_Raoul, Gentleman of Fortune. By H. C. Bailey. (Hutchinson and
Co. 6s.)—Although these stories of the struggle between the Dutch and the Spanish in the sixteenth century are written with much of Mr. Bailey's usual felicity of style, the reader cannot help feeling that such very slight and rather theatrical sketches are unworthy of the pen of their author. The adventures were obviously written to form a serial, of which each episode was a complete story in itself, and they bear traces of their origin. They are, however, exciting reading, and although the hero, Raoul de Tout le Monde, is rather a conventional figure, he none the less makes an entertaining centre round which his adventures can be grouped. The stories of Leyden are the most interesting, and it is a comfort to find that at the end of the book Raoul settles down, comfortably married, at Yealm, in Devonshire. Mr. Bailey is thus delivered from the temptation of giving to the world a further series concerning the doings of his hero.
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