590 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[Nov. 



vice, and forthwith packed off to St. 

 Petersburgh. Though annoyed and dis- 

 appointed, he was accompanied by a 

 tieid officer, who treated him with civi- 

 lity, travelled by a new road, and saw, 

 ot course, new countries. At Peters- 

 burgh all was speedily set right, the 

 emperor personally expressed his regrets 

 for the unpleasant mistake, and set him 

 instantly at liberty. The Captain re- 

 turned home across the ice of the Baltic, 

 through Stockholm and Copenhagen a 

 pretty considerable tour in a few months. 

 Captain Alexander was delighted with 

 the Russians, and wonders a good deal 

 at Dr. Clarke's eternal grumblings but 

 Hussia, it must be remembered, has 

 changed within tive-and-twenty years. 

 English and Germans swarm. We are 

 eaten up with Germans, was the remark 

 and if the Russians can do without 

 them, as we suppose they now can, it is 

 no wonder they are jealous of them. 

 The memory of Catherine is not parti- 

 cularly agreeable to Russians she was 

 the great patron of foreigners, and her- 

 self a German. Captain Alexander has 

 made a very agreeable book his narra- 

 tive is spirited, and his observations in- 

 telligent. 



Tlie Heiress of Bruges, by the Author of 

 " Hi(jh-ways and By-ways," i. e. Thomas 

 C. Grattan, Esq. 4 vols. \2rno. Mi*. 

 Grattan makes the Netherlands all his 

 own. It is the scene of his facts and his 

 fictions; and though we shall not say, 

 as has been said ot some others who deal 

 in both commodities, that his histories 

 are novels not, we mean, beyond the 

 usual average we must say, 'that the 

 novel before us is too much of a history 

 the siege of Welbasch, occupying a 

 good couple of volumes, is as mortally 

 wearying to read, as it may be supposed 

 it was intolerably hard to bear. To the 

 merit of thorough acquaintance with the 

 country he describes though so near, 

 not so well known as many more remote 

 ones with its histories, and antiquities, 

 and municipalities, and to the higher 

 merit of faithful and graphic representa- 

 tion, the writer has the fullest claim. 

 He is as familiar with its traditions, and 

 its customs and costumes, as the author 

 of Waverley with those of Scotland ; 

 but we may soon have too much of this 

 kind of thing, and especially where the 

 interest has got to be generated. Scot- 

 tish story is mixed up with our own 

 at least its main facts and leading cha- 

 racters are early dinned into us ; but 

 this is not the case with Flemish story ; 

 and though Maurice of Orange was an 

 active and vigorous fellow, he is, in our 

 common imagination, neither a Wallace 

 nor a Bruce, nor even a Stewart. 



The scene opens in Bruges every 

 stick and stone of which is as familiar to 



the writer as household words and all 

 that concerns the Heiress of Bruges 

 comes within the year lb'00, when the 

 Netherlands had been again betrayed 

 into the dominion of the Spaniards, and 

 the government of the Archdukes Al- 

 bert and Isabella. Theresa is sole heiress 

 of immense wealth her father, the bur- 

 gomaster, whose own early history fills 

 up a large space, is involved in the new 

 revolt of Brabant and Flanders, under 

 the auspices of Maurice of Orange her 

 admirer is a popular leader, at the head 

 of a band of black Walloons, and in pos- 

 session of an all but impregnable fort- 

 ress on the Meuse, from whence he 

 makes predatory excursions to the very 

 gates of Brussels. He is in love with 

 the beautiful heiress, but alarmed lest 

 she should fall in love with his exter- 

 nals, his name and reputation, he re- 

 solves, if he gain her affections at all, 

 to win them solely by his personal qua- 

 lities. He accordingly gets himself in- 

 troduced to her notice, in a comparative- 

 ly humble capacity, as her father's ap- 

 prentice or protege, and being a Proteus 

 for disguises, and a Crichton for accom- 

 plishments, he quickly effects his pur- 

 pose. But then he is not sure, but as 

 Count de Bassenvelt, he may not sup- 

 plant himself, and he resolves to put her 

 to the fullest proof. For this purpose, 

 he intercepts her in a journey, and car- 

 ries her to his castle then in a state of 

 siege where, though sorely tempted by 

 the glories of his bravery, which she 

 seems to witness, and the splendors of 

 his generosity, which are all carefully 

 reported, and the effects she indeed 

 feels she clings still to her obscurer 

 lover, and finally, of course, discovers, 

 to her great felicity, that the Count and 

 her father's protege are identical per- 

 sons. The equivoque is admirably kept 

 up, and it is almost to the last before 

 the reader himself is sure that the two 

 characters may not prove two indivi- 

 duals, 



An old Spaniard, the governor of 

 Bruges, figures in the piece, and espe- 

 cially two young Moriscoes, the man in 

 his service as his slave the girl, a no- 

 vice in a neighbouring nunnery, and on 

 the point of profession. He had wronged 

 their parents, and recently attempted 

 violence on the beautiful and high spi- 

 rited girl herself. She was burning for 

 revenge, loathed the nunnery, and clung 

 to her ancient faith. At this nunnery 

 was Theresa, and De Bassenvelt had 

 attempted to gain admittance through 

 the young Morisco, her companion, 

 more ardent in temperament, and bolder 

 in demeanour. In this attempt he failed, 

 but excited the passions of her friend, 

 who finally prevailed upon him to aid 

 her escape from the walls, and then 

 threw herself into his arms, without 



