The White King's Daughter (Seeley and Co.) is one of
those pleasing and picturesque historical romances which Mrs. Emma Marshall produces with positively marvellous facility. There are no signs of falling off in this story of Carisbrooke Castle and. of Charles L's almost angelic but ill-starred daughter, the Princess Elizabeth. As was to be expected from its author,. there is more of quiet pathos than of violent passion in it, and although it deals with the struggle between King and Par- liament, the fighting, which is tolerably violent so long as it lasts, is all over with the battle of Norbury. Jocelyn Blount, maimed and sensitive though he is, is a very good character, because he is a thoroughly gallant gentleman. Nor does one think any the worse of him because he falls hopelessly in love with a woman who is in every sense unworthy of him ; and because his cousin, the Quaker, Katharine Denby, shows a lamentable lack of dignity—in the ordinary sense—in taking charge of hint when, physically, and indeed morally, he is little better than a derelict. The character of Henrietta Gower, who, as Lady, Henrietta Pole, takes her place only too naturally as one of the frail beauties of the Court of Charles II., is skilfully drawn, and her husband makes a good foil to the trusting and trust- worthy man who, as has already been said, is too good for her.' Altogether, The White King's Daughter, while not among the most striking, is certainly among the most successful, of Mrs. Marshall's romances.
Previous page
