My story is such that it is well worth the trouble of committing it to memory and retelling it to others, for in the whole of our county of Hampshire, perhaps in all England, there is scarcely another man alive who could speak of these events from his own experience, or who would have played so distinguished a part in them as I have. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859 - 1930 In 1685, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and one-time commander-in-chief of the British army, undertook to lead a Protestant army of peasants, artisans and commoners to overthrow the Catholic James II from the English throne. Micah Clarke seizes his father's old sword, rushes to the banners of the rebel army and gets caught up in the bloody turmoil of his time. Conan Doyle's first great historical novel, here reissued in Robert Koening's translation for the first time in well over 100 years, was published in 1889 and paints a richly detailed portrait of the mores of 17th-century England, with impressive characters, great battle scenes and the no less great tussle of the minds of the time - which reach into today. Motives both selfish and altruistic collide, and the honour of the petty crook appears far superior to that of many a defender of the right faith.
