30 NOVEMBER 1889, Page 24

Captain. By Madame P. de Manteuil. Translated by Laura Ensor.

(Routledge and Sons.)—This is a capital story of a Breton sailor and his dog; perhaps it might be said, of a dog and a 'Breton sailor of whom he takes charge. The Breton, however, is no common man. He has courage, faithfulness, and skill. Indeed, he rises from being a common sailor to the rank of enseigne de vaisseau, a promotion which is, we suppose, impossible in our Navy. But he is overshadowed by the greatness of his dog, which is simply one of the most admirable creatures in the worlds of fiction a-nd fact, and yet never transcends in his feats the limits of possi- bility. A better story of its kind we have never read. It has a special interest as giving a pleasant picture of life in the French Navy, a region of which young English readers know very little, and as also supplying a narrative of the French operations in Indo- China. It would not be a genuine French story if it did not -contain an odious Prussian, who tries first to buy and then to steal the marvellous dog, and who is nearly bitten to death for his pains.