‘Maurice Tiernay was first published as a serial in ‘The Dublin University Magazine,’ commencing in the issue for April 1850, and ending in the issue for December 1851. It was first published in book form (as a volume of The Parlour Library) with the following title-page (undated):
Maurice Tiernay | The | Soldier of Fortune | By the Author of | ‘Sir Jasper Carew’ | etc. etc. I London, | Thomas Hodgson, | 13 Paternoster Bow.
The earliest edition which has Lever’s name on the title-page is one published in Leipzig in 1861. This edition has the following title-page:
Maurice Tiernay | the | Soldier of Fortune, | by | Charles Lever, I Author of ‘Charles O’Malley,’ etc. I Copyright Edition. | In two VOLUMES | VOL. I. | LEIPZIG | BERNHARD TAUCH-NITZ I 1861.
The strangeness of some of the incidents, and the rapidity with which events so remarkable succeeded each other, almost deterred the writer from ever committing them to the press; nor was it till after much consultation, and some persuasive influence on the part of friends, that he at length yielded and decided upon so doing. Whether in that determination his choice was a wise one, must be left to the judgment of the reader; for himself, he has but to say that to ponder over some of these early scenes, and turn over, in thought, some of his youthful passages, has solaced many a weary hour of an age when men make few new friendships, and have almost as few opportunities to cultivate old ones.
That the chief events related in these pages--such, for instance, as every detail of the French invasion, the capture of Wolfe Tone, and the attack on Monte di Faccio--are described with rigid exactness, the writer is most sincere in the expression of his conviction. For the truth of incident purely personal, it is needless to press any claim, seeing that the hero owns no higher name than that of--A Soldier of Fortune.
Neither the tastes nor the temper of the age we live in are such as to induce any man to boast of his family nobility. We see too many preparations around us for laying down new foundations, to think it a suitable occasion for alluding to the ancient edifice. I will, therefore, confine myself to saying, that I am not to be regarded as a mere pretender because my name is not chronicled by Burke or Debrett. My great-grandfather, after whom I am called, served on the personal staff of King James at the Battle of the Boyne, and was one of the few who accompanied the monarch on his flight from the field, for which act of devotion he was created a peer of Ireland, by the style and title of Timmahoo--Lord Tiernay, of Timmahoo the family called it--and a very rich-sounding and pleasant designation has it always seemed to me.