7 NOVEMBER 1885, Page 20

Stirring Events in History. (Blackie and Son.)—There are twenty-one scenes

in this book, some of them familiar to most readers, some new, we should imagine, to all but a few. Such is the story of " Maldonata," belonging to the time of the foundation of Buenos Ayres. But is it really true that Maldonata was found surrounded by "famished tigers" who yet dared not attack her on account of a lioness and her whelps planted at her feet ? If we substitute leopards for tigers (which are not and never have been found in America), the story still makes a considerable demand ou our faith. The story of the " Assassination and Last Hours of Gustavus III. of Sweden " is another, which, though accessible enough, lies beyond the range of ordinary reading. The "Story of Mazeppa" is, we fancy, romance rather than history. Mr. Daven- port Adams, if we are right in recognising that industrious writer under the initials appended to some poetical translations, has borrowed this from M. Andre Vulliet. Bat the "True Story of Mazeppa," recently published, pate the Cossack Prince in a somewhat different light. In " Rienzi," on the other hand, the editor substitutes the historical for the romantic figure which Lord Lytton has made familiar.