19 SEPTEMBER 1846, Page 18

MR. J•111E8'11 HEIDELBERG.

IN this his newest production the unceasing Mr. James is descried pur- suing the even tenour of his way, between pure nature and mere art, with curious fidelity, and with more than his average felicity. The people, the story, the accessories, all bear the stamp of his peculiar recoina,ge,—not new, but yet done up so as to be almost as good as new. It would take a clever reader—one as clever as Mr. James himself—to make out the book by anticipation; but as each personage comes before you, as each incident °emus, you recognize the old familiar face, the old style of occur- rence. Yet there is real flesh and blood beneath the customary theatrical wardrobe. Both the art and the nature appear with unusual distinctness in these volumes. You might fancy that the author had written the whole book for the sake of parts ; those portions being really invented, conceived, and distinctly made out : the others drawn from the old store- house to fill in, and hastily pieced together after a set fashion. The tale opens, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, with what a chess-player would call Mr. James's "king's gambit "—a description of landscape, and two horsemen riding on to the scene. The two are called Algernon Grey and William Lovet. Grey is soon discovered to be some great man incognito; and Lovet, his cousin, is a knight ; for the attendants inadvertently call him "Sir William." They ride into the learned and fortified town of Heidelberg, where the Elector Palatine and his wife Elizabeth of England, James the First's daughter, are holding their Court. By the way, the horsemen encounter a young gentleman, who serves them as guide, and proves to be their fellow guest at an inn. This per- son, the Baron Oberutraut, is rather assuming, on the score of much gallant conduct, both on field and carpet ; and it chances that the English- men lay him a wager that they shall be received at Court without telling their names. They are courteously received, and at once welcomed to partake in all the gayeties. Moreover, Algernon is introduced to a fair guard, who is intrusted with him for the evening; and there are speedy signs that his captivity will last much longer. Just about this time the Bohemians have deposed from their throne the Emperor Ferdi- nand, and they offer it to the Elector Palatine. The peculiar manner of Grey's appearance at the Court leads to the erroneous belief that he is secretly sent by James of England to watch events ; and the Elector Palatine induces the young Englishman to accompany him on his regal enterprise. Meanwhile, however, Grey has fallen irretrievably in love with his fair guard, Agnes Herbert, a young lady of English extraction. Some hidden barrier prevents him from marrying, and he determines to leave the Court ; but events prevent his virtuous resolve: the cousin, Sir Wil- liam, for purposes of his own, manages to throw the two lovers together, in spite of Algernon's avoidance; an accident helps the design, and places the couple in the tender relation of rescuer and rescued ; and finally the expedition to Bohemia, by which Algernon seeks to separate himself from the lady, really detains him near her for a year, since she accompanies the Electress to Prague. Frederick, gay yet bigoted, brave yet lacking enemy, cannot secure his hold of the unstable sceptre; is at church when he should be afield ; and finishes his reign with the disas- trous flight from Prague. Nay, hunted by the vengeance of the Em- peror, Frederick is pursued to his own electorate, utterly defeated, and deprived of his original dignity ; which is conferred on his victor, the Duke of Bavaria. The book ends with the siege and storm of Heidel- berg, where the opening festivities were held. The historical events are skilfully handled: they form really the main thread oft he story, which would otherwise, in what may be called its private incidents, be meagre enough ; but the great personages and public affairs are not suffered to obtrude to the detriment of the personal interest, which is paramount throughout. The loves of Algernon and Agnes are delicately and agree- ably portrayed—he yielding stern duty to an overmastering and worthy passion ; she, brave, gentle, and confiding : the reader rejoices when poetical justice is done to her faith. The bold Baron Obemtraut, who is cured of his insolence by a lucky wound from Grey, and becomes a se- rious and most politic soldier, is an excellent character. Sir William Ifford, alias Lovet, a kind of Iago, is a lively sketch ; by no means fal- ling into the routine style of delineation so common with the "villain" of romance.

The interest of the book lies in the progress of the story and the gradual development of the emotions and personal interest, so that it is difficult to choose separate passages for extract. All is readable : the descriptions are among the best specimens of the writer's execution. The accident which had so great an influence on the mutual knowledge of the two lovers is a drowning from which the lady is rescued. A party of pleasure returning on horseback to the Palace finds the Neckar swollen; the ford is attempted, and Agnes misses the track. Algernon is near; he pushes a boat from the shore, and takes the drowning girl into it ; but their peril is not yet over.

"Then it was she perceived the frill danger of their actual situation. Erenin the grey twilight she could see that the edge of the small boat was within an inch of the surface of the boiling stream; that the bark itself was half full of water, while Algernon Grey was busily employed in baling it out with his hands, as the

only means he had of freeing it even in a degree. • * * •

'A rock, a rock !—there, on the right!! and Algernon rising cautiously, took the short pole, which was the only implement the boat contained, and watched eagerly in the bow, till they neared a spot where one of the rude masses of granite still held its head above the current which dashed and whirled around it. Then, lightly touching it with the pole, he kept the boat off in deeper water and in another instant, scarcely able to keep his feet, found himself whirled round in the vortex formed by the impeded torrent the moment it was free. "Oh, what a terrible period was the passage down that stream ! At each in- stant some new danger beset them—now the rocks—now the shallows—now the rapids—now the eddies: no means of approaching the shore; and reasonable doubts that any effort to do so would not lead to immediate destruction The sky became darker and darker every moment; and though by the aid of Agnes, afforded to the best of her power, a considerable portion of the water in the bark was cast back into the stream, still the fragile lightness of the skiff, and the depth to which it had sunk, rendered it little probable that those it contained

would ever reach the land in safety. * • *

"Night fell: not a star was to be seen; the clouds swept thick and dark over the sky; but still, from time to time, a momentary light was afforded by a broad sheet of summer lightning, which for an instant casts blue glare through the valley of the Neckar. The mountains were seen and lost; the rocks, the trees, the woods, stood out and disappeared like phantoms in a dream; and at length walls and towers became for one brief moment visible; and then all was black again. "'We must be near the bridge,' said Agnes; do you not hear the water rush- ing more fiercely? Heaven help us now! for, if we strike against the piers, we are lost.'

"'Sit quiet there,' answered Algernon; 'I will go into the bow; and be as- sured, dear lady, I will live or die with you. Only remember, if I am forced to swim, lie quiet on my arm; for if ?a:in clasp me, we both sink.' " ' I will not stir,' she said in a firm tone; and Algernon Grey went carefully forward.

"He heard the roar of the river, evidently dashing in fury against some ob- struction; and then he thought he caught the tones of human voices speaking above. Then came a broad sheet of lightning; and he saw the bridge, with its manifold arches and its towered gates, close at hand. He had but time to stretch forth his arm, and, with a violent effort, keep the boat from the pier, when it shot in fury through the vault, and issued forth at the other side. * • *

"The fearful rushing sound of the swollen Neckar diminished shortly after they had passed the bridge. They could even hear, or fancied that they heard, the hum of human voices from within the town. Lights were seen in various win- dows, and cheerful images of happy life came thick before their eyes, as they were hurried on, along the course of that dark, headlong stream, with many a peril still before them."

They land at last; but far down the stream, in a remote country dis- trict; and they do not reach home till the third day. All this is well narrated.

We have mentioned the theatrical counterfeit of nature from which Mr. James sometimes consents to draw. Subjoined is a specimen, curious in the exactness with which the stage is copied. Algernon is placed in custody for the supposed murder of Oberntrant, and is consigned to a. private room in the Castle, where he is left alone. His instant soliloquy smacks strongly of the foot-lights. "Algernon was left alone. For an instant he gazed round the room, while the key grated heavily in the lock, and then laughed in a light, cheerful tone. Hera I am a captive,' he said ; weld, though unexpected, it is no great matter. A few short hours, a few short days, what are they from the sum of life; and '"--!••••••• And so forth : the soliloquy fills two pages, all of that expository kind so familiar to the playgoer ! Here is another touch from the theatre : Lovet visits his cousin in custody ; and an officer leaves them together, telling the visiter how he can be admitted in future. " • Thanks, Colonel, thanks,' answered Lovet, and gazed after him to the door, ere he spoke to his cousin. The opening of his conversation was as strange as usual; for be began with a loud burst of laughter. Caged, Algernon, caged!' he exclaimed. 'Well, upon my life, a mighty pretty dungeon, and convenient !'" There are, however, many better passages in the book ; though, as we have said, difficult to separate from the context. It is a striking scene where Lady Catherine, Algernon's impediment, attempts to kill with poisoned sweetmeats a noble admirer who has insulted and thwarted her : he suspects, and will eat nothing but what she shares; but she will not be foiled : deliberately, with bland and winning ease, she shares with him the fatal food. One of the best passages is the closing siege of Heidelberg, with its mingled fierceness and tenderness, its doubts and hopes, sorrows and joys.