Brakespeare ; or, the Fortunes ofa Free Lance. 3 vols.
By the Author of Guy Livingstone.—We have never before had so much pleasure in meeting the Author of Guy Livingstone. In fact, the chain mail of a Free Lance suits his hard-hitting heroes better than does the frock- coat of the nineteenth century. In those volumes ho tolls the story of how Ralph Brakespeare fought for King Edward III. and for his own hand in the French and Italian wars, and tells it with uncommon spirit and vigour. There is not much attempt at drawing character. Knight and Squire aro not much more than fortis Gyas fortisque C'loanthus, with the proper difference allowed for gentler and rougher breeding; but the figures are at least natural and life-like, and the dialogue, though it is of the usual style with which we are familiar in the historical romance, and hardly seems the sort of talk that human beings over actually used, is nevertheless sufficiently spirited and bril- liant. Care, too, has evidently been taken that the costumes and other accessories should be in keeping, and the writer has been generally successful, though there are one or two oversights. It seems, for instance, rather late to be speaking of Norman, meaning English, barons, and rather early to be speaking of Lollards in the middle of Edward M.'s reign. The story moves on with the orderly sequence of a chronicle rather than the involutions of a plot ; but it is one in which the reader's interest never flags, and it is interspersed with some pieces of description which strike us as being as fine as anything of the kind which we have read. The account of how Ralph holds the staircase at Hacquemont against the mutineers, and the closing eceno of the tale, when he is besieged in the same place by 011ivier do Clisson, are really magnificent. The story of Poitiers, on the contrary, is but feebly told. The writer, we should say, can handle a few figures with groat skill, but becomes confused where there are many. We must not forgot what seems to us the most artistic thing in tho book, the quiet breathing- place which Ralph is allowed to have in the midst of his stormy life. Every reader will feel the relief. And the story of his visit to his native land is very well told, though with something of a cynics]. bitterness. Altogether, this is a good romance.
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