Under Two Flags (novel)
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 First edition title page | |
| Author | Marie Louise de la Ramée |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Chapman & Hall |
Publication date | 1867 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 321 + 320 + 347 |
Under Two Flags is an 1867 best-selling novel by Ouida.[1] One of the most famous of her books, it tells the story of an English aristocrat, apparently in disgrace, who disappears and joins a French battalion in Algeria, loosely based on the Foreign Legion. It was first published in three volumes by Chapman & Hall in London.[2][3][4]
The novel is about The Hon. Bertie Cecil (nicknamed Beauty of the Brigades).[5][6]
In financial distress because of his own profligacy and the loss of an important horse-race on which he has bet extensively, and falsely accused of forgery, but unable to defend himself against the charge without injuring the "honour" of a lady and also exposing his younger brother (the real culprit), Cecil fakes his own death and exiles himself to Algeria where he joins the Chasseurs d'Afrique, a regiment comprising soldiers from various countries, rather like the French Foreign Legion.
After Cecil's great childhood friend and the friend's beautiful sister show up in Africa, and after a series of melodramatic self-sacrifices by Cecil and by the young girl Cigarette, a "child of the Army" who sacrifices her life saving Cecil from a firing squad, the main conflicts are resolved and the surviving characters return to England to fortune, title, and love.
