This is really rather good, in that it is quite gripping and surprising. A young man and his sister lose their mother early. Their father remarries to a wife who seems sprightly and well-meaning, but gradually puts up barriers between children and father. The sister marries to escape her step-mother, the young man is forced into the Royalist army with Falkland. After an atrocious battle, he awakes naked and takes the clothes of some of the fallen. He finds shelter but succumbs to small pox. He writes to his father who is celebrating birth of a new son, and is denied on the basis that father knows his son is dead. He is then captured on the instructions of his step-mother and imprisoned by her lover, Colonel Stumpel, for 19 years in Germany. Eventually he meets his step-mother there who is also imprisoned - she dies, but not before passing him some treasures to give to her son. He travels and meets his step-brother who has his title. His step-brother is a good man and Bertrand stays incognito so as not to take place back. Eventually Colonel Stumpel turns up and attempts to extort money from Bertrand, they fight and both die, but not before his half-brother knows the true story and concludes the memoirs.

There is not that much dialect, but there are a couple of very minor female characters who are a touch non-standard, plus when Colonel Stumpel shows up he disguises himself as a 'black' and speaks accordingly. Throughout, there are lots of references to the fact that people are speaking in French or German, but no attempt to represent it on the page. Likewise, there is no attempt at a Northern dialect even for servants.