He On a dismal day in December, he was led | and richest colors of the earth. Mere glaring to the scaffold on Kennington Common, which sunshine dazzles the eyes, and robs us of the had become known as the Jacobite shambles, light and shade which make landscape and life so many martyrs-as they were called by their beautiful. own party-had already suffered there. had dressed with peculiar care in a coat of scarlet, faced with black velvet and trimmed with gold; a gold-laced waistcoat, white silk stockings, and the Hanover badge of red ribbon in his hat. He shook hands with the clergyman who attended him, saying, with some bitterness, Agnes had already recovered from the pangs of the last few days spent at Dunkeld; she could laugh as blithely as if she had never known grief. She had reason, too, for this happy frame of mind: the misunderstanding with Captain Spence had been explained to the entire satisfaction of both parties. She was walking with Dr. Fairlie, following the laird and his lady into the house amidst the loud congratulations of their many friends. "Sir, you will live, I trust, to see me justified. I die a victim to my too great tenderness for a woman, who has given me to the The good doctor was supremely happy in scaffold that she might rescue one she cares having Agnes beside him under such pleasant more for. Well"-shrugging his shoulders- circumstances; and he was supremely uncon"life without her might have been so disa-scious of the existence of such a person as greeable, that I am almost content to die." Spence. She, leaning on his arm, and looking up into his face with a smile, tinted by a blush that made his heart flutter, whispered, while both cast a glance at Oliphant and Margaret: "Isn't it nice to be married, doctor?" Then, with truth and falsehood mingled on his lips at the moment of death, as they had been mingled in his life, he yielded himself to the hands of the executioner. The clergyman did not live to see him justified. "Welcome back to Elvanlee-that means a deal more than it says," was the hearty greeting of Dr. Fairlie to Sir Malcolm and Lady Oliphant, a few months after the occurrence of the foregoing events. The doctor was standing at the entrance to the tower. In the court and the avenue gathered the survivors of the laird's tenants, with many friends from the surrounding district. There had been sad changes since that first gathering in the same place; and few were there to smile a welcome to the laird and his lady, who did not wear mourning in their hearts. Willie Want-a-bit did not lead the procession now; his fantastic standard had been stricken to the earth at Falkirk, and the bearer with it. The poor daftie's patchwork met with a better fate than many of the Stuart standards with which the sweeps of Edinburgh, aided by the hangman, made a bonfire at the cross. Bauldy Dodholm's drum was silent, and the drummer was missed from the crowd. But widow and orphan were none the less earnest in their rejoicing at the restoration of Sir Malcolm and his lady. At the hour of arrival the sky was somewhat dark, and threatened rain: but the hearts of man and wife beat too quickly with joy to heed the weather: they had passed through storms -a shower was nothing to them now, so that they might be together. And, somehow, it is the dimmer kind of days which reveal the ripest He answered with unnecessary enthusiasm: "Very.' "I mean when the married folk love each other like Madge and Oliphant," she said, in bashful explanation. "Better and better," he cried, with increasing enthusiasm. A pause; then in such a timid, deliciously demure undertone, "I am going to be married, doctor!" His enthusiasm vanished: he took snuff, and "Humph, what a pity it is we should spend our lives in getting out of one trouble into another; we seem to be allowed only moments of pleasure, but we get whole months of sorrow" (he was thinking of his own position rather than of hers). "And will you tell me who is the other?" He was only trying to postpone the fatal announcement; he knew quite well who was the "other." "Laurence, of course," she replied, with a pretty shade of petulant surprise. "Ah, yes, of course," he said, sourly; "he has five thousand a year, I believe, which is a very genteel thing, and has a great deal of beauty in it." "What is the matter with you to-day?" she asked, faltering, as she looked at him in real surprise this time; "you know that you promised to be a father to me, and I want you to take his place at the-marriage." Her eyes became dim and—like the sky threatened rain. He could not stand that: | her head tenderly between his hands, and gaz he applied again to his unfailing rappee, and shook off the last lingering shade of envious regret. "I shall keep my promise-Heaven knows, nobody has more reason to take your father's place than I have. I congratulate you, Aggie; Spence is an honest lad, and will be good to you; if he is not-I'll gi'e him some physic." That was the most terrible threat the doctor could think of. Lady Oliphant and Elvanlee had already entered the house. They had acknowledged with grateful fervency the congratulations of their friends; and now they were standing in the chamber in which the first scene of their misfortunes had been enacted. They looked round the place: nothing was changed; nothing there hinted at the sad exile from which they had returned; but the legend of their sorrow was written on their own hearts and faces. Yet the joy which they felt and which surrounded them, and the murmur of happy voices reaching them from without, combined to make the past seem like a nightmare from which they had just awakened. "It is a second home-coming, Malcolm," she said, smiling brightly; 66 we shall be very happy now." HARPER & BROTHERS' AUTUMN BOOK-LIST. HARPER & BROTHERS will send any of the following books by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the HARPER'S CATAlogue, with Classified Index oF CONTENTS, sent by mail on receipt of Six Cents in NORDHOFF'S CALIFORNIA. California: GLADSTONE'S LIFE OF FARADAY. Michael Faraday. By J. H. GLADSTONE, Ph.D., F.R.S. 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents. Although Prof. Faraday's distinguished career has Since the completion of the Pacific Railroads, Cali-la Rive, Tyndall, Dr. Bence Joues, and other admirers received many appropriate tributes at the hands of De fornia has yearly attracted an increasing number of of his genius and character, the present biography is visitors and permanent residents, not only from the by no means a superfluous work, and will be gratefully Eastern States, but from all parts of Europe. Many welcomed as a lucid record of one of the ablest and persons have, however, been deterred from attempt- most interesting self-taught men of the nineteenth cen ing the wonderful journey across the continent by tury. It is founded mainly on the personal reminis lack of information as to the time needed, the best cences of the writer, but is enriched with materials and most pleasant way to go, and the cost of the trip. that had been previously collected, and with informa The publishers believe that Mr. Nordhoff's work, tion derived from documents hitherto unpublished. which combines the utility of a guide-book with the Mr. Gladstone is master of an easy and graceful narfascination of a story of travel and sight-seeing in a rative style. His memoir is written with warm percomparatively unknown country, will fully supply this sonal feeling, no less than with a just appreciation of want. A careful and intelligent observer, he has pro- the position of Faraday as a man of science. It is induced a work of extraordinary interest and value, in tended for popular reading, and aims to do justice to which California, and especially the southern and the admirable personal qualities of the subject, which least-known part of it, is described in a fluent, nervons, and picturesque style. The book is practical ies.-N. Y. Tribune. are quite as remarkable as his philosophical discoverwithout being dry. The author tells not only where, but how to go; not only what to see, but how best to see it. While his spirited descriptions of the notable sights and the social and industrial features of California will interest the general reader, the traveler across the continent who wishes to observe thoroughly and intelligently, and to reap the full enjoyment and profit of the journey, will find the book an instructive and amusing guide, and in every respect admirably adapted to convey a practical knowledge of the wonderful regions beyond the Rocky Mountains. To invalids and to the multitude of persons looking for homes in a mild and salubrious climate, where they may escape the rigors of northern winters, Mr. Nordhoff's book gives a mass of information, carefully collected by personal observation. His accounts of the wonderful farming of California, of wheat, cattle, and sheep culture, and of the vineyards, and the rapidly increasing and remarkably successful and profitable culture of such fruits as the orange, the almond, and the olive, are full of practical details gathered by the author in the course of a thorough examination of these and other industries of the State, and will, from their novelty, attract the attention of farmers and the intelligent every where. The book is well furnished with maps, and very fully illustrated. THE ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE, as told to my Child. By the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman.' Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, 90 cents. *** Mrs. Craik's delightful "Adventures of a Brownie." *** Old folks may enjoy her book as much as young ones, and no one can be sorry that she turns aside sometimes from novel-writing to the writing of tales for children.-Examiner, London. THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS. A Novel. Faraday, in the unstained purity of his life as in the marvelous fertility of his intellect, honored human nature. Those who can not appreciate the worth of his many discoveries can realize the beauty and beneficence of his character.—Boston Daily Globe. THE REVISION OF THE ENGLISH VER- A Novel. 99 66 By GEORGE ELIOT, Author of "Adam Bede," The Mill on the Floss," &c. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $1 75 per vol. (Vol. I. Ready.) LITTLE FOLK LIFE. A Book for Girls. | MIDDLEMARCH. She adapts herself to the "Little Folk" with ease and effect. Christian Intelligencer, N. Y. A pleasanter contribution to juvenile literature has not been made for many a day. Every thing that the writer undertakes she makes attractive, and this is no exception. It is an interesting story of school life and everyday child experience in general; and as it is written to entertain, and not to teach, there is not a prosy page in the book. All little folks up to twelve or fourteen, and especially girls, will regard it as a treasure.-Brooklyn Union. Vivacious, easy, and natural, it is so strongly realistic that it will be hard to persuade the little folks that it is not every word true. The family of "little folks" whose doings it chronicles are of the happy, healthy order; and their bright, good-humored ways will commend themselves alike to the good sense of parents and the attention of children.-Boston Journal. Is bright, full of spirit, and every way one of the raciest of juveniles from one who knows real children. -Evening Transcript, Boston. A very fresh, bright, and sensible book. It is intended for children, and is one of the most sensible and natural books of its kind that has appeared for many a long day. There is nothing maudlin or affected in it from beginning to end, and some of the characters are drawn In a brilliant and masterly manner. The little men and women in her book are the most entertaining creatures imaginable, and, what is more, they are real flesh and blood. Gail Hamilton has written nothing more purely artistic than this little work.-Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston. What may be called the everyday life of children, what they see and hear, what they do, where they go, their companions and their whims are painted for us in "Little Folk Life."-N. Y. World. THIRTY YEARS IN THE HAREM; or, It is straightforward, candid, and realistic, but apparently not exaggerated or wrought out with a sensational purpose. The book is a very interesting revelation of social and domestic life, not only in Constantinople, but in the Turkish provinces.-Boston Daily Advertiser. It will probably be adjudged George Eliot's masterpiece, and by consequence it will take rank among the highest works of genius of the age. The secret of this wonderful woman's power is her profound insight into the working of the human heart in conjunction with the rare mastery of language by which she has always exactly the proper words to unfold them. Characterization is, therefore, her strongest point, and with this superiority to other great masters, that nothing of caricature, of extravagance, or of exaggeration is needed by her to impress her men and women on the reader's mind. The charm of George Eliot is undoubtedly her wonderful style, of which it may be said that grace and fitness characterize every sentence. In "Middlemarch" it reminds us of the elaborate and delicate work of the cameocutter, or the exquisite finish of a drinking-cup. But the pains that have been bestowed upon it have brought out many types of character in as strong relief as the head of Cæsar on the shell or the figures of Bacchante and Bacchanal on the goblet. The provincial English town is set before us with wonderful reality, and its population lives and moves in our sight: while that pretty Puritan, Dorothea, the heroine, enters as fully into our sympathies as if it had been our privilege to take her by the hand and look into her fathomless eyes. The book abounds in those pithy sayings which made Mrs. Poyser as individual as Dogberry, Saucho, or Sam Weller.-N. Y. Evening Post. ***The volume is full of these golden sentences: and, apart from the story, it can be read for such sentences, as we read a volume of Jean Paul-or, as old Johnson used to say of Richardson, it should be read for the sentiment.-Boston Traveller. There is no falling off in that vivid power, subtle thought, epigrammatic terseness, and vigorous strength that were the distinguishing characteristics of "Romola" and the "Mill on the Floss." *** The book contains some of the most powerful characters Evening Gazette. that its author has as yet conceived.-Boston Saturday In "Middlemarch, a Story of Provincial Life," we qualities which have given George Eliot the position have a most vivid and delightful illustration of the story are at once typical and individual. They are of the first of living novelists. The personages of the representative of English provincial life, and are at the same time as racy as though they had been selectThe story of her experience of the intrigues of Ma- their peculiarities and oddities. Without any appaed at hap-hazard from the population, on account of hometan society, kaleidoscoped as it is with inside rent effort on the part of the author, they are made to views of Moslem government and artless representa- live in our imaginations as real beings, independent tions of the spirit of Oriental life, holds the reader en- of each other, and yet aiding to develop each other. thralled from the beginning to the end. Its style has. It is our deliberate judgment that it indicates a the directness and simplicity of the "Arabian Nights," genius superior to that of any other novelist now livand one can hardly believe, as he runs through its recitals of selfish duplicity and cruelty, and its naive ad-ing.-Boston Globe. missions of the most outrageous corruption in official life-even that of herself and her husband-that he is reading a true account of a state of society now existing, and of the habitual modes and motives of an entire people of our own day. Certain it is that a rapid perusal of these pages has given us a more perfect conception of Oriental life and government than we have derived from any other source.-Christian Union. There is not a dull page in the whole book, which is written with an air of the most perfect frankness, and in a style of great simplicity and picturesqueness. Saturday Evening Gazette, Boston. A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE. A Novel. By Those who are familiar with the writings of this author will, we fancy, agree with us that it is rather difficult to give any adequate notion of the contents in the sort of sketch and comment combined which is commonly known as a "review," the reason being that so great is the sustainment of his tales, so completely does almost every page contain something of incident, or illustration, or whatever is necessary to keep them going, that it is hardly possible to deal with them in mere outline.-Morning Post, London. THE MAID OF SKER. A Novel. By R. D. BLACKMORE, Author of "Cradock Nowell," &c. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. Full of spirit and originality and observation, both of nature and men.-Spectator, London. His descriptions are wonderfully vivid and natural, although he loves to paint nature in her most extravagant freaks. His pages are brightened every where with great humor; the quaint, dry turns of thought remind you occasionally of Fielding.-London Times. A work which reads in some parts like the famous autobiographies of Defoe, and in others contains descriptions of natural beauty worthy of Kingsley, and Marryat.-Athenæum, London. nautical adventures not inferior to the best things in The book is exceedingly able, and strikingly original.-Saturday Review, London. It is so full of scenes of interest and power that it will seize and hold the attention of the laziest reader. Its freshness, originality, and beauty will give the most jaded novel-reader a new sensation, and impart a new pleasure to persons of taste and culture, who enjoy and appreciate such masters of fiction as Scott, Thackeray, and George Eliot. One can say of "The Maid of Sker" what Charlotte Bronté said of "Ranthrope," by George H. Lewes "I have read a new book; not a reflection of any other book, but a new book.-Boston Transcript. Harper & Brothers' List of New Books. egant and Cheap. 3. THE SCHOOL AND THE ARMY IN | HARPER'S HOUSEHOLD DICKENS. ElGERMANY AND FRANCE, with a Diary With Original Characterof Siege Life at Versailles. By Brevet Ma- istic Illustrations by American and British jor-General W. B. HAZEN, U. S. A., Colonel Artists. Sixth Infantry. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. *** A book of uncommon value and interest to Americans.*** General Hazen appears in this volume as something more than a military commanderas a philosophical student of events, a sound thinker, and a citizen anxious that his own countrymen shall benefit by all the lessons taught by the tremendous events of 1870-71.-Examiner and Chronicle, N. Y. We heartily recommend this interesting book to our readers. There is much in our own military sitnation and experience analogous to what has been seen in France, to whose system our own bears too close a resemblance. General Hazen, with great fairness and clearness, brings the defective points to light, and shows how they may be remedied. His book is not, however, only didactic. It contains, as we have already said, many graphic sketches of camp scenes and incidents, and anecdotes of the great statesmen and soldiers with whom he came in contact; while his account of the systems of military and civil education in France and Germany is by far the clearest and most interesting we have ever seen.-N. Y. Evening Post. OLIVER TWIST. Cloth, $1 00. With 28 Illustrations 8vo, Paper, 50 cents; 54 Illustrations by Thomas Worth. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents; Cloth, $1 25. DAVID COPPERFIELD. With Portrait of Author and 61 Illustrations by J. Barnard. 8vo, Paper, $1 00; Cloth, $1 50. (Just Ready.) DOMBEY AND SON. With 51 Illustrations by W. L. Sheppard. 8vo, Paper, $1 00; Cloth, $1 50. (Nearly Ready.) We have no doubt that an edition of Dickens which FOR THE KING. An Historical Novel. By Constant in action, vigorous in tone, and always wholesome. When the last page has been read, it will be found that the perusal has been wholly pleasurable, and that it has touched the finer emotions of the reader.-Scotsman. Among the swarm of ephemeral productions called forth by the late Franco-Prussian War, the present vol- has so much to commend it to public favor, in form, ume is distinguished by contrast rather than by re- paper, type, press-work, illustrations, and price (for it semblance, affording a rich store of exact and novel is really a marvel of cheapness), will meet with a very information imparted in a singularly vigorous and atextensive sale.-N. Y. Evening Post. tractive style. General Hazen enjoyed peculiar advantages for the preparation of his work, having had the freedom of the German lines, and familiar access to the society of the leading German commanders, by which he was enabled to profit in the highest degree from his own military education and experience. *** In addition to the exhaustive and lucid details of the organization of the Prussian army, and the informing notices of that of France, and a comparative estimate of each system with that of the United States, the volnme contains one of the most complete accounts now in print of the French and German military and civil schools, in connection with the organization of the armies, affording a great amount of valuable and interesting information on the subject of education in each country. General Hazen has made remarkably thorough work in the execution of his book. He writes more like a soldier than a scholar, which is to his praise. He certainly evinces no lack of sound literary culture, but he expresses himself with a promptitude and succinctness-going straight to the point without circumlocution-that is partly due, no doubt, to his military training. It is sometimes almost as difficult to master the construction of a paragraph as it is to silence a battery, and in this case the author shows himself no less efficient with the pen than he has heretofore proved to be with the sword.-N. Y. Tribune. Mr. Gibbon here presents some excellent historic studies with some masterly creations of his own. *** Throughout we have the same picturesque clearness and simplicity we have before admired.—British Quarterly Review. It is not only an excellent story, but a careful study of a very striking historical episode indeed.-Nonconformist, London. Mr. Gibbon tells us his story, which has to do with the Rebellion of 1745, with great spirit. He avoids, not unwisely, we are inclined to think, any description of the well-known scenes of the war, escaping thereby a competition that would be perilous to any man, and concerns himself with the love affairs of a certain laird. Mr. Gibbon manages his story with skill, does not permit the plot to become too perplexing-a reader soon ceases to be interested when he ceases to understand-and, in short, keeps us in a breathless suspense till the time comes when he chooses to relieve us. sum up, "For the King" is a good story well told.Spectator, London. То "AROUND THE WORLD. By EDWARD D. A PASSION IN TATTERS. A Novel. By ANNIE THOMAS, Author of "Walter Goring, "On Guard," "Denis Donne," "False Colors," "Theo Leigh," &c. 8vo, Paper. (In Press.) "Per OMBRA. A Novel. By Mrs. OLIPHANT, Au- The customary grace of the author's style, the high tone of mind, the frank sympathies which have always characterized her, are found in this book as in its predecessors.-Spectator, London. A fascinating story, full of interest and abounding in admirable descriptions of female character.-Scotsman, London. This book will delight the reader, and, if possible, increase the gifted writer's well-established reputation.-Messenger, London. |