A Woman's Courier. By W. J. Yeoman. (Tower Publishing Company.)—Sir
John Talbot is sent by his sister to warn her lover, who appears to be mixed up in a conspiracy against William —the Forty conspiracy of 1696. Su& is the origin of a series of most exciting and dangerous adventures which Sir John under- goes, both in the attempt to overtake his quarry—whom he firmly believes a conspirator—and in the endeavour to warn the King. It is a capital story and has a very strong air of reality about it. There is a vivid description of the Alsatia of that day. Critically speaking, Sir John Talbot ought never to have come out alive from his rash visit to the conspirators' house in Whitefriars ; his behaviour, even if we allow him a calculating recklessness, should have sealed his fate ; nor are we clear why the Grey Friar did not have him killed. Some of the scenes are quite dramatic, and the action of the plot is quick and stirring. The abduction of Miss Harcourt, but for the duel it provides, appears unnecessary ; but this is a solitary exception in a skilfully wrought fiction which brings before us with great clearness a very famous conspiracy.
Previous page
