The Silver Axe. By Evelyn Everett-Green. (Hutchinson and Co. 5s.)—This
tale, which has already appeared in serial form, begins with the days of King James, and is carried on to the death of his son. The "silver axe" is a mysterious weapon which presages death to those to whom its edge is turned, Prince Charles, of course, among them. There are those who will relish this element in the story, and indeed it pervades the whole. When we get to the siege of Herondale Castle, the actual warfare is touched in the vaguest way, and the mysterious predominates. We must frankly confess that Miss Everett-Green's careful historical studies please us more than this "Castle of Otranto" business.—One of these said studies, indeed, she gives us in After Worcester (T. Nelson and Sons, 5s.) The story of Charles's escape is one which never grows stale. The King, for whom, un- scrupulous as he was, one can hardly help feeling a certain liking, showed himself at his best, and he was served with a fidelity which it is not easy to match elsewhere. The whole affair is curiously picturesque, and we happen to have abundant details of it. This is exactly the subject for Miss Everett-Green. She spares no pains to make herself acquainted with all that can be learnt about the subject which she takes up—Red, White, and Green, by Herbert Hayens (same publishers, 59.), is a story of the great struggle between Austria and Hungary, begun in the year of revolution, 1848. The situation, as it affected a Hungarian patriot, was complicated. He had to be in arms against the very man to whom he professed, and honestly professed, allegiance. He was in revolt against the Emperor of Austria, but he was loyal to the King of Hungary. It is on this double relation that, in a great measure, the story turns. When we add that the ilungarian hero rescues, falls in love with, and is loved by the Austrian high-born maiden, Theresa von Arnstein, . the reader will see that the materials of a pretty story have been provided. Mr. Hayens is an excellent hand at describing a fight, and does not neglect to use his power. This is a very spirited story.—Out with Garibaldi. By G. A. Beaty. (Blackie and Son. 5s.)—Frank Percival, the hero of this tale, is the son of an English officer and an Italian lady who has been brought up to believe in the freedom of Italy. The early chapters relate the events which culminated in the siege and capture of Rome by the French. The tale itself opens in 1860, when Frank has his life-work set to him. His father has dis- appeared, his mother's father has been kidnapped, and it becomes his duty, on both public and private grounds, to help in the liberation of Italy. It is .a good subject, which appeals with both traditionary and actual force to English readers. We helped Italy in the past, and Italy is not ungrateful for the services which we rendered her. Mr.Henty,always welcome as a teller of historical tales, will come on this occasion with a special recommendation. —A Trek and a Laois?, by Jane Spettigue (same publishers, 2s. Gd.), takes us back to a time when the trouble of South Africa was not the conflict of Boer and Briton, but of white man and coloured. That is trouble which we cannot suppose to be done away for good and all, and the present is not a bad time for remembering it. It is not exactly an attractive picture that Mies Spettigne draws of frontier life in Cape Colony, but it is full of novelty and excitement. —The Three Scouts, by Fre,. Whishaw (Griffith, Farran, and Co., 3s. Gd ), is a " Story of the Bo [- War," the war, that is, that is still dragging on. Of c”urse the, are ulenty of adventures in it, as, for instauee, when one of th.,
scouts gets a Boer to hold his horses while he does considerable mischief to the man's comrades. They learn from the man about
the purposed mounting of a gun and bring about its destruction. Naturally war is mixed up with love, and there is an English mauvais sujet, we are sorry to say, who does his best to make mis- chief. We must own that we do not care to meet the war, except where it is inevitable, in newspapers and magazines, but this is a very good tale of its sort, as, indeed, we expect Mr. Whishaw to give us. —The reader of short stories has a great choice before him. Three volumes of them, all made up to the same magic number, according to what has become a regular custom, appear under the auspices of Mr. Alfred H. Miles. First we have Fifty- two Stories of the British Empire (Hutchinson and Co., 5s.) These begin with London, which suggests the familiar tale of how Edward Osborne saved his master's daughter from drowning, and go in succession to Australia, Canada, India, and South Africa. Some are fiction and some are fact, not that the fiction, written by those who know the place and the people, may not be every bit as true as the fact. If any one, however, wants fact pure and simple, for him are provided narratives of how each part of the Empire came to be what it is. These are the "Stories of the Colonies." Then we have Fifty-two Stories for Boys and Fifty- two Stories for Girls (same publishers, 5s. each), each volume with a goodly list of contributors, and giving plenty of excellent reading. In each volume the stories are divided according to their character,—" Home and School," "Boy- hood (or Girlhood) and Youth," "Life and [Adventure," or "Adventure at Home and Abroad," &c.—Venture and Valour (W. and R. Chambers, 5s.) contains fifteen stories, new and old, for we see the name of James Payn among the authors, and a very funny story his "Hunting Extraordinary" is. James Payn did not love sport—did not some one say of him, "The labour we delight in physics Payn" ?—and having been com- pelled to hunt in his youth, he takes a gentle revenge for what he endured.—Hero Patriots of the Nineteenth Century. By Edgar Sanderson, M.A. (Hutchinson and Co. 6s.)—Some of the heroes whom Mr. Sanderson celebrates are, we imagine, but little known among average readers. Martin Dia7, for instance, is an unfamiliar name. Yet he helped with his guerillas the:work which Wellington was doing with his regular troops. (Mr. Sanderson very properly puts his foot on the ridiculous fiction that the guerillas actually liberated Spain.) Unhappily, he attempted to overthrow the despotism of Ferdinand VII., and was put. to death. Ferdinand, who had never struck a blow for his throne, had no gratitude for those, whether English or Spanish, who had brought him back. After Spain, the Tyrol. Andreas Hofer most of us know, but we are glad to hear of some of his associates. The Greek War of Independence also intro- duces to us some little-known heroes ; so does the South American Revolution, in which others besides Bolivar played a part worthy of commemoration. After these we have the stories of Abd-el-Kader, Schamyl of the Caucasus, Manin, and Garibaldi. This is a book which we should choose out of many for a boy. He must be a dullard indeed in whom it would not rouse some un. selfish emotion.
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