CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 433 



has murdered his father. Mortimer now appears, and after a fierce 

 affray. Prince Edward and Catherine are sent to prison. Catherine 

 contrives to assist Edward to escape. Audley and the out-laws arrive — 

 blood, fire, and confusion ensue — the castle is stormed and burned down, 

 and Mortimer receives his quietus from Edward. All this is very dra- 

 matic, and therefore we can forgive our author outraging history, and 

 forgetting the real capture of Mortimer at Nottingham Castle. But this 

 is not the catastrophe of the story. This would not have had the 

 " greatest approbation" of the Ledbury audience. The close therefore, 

 the denouement of this singular and original drama is not the burning of 

 the Church, the sack of the town, and other dramatic et cetera, but 

 simply the circumstance of St. Catherine henceforward determining to 

 board and lodge in the good town of Ledbury. This is introduced by the 

 episode of a " Prophecy" uttered, we are left to suppose by the sybil 

 who took the oracles to King Tarquin, and which is thus delivered by 

 " Maid Mabel ;» 



" The last of the daughters of Audley's old line, 

 A pilgrim shall wander from shrine unto shrine ; 

 Without rest, -without refuge, the maiden shall go, 

 Till she comes where the waters of Leddon's stream flow ; 

 There the bells of a grey and ivy'd church tow'r, 

 Without hands shall be peal'd to point out her lone bow'r ; 

 When the virgin recluse, long by sorrow opprest, 

 Shall gain from the world a rude mansion of rest." 



St. Catherine receives this intelligence with very great complacence, 

 and feels from ** the holy calm pervading her mind" she shall soon 

 arrive at the end of her toils. After the burning of Wigmore Castle, a 

 guide and horses are given St. Catherine and her maid to proceed with 

 to a place of safety, but under the conduct of stupid old Coci, they get 

 lost. Here a most beautiful scene occurs, which being the best in St. 

 Catherine's history, we shall give entire, though we regret to under- 

 stand, peculiar circumstances caused it to be " omitted in the represen- 

 tation.'* 



Scene— The Banks of Sapey Brook, toith Tedstone-de-la-Mere in the distance. 



Enter St. Catherine, Mabel, her Maid, and Peter Coci. 



Peter. In sooth I fear a weary trudge is our's. 

 Worse than I ever had in all our woods. 

 Attending on the swine. The colt is lost, 

 ^ That blessed colt that never wore a shoe, 



And her good mother. 

 Mabel. Oh ye blessed saints, 



Look down on our distress, and if the rogues 

 Have led our steeds astray, drench them with rain, 

 Bid lightnings scath them ; may the furious winds 

 Blow them o'er ocean ; may the floods o'erwhelm 

 Their hideous features, and the vultures tear. 

 St. Catherine. Where'r they tread 

 The stony bed 

 Of the brook shall show 

 Their tracks below ; 

 Both colt and mare 

 Shall be shown there : 

 Where'r they spring 

 The patten-ring 

 Shall mark their tread 

 On the stony bed. 

 Peter. What do ray eyes behold ? on every stone 



Where the brook gurgles, I perceive the mark 

 Of horses' hoofs— and softly by the side 



