In „The Man-Stealers" we have the French plot to kidnap the Duke of Wellington to avenge Napoleon's imprisonment. Matthew Phipps Shiel (1865–1947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained „Shiell" though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name. He is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. „The Purple Cloud" (1901; 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel. If you haven't discovered the joys of Shiel 's mysteries there is a good place to start.