Excerpt from Abraham Fabert: Governor of Sedan: Marshal of France, the First Who Rose From the Ranks; His Life and Times, 1599 1662 Who was Abraham Fabert, and why should an account of him be written in English? The biography now offered to the public bad this natural origin. Many years ago, while travelling for rest and recreation, the author picked up at an Edinburgh book-stall a copy of the Vie de Fabert par le Pere Barre, and read it for amusement. Until then he knew no more of Fabert than this - that he was a Marshal of France whose statue he had seen at Metz, that his name figures in the Appendix to Voltaire's Siecle de Louis XIV., and that it was mentioned here and there by other historians. The two little brown volumes of the Canon of St. Genevieve, however, disclosed the character of a man, so different in many respects from that of the French soldiers of his time, that the author was led to push his inquiries farther and deeper; and thus he came to admire, and felt constrained to write out his estimate of the adventures, attainments, and high qualities of this Fabert. Some progress had been made, in hours of leisure, when a new French life of his hero was announced; and then, thinking it would be needless, the work was laid aside. The new Life, by Colonel Bourelly, is full, complete, based on profound researches, a genuine example of exhaustive investigation and conscientious labour; but it is not suitable to the British public. In due time the desire to set forth the merits of the printer's son who became a Marshal, of the brave, faithful, and studious soldier, of the Governor who took his duties to heart, of the wise administrator and enlightened economist, sprang up afresh, and the result of yielding to temptation is contained in the following pages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.