This Week's Books
Iv ever a woman disproved the cynical proverb "Si jeunessc sava it , Si oleillesse pouvaz 1 " it was the PrincesSe des Ursins,whose biography by Miss Maud Cruttwell has just been published (The Princess des l'rsins. Dent. 8s. 6d.).• For it wasnot until she was fifty-eight that the Princess got her chance of making history, a chance of which she made such good use that during fourteen years she was the virtual ruler of Spain. Having victoriously defied the Allies and her own sovereign Louis XIV, she succeeded by dint of high courage • and a brilliant wit in establishing the Bourbons on the throne. Her reward was to be chased out of the kingdom he owed her by-Philip V. It is indeed an atmosphere of romantic adventure we breathe in Miss Cruttwell's volume ; nor will the student be dis- appointed, since the amazing record has been built on careful research. Whether the author's psychology is equally accurate is another story. To call St. Simon, the most ruthless critic of kings since Tacitus, "a prince of snobs" is a debatable
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