15 JANUARY 1910, Page 25

Gentle Knight of Old Brandenburg. By Charles Major. (Macmillan and

Co. 6s.)—Readers who remember Mr. Major's "Dorothy Vernon" will expect a good story, and will not be dis- appointed. The scene is laid in Prussia in the days of Frederick the Great's father, the "Prussian Majesty" who had the over. powering passion for tall Grenadiers. A certain hereditary Prince, seeking to escape an unwelcome marriage with a daughter of Augustus the Strong, falls into the hands of one of the King's very unscrupulous recruiting sergeants. That is the beginning of the story. But " Captain Churchill," for the Prince assumes an alias when he is captured, is not the hero of the story, except that he marries the heroine. The " Gentle Knight" is quite a different

character, wholly unfit for the part, we should think him, when be first appears on the scene, but showing himself quite equal to it. Adolf, the gentle, the magnanimous, the grotesque Margrave of Schwedt," is so fine a study as to put Mr. Major's tale in a high rank of historical novels.