Originally published in 1948, this book is of a remarkable gentleman, Alexander Stewart, who was born in Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, in 1790, and died in 1874. In middle life he wrote for his children an account of his adventurous youth, when he ran away to sea, was captured by the French, and spent some ten years as a prisoner. On returning home, he took to teaching, but then came a compelling inner call to the Christian ministry, and for the remainder of his life he preached the gospel with characteristic vigour and courage.

Sir P. Malcolm Stewart, his grandson, in his Preface speaks of his "sense of pride in Alexander Stewart's patience, endurance, and determination, in his great physical and moral courage, and his fight for freedom whether in prison or in the ministry."

"The style of writing," says Alexander Stewart, "which I have adopted is that of unadorned narrative," and such a story needed no external embellishments. His early narrative is given in extenso; the later portion is taken and abridged from his diary. Altogether it is a remarkable addition to the corpus of memoirs of the Napoleonic era.

This book is a re-issue originally published in 1948. The language used and views portrayed are a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.