glorious privilege of dedicating to you a work which, while it celebrates the great actions, and portrays the magnanimous character of one of the most remarkable men whom the Arab race has ever produced, records at the same time, though feebly and inadequately, the loftiness of principle, the chivalry of sentiment, and the sensitive jealousy of French honour which induced you to release him, spontaneously and unconditionally, from treacherous detention on French soil. That act was a worthy inauguration of your splendid reign. That act alone would suffice to give it imperishable lustre. CHARLES HENRY CHURCHILL. PREFACE. * * * * * If I should unfortunately be mistaken in the belief and expectation that some interest may yet be excited in the public mind by a narrative of the deeds and exploits of the illustrious Arab whose extraordinary career I have selected as my theme, I shall willingly impute my disappointment, not to any want of judgment and discrimination on the part of the reading public, but to my own involuntary and sincere enthusiasm for all that is grand, ennobling, and romantic. That these characteristics attach largely, and in their most inspiring and soul-stirring sense, to the life I here depict, the following pages amply corroborate. Having thus exhibited the feeling which induced me to approach a subject, to me fraught with peculiar and almost irresistible attractions, I proceed to state the circumstances under which my present work was commenced and matured.