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Monthly Review of Literature, 



party of dragoons, they are attacked by a 

 body of Indians, headed by an infamous 

 crew of English in Indian disguises, and 

 massacred the nurse is left for dead, the 

 child is snatched up by an Irish soldier and 

 handed to his colonel, who discovers in him 

 a memorable likeness, and finally adopts 

 the orphan. The child is brought up as 

 his son is educated in the military schools 

 of France, and is for the first time, as an 

 independent agent, conspicuous in the de- 

 struction of the Bastile. The colonel and 

 his old servant, accidentally in the neigh- 

 bourhood, are drawn towards the scene, and 

 being in the dress of the king's troops, are 

 instantly seized, and rescued from butchery 

 by the sudden appearance of the youth, whose 

 activity had given him influence over the 

 atrocious mob. The same influence ena- 

 bles him to rescue another officer, a friend 

 of the colonel's, severely wounded, whose 

 last words, scrawled on a sheet of paper, 

 referred to a Madame St. Leu at Sevres. 



To Sevres, after the death of the officer, 

 to execute the supposed wishes of the dead 

 man, the youth goes in company with a 

 friend of the colonel he himself is too 

 ill to go where, luckily, they discover the 

 lady, and with her a lovely girl, her daugh- 

 ter. With this daughter the colonel's 

 friend is wonderfully struck, parentally, that 

 is, while the youth is shot through and 

 through with the sharper arrow of love. Of 

 course a mutual attachment springs up 

 between the young folks, but the course of 

 true love, as usual, is speedily roughened by 

 the appearance of another young, but very 

 mature gentleman, whose object is, it pre- 

 sently appears, at all hazards to marry the 

 lady ; for she is, he believes, the true heir 

 to the greater part of the property his own 

 father possesses. The hero of the tale is 

 himself compelled to join his regiment, but 

 being quartered at St. Cloud, he readily 

 effects frequent meetings with the charmer, 

 and in a few days marries her, very syl- 

 vanly, under the green wood tree, just to 

 put the seal irremovably upon the connec- 

 tion. These clandestine meetings the rival 

 speedily discovers, and being of an unscru- 

 pulous turn, he readily contrives to get the 

 youth denounced to one of the sections ; 

 and he is only saved from the guillotine 

 by the manoeuvres of Barbu omnipotent 

 with the mob a ruffian in appearance, but 

 one who had been a fellow-student, and 

 deeply indebted by personal services, was 

 eager to make a return. In prison, the old 

 Irish nurse, who had been left for dead, re- 

 appears as the wife of the gaoler, and she, in 

 collusion with Barbu, finally effects the young 

 man's escape the very day in which his rival 

 had arranged with a band of hired wretches 

 to carry off the lady by force. 



For the accomplishment of this scheme, 

 he, misled by appearances, had employed 

 this very Barbu, who, though no ruffian 

 himself, could command ruffians, to get 



together the accomplices, and thus unwit- 

 tingly he let his rival into the secret of his 

 devices. Of course the plan was baffled 

 Barbu, indeed, fell a sacrifice to the rage 

 of his disappointed employer, while he him- 

 self perished within a few hours by the ven- 

 geance of a husband whose wife he had 

 seduced. In the meanwhile, discoveries 

 more than we can enumerate, or even follow, 

 are preparing. Mad. St. Len proves to be 

 the young foundling's own mother, and in 

 the midst of his distraction at the thought 

 of having married his sister, she is disco- 

 vered to be the daughter not of Madame St. 

 Len, but of the lady of an Irish officer, 

 killed (the lady we mean) in America, and 

 substituted, unknown to Madame, in the 

 place of a dead child of her own. The Irish 

 officer is the very friend who accompanied 

 our hero to Sevres, and who was so parent- 

 ally struck by the young lady's appearance ; 

 and the colonel himself, he is Irish too, and 

 had once been betrothed to Madame St. 

 Len. The complexities and confusions are 

 most confounding, but all ends happily, and 

 we dare say, very clearly, and every body 

 finally understands which is which, and 

 who is who. The foundling proves to be 

 the Lost Heir, and, of course, the true heir 

 to the very property which his villainous 

 rival had been ready to commit any crime 

 to secure. Esto simplex munditiis. 



The other tale, entitled Prediction, is the 

 fulfilment of an Irish foreboding the result 

 of a threat of a Senachy, some 600 years 

 ago, who, being driven from the service of 

 his lord, declared that the last of his race 

 should be a priest, and bury the last of the 

 said lord's line. The story finds the two 

 families the Senachy's, with one male only, 

 and he is brought up as a priest ; the lord's, 

 with two sons, and though the old predic- 

 tion is revived by an old crone, no fears are 

 entertained. With the two boys is brought 

 up a little girl, the only daughter of an In- 

 dian nabob ; and between her and the 

 second boy, gradually ripens an attachment 

 which nothing but death can blight. The 

 youth of the parties makes a little protrac- 

 tion expedient, and the two brothers travel. 

 In the meanwhile, the girl's father, an am- 

 bitious man and a protestant, gets into par- 

 liament, chiefly through the influence of his 

 catholic friend ; but no sooner is he secure 

 in his seat, then, finding it more to his ad- 

 vantage, he rails and votes against the catho- 

 lic interests. Of course estrangement be- 

 tween the two families follows, and ulti- 

 mately, by misrepresen tations and treacheries, 

 the poor young lady is induced to marry 

 another, in accordance with her father's 

 views. The consequences are dreadful it 

 becomes a perfect raw-head and bloody 

 bones story; and before it finally closes, 

 all but the priest are dead by duelling, 

 burning, madness, or anguish thus mak- 

 ing good with a vengeance the miserable 

 prediction. 



