200 

 i 



,ound. The only one within his reach is u 

 deserted wood- house, in Lord Trevanion's 

 grounds. Unluckily this Lord is an ultra- 

 royalist, whom nothing would better please 

 than unearthing- Reuben, and bringing his 

 head to the block. But what can he do? 

 Poking about, however, for a convenient nook 

 to sleep the day away, he discovers a flight 

 of rubbish by steps, leading up to a lady's 

 summer bower. This bower is the frequent 

 resort of the Misses Trevanion, and was now 

 speedily visited by Adeline, the eldest ; a 

 thoughtless, conceited, romantic, but good- 

 natured young lady, who, buried in the coun- 

 try, and unsought, was sighing for nothing so 

 much as a concealed knight;. Her solilo- 

 quies tempt him to discover himself. She, as 

 may be imagined, is perfectly intoxicated 

 with vanity, in being the depository of a life 

 and death secret, and construes all his warm 

 thanks, for the good dinners she daily brings 

 him, into professions of burning love. Her 

 father, Lord Trevanion, was not only, as we 

 said, a violent royalist, but a close attendant 

 also upon court, and greedy for influence ; 

 cold, morose, and severe to boot ; and never 

 visiting his wife and daughters, except when 

 political or other business calls him to Dor- 

 setshire for a few days he might be coming 

 too any day. Adeline, therefore, was fully 

 aware of the hazard of any conduct that 

 might lead to discovery ; but, finding herself 

 unequal to the keeping of so dangerous a 

 secret not daring to confide it to her mother, 

 and not content with telling it to the rushes 

 (which do not babbie in these days), she 

 makes her sister Helen the recipient of her 

 love affair for such she chooses to consider 

 Reuben's forced residence in the wood-house. 

 Helen, quite the antipodes of Adeline 

 all prudence, refenue, and fidelity hears 

 the story with unspeakable dismay ; seeing, 

 at a glance, how fatally the loyalty of the 

 whole family of the Trevanions might be 

 compromised by her sister's folly, she ex- 

 acts a promise from her not to go again alone 

 to the wood-house, and engages herself to 

 go with her the next visit resolving to pre- 

 cipitate Reuben's departure. But she is pre- 

 vented. 



Lord Trevanion announces bis intention 

 of coming down shortly to give judge Jeffe- 

 ries a splendid dinne^ in honour of his butch- 

 ering judicial campaign, it behoving all can- 

 didates for court favour, be thought, to ack- 

 nowledge the nation's obligation to so deter- 

 mined a servant of the crown. Captain Tre- 

 vanion arrives moreover with a troop of 

 horse, and Adeline is suddenly compelled in 

 her sister's absence, to bring Reuben for 

 safety into the very house. Other emergen- 

 ces totally cut off escape ; and the sisters are 

 driven to the desperate expedient of getting 

 him taken into the family as a butler. The 

 most interesting part of the book now comes 

 on ; and agitating scenes, arising out of the 

 tremendous peril incurred by the protection of 

 the fugitive. 



The dinner draws nigh. Jefferies arrives, 



Monthly Review of Literature^ 



[AUG. 



with Colonel Kirke and the royalist gentle- 

 men of the county, and most unexpectedly 

 Goldingham himself. Poor Reuben is ha- 

 rassed to death. He is, of course, awkward 

 in bis new vocation ; the assembled butlers 

 and waiters pretty numerous on so splendid 

 an occasion unanimously grumble and 

 abuse ; while he, poor fellow, is compelled 

 not only t <> bear these trials of cruel mock- 

 ings, but to keep his attention alive, and pur- 

 sue his official duties collectedly, through the 

 frequent mention of his own name, and many 

 a brutal threat from Jefferies, insultingly and 

 emphatically addressed to Goldingham across 

 the table, that his nephew's head should 

 grace the ball-door of Goldingham Place, as 

 soon as he could be caught. 



Soon, however, Reuben was obliged to 

 quit his fair protectresses, but not before he 

 surrenders his heart wholly to Helen's 

 charms. Adeline, however, persists in re- 

 garding him as her own dear knight ; and 

 for many months afterwards, during his ab- 

 sence, his subsequent capture, his escape from 

 prison, long after his return from Holland ou 

 the publication of the amnesty, and finally, 

 through his many visits to her father's house, 

 when his attentions to Helen were of too 

 marked a nature not to undeceive anything 

 but a fool. London, however, cures her ; and 

 shortly, from natural caprice, she thinks of 

 him as one that had never been : so that 

 Helen, whose generosity had prompted her to 

 refuse Reuben's offers, on the ground of her 

 sister's affection, had to repent at leisure, for 

 making sacrifices for one who had neither 

 head nor heart. 



The suit at last begins again ; but Lord 

 Trevanion must be gained. All heroines 

 demand papa's consent at first. Papa says 

 decidedly, no. So, like Cecilia and Delville, 

 they are obliged to do with only mamma's. 

 Still the fates are awkward spinning 

 spinning on, for the sake of a third volume, 

 that is yet hardly begun. A cousin, whose 

 life he has repeatedly saved, falls desperately 

 in love with Helen, and becomes, of course, 

 an ingrate, and a villain, and plots impedi- 

 ments. A neighbouring squire, too, sanc- 

 tioned by her father, demands her hand, and 

 being refused, prepares to kidnap her. Nay, 

 Reuben himself is kidnapped by a party of 

 Whigs in a cave, where he had unluckily 

 heard them hatching more conspiracies ; 

 and not being able to convince them that he 

 had himself been in the mess, and was and 

 is as great a traitor as themselves, is just 

 sent over to Holland for a sail, while the 

 truth of the statement is inquired into. All 

 these things delay the marriage but at last, 

 of course, it does take place, and the vo- 

 lumes end. 



To turn for a moment from the tale to its 

 execution. The style is leisurely and nervous, 

 resulting from an union of very strong com- 

 mon-sense and moral feeling a faculty of 

 accurate delineation, and a stern determina- 

 tion to make a book of it that determi- 

 nation being the rallying point, to which 



