Springhaven: A Tale of the Great War

by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore

"Springhaven: A Tale of the Great War" by R. D. Blackmore is a novel published in 1887. Set on England's Sussex coast during the Napoleonic Wars, it follows the sinister Captain Caryl Carne, a half-French, half-English villain who plots to aid a French invasion. As invasion fears grip the coastline, Carne fills his ancestral castle with gunpowder and conspires with Napoleon's forces at Boulogne. The story weaves together naval officers, an admiral's headstrong daughters, and brief appearances by both Nelson and Napoleon himself.