THE POTENTATE.
[TO THZ EDITOR OF THZ “srscrAroa.1 Siu,—In the review of my book, "The Potentate," which appeared in the Spectator of April 30th, my critic quotes certain names which he objects to on the ground that they were not Italian, and because of some obvious misprints, asserts that I am ignorant of my subject. In reply to this, I beg your permission to state that a year's residence in Italy for the purpose of study, gives me the right to claim more than an intuitive knowledge of the period. The book is a romance, not an historical novel; the name " Dernement," however, happens to be historically correct, being the name of a descendant of a French noble who had settled in Italy (a common enough occurrence in the fifteenth, not as your critic imagines, the sixteenth, century). I challenge any accusation of historical inaccuracy in my book, excepting any that may refer to my intentional use of modern phraseology.—I am,
Sir, &c., FRANCES FORBES-ROBERTSON.
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