552 
ment for the beginning of January, have 
been delayed to what may be called the fag- 
end of the publishing season ; and the gossip 
public have accordingly been’ long looking 
forward to the time when the tardy’ mide 
wife, the Press, would usher the expected 
progeny into the world. They have at Jast 
made their appearance; and, as usual, with 
their peculiar merits, they possess all the 
glaring faults for which this most prolific 
of writers may be said to be renowned. 
Still all his characters are principals, but 
his hero —all his best situations are, in some 
degree, sacrificed, and-the progress of his 
narrative delayed, by laboured attempts at 
characteristic dialogue and dramatic effect ; 
and his description overlaid by an anxiety 
to entice the notice of the artist, and to 
rival the picturesque of art upon the printed 
page. Still, @ Pordinaire, he brings his 
heroes into such scrapes, that, even in our 
present days of consideration, and relaxed 
notions of chivalry and honour, we should 
find it difficult to get out of; and, as usual, 
the explanation or winding-up of his story 
is hurried.oyer in the most inexplicable and 
unsatisfactory manner, similar to new- 
stage fashion of dropping the curtain, when 
the author has brought his characters into a 
dilemma, from which he knows not how 
to extricate them. 
These are great faults, which require 
great merits to counterbalance them. Such 
merits are, however, to be found. The 
four volumes under the-present denomina- 
tion of the Crusaders, contain two tales— 
the Betrothed, and the Talisman—each 
filling out two volumes. ‘The scene of 
the first is laid- on the borders of Wales, 
and contains the trials of a young lady, 
who, from feelings of gratitude, betrothes 
herself to a gallant knight and noble, much 
older than herself, who i is obliged to leave 
her for the Holy Wars, where he is absent 
three years. On his return, he finds that 
she has not only fallen in love with his 
nephew, a young and handsome knight, 
whom he had made guardian to his be- 
trothed ; but that her castle is besieged by 
the king himself, to whom she had refused 
to deliver up the person of her lover, 
though attainted with high treason. Reports, 
of course, have gofie abroad, confirmed by 
the belief of the lady’s own vassals, not 
very favourable to her character; and 
ambiguities and difficulties become so com- 
plicated, as seemingly require both time 
and space for their unentanglement. But, 
as the author feels himself tied to the limits 
of two volumes—two having already been de- 
voted to the former story ; and four being an 
established golden number with the trade, 
—although for the honour of manhood, a fair 
and virtuous dame must not be left in the 
terrible dilemma, and the loss of character, 
into, which her knight of the quill has 
prought her, he feels himself calied. upon 
to do the best he can to mend the matter; 
and, being satisfied that the reader is con- 
Monthly Review of Literature. " 
[July I, 
scious of her innocence, he makes his sub- 
jects, all of a sudden, become as’ easily 
credulous, and dispense with all’ proofs 
which their-former ‘suspicions would‘séem 
to have required in troop ; and patches up 
the matter by marrying her to a object of 
her affections. 
Inthe ‘Talisman, here we are ebecesithiek 
among the Crusaders—in the very heart of 
the camp, and yet without.a battle. - The 
action takes place during the truce with 
Saladin. Who has read Madame Cottin’s 
‘“Matilda,” and not»been delighted? She, 
like the Author of Waverly, and the other 
Scotch novels, has trodden this ground; 
she appeared to have Jeft no recom for 
another in the same path: and to us, we 
confess, the present tale seems compara- 
tively fat and insipid after her’s.' But com- 
parisons are particularly ddious, when ano- 
ther nation and another sex appear to have 
the preference ; so we will say no more-on 
that subject. 
The Talisman is, from beginning to end, 
amasquerade. It is crowded with charac- 
ters, three of whom are under disguises, 
and shift their garments and their func- 
tions as rapidly as Mr. Mathews, in. his, 
monodramatic speaking pantomime, at the 
Lyceum. We have not space to enter nto 
the detail of the story; but must confine 
ourselves to the observation, that, notwith- 
standing the unrivalled pretensions ef the 
author in many striking respects, and not- 
withstanding that in this tale, as in all that 
he has produced, there are highly interest- 
ing parts and.scenes, there is little unity of 
action, and comparatively little interest, in 
the main conduct of the Talisman. 
ed 
FOREIGN LITERATURE, &e. 
FRANCE. 
Pevand de l’ Histoire du Brésil, &c.. A 
Summary of the History of the Brazile, Soi- 
lowed by an Historical Sketch of Guiana. 
By M. F. Denis. Paris, 1825, 1 vol. 18mo. 
The two parts of this work are executed on 
the same plan, and commence with valuable 
statistic and geographic details: what 
notices could be collected concerning the 
aboriginal and ancient inhabitants of Brazil 
and Guiana—more certain and detailed ac- 
counts respecting the period that has elapsed 
since the conquest of these countries, and 
the definitive settlement of Europeans 
therein, conclude the volume. The king> 
dom of Brazil, more powerful and: more 
‘important than that of Guiana, afforded @ 
-much wider field of inquiry, and on it M. 
Denis has bestowed a:mere particular de. 
gree of attention; adding’seme well-drawn  ~ 
conclusions as to its future prospects, and 
‘the advantages that should follow its suc- 
cessful assertion of independence; and the 
hnithig picture thus presented i is necessary 
to eiface the dolorous impressions of a long 
series-of struggles and massacres of . the 
unheppy Indians: At the head, ‘of the 
volume 
