Behind the Veil. By Emily Holt. (J. F. Shaw and
Co.)—This " tale of the Norman Conquest" is somewhat slighter in texture than some of those which Miss Holt has given to the public. Sir William Percy has granted to him by the Conqueror, after the vic- tory at Senlac, the manor of Seamer. The Saxon lord has fallen in the battle, and Sir William learns from a retainer who, having survived the defeat, searches for and finds his lord's body, that there is a daughter who would be the heiress but for his own claim. Being a simple-minded, honest man, keeping what few of the adventurers who came over with the Norman Duke possessed, a conscience, Sir William conceives that his plain duty is to marry the heiress if she will have him. His brother, a villainous ecclesiastic—Miss Holt's ecclesiastics are disposed this way—tries to turn him from this purpose, and makes an accomplice of another knight. They represent that the heiress is ugly and shrewish, and are very much disconcerted when Sir William sees her. All the circumstances of the tale are given with much care, the wedding ceremony especially; but the tale itself is scarcely up to Miss Holt's usual level.
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