The Burgomaster's Wife, A Tale of the Siege of Leyden.
By George Ebers. Translated by Clara Bell. (Macmillan and Co.)— This is a novel of the historical order, relating to the famous siege of Leyden, in 1574, when it was besieged by the Spaniards, and heroically defended by Adrian van der Werff and Jans Douse, and in com- memoration of which the University of the town was founded. Eng- lish people, as a rule, have little or no idea of what Dutch life may have been like in those days, and the picture of this unfamiliar sub- ject that is afforded by; the book before us constitutes its chief merit. It shows the Leyden men and women, old and young, going about their daily avocations both immediately before and also during the siege, and represents them as capable of attending impartially to the claims of patriotism, affection, and business, in a manner truly phleg- matic and Dutch. The various characters are moved by hatred of the enemy, loved country, religion, martial glory, home, sweethearts, and other strong feelings but nowhere in the book does any emotion quite attain to the dignity of passion,—a tranquillity which seems eminently in keeping with the nationality of the story, for how can any passion be expected to flourish in full vigour in a land whore a thought of profit and loss mingles imperceptibly in every transaction, as naturally as the damp from its endless canals forms part of the normal condition of its atmosphere ? There is absolutely no plot ; the characters are better in conception than in execution, and lack somewhat in finish and development ; and it cannot be de- nied that the story drags at times, and that there is no stage in which it is sufficiently absorbing to make one object to lay it aside. Yet it is interesting, for all that, and is carefully written, and we think it may be called a good novel, subject to the drawbacks men- tioned above. We have a heroine in the very unusual predicament of being in love with her husband end lover simultaneously; but as she is thoroughly virtuous and high-minded, the lover, though a perfect paragon among young men, has no chance at all, and has to retire, and leave the lawful owner in undisputed possession, How the tidings of approaching relief were brought to the besieged by a pigeon is duly related, and the heroic Maria is doubtless intended as an embodiment of the spirit by which the women of the period were animated. But it seems an omission that no mention should be made of the lining of the ramparts by women, or of several other historical incidents which might have been introduced with advantage, and altogether we are of opinion that the author might have made con- siderably more use than he has done of the excellent material afforded by the stirring events of the siege. By-the-bye, are Dutch Bibles different from ours, or is it a printer's error which attributes St. Paul's discourse on charity to the nineteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians ?
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