The `Blue Dragon.' By Frances Mary Peard. (National Society.) —This
is a tale of the latest years of the fifteenth century. As a tale, indeed, it loses something from the variety of interests which the author has introduced. She has evidently studied the period closely, and is perhaps over-anxious to make use of the results. The City of Chester is busy, when the story opens, with the preparations for a miracle-play. Two grandchildren of the hostess of the Blue Dragon ' are concerned with it. Jack is to play the part of a shepherd ; Meg, not fair enough for an angel, is con- strained, much against her will, to supply the sweet voice which the blonde damsel, Katharine Hobson, cannot command. The constraint comes from her interest in a certain young Fleming, who has not left England with his banished countrymen, and is hiding for his life. Then we have a man-at-arms who had fought on the losing side at Bosworth field, and is now plotting against the reigning house ; the story of a witch, and of an outbreak of pestilence. The canvas is crowded, we might almost say to con- fusion, with figures; but they are carefully drawn, and with correct surroundings.
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