THE EASTER NOVELS.

THE subject of Eugene Sue's De Bohan is a rash conspiracy that took place in the manhood of Louis the Fourteenth, between the Chevalier De Bohan, a ruined and disgusted courtier, Latreaumont, a military adven- turer, and Van Enden, a Republican enthusiast, with some subordinate actors. The principal figure of the piece, however, is Louis the Four- teenth ; and the real object of Eugene Sue is to strip him of his melo- dramatic dignity and grand manner, and to " show him up " in all his naked meanness of mind, selfishness of character, and narrowness of in- tellect. Considered under this aspect, De Rohan, or the Court Con- 'rator, is planned and executed with remarkable skill. Whenever Louis and his Court appear upon the scene, we have something of the solid interest of history or memoirs, with the personal description and dramatic vivacity of fiction; whilst every scene and almost every touch it calculated to degrade the Grand Monarque. The conspiracy originates in a series of insults which Louis heaps upon the member of the illus- trious family of Rohan from the meanest personal jealousy. Never doubting but that he himself is the object of attraction to all the ladies of the Court, the mighty Monarch ensconces himself in a contrived niche to listen to the conversation of the Maids of Honour in bed, feeling confident that it will relate to himself; which indeed it does, in passing, but not exactly in the strain he looked for. Moreover, he finds that

scandal attributed to De Rohan a previous success with the royal mis- .

tress, the Dutchess of Montespan. His Majesty thereupon meditates a

great revenge; which he perpetrates by an insult on a point of di quette, in connexion with Bohan's office of Grand Master of the Royal Venery. Having thus shaped the way for the conspiracy by the disgust of Rohan, the King is pretty well dropped till its detection.; when he again appears upon the scene, to exhibit the vindictive malice of a little mind.

The parts of the work connected with the conspiracy appear to us of less interest than the sketches of Louis and his Court. Everything, though clever in plan, and both solid and lively in execution, is vet; artificial; partaking of the exaggerations and startling extrema of At

theatre, rather than the reality of life and daylight : and we make this remark without regard to French manners. The bullying of Latreau- mont belongs to the traditional swaggerer of the stage, rather than to resolute impudence, overcoming weaker minds by a determined self-will, mingled with knowledge of human nature, and a frank bonhommie : even for the stage the character is gross and brutal. The scholastic enthu- siast for the rights of man, Van Enden, is equally extreme in another way : and this hard, exaggerated, and affected style, applies equally to the other persons, except to the provincial-life picture of the Chevalier Des Breaux and his father, which, though French, seems very natural. The source, however, of deficient interest to English readers is to be found in the inferior morale. The plot is not one that inspires any sym- pathy. A revolt for purely selfish and personal objects, mixed up with a foreign invasion, is not a subject that can excite interest for the projec- tors—it is felonry, not guilt. Nor are the persons of an attractive Stamp. The gross brutality and selfishness of Latreaumont is balanced by the wild enthusiasm of Van Enden. Mauritia D'O is intended to ex- hibit an example of female virtue and devotion ; but as she offers herself to De Rohan as his concubine, and afterwards submits to all his harshness and caprice, it is rather a Frenchified sort of goodness. De Rohan him- self is too weak and feeble to inspire any interest. A mere tool in the hands of the bully Latreanmont, he is rather an object of contempt : nor does the sort of affront, which it lowers Louis to contrive as a piece of vengeance, elevate the Grand Master by feeling so acutely, and revenging himself, after useless submissions, with an undignified baseness. M. Sue seems to have felt this ; and he suggests a sort of defence of the feelings of courtiers.

" It is a common custom to laugh contemptuously at the grave importance attached to nothings by courtiers. But this disdainful contempt is after all unreasonable; since, to judge soberly of these things, one should see them from the point of view from which the people one censures regard them. For these nothings are nearly always symbolical of some authority, or privilege, or pre- cedence, which epitomize and represent all that is most irritable and vivacious in the human heart—pride and egotism. Now, when these sentiments, with their implacable reaction, are called in question, and when one considers the terrible consequences which may follow this pride and egotism when wounded, or wound up too highly, the moralist will rather see cause for apprehension in them than the subject of's sneer.

" Thus, in the scene about to follow, can the reader imagine what is to decide the fate of M. de Bohan? What is to alarm for a few minutes the whole Court of -France, and to keep Louis XIV., the despotic and absolute Louis XIV., in a cruel anxiety? Can the reader imagine what is to give rise to a violent straggle between the King and his revolted subject? Can the reader imagine it to be the refusal or acceptation by the King of a miserable hazel wand?

" In a word, it was the custom that as soon as the Court arrived at the place of - meeting, the Grand Master of the Royal Venery, approaching the King, according to the privilege of his office, at the moment of drawing cover, should give into his ' royal hands a wand of hazel, about two feet in length, intended for the purpose of pushing aside the boughs of trees during the chase. This hazel rod was called '-the estortuary. In the same manner, at the death of the stag, it was the duty of the Grand Master of Venery to offer the stag's foot to the King. " Kothing, one must admit, could appear at first sight more puerile than the offer of this hazel wand and of this foot; and yet, according to the ceremonial of venery, the right of directly presenting to the Prince these symbolical emblems of the two acts which open and close a hunt was a mark of supremacy, as fall of meaning for the Grand Master of Venery as the epaulette to an officer, or the right of being covered to the President of a Supreme Court. " Thus, in the hypothesis of De Rohan's seeing the Wm g, in the face of his whole Court, refuse the estortuary which he offered him, whilst taking it at the hands of a subaltern, would not the Grand Master have cause to be mortally offended? Without comparing the position of the offended, but only the offence, would not M. De Eden, in such a case, be precisely in the situation of a general at the head of an army, who, having ranged it in order of battle, when he came to take the last orders of his Sovereign, should see the Prince, without vouchsafing him an answer, order an inferior officer to take the command of his troops."

The fact of the intensity of the feeling is true, but the conclusion de- duced from it is false. Mere intensity of feeling is not in itself a source of interest; sometimes, indeed, it is a matter of ridicule,—as the mortifi- cations of vanity of every kind, or vehement anger for trifles. The cause must be proportioned to the passion ; and on this account the " common custom" to laugh at the mortification of courtiers is right. There is this further reason—they would not be mortified but that their pursuits are trilling. A monarch may refuse to take a hazel wand from a courtier, but it would be too great a risk to remove a general when he had ranged his army in order of battle. It is only when folly verges upon madness that men engaged in important transactions are affronted in the very act of fulfilling their office. Foolish kings may subject a captain or a minister to a series of affronts when they are desirous of getting rid of him ; but if he submits to them, or resents them weakly, even the warrior or the statesman becomes obnoxious to censure.

Mount Sorel is by the author of Two Old Men's Tales; since whose appearance eleven years have passed, but without working much change in their author. The choice of subjects, the structure of the story, and the mode of composition, are in principle the same in the last work as in the first ; though either a confirmed mannerism, or the ab- 'Bence of a first work's freshness, has aggravated the faults without improving the merits. The character of the fiction is still of the meta- physical kind—singular persons influenced by singular motives, and so -peculiar that they are either sui generic or pure creations. The incidents are mostly so slight that they scarcely deserve the name of incidents: the interest of the story arises from the emotions they produce in the persons, and from the elaborate disseetional way in which everything is expounded. The writer still persists in the old fault of accumulation— of endeavouring, by heaping up words in turgid composition, to pro- duce a force that can only be derived from ideas themselves, not from -the medium that presents them.

Mount Sorel is the name of an estate ; and the story rests upon its " bargain and sale." Mr. De Vere, a gentleman of vast importance—to himself, has a hankering after the property, because it was lost by his ancestors in the Civil War: the owner of Mount Sorel, a quondam friend of Wilkes and Liberty and a hard drinking fox-hunter; is killed by a fall from his horse, leaving his affairs in great disorder. The estate is conse- quently in the market; but Mr. De Vere or his lawyer hucksters too much ; and a purchaser snaps it up, to the mortal agony of the De Vent family, and the fearful remorse of Mr. Edmund Level, a former lover of Miss De Vere, and the author of this tale, who in his old age is supposed to write his reminiscences, and who has also been the unintentional cause of the catastrophe, by carrying a stranger, he accidentally picked up, to " view the premises.' The offence of this purchase is further increased by the character of the purchaser, Mr. Higgins; a clever, offhand, rather hard-mouthed De- mocrat of the times of Borne Tooke and the Corresponding Society. His son, however, Reginald Vernon, who has taken his mother's name, is another guess sort of man—handsome, accomplished, and rather Toryfied in opinion. Introduced as Mr. Vernon to Mr. De 'Vert, by his schoolfellow poor Edmund Lovel, he cuts out the silent sighing lover : and then a love distress begins, arising from Mr. De Verea dislike to a Democrat without a pedigree. When this is got over, an- other distress is brought about, by a family quarrel, springing out of an after-dinner debate on politics. However, after half a volume of troubles, all is brought about at last, and Mr. De Vere is able to buy Mount Sorel.

Whether a subject originating in prejudice, and carried on by little more than changes of opinion springing from words, is well adapted to a fiction, may be questioned, at least in these times, when such characters as Mr. De Vere, and deadly quarrels for differences of opinions, are gone out. There is no question that the theme, if chosen, should be handled in a more level and natural way. Minuteness of description, and a rather prolix anatomy of motives, is essential to the metaphysical school of novelists ; yet they need not "do it in King Cambyses' vein." Per- haps a quiet style and a little touch of satire are more effective : but this author very often does not so much write in English as on stilts. The story, too, is spun out in a wearisome manner, by perpetual reflections and exuberant words, sometimes turgid, sometimes lachrymose.

These faults, visible in the Two Old Men's Tales, have run riot in Mount Sorel. Much of the better qualities are also to be found. There is the old pathos of The Admiral's Daughter, with power of compo- sition when the turgid style is subdued and the matter is of a kind to bear adornment. There is also a good deal of nicety in the discrimination of character. Mr. De Vere, Mr. Higgins, Mrs. De Vere, and her daughter Clarice, are each well contrasted and highly finished ; but Mr. Perrott, the Jacobin adventurer and toady of Higgins, is the best of the whole, because the most general in his traits and the least forced in the execution. Here he is on his first appearance. " Mr. Higgins, on his return from London this time, was accompanied by a man most particularly disagreeable to Reginald. This gentleman was one of those political adventurers with which the times swarmed, whose purposes were directed to take advantage of the simplicity and vanity of his fellow-creatures in order to advance his own fortune and interests. Such was Margarott; such was Robespierre; such did Home Tooke and many others always appear to me to be. Our present subject was a small, rather ordinary-looking, black-browed, black- eyed man, who affected the sans-culotte in his habits and manners, and the bitterest contempt for all the delicacies and refinements of life; who eat, and drank, and enjoyed himself, and talked of Cyrus and his cresses ; who advocated universal freedom of opinion and never would suffer himself to be contradicted: and declaimed upon universal equality, while lie commanded the services of every domestic about hum in terms and tones which few domestics in the worst of times would bear. His name was Perrott. Where Mr. Higgins picked him up, or what he could see in him, it was difficult to itay; but that he exercised a very ex- traordinary influence over that bold and masculine understanding, was certainly true; and that he flattered him in a way which would have sickened many a crowned king, greedy of flattery, as it was then the fashion to suppose kings alone to be, was manifest to every one."

This work completes the first fiction of Messrs. Chapman and Hall's new speculation called " Monthly Series " ; to consist of original works of fiction and biography at about half the usual price—that is, six shil- lings a volume instead of half-a-guinea. Whilst Mount Sorel, in de- spite of its faults, is better than the bulk of novels, it costs, being in two volumes, less than half as much.

In point of literary merit or artistical skill, there is no comparison be- tween The Freaks of Cupid and the two preceding novels. In addition to an historical knowledge and an historical object, Eugene Sue has an original historical perception. He takes a distinct view of the opinions and social classes of the period he treats of ; and if he exhibits their representatives in too extreme and melodramatic a way, the mise en scene is admirable; and though we occasionally see too clearly the tricks of art, yet we cannot deny the artistical ability. The author of Mount Sorel, in addition to considerable power and pathos, with much nicety of par- ticular observation on life, has great metaphysical and constructive skill. Every scene conduces to the progress of the story, such as it is, and how- ever it may be interrupted by needless reflections; whilst the whole, though reflecting no counterpart in life, is a complete anti coherent piece of art. But the Irish Bachelor has no art at all beyond a magazine-like style of sketching, and a "mighty power" of ringing the changes upon words; a facility which damages his story by tempting him to introduce scenes that do not advance the conduct of the tale, with various descriptions, reflections, and funny hits, that, however vivacious, are a mere in- cumbrance where they are found. Besides this, his more serious parts are very melodramatic—akin to the moral monstrosities of Harekstone, though perhaps not quite so outré. Still, we suspect The Freaks of Cupid will have more attraction for a large class of readers than De Rohan or Mount Sorel, from the more everyday character of its sub- jects. The reader of Eugene Sue ought to have some knowledge of the time in question, and of the received character of Louis the Fourteenth, to appreciate the ability of the writer, and to -relish many of the seem/. The laboured composition and delicate toucher of Mount Sorel addrees themselves to a cultivated literary taste, even though violating some of its canons. But the broad humorous scenes of The Freaks of with their free and easy style and their Irish characters, go at once to the '!sate of the million ; and if the " deeper " parts are not very natural, They are such as the million is accustomed to meet with in fictions, or "4 our own reporter's" report of Shocking Depravity, or Tragedy in Real :Life. The style also of the narrative is level enough, and the energy well -imstained. The conception is more in fault than the execution.

The story, like that of most inexperienced writers, is so complicated and crossed by endless ramifications, that we shall not attempt to unravel it. But we will give a specimen of the writer in his lighter vein.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY AT THE CASTLE : AN EXTERIOR.

A tremendous cheer from the entire crowd induced Rochefort to look up towards the spot where every eye seemed turned; and he there beheld, for the first time, `.the cause of all this commotion.

In an open window over the colonnade, smiling and bowing at a tremendous .rate, stood a gentleman, who looked as if his nourishment from the time he was ban had been confined exclusively to saffron cakes. A broad blue riband, from which depended the insignia of his rank, was visible beneath the velvet collar of his plain, dark, frock-coat, and a brilliant star glittered upon his breast; in close and honourable companionship with which appeared a shamrock, which might Aare caused the largest-sized " flat Dutch " cabbage to hide its diminished head sin very shame. When this respectable herb was duly distinguished by the crowd, -End discovered to be actually and bona fide their national emblem, it is probable that there could not have been found a dozen individuals among them who would not have suffered themselves to be kicked within an inch of their lives by the 'illustrious gentleman with the saffron-coloured countenance. As it was, a sub- tession of the most rapturous shouts issued from the respective and respectable lungs of every man, woman, and child, there present; in return for which, the _distinguished personage in the window forthwith, and in the kindest manner ,which it is possible to conceive, proceeded to favour them with a view of his ex- -eeedingly white and dazzling teeth; and to perform, solely for their gratification, rand by no means for the purpose of displaying his own graces, a series of "nods, -and becks, and wreathed smiles "; which, as a matter of course, only called forth -additional expressions of admiration.

" Long life to yer honour's glory ! "

" The blessin' of Saint Pathrick on yer Majesty's Lordship !" " Burro°, yer sowls ! look at the shamrogue " "The light of Heaven on yer path, my lord-Liftinant, jewel!"

" Amin, I pray God! " ' "Oh! place yer honour's riverence, don't be smilin' that-a-way, or sorra bit of ,znyeelf can see you—my eye is dazzled intirely wid thim teeth !" This last delicate morsel of hyperbole was the sally of a half-naked fellow, stationed sufficiently near the window to admit of his Excellency's hearing the words; and certainly if their poor author's eyes had been dazzled before, they must now have been struck perfectly sightless by the increased brilliancy of the smiles that, in due appreciation of his compliment, were levelled at the spot where he stood.

At this moment, the attraction at the window was considerably increased by 'the appearance of a very pretty, good-tempered-looking woman, with no slight tendency to embonpoint in her figure. She wore her fair hair in plain Madonna bands, its only ornament being a small coronet of emeralds ; and in the bosom of her white satin gown was tastefully placed a luxuriant shamrock. If the shouts were loud before, I'll just leave it to my readers to imagine what they became when the lady, advancing to the front of the window, removed the ,shamrock from her bosom, and holding it forward for a moment, smilingly raised it to her lips, banding her head slowly, in a graceful courtesy. In a second, .thousands of hats, and head-pieces of every description, shot up like rockets into the air, and one wild impetuous yell burst simultaneously from every lip; while, on the impulse of the moment, hundreds of poor starving wretches actually danced and jumped about in the ecstacy of their delight. " Hurrah! why don't ye shout, yer sowls ? Only look at her—look ather—see :that!"

" More power to you, my Ladyship, that you may never die in childbed, or any sother bed—barrin' the bed of glory !'

" Och, but it 's her that is the beauty !"

" Take care, my Ladyship, yer honour—there's a thief of a sparrow goin' to pick -your lips: arrah, bad !cock to him, but it's fond of cherries he is!"

"Holy Mary, my Lord-Liftinant, 'tis you that's the happy man intirely: thim dfmonds on yer coat isn't worth a thraneen tooards the jewel you have there be- side you, to wear in your heart!"

" That I may never, but Pd die happy if I could just get one shake-hands from Tier."

" You shake hands with her!--you! well, if that does'nt flog the Danes ! Why blast yer imperance, she wouldn't touch you with a pair of tongs ! " &e. &c. Such exclamations as these were heard everywhere throughout the yard, until at length the band, which, during the continuation of this scene, had been in- flicting fresh indignities on that much-desecrated piece of music the national anthem, suddenly changed it, and struck up " Patrick's Day."

Then commenced thefun in right earnest. Hats, caps, and even shoes, flew through the air, scattering in many places lively tokens of the people's joy. Young gentlemen inserted two fingers between their teeth, thereby forminga very delightful musical instrument, upon which they performed, in a most thri ling manner, sundry bars of popular airs; adding considerably to the melody of the same by elaborate variations occasionally accompanied by vocal representations of dogs in extreme agony and masculine cats serenading their " ladye loves." Men shouted—women screamed—children squalled—and his Excellency displayed his utter contempt for that antiquated proverb which says, " You shouldn t show your teeth where you can't bite."

The theme of The Parish. Rescued is the confusion produced by the influence of a Tractarian Curate over his feeble-minded superior, and a coxcombical scion of Young England. The parish rescue is effected by means of the Squire, a neighbouring nobleman, and his liberal and modern-minded chaplain, who holds views similar to those of the late Dr. Arnold—that the Clergy are not the Church, and that the Laity have a right to interfere in the duties and management of religious matters. The interviews between these various personages, and several lesser actors, naturally give rise to some occurrences. and many dialogues, which serve .to inculcate the author's own opinions, and to exhibit those of his adver- saries, with one or two which we think they might disclaim. The Parish. Rescued exhibits the same ability as The Rector in Search of a Curate, but is not so attractive a work. This arises in a measure from its didactic or polemic nature. In The Rector in Search of a Curate, there was little story, and that little subordinate to an exhibition of character. But there was a story, with various persons of various religious views ; and, though they talked a good deal, they exhibited religious character and manners in their discourse, as well as religious opinions. We think, too, that the views promulgated in the former publication were of a broader and more general cast than those in The Parish Rescued. Some of these, however maintainable out of Scripture, are new to the practice of the Anglican Church, (though familiar enough to Dissenters and Presbyterians,) and will scarcely Dewy the reader along with them.

In polemical fictions, where the fancy is allowed a fuller scope tbanin graver works, the author is strongly tempted to undesigned misrepresent- ation, by ascribing motives and attributing conduct to his persons which he would not perhaps venture upon in a more definite form. We are not sure that The Parish Rescued has escaped this fault. It is fair enough to show Young England in action --saluting an elder brother as if doing homage, bowing still more humbly to a divine, and seeking out an otto- man that he may sit below the parson of the parish on a chair. But is it quite fair to make this humble-minded Churchman challenge Squire Creighton for commenting generally on a public desecration of the Sab- bath, or has one of the pious brotherhood so forgotten himself as to pro- pose this mode of settling differences? Neither does it seem legitimate warfare to name the Tractarian Curate " Lurcher," to represent him as practising cunning and deceit to accomplish his ends, and stimulated in his conduct by a view to a living : whilst, sorely, the party at large do not uphold these

SABBATH PASTRAMI.

On their way from church, the Squire and his lady met Mr. Beaver; who ad- vanced towards them with an expression of deep concern, almost of horror, in Ids countenance.

" One might imagine you had been at church this morning, by your looks, Mr. Beaver," said the Squire; " or is there something worse 111 the wind than our being anathematized and excommunicated ? "

" No, no," replied the old man, shaking his head sorrowfully; " I was not at church; I have been trying the Methodist chapel for the fifth or sixth time : but it won't do--a sad, loose, rambling discourse, and then nothing to call prayer. Perhaps it was to them, however, but I could not feel that I bad any part in it. Have you heard, sir, what's going to be done this afternoon? "

" By whom ?"

" By Mr. Oldthorpe, sir, and the parsons. There's a Maypole set up on the green, and skittles, and foot-balls, and all aorta-of things provided; and the lads and lasses are to have dances and games as soon as church is over."

•

As they approached, the sounds of music gave them notice that the revels had begun: but when they arrived upon the ground, they found themselves in the midst of a scene of uproar and confusion. The mothers of some of the young persons who had been enlisted for the dance and sports, had come to the green in a body, and, with loud expostulations, and not a few of them with tears, were im- ploring their children to quit the unhallowed festivities, and return home. Several of these were pions women; but many of them, though so little under the in- fluence of religion that they had habitually allowed their sons and daughters to roam abroad and amuse themselves on the Lord's Day, were yet so shocked at its systematic desecration, that they had, unsolicited, joined their more consistent neighbours in their attempt to rescue the young people from their danger. The clergymen were not there; but Austin Oldthorpe, dressed with his usual scru- pulous attention to propriety of costume, and having for the present occasion a Urge bouquet of flowers at his breast, was endeavouring_ to pacify or intimidate the women, and to restore the interrupted pastimes. When Mr. Creighton made his appearance, and the cry of " The Squire, the Squire I " was loudly raised on all sides, he advanced to meet him, with an embarrassed and sullen air, and made him a formal and distant salute.

The first four novels of Easter have occupied us so long, that we will not detain the reader for the Maids of Honour. The scene is laid during the time of George the First; one of the heroines is Pope's " dear Lepel' ; the other " Maids" are Bellenden, Howe, and Meadows. Besides the courtiers and statesmen of the age, the author introduces some of its literary lions, and, in short, endeavours to paint the regal, fashionable, and celebrity London life and character of the earlier Brunswicks ; ..as well as scenes of high life below stairs. The author has no lack of con- fidence in himself ; but it may be doubted whether he is quite equal to his ambitious theme. We are not clear that he has a thorough perception of the age, or of the proper means of artistically displaying it.