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THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG
[A ROMANCE OF TWO KINGDOMS]
By Gilbert Parker
CONTENTS:
THE INVASION
ELEVEN YEARS AFTER
IN FRANCE—NEAR FIVE MONTHS AFTER
IN JERSEY FIVE YEARS LATER
DURING ONE YEAR LATER
IN JERSEY—A YEAR LATER
INTRODUCTION
This book is a protest and a deliverance. For seven years I had writtencontinuously of Canada, though some short stories of South Sea life, andthe novel Mrs. Falchion, had, during that time, issued from my pen. Itlooked as though I should be writing of the Far North all my life.Editors had begun to take that view; but from the start it had never beenmy view. Even when writing Pierre and His People I was determined that Ishould not be cabined, cribbed, and confined in one field; that I shouldnot, as some other men have done, wind in upon myself, until at last eachsucceeding book would be but a variation of some previous book, and Ishould end by imitating myself, become the sacrifice to the god of thepin-hole.
I was warned not to break away from Canada; but all my life I had beenwarned, and all my life I had followed my own convictions. I wouldrather not have written another word than be corralled, bitted, saddled,and ridden by that heartless broncho-buster, the public, which wants aman who has once pleased it, to do the same thing under the fret of whipand spur for ever. When I went to the Island of Jersey, in 1897, it wasto shake myself free of what might become a mere obsession. I determinedthat, as wide as my experiences had been in life, so would my writing be,whether it pleased the public or not. I was determined to fulfil myself;and in doing so to take no instructions except those of my ownconscience, impulse, and conviction. Even then I saw fields of workwhich would occupy my mind, and such skill as I had, for many a year tocome. I saw the Channel Islands, Egypt, South Africa, and India. In allthese fields save India, I have given my Pegasus its bridle-rein, and, sofar, I have no reason to feel that my convictions were false. I write ofCanada still, but I have written of the Channel Islands, I have writtenof Egypt, I have written of England and South Africa, and my public—thatis, those who read my books—have accepted me in all these fields withoutdemur. I believe I have justified myself in not accepting imprisonmentin the field where I first essayed to turn my observation of life toaccount.
I went to Jersey, therefore, with my teeth set, in a way; yet happily andconfidently. I had been dealing with French Canada for some years, and astep from Quebec, which was French, to Jersey, which was Norman French,was but short. It was a question of atmosphere solely. Whatever may bethought of The 'Battle of the Strong' I have not yet met a Jerseyman whodenies to it the atmosphere of the place. It could hardly have lackedit, for there were twenty people, deeply intelligent, immenselyinterested in my design, and they were of Jersey families which had beenthere for centuries. They helped me, they fed me with dialect, withlocal details, with memories, with old letters, with diaries of theirforebears, until, if I had gone wrong, it would have been through lack ofskill in handling my material. I do not think I went wrong, though Ibelieve that I could construct the book more effectively if I had to doit again. Yet there is something in looseness of construction whichgives an air of naturalness; and it may be that this v