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.