Over the Water
Intercepted Post, edited by Donald Nicholas (Bodley Head, 16s.), a miscellaneous collection of letters, written principally by Jacobite sympathisers and intercepted during the 'Forty-five,' makes sad reading. It illustrates the inconsequential confusion and incoherence of war, particularly for its participants, a point which Stendhal made so brilliantly in La Chartreuse de Par me, yet one so frequently forgotten by historians. The rebellion drifted aimlessly across the lives of most of the
N11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111a ordinary men and women who were involved in it but gave to the hopes of some of them a sharp and deceptive concentration. How odd it seems that a mother should bitterly re- proach her young son for not aiming higher than a quartermaster's job in the Pretender's army. And disillusion came' slowly, not quickly; few realised the forlorn nature of the Prince's quest.
These letters have been well edited, their obscure allusions neatly explained. Mr. Nicholas sees to it, however, that the Whig dogs have the worst of it. He is unashamedly Jacobite in sympathy but capable of a generous moment. 'A pleasant letter,' he writes of one, 'though the writer appears to be of
the whiggish persuasion. J. H. PLUMB
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