Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, had been a reigning
toast in 1760. She had even been courted by George III, and might have
been handed down to history as the mother of princes. In her old age she
was more proud to be the mother of heroes; and her letters still exist,
written in the period of the great wars, to show how a British mother
could combine the Spartan ideal with the tenderest personal affection.

[Illustration: SIR CHARLES NAPIER

From the drawing by Edwin Williams in the National Portrait Gallery]

Their father's appointment involved residence in Ireland from 1785
onwards, and the boys passed their early years at Celbridge in the
neighbourhood of Dublin. Here they were far from the usual amusements
and society of the time, but they were fortunate in their home circle
and in the character of their servants, and they learnt to cherish the
ancient legends of Ireland and to pick up everything that could feed
their innate love of adventure and romance. Close to their doors lived
an old woman named Molly Dunne, who claimed to be one hundred and
thirty-five years of age, and who was ready to fill the children's ears
with tales of past tragedies whenever they came to see her. Sir William
Napier tells us how she was 'tall, gaunt, and with high sharp
lineaments, her eyes fixed in their huge orbs, and her tongue
discoursing of bloody times: she was wondrous for the young and fearful
for the aged'.

Instead of class feeling and narrow interests the boys developed early a
great sympathy for the poor, and a capacity for judging people
independently of rank. Charles Napier himself, born in Whitehall, was
three years old when they moved to Ireland. He was a sickly child, the
one short member of a tall family, but equal to any of them in courage
and resolution. His heroism in endurance of pain was put to a severe
test when he broke his leg at the age of seventeen. It was twice badly
set. He was threatened first by the entire loss of it, next with the
prospect of a crooked leg, but he bore cheerfully the most excruciating
torture in having it straightened by a series of painful experiments,
and in no long time he recovered his activity. In the army he showed his
strength of will by rigid abstinence from drinking and gambling, no easy
feat in those days; and he learned by his father's example to control
all extravagance and to live contentedly on a small allowance. His
earliest enthusiasm among books wa