upon war with France under the inspiration of beer and Beethoven. The diabolical caution and subtlety of Mister Brooklane is, however, wonderfully defective on one occasion when he allows a certain Count Rivero to overhear the whole of the details of his Guy Fawkes conspiracy for blowing up Pope, Cardinals, and all the heads of the Catholic Church: the same Count Rivero having merely to put his head up a chimney in the next room to overhear the conversation of Mister Brooklane with the leading villain of the Avengers '--Barbarino Falcone.

6

Mister Brooklane, however, shows both greater cunning and energy in a scene in which he converts the police agent who was sent to arrest him into one of the most devoted members of the Avengers.' A man in simple civil costume knocked one evening at the door of Mister Brooklane in the Albergo di Europa, and entered into his apartment at the word 'Come in: he found the old English gentleman seated, in the neatest and most elegant toilette, before a table covered with books and plans, and lighted by a lamp with a blue shade.

The stranger announced himself as an agent of police, who had come merely to subject Mister Brooklane to the slight formality of having his passport examined. Mr. Brooklane was most willing. From an examination of Mister Brooklane's passport the police official proceeded to an examination of Mister Brooklane's papers, and these not turning out so satisfactory as the official could have wished, he desired Mister Brooklane's company to the office of the head of the police.

"I will not obey your invitation," cried Mister Brooklane vehemently. "I order you to leave my room and to respect the right of a free citizen of a foreign nation."

'The official stepped to the window and opened it and whistled lightly.

A carriage was heard approaching, and soon stopped in the street. "If you refuse," said the police official, "to satisfy my request, you will have yourself to thank for the unpleasant measures which I shall be compelled to take."

While he opened the window he had taken his hand out of the breast pocket of the coat in which he had hitherto kept it.

'Mister Brooklane, who had come nearer to him in a few easy steps, now with one spring, powerful and elastic as a tiger's when he seizes his prey, bounded on him. With iron grasp he seized the wrist of his right arm, while with the other hand he grasped his neck so tightly that the man thus suddenly and unexpectedly attacked could only bring forth a low moaning noise, and with shut eyes let his head fall backwards as though he were stunned.

'At the same moment Mister Brooklane's hand buried itself in the

breast-coat pocket of the official and drew therefrom a small six-barrelled revolver. Then he thrust the man, deprived of breath and almost of sensation, into a deep arm-chair, while at the same time he cocked the revolver and held it almost close to the face of his captive, who began to draw breath again with a twitching movement.

"You are a dead man," cried Mister Brooklane, in pure Italian, with suppressed voice, “if you utter a sound."'

Having got the police officer into this helpless condition, Mister Brooklane, with the additional aid of a pile of gold pieces, which he throws on the table sparkling in the light, and with ready promises of many such piles in the future if his prisoner will become a true member of the Avengers,' converts Niccolo Costanzi, such is his name, into a faithful fellow-conspirator, who has of course means of inestimable. advantage for aiding the plans of the society.

'He filled a second huge purse with gold and reached it to the official, with the words:—

"Spare nothing, neither gold nor blood, if it must be so. In a week the man who was arrested in the Council Hall must be free."

"Niccolo Costanzi made a bow, but Mister Brooklane lifted up his hand, touched lightly with his fingers the head of Niccolo, and said :

"Be thou blessed with the blessing of our fatherland, and may this blessing give thee strength to serve the holy cause of freedom."

'He handed to the official his revolver with a gesture full of dignity; he put the weapon in his pocket and left the room with another low bow.

'A few minutes later the noise of a carriage was heard going further and further from the hotel.

'Mister Brooklane put his hat on his head, stepped downstairs with a cheerful and composed mien, and left the hotel as he was accustomed to do for an evening walk through Rome.'

All this is mere trash, and would not deserve to be noticed in these pages, if there were not matters of more real interest behind. We must leave the remainder of the Roman part of the story untold, though it contains some striking pictures of the Pope, Antonelli, and the Catholic Prelates of Western Germany. This is the Cross' which figures in the title of the book. The Sword' is nothing less than the Franco-German war, and to the incidents of that memorable contest we shall now turn. The chief character of the volumes is really Louis Napoleon, and the chief incidents are those relating to his decline and fall. The uncertain, wavering, political notions of the ruler who was destined to bring upon France a series of defeats and disasters unexampled in the history of modern Europe are elucidated in interesting dialogues; and it is well shown how such vague unstable views in that critical time were

partly the result of a dreamy fatalistic nature, and partly of the distressing state of bodily health into which the unfortunate sovereign fell in his latter years. In the first volume, the long conversations of the Emperor with M. Conti, Laguerronière, Marshal Prim and others, interest us, however, little comparatively with those chapters in the last two volumes which portray the Emperor and his surroundings from the eve of the declaration of war against Prussia to the great disaster of Sedan.

We have already said that the historical foundation on which the author relies for his facts in the greater part of these volumes is doubtful; but we find the Emperor himself in one of the scenes of the third volume, in a conversation with his foster-sister, Madame Cornu, coquetting with the same idea to combat which he declared war against Prussia-the elevation of the Prince von Hohenzollern to the throne of Spain. Little historical basis too, we imagine, could be found for the scene in which the Emperor receives the parting visit of General Fleury before his departure for his post of Ambassador at St. Petersburg. The Emperor, according to Herr Samarow, treated the departing Ambassador to a long political disquisition, which he could not have listened to without a good deal of yawning, if half the stories which are told of him are true, and especially if he pronounced the epitaph upon the fallen Empire which report ascribes to him: Tout ce que je puis dire. 'est que nous nous sommes joliment amusés pendant dix-huit The instructions, however, of the Emperor to General Fleury will give the reader a fair opportunity of judging of Herr Samarow's talent for political argument:

" ans.

6

""Russia," said the Emperor, "after it has recovered from the wounds which I once was obliged to inflict upon it, must needs apply itself more and more to its task in the East, on the accomplishment of which its future destiny and the development of its people depend. I once held back the Emperor Nicholas on this path, not to injure Russia but in order to bring the representative of the principle of legitimacy, which was then hostilely opposed to me, to recognise my empire. That consideration has now no more weight for me, and there is no obstacle in the way of a complete understanding with Russia. There are especially two powers," he continued, while General Fleury followed his words with deep attention, "which can support Russia in the pursuit of her natural objects-and these are Prussia and France. Austria must naturally be hostile to the policy of Russia in the East. England can never permit Russia to become powerful in the Black Sea, or to get a firm foot in the Dardanelles. France can look on at this quietly, and so can Prussia, and both powers can be useful to Russia. Prussia while it can protect Russia at her back and make it possible for her to concentrate all her forces towards the East. France, however,

can do more. She can ally herself actively with Russia to reconstruct the East; and when France and Russia shall have settled a fixed plan, then will they be in a position to carry it through in spite of all opponents."

I have already called the attention of your Majesty," said General Fleury, "to the fact that this point of view was perfectly appreciated in Petersburg-so much especially as relates to Prussia. They seem not to believe thoroughly in her friendship, as I have frequently had occasion to remark; it is true in Petersburg they forget

"A sensible policy," the Emperor broke in, "must always understand how to forget. And your task, my dear General, will be not only to make the past forgotten, but also to create an opening for the idea of a future understanding on the foundation which I have just laid before you. You will find," continued he, "even as I have just observed, that France can do more for the fulfilment of the natural political aims of Russia than Prussia can, and that above all it desires little-and from Russia especially it desires nothing more than its assistance in the suppression of the threatening and hostile form of a growing German empire in the middle of Europe. I think people will understand this in Russia. And your duty it will be to revive the old schemes which once were discussed between the first Alexander and my great uncle, taking care at the same time to convince them that I on my side will not fall into the mistake which was so fatal to the first Emperor of drawing away from the alliance with Russia. You can add," he continued, "also that North America, which naturally draws towards Russia and must draw towards it, is the old ally of France, and that the misunderstanding which has arisen in our relations to the United States through the Mexican Expedition, can be removed by the intervention of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg." Sire," said the general, "there is a question to be touched between France and Russia, and which if there is a new move for the establishing of closer and better relations between Russia and France cannot be passed over in silence. This question, Sire, is the Polish. And I might beg of your Majesty—"

"Poland," said the Emperor, shrugging his shoulders, "what is Poland? Ancient Poland was but a holding ground for France so as not to lose all influence in the East. The Polish revolution is for us to-day a mighty weapon which we can turn also against Prussia and Austria, and which we dare not give out of our hands so long as we have no stedfast security that we and Russia shall pursue together for a long time the same political ends. As soon as the securities are provided, as soon as I have come to an understanding with the Emperor Alexander for the division of the West and East between France and Russia, and for the placing of Europe under the direction of the Latin and Slavonic races-I shall have no interest in holding longer in my hand the double-edged sword which the Polish Question offers to us. You, too, can speak out very decidedly on this point," he added; "and the Emperor can be thoroughly assured that every direct or indirect favouring of Polish aspirations for nationality will cease the very moment when a firm alliance is struck between France and Russia."

"Does your Majesty then command," said the general, "that I should make any definite offers in this direction?"

"Such is my desire," said the Emperor, "and I have marked the points for you, which are convenient for these offers. Poland can offer us no impediment-and this so much the less since poor Walewski is deadthat noble and true heart, which formed a living bond between imperial France and the blood of the Polish nation."

"These are the points of view which I lay before you first of all to guide your diplomatic activity in Petersburg. They are the basis of what I may call a cabinet policy. Should you, however, find that the Emperor Alexander and the Prince Gortschakoff were accessible to greater and wider ideas-that it were possible to draw them out of the narrow bounds of a cabinet policy to a national policy-then, my dear General, you can bring forward new and higher points of view. You can then make them observe that it were more to the interest of Russia and of France perhaps that the national development of life of nations and states in Europe should arrive at a conclusion, and it were better to allow a consolidated Germany to exist than to hold down continually and forcibly the struggling elements of the German nation, and so to maintain the world continually in unquietness and agitation. Perhaps Russia might then succeed in determining the Berlin Cabinet to come to that conclusion with me, which I have so long sought for in vain, and to influence it towards those mutual concessions which I much desire in order to secure the erection of the German Empire. Then could France and Russia step forward at the head of Europe as a mighty Court of Equity and accomplish the great task which the Holy Alliance once proposed to itself that alliance which necessarily remained ineffective and broke-up, since it excluded France and included Austria, that artificial State without any power of life. The Latin races as far as the Rhine"-he continued, while he opened his eyes wider and wider "the German races as far as the Vistula and up to the Alps, and the Slaves in all the wider districts of the East. When the world is thus distributed, and when the three great national empires, to which all the rest of the states must attach themselves according to their national affinity are united among themselves, then the world will belong to them, then is peace for ever made secure. Then, too," added he, while a glowing fire lightened out of his eyes, "will the role of England in Europe be played out-of this England that has everywhere crossed the path of France, that has chained the Emperor to the rock of Saint Helena-then will the true, the last revanche for Waterloo be taken, and then, without war, without the shedding of blood, will the future of my house and that of Europe be secured. Then will the edifice have acquired that crowning-stone to whose upraising I have devoted the labour and power of my life."

Some of the most curious pages of this novel are the last of the twentieth chapter, where the writer sets graphically forth the causes which were the chief ones, in the author's view, of the Franco-Prussian war-namely, the increasing bad health