The Bonnet Conspirators. By Violet A. Simpson. (Smith, Elder, and
Co. 6s.)—This is a very amusing little drama of the days immediately after Waterloo, when Napoleon was still at large. The scene is laid in a village on the South Coast, where the smuggling trade is made a cover for more questionable, not to say treasonable, undertakings. The heroine's twin brother is in- volved in the smuggling, and is made a tool of by the more serious conspirators; or rather, since he is put under arrest out of harm's way, it is the heroine herself, Marie Maclean, who is mixed up in these doubtful doings. A certain piece of cipher lace, which is at one time triumphantly twirled and twisted round an unconscious lady's new bonnet, and is then hastily pledged for a more innocent ornament, is the documentary evidence of treason,—and the story winds its way among hiding-places, trap-doors, and caves in a very thrilling manner. A charming love-story is worked into the plot, and the whole book is treated with a graceful fancy which it is singular to find in a rather melodramatic novel of this kind. Altogether the story is very pleasant and satisfactory reading, and if, as we may judge from the title-page, it is a first book, it gives promise of even better things to come from the pen of the author.
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