The Half-Mad Lord - Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford (1775-1804) by Tolstoy, Nikolai - 1978

London: Jonathan Cape, 1978. A near Fine unmarked copy (Fine apart from a single page having the lower corner tip not cut properly leaving a very small portion protruding) with dustjacket that has a touch of wear and is not price clipped. xiv + 239 pages. 29 plates and 6 illustrations in the text with map endpapers. In the reign of George III, the notorious Lord Camelford alternately horrified and amused his respectable contemporaries. Into the 29 years of his brief life he managed to fit an amazing succession of exploits. As a boy he sailed with Vancouver to the Pacific, fell out with the Captain, was repeatedly flogged, and finally abandoned at Hawaii. Making his way home along with a British secret agent he encountered in Ceylon, he rejoined the Navy, thrashed Vancouver publicly in London, was court-martialled for killing a fellow officer and finally resigned his commission after yet more extraordinary scenes. Camelford next became involved in a series of complex intrigues, culminating in his secret expedition to France, disguised as an American sailor, with the aim of 'settling the war with a single blow'. Armed with a specially designed 9 shot repeating pistol, the eccentric peer approached Napoleon's quarters in the Tuileries Palace. From the files of the French secret police, the author has been able to reconstruct adventures that may have come from a Baroness Orczy novel. A1C. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.