It is seldom one reads a book first read when one was ten, and this one holds up pretty well. This one does, allowing for the difference that further education has given me. G.A. Henty had been an army officer and then a war correspondent before he took to writing "Boys Books." in the 1870's, and up to his death in 1902. Following his titles gives one a pretty good history of the campaigns of the Royal Army up to the Boer war. The stories are formulaic, but pretty well researched and this one deals with an attempt to put a lesser Hapsburg on the throne of Spain during the wars of Queen Anne's reign. Our hero is an example of boy scout virtues, and the tale is romantic and does not deal in the nuts and bolts of either battles or love. But they are well paced, and are suitable for homeschoolers of the Christian variety. While they are casually racist, in the manner of H. Ryder Haggard, overall, they are pretty good entertainment, and far more educational than "the hardy Boys'. My copy was a Foulsham Press reprint, and,sadly, seems to have the usual maps removed, which I remember as a good feature of the earlier editions I read. ( )