CAPTAIN BOLDHEART BY CHARLES DICKENS ILLUSTRATED BY BEATRICE PEARSE CAPTAIN BOLDHEART & THE LATIN-GRAMMAR MASTER A HOLIDAY ROMANCE FROM THE PEN OF LIEUT-COL. ROBIN REDFORTH AGED 9. BY CHARLES DICKENS LONDON: CONSTABLE AND CO. LTD. FOREWORD The story contained herein was written by Charles Dickens in 1867. It is the third of four stories entitled "Holiday Romance" and was published originally in a children's magazine in America. It purports to be written by a child aged nine. It was republished in England in "All the Year Round" in 1868. For this and four other Christmas pieces Dickens received £1,000. "Holiday Romance" was published in book form by Messrs Chapman & Hall in 1874, with "Edwin Drood" and other stories. For this reprint the text of the story as it appeared in "All the Year Round" has been followed.[Pg 5] [Pg 5] CAPTAIN BOLDHEART AND THE LATIN-GRAMMAR MASTER The subject of our present narrative would appear to have devoted himself to the Pirate profession at a comparatively early age. We find him in command of a splendid schooner of one hundred guns, loaded to the muzzle, 'ere yet he had had a party in honour of his tenth birthday. It seems that our hero, considering himself spited by a Latin-Grammar-Master, demanded the satisfaction due from one man of honour to another. Not getting it, he privately withdrew his haughty spirit from such low company, bought a second-hand pocket-pistol, folded up some sandwiches in a paper bag, made a bottle of Spanish liquorice-water, and entered on a career of valour. It were tedious to follow Boldheart (for such was his name) through the commencing stages of his history. Suffice it that we find him bearing the rank of Captain Boldheart, reclining
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