21 AUGUST 1897, Page 25

Historic Bubbles. By Frederic Lesko. (Suckling and Gallo- way.)—The word

" Bubbles " does not indicate any doubt of the reality of the persons whom Mr. Leake describes—as, for instance, the Duke of Berwick, Pedro the Cruel, and John Wiclif —but is a depreciatory estimate by the author of his own work. The first essay in the volume, and the largest, tells the story of the Duke of Berwick. It is told in a lively, perhaps too lively, fashion, but the writer evidently knows his subject, as he does, we imagine, all the subjects with which he deals. Besides those mentioned above are the "Captivity of Babylon," the story of the Popes at Avignon, "The Second House of Burgundy," "Two Jaquelines" (Jaqueline of Bavaria and Jaqueline of Luxembourg), and " Hoche." The book is about as full of misprints as any that we have ever seen.