Count Hannibal. By Stanley J. Weyman. (Smith, Elder, and Co.
Gs.)—There is something more in this story than the daring deeds and thrilling escapes that one expects from Mr. Stanley Weyman. The interest centres in the character of the hero, Count Hannibal, who is at first a mere ruffian, but who for the sake of his lady gradually develops into a really great and strong man. The story opens in Paris on the Eve of St. Bartholomew, and the horrors of the streets and " of Seine's empurpled flood " make a lurid background to the Count's fierce wooing of Clothilde. The historical characters appear only so far as they are necessary to the romance, which is worked out with a. strong and direct touch. We will not attempt to give an account of the plot, the reader will prefer to find that out for himself ; we will only say that there are no tiresomely obvious complications, but that the book is genuinely exciting up to the last page. The terrible Count, with his battle-cry of " A Tavannes," his rough Norman retainers, his passionate love, and his iron control over himself, makes such a striking figure that the other characters, except, of course, the lady, are in danger of being ignored, and it is difficult to sympathise much with their troubles. Clothilde de Vrillac, who begins as a timid country girl, soon becomes the equal of Tavannes in daring and steady courage, and one feels that they are well mated, and that her release from her first lover was not too dearly bought by all the horrors and miseries she went through.
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