20 NOVEMBER 1886, Page 21

Freedom's Sword : a Tale of the Days of Wallace

and Bruce. By Annie S. Swan. With Eight Original Illustrations by C. J. Stanilaud, R.I. (Cassell and Co.)—The heroes of the story, Wallace and Bruce, are well presented, and through them and the various characters that are grouped around them, a very good picture is exhibited of those stirring and troublous times. The authoress has succeeded in describing such scenes as " The Fatal Field of Falkirk " and " Bannockburn "

without, as is so often the case, the adventitious aid of the marvellous ; and the tale moves generally within the circle of the natural and probable. It is well told, the illustrations are an acquisition to it, and the book altogether is well and handsomely got up.