The Missourian. By Eugene P. Lyle, jun. (W. Heinemann. Os.)—Although
the details of this book are so complex as very ofte.n to be tedious, the romance attaching to the ill-fated Maximilian's Empire in Mexico is so 'great that any novel dealing with the subject is sure to be read with interest. The hero of this book is not Maximilian, but a Southern American, who at the end of the American Civil War goes to Mexico to offer the help of disbanded Missourian soldiers, and finds himself in the middle of a thouaand intrigues and stratagems which have their centre in the throne of Maximilian. It is almost impossible to keep the different threads of intrigue and romance separate in the novel, and the author does not accomplish his task with any great degree of success ; but the book is worth reading, if only for the picture it presents of the tragedy of empire so confidently embarked upon by Maximilian and his wife. It is to be hoped that the gallantries credited to the Emperor by Mr. Eugene P. Lyle are not entirely authentic. They certainly spoil the ideal portrait which the reader has probably previously made of Maximilian. The character drawing in the book is pretentious rather than successful, Driscoll the Missourian being himself of a type less original than is intended by the author, and the heroine playing too obviously the conventional rele of the innocent adven- turess. In fine, the book will be read only for its historical interest, but that interest is so great that any one who cares to hear about Maximilian's disastrous essay in Empire-making will do well at any rate to glance through Mr. Lyle's account of its tragic end.
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