1926.] 
and Ireland’s History for the subject. Sated 
as we have been with Scottish story, we 
are quite ready to turn to the records of 
another country, and Ireland as well as, 
or better than any other. She’ furnishes 
materials in abundance. ‘She has been op- 
pressed for ages,’ and’ her oppressors have 
been her historians. She is Catholic, and 
we have her story told. by protestants. 
Misrepresentations inevitably followed, and 
prejudices have now rooted in the hearts 
of successive generations. It is high time 
to hear the other side freely and fully ; and 
no way half. so effective, as the medium of 
tales: for nothing else, now-a-days, gets 
ed, The writer of the tale before 
us is weil qualified to play the part of na- 
tional historian under the guise of the na- 
tional novelist. He knows the country and 
its history, and is deeply stung with a sense 
of that country’s injuries. He wants no- 
thing but a little more resolution to cut 
away superfluities, and a little more address 
in conducting us at once medias in res. He 
is too fond of surprises; he attempts, by 
crowding incidents, to give that life and 
reality which would be better accomplished 
by lopping off the incumbrances of minor 
ones ; and the flow of his language is too 
frequently checked by breaks and peren- 
theses; but these are curable defects. He 
has the stuff and staple of a good narrator 
in him; when he comes to the action, and 
warms in the business of his tale, he is vivid 
and vigorous ; scenes of bustle and confu- 
sion rouse his best energies, and his powers 
of description, mental, moral and natural, 
are of no ordinary cast. 
Historical novelists, at least, those of 
any value, haye an object, distinct from the 
tale. That of the author of the Scotch 
novels.is sufficiently obvious, and the views 
of the writer of the. Boyne Water are 
equally conspicuous. He regards the strug- 
gle of the. Revolution as one of religious 
parties.. He gives James credit for mo- 
deration; and believes he had no other 
view in any of his attempts than to rescue 
Catholics from. their oppressions, and to 
establish general toleration. Of course the 
Revolution itself was gratuitous. On the 
other hand, he considers William to have 
~been influenced by the same yiews, but 
_overborne by the-fears and bigotries of the 
protestant clergy. Of the latter there can 
‘be little question; but quite as little, we 
think that James, “whatever were his pri- 
(Wate wishes, never would have been sut- 
fered to. stop at all short of the re-establish- 
ment of Catholic superiority. 
_c> The, main object of the novel is to give 
_@ representation .of the state of Ireland 
» from, James’s abdication, as his expulsion 
_ig still curiously phrased, to the Treaty of 
‘Limerick ; though the tale commences with 
chis,accession ;, Just to. give the author an 
Opportunity of exhibiting the feelings of ex- 
Beciay on, ‘which that eyent excited among 
all parties. ‘T'o the principal characters of 
Domestic and Foreign. 
9 
the tale, we are introduced, on their way 
from Belfast to Cushindoll, a village on the 
north-east coast. ‘The travellers consist of 
Evelyn and his sister, both very young, very 
handsome and very amiable, in the style of 
those, who are destined to figure in “ mo- 
dern story,” with their guardians and atten- 
dants, of whom, in our brief sketch; we 
shall have no occi:sion to speak. In cross- 
ing the hills, the topography of which is 
very elaborately described, extraordinary 
difficulties are encountered—roads were 
not Macadamized in those days—and to fill 
up the measure of their alarms and em- 
barrassments, a tremendous storm—a _tor- 
nado, such an one as is now never seen with- 
out the tropics, overtakes them. A sweep- 
ing dispersion ensues, one falls to the earth, 
another performs a series of somersets down 
the hills, and Miss Evelyn is luckily rescued 
from destruction—her frightened jennet 
backing to the very edge of a precipice—by 
the critical appearance and fearless energies 
of a young gentleman and lady. These 
young natives of the hills, a brother and 
sister, prove to be persons of most surpris- 
ing excellence, vigorous and resolute, as 
the mountaineers of romance are of course 
entitled to be. ‘To the house of their pa- 
rent, a ruined chieftain of the clan Me Don- 
nel, the young Evelyn and the party are 
finally carried for shelter. Intimacy soon 
grows up among the young people, and 
they are speedily betrothed to each other. 
Out of these sudden engagements spring 
the subsequent interests and perplexities 
of the tale—the McDonnels being Catho- 
lics, and the Evelyns Protestants. Evelyn 
just to give him time to reach his majority, 
is dispatched to the West-Indies for a cou- 
ple of years, and returns to Ireland to con- 
summate his marriage with Eva MecDonnel, 
at the period when every body was’in a 
state of excitement respecting the invasion 
of William. McDonnel meets his friend 
on landing at Carrickfergus, and in a few 
hours, each of them, unknown to the other, 
is enlisted on opposite sides. Evelyn is 
encountered by George Walker, the well 
known defender of Derry, and, by the ur- 
gency of that wily agitator, is engaged to 
take part in the approaching struggle, and 
at the same moment the Jesuit O’ Haggerty 
presents McDonnel with a commission of 
dragoons in the service of James. Walker 
labours hard to break off the match with 
the Catholic Eva, and at last exacts a pro- 
mise to be summoned to the nuptials. On 
the day of the double marriage, the cere- 
mony; delayed by the non-arrival of Walker, 
at length proceeds, and Eva and Eyelyn 
are coupled by the Catholic Priest ;.but 
* just as the second ceremony is commencing, 
strange noises are heard, and a furious gust 
of wind extinguishes most of the lights, and 
“in rushes Walker, declaring the marriage 
* iNegal, and announcing the landing in Eng- 
“Yand ef William’ the deliverer. Conftsion 
follows, the ceremony suspends ; Walker 
