Dumcslic and Foreign. 



1829.J 



Adventures of a King''s Page. By the 

 Author of Almack's Revisited. 3 vols. 



\2mo. 1829 Recollecting the writer's bent, 



the reader may expect from the title a sur- 

 feit of professional loyalty, and enough of 

 it he icill find ; but the truth is, it is merely 

 a bait to catch gudgeons, and very liungry 

 gudgeons they must be to be so caught 

 now-a-days. One dull sketcli of one of the 

 old queen's dull evening parties, at which the 

 hero in his boyhood is present, and you have 

 all that has any thing to do with him in his 

 capacity of "page," or with the " court." 

 To compensate for this, the book is ful> of 

 other personalities, but for the most part 

 relative to persons whose vices and follies 

 are in every vulgar fellow's mouth, and con- 

 tribute to the coarse garbage of a Sunday 

 paper. In addition to these interesting 

 topics, the reader will of course look for 

 magnificent fetes, boudoirs, and drawing- 

 rooms — much learning on cooks and 

 cookery-matters — wines and wine-cellars — 

 the turf and the gaming table, with a touch 

 or two of the Spanish Campaigns, and he 

 will not be disappointed. AH tliese topics, 

 and, on every possible occasion, every 

 member of the royal family, dead and alive, 

 are paraded and twisted into the story, 

 often in a manner, according to our old 

 fashioned notions of good taste, exceedingly 

 offensive — but it suits some, of course, or we 

 shouJd not have so much of it. 



The tale itself is one of the commonest 

 construction — we cannot readily recal one, 

 where the whole coiu-se of contrivance is so 

 certainly, at every step, anticipatable. A 

 General Beverley, next heir to one of the 

 oldest peerages of the land, and in posses- 

 sion of a splendid fortune, has an only son, 

 who is of too much importance to be trusted 

 out of sight, and is consequently tutored at 

 home, and turns out wayward and wilful. 

 He marries the only daughter of a French 

 house of still greater antiquity and distinc- 

 tion than his own, clandestinely, though 

 nobody would have been better pleased with 

 the match than his parents. This occurred 

 at the commencement of the French Revo- 

 lution, and to get out of the way of impend- 

 ing danger, tlie Beverleys remove to Rome, 

 where, in a few weeks, tlie young man is 

 found murdered, and on examining his 

 papers, his connection with Mademoiselle 

 U'Avrancourt is discovered. The lady is 

 understood to be in the family way, and to 

 save the scion of their son, no time is lost in 

 flying to Paris. Though too late to save 

 the mother, the child is miraculously 

 rescued and identified, marked on the 

 breast with a bloody hand, stampi.'! by the 

 mother's terrors before its birth, at the sight 

 of her father's murder. She herself wa-s 

 guillotined, betrayed by a near relation, for 

 the sake of the estate and title. This 

 ferocious wretch has rushed into the worst 

 horrors of the revolution, and was conspicu- 

 ous among the most ruffianly of tlie reign of 

 Itaor. llerc then arc laid the foundations 



211 



of mystery ; and the materials for unravel- 

 ling it, obviously prepared. The child is 

 brought up by the Beverleys, as the heir of 

 their title and estate, without proofs of legi- 

 timate bi. th ; and as to the French 

 property, here is one whose interest it is, no 

 legitimate heir should appear, with villany 

 enough to dare the worst to prevent it. 



For a time, however, all goes smoothly. 

 The boy, apparently the grandfather's suc- 

 cessor, is educated by the curate of the 

 parish, who has a lovely daughter of young 

 Arthur's own age, and as they grow up, 

 naturally fall in love with each other.- 

 Luckily her mother had been of the no- 

 blesse, and the Beverleys, now Earl and 

 Countess of Roxmere, are liberal, and care 

 not for fortune. They are willing it 

 should be a match ; but as the parties are 

 yet young, Arthur prepares to join the army 

 for a campaign or two, and Lady Roxmere 

 adopts Lucy, the parson's daughter, and 

 takes her home. Still, restrained by Lady 

 Roxmere, Arthur has given no pledge — he 

 may change his mind, and it is right, 

 young as he is, he should leave himself at 

 liberty. Suddenly, on the very eve of his 

 departure, he is seized by a party of ruffianly 

 fellows, and carried, in a most tempestuous 

 night, on board a boat, which, after long 

 tossing, is capsized, and he is thrown back 

 upon the shore, apparently lifeless. The 

 soiu-ce of this seizure was of course the trea- 

 cherous and blood-thirsty Frenchman. 



Recovering, however, the youth now sets 

 out a campaigning, and in his absence folks 

 are busy at home — especially a match- 

 making dame of quality, who has two girls 

 to dispose of, to prevent his marriage with 

 the parson's daughter, and secure the prize 

 for one of her own. She continues to keep 

 up a little interesting correspondence with 

 him, and so successfully, that, on his 

 return, two or three years after, he imme- 

 diately snaps at the bait. Lord and Lady 

 Roxmere are excessively annoyed, and 

 Lucy of course still more — by the way, she 

 is a very charming girl, and has not been 

 handsomely treated — but luckily, by the 

 greatest chance in the world, a day or two 

 before the intended marriage, at a masque- 

 rade, Arthur discovers the bride elect to be 

 engaged with a man of notorious profligacy 

 in an intrigue, which had been carried 

 beyond the common limits of discretion. 

 This discovery of course puts an end to the 

 marriage, and to divert his chagrin, Arthiu: 

 resolves to return to the peninsida, and, 

 making previously a confidant of the Duke 

 of York, he departs, in spite of all remon- 

 strance on the part of the Roxmeres, who 

 would have had him stay at home and take 

 to Lucy again. But his destiny must be 

 run. In Spain he is taken prisoner, and 

 while with the French army, he comes in 

 contact with his French enemy, who, being 

 in favour and power, readily gets him into 

 his own hands, but instead of killing the 

 youth at once, and tiius getting rid of Ivis 

 2 E 2 



