The First of the Ebb. By Ronald Macdonald. (Everett and
Co 6s.)—We have here a really good story of the French Revolution. The author draws his outlines and uses his colours with due restraint, and there is no subject in which such restraint is more difficult. The Marquis de Grands Rives is typical of the better class of the noblesse ; but the best, perhaps, of the French dramatis personae is Pere Gregoire, a priest, who for the sake of his people has elected to conform to constitutional modes. That, it will readily be understood, is not an easy portrait to draw. The chief actors in the story are the priest's brother, a revolutionary leader, who has a private grudge and a private ambition to satisfy in his dealings with the de Grands Rives family, and a young English noble, who has come over, at his father's instance, to manage the escape of the family. We must not interfere with the well- arranged suspense which the story is made to lead up further than by saying that the penultimate chapter bears the title of "The Tenth of Thermidor." This is a vivid, skilfully managed piece of dramatic work.
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