For Cross or Crescent. By Gordon Stables, M.D., R.N. (J.
F. Shaw and Co.)—There is something of the old melodrama, which used to live on the Surrey side of the river, about this story of "the days of Richard the Lion-hearted." Put on the stage we should have plenty of pageant, much clashing of swords, some fun of the harlequin kind, a little love-making, and so forth. Some of the properties have a somewhat modern look. Lady Lovegrace and Lady Rosie Hew have names that smack of a century a little later than the twelfth. And Dr. Gordon Stables has a way of breaking out into some familiar quotation of the "Britannia rules the waves" sort that does not exactly suit the time. We do not mean that he puts the quotations into the mouths of his characters, as Shakespeare makes Hector quote Aristotle, but that they have an incongruous look. However, the story goes on briskly. The writer is always in high spirits, and admirably patriotic. No one has ever, we are sure, had his love of God, his fellows, and his country lessened by reading one of Dr. Stables's books.
Previous page
