For Henri and Navarre. By Dorothea Conyers. (Hutchinson and Co.
6s.)—Miss Conyers has achieved more than one success, and now she seeks conquest in what is to her, if we remember right, a new field. Clearly she has studied the time about which she writes ; she brings to her task her gifts of distinct character- ization and of humour. Badelon, who is a serious Sancho Panza to the very serious Quixote Gerard Comte de Montigny, is quite admirable. Of course he is but a minor personage in the story ; but an historical novel without good minor personages is sadly apt to be dull. For Henri and Navarre is certainly not dull. The picture of Henri himself is very effective. There is some- thing of a Dutch minuteness about it. How many of our readers, we wonder, have realized that there was at first sight a. certain insignificance about him which hid the great leader from casual eyes. As to the Comte himself he is perhaps too much of the familiar successful hero of romance ; here it is that his squire and mentor, Badelon, comes in so usefully. Queen Margot is excellently drawn. The scene in which she outwits Catharine de' Medici is particularly good. We congratulate Miss Conyers on her work.
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