To the Fiftieth Regiment.

Whatever credit it may have been my good fortune to gain in the field, I chiefly owe to the soldiers of the fiftieth regiment. When I wear the decoration of a Companion of the Bath, I do not forget the men by whose intrepidity this decoration was won; and that I am but the channel through which the King expressed his approbation of their courage. I have never claimed this mark of honour as bestowed exclusively upon myself. I bear it as the ensigns bear the colours: in honour of the King and of the regiment.

The old soldiers of the fiftieth, that yet live, are dispersed: but they still remember Egypt: they still remember Spain: and the glories of Abercrombie, of Moore, of Wellington, are yet before them, as the dreams of past wars float upon their memory! But these men die away: day by day they perish, thinking of those fields where erst they were assembled in arms. Scattered by time, they are now lost to each other: those who fell, and those who survive, are nearly alike. 'Quo fata vocant,' young soldiers, is your motto; 'Fuimus' is ours!

To the young fiftieth I am unknown: but to old soldiers, their former regiments seem ever as their home. I have three nephews in the army; their father has been my comrade from our childhood; and as I feel towards my brother and his sons, even so do I feel towards the old and young fiftieth. I therefore dedicate this book to that regiment, as the highest mark of respect that I can offer to the memory of those soldiers who once defended, and to the men who now guard its standards: standards that have passed victoriously through so many battles!

Charles James Napier,
Major-General.

(The motto "Quo fata vocant," is borne on the colours of the fiftieth regiment.)