Monthly Review of Literature. 431 



did his heart respond to those ardent pulsations. A sudden sadness seemed 

 to overspread his features ; and thus in silence did they wander along, inhal- 

 ing new clouds of flattering incense from each worshipping group they passed. 



'Their steps were followed at a wary distance by three other masks, but 

 this circumstance escaped their notice. Marguerite thought of nothing save 

 her lover, and Crichton's mind was otherwise occupied. 



' Anon they entered a small antechamber opening from the vestibule of the 

 hall of entrance. 



' This room, which was filled with the choicest exotics, and hung around 

 with cages containing squirrels, parrots and other gaily plumaged birds (of 

 which Henri was immoderately fond), was for the moment deserted, even of 

 the customary lacqueys in attendance and loiterers about such places. 



' Marguerite glanced cautiously around her, and, seeing the room vacant, 

 applied a small golden key, which she took from her girdle, to a concealed 

 door in the side wall. The valve yielded to the touch, thick tapestry then 

 appeared, which being raised, the pair found themselves within a dim-lighted 

 chamber, the atmosphere of which struck upon their senses, as they entered, 

 warmly and odoriferously. 



' A prie-dieu, cushioned with velvet, stood at the further end of the apart- 

 ment. Before it was placed a golden crucifix. Over the crucifix hung a 

 Madonna, by Raphael ; the glowing colouring of which divine picture was 

 scarcely discernible by the faint light of the two perfume-distilling lamps sus- 

 pended on either side. This room was the oratory of the queen of Navarre/ 



We beg it to be observed, that no personal feeling whatever against Mr. 

 Ainsworth has dictated the above remarks. He has evidently a more than 

 ordinary knowledge of French history and manners during the period of which 

 he writes ; and his work will be consulted by many for its accessories of dress, 

 song, and manners, when the main object of the work, as a romance, shall 

 have been found to be unanswered. We shall be happy to see him dressed 

 in the more sober habiliments of the historian. 



Jack Brag, by the Author of " Sayings and Doings." 3 vols. post 



8vo. R. Bentley. 



THERE is no doubt that "Jack Brag " will be a very popular novel. There is a 

 kind of vulgar and superficial wit and humour that pervades it, from which 

 the profanum vulgus will derive much amusement and edification, a happy 

 pot-house-delighting, flash-men-enchanting" talent, that will make the book 

 highly instructive to those persons in the incipient stages of dissipation, 

 who are desirous of getting their first experience from letters, and not 

 from life. We do not mean to say that the character of Brag is not 

 painted to the life, the very life ; we do not mean to say that all or any of his 

 adventures are improbable or inconsistent ; we do not mean to deny to its 

 author a quick perception of the humorous and the broadly-farcical in a 

 certain and rather questionable class of society in this country : but after 

 all what is the value of such praise, when it is put side by side with the 

 just censure that the favourable exhibition of the most hideous vice demands 

 for the perpetrator? The opinion that is now advanced respecting the 

 author's principles as a novelist is not a new one engendered by the reading 

 of " Jack Brag " only. The same spirit runs through all his writings, and 

 in all must be more or less offensive to those who in their criticisms pay any 

 attention to moral tendency. To represent odious vice in a pleasing light is 

 bad enough at all times; but common dramatic justice requires a more 

 equitable denouement at any rate than that which closes the book now before 

 us. The favourable reception of such a work no matter who its author 

 augurs ill for the moral destinies of the literary section of the British popula- 

 tion. The above remarks have not been made in ill humour, or to gratify 

 spleen. Mr. Hook has talents of the very highest order as an humorous 



