212 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[|AuG. 



fears, he chooses to torture him. He is a 

 very atrocious villain, and must glut his 

 revenge after his own method. He accord- 

 ingly plunges him into a dungeon, and 

 feeds him on bread and water for three 

 years, when he is finally rescued by the 

 arrival of the Russians. 



The commander-in-chief of the Russians, 

 Count W., furnishes the supplies, and 

 Arthur starts for England, where strange 

 news awaits him. I/ord Roxmere was 



dead the heir at law had estabhshed his 



claim, and was in possession — and the 

 lawyer announced the fact of his illegiti- 

 macy. Not suflSciently steeped in horrors, 

 at the same moment he is arrested for ten 

 thousand pounds, for which he had been 

 security for a friend, and clapt up in a 

 sponging-house. He has nothing left but 

 a few poor thousands, which he destined for 

 the recovery of his rights ; but his old tutor 

 and Lucy discover his condition, and 

 Lucy, who had been bequeathed precisely 

 the sum by Lady Roxmere, pays the 

 debt, and releases the man to whom, in de- 

 fiance of his neglect of her, she is still 

 devotedly attached. Instead of throwing 

 himself at her feet, he flies to the continent, 

 after an interview with the queen and the 

 princesses, ftlary and Elizabeth, (tlie latter 

 of whom dispatch an invitation to Lucy, to 

 compliment her on her heroism) enters the 

 Brunsw^ick service, and determines never 

 to return till he proves his legitimacy, and 

 lays his coronet at Lucy's lovely feet. This 

 legitimacy, as the reader will suppose, he 

 does establish — dropping upon the proofs in 

 a most extraordinary manner. AU now 

 goes swimmingly, in a flood-tide — he reco- 

 vers the Frencli property and title — wit- 

 nesses his old enemy smoking under tlie 

 branding iron for peculation in ofHce — 

 conies to England — finds the new Lord 

 Roxmere, that very night, shot by somebody 

 in resentment for i.n act of seduction — takes 

 possession of the English title and estate — 

 and thus, with an English coronet in one 

 hand, and a French one in the other, he 

 throw's himself at the feet of Lucy — and, in 

 little more than a year, the guns from the 

 batteries of Beverley announce the christen- 

 ing of a son and heir, which ceremony was 

 performed by the right Rev H. Dehnere, 



D.D. Bisliopof , grandfather to the 



young Viscount 



The Alpenstock (the long, iron-spiked 

 pole, in common use in the Alps), or 

 Sketches of Stciss Scenery and JSIanners, 

 by Charles Joseph Latrobe ; 182!) A vo- 

 lume of no inconsiderable size, almost wlioUy 

 occupied with descriptions of mountain 

 scenery, and of the sensations excited in 

 the bosom of an individual roaming among 

 the scenes and revelling in them, of whom 

 we knov/ onl3' what he tells us — with scarcely 

 a word about tlie labours of art, anil not very 

 many about tlie liabits of man, compared 

 with the mass that concerns tlie works of 



nature — such a book, on the face of it, must 

 be the production of no common spirit to 

 make it tolerable. But the book is not 

 merely tolerable, it is often admirable ; and 

 though presenting a succession of scenes, 

 the main features of which are similar, and 

 even the details, from the very infirmity of 

 language, bearing often more resemblance 

 upon paper than in fact, it is rarely, and 

 very rarely, wearisome. Particidar spots 

 are exquisitely sketched, though vividness 

 and conspicuousness are not precisely the 

 general characteristics : a kind of haze en- 

 velops the prospect often, and reminds the 

 reader occasionally of the vapours and mists 

 that frequently obstructed the observer him- 

 self. The tone of sentiment— and he in- 

 dulges m the expression of it— is full of 

 good feeling and deep feeling. Seldom in 

 them, or in his physical descriptions, is any 

 force employed, which is a guarantee for the 

 faithfulness of tlie transcript ; for had not 

 nature prompted in so long a performance, 

 art and efibrt would have glared upon the 

 p.ages. The simplicity and ease which 

 reigns through the whole production throws 

 an interest on the commonest details ; for 

 the reader feels the collection is natural and 

 just, and his sympathy insensibly follows. 



The writer spent two summers, and part 

 of a third — v.intering twice at Keufchatel 

 — in perambulating on foot, and for the 

 most part alone, and deviating from the 

 common tracks, almost the whole of Switzer- 

 land — cutting it, indeed, in all directions — 

 stretching to all its boundaries, save only the 

 extreme east and the edge of the Valteline — 

 and twice crossing the confines of Italy, but 

 driven back in disgust by the troublesome- 

 ness of the gens-d'armes : in Switzerland, 

 he was free as air. The book is incompa- 

 rably, and far beyond all competition, the 

 only one calcidated to give a stranger any 

 thing hke a conception of these astounding 

 regions ; and the mere traveller of the 

 beaten roads will find he knows compara- 

 hvely little of the country he has traversed. 



Such a country is not to be known in any 

 other way than that which the KUthor pur- 

 sued ; but he had youth, health, vigour, and 

 enthusiasm — a rare union of indispensable 

 quahties ; and, careless of accommodation, 

 with his alpenstock in his hand, and a wallet 

 at his back, furnished with some invigorating 

 kirschwasser, he was ready to meet rougli 

 and smooth with, if not equal unconcern — 

 for he talks occasionally of tlie trials of 

 temper — at least with a disposition to make 

 light of difficulties that led to what was to 

 him intense enjoyment — to scenes that 

 elicited the most thrilling feehngs, and 

 struck him profoundly with a sense of the 

 grand and the beautiful. 



We can only give the reader a taste of 

 the writer's quality, in a mutilated extract 

 or two : and those, perhaps, if we looked 

 over the leaves again, would seem to our- 

 selves among the least eftective passages of 

 the book. / 



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