3 DECEMBER 1887, Page 24

A New Exodus; or, the Exiles of the Zillerthal. By

Catherine Ray. (.Tames Nisbet and Co.)—This is a very pleasing story of modern Protestantism and persecution in the Tyrol—or, at least, of each Pro- testantism and persecution in the first half of the present century- which leads to an emigration almost en Md888 of the Protestant com- munity of the Zillerthal. The exiles are worthy people, recalling the Welder:mien type, and several of them, notably the lovers, Johann and Um], are worth studying as individuals, and apart from their parti- cular form of Christianity. But the true hero and heroine, Hermann von Nantberger and Bertha Rammer, are persons, in the first instance, outside of, if not hostile to, the little Protestant community. From this very fact, perhaps, they possess, or seem to possess, more genuine character than the others. The career of Bertha, who becomes a great singer and a countess, is very carefully and skilfully sketched. But there is not an inartistic figure in the story, which is one of the best of the kind—the religious gift-book kind—we have ever read. The local colouring is quite as notable for its accuracy, as are the ethico-religions sentiments in it for their soundness.