Chronicles of Golden Friars. By T. S. Le Fenn. 3
vols. (Bentley.) —Mr. Le Fenn does not make us tremble as he used to do. Is it that his hand has lost something of its cunning, or that we have grown less impressionable? Certainly we have found nothing in the Chronicles of Golden Friars so awful as the deadly presence of Uncle Silas. The nearest approach to it we find in the "Strange Adventures in the Life of Miss Laura Mildmay," but the murderous step-father in that tale is a vulgar and therefore comparatively ineffective ruffian, when set aide by side with the polished, dangerous Silas. Still the story is a good one, and the last scene, when the deadly machinations of a life-time have brought about the crisis of the heroine's late, is distinctly exciting. The "Bird of Passage" is a picturesque tale, not without some pathos. On the whole, the reader who takes up any one of the " Chronicles "
will scarcely find any difficulty in finishing it. •
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