prince, the famous Chlovis, reduced the anarchy to a creditable state of order and law. It is as it illustrates this civilizing power of the true Church that the book before us is especially valuable. The tale itself is very simple, though the actors in it are very numerous. Ierne is an Armorican princess of great estimation among the Druids. The high priest of these, indeed (whose name is Gwench'lan, and who is reported to be of the best Druidic blood of Greater Britain), regards her as of especial spiritual power in the conduct of religious rites. At the time that the story opens she is a willing captive in a convent which enjoys the protection of Chlovis, though that monarch is as yet unconverted. The Druids, at the instigation of Gwench'lan, concoct a plan for her recovery. The plan is successful; and Ierne is borne forcibly back by her uncle, the high priest, to the depths of the Armorican forests. When the King Chlovis hears of the outrage he is very wroth, but just at the time he had no pretext for delivering Ierne. He, however, commissions a young officer of much bravery, named Ethelbert-whose lofty love for Ierne is the best creation in the book-to follow Ierne and her captors, and secretly discover both the mode of her treatment and the place of her abode. This, though at great peril and after some startling adventures, Ethelbert succeeds in doing. He even manages an interview with Ierne, in which he assures her of the King's protection. Meanwhile Siegbert of Cologne, cousin and liegeman of Chlovis, entertains a brutal passion for Jerne. He had once before carried her off, and it was out of his hands that she had been delivered when she took refuge in the convent. Siegbert has not yet renounced her. He plots to take her from the Druids a second time; and with the help of a cunning Danish prince he succeeds. But his success is only partial. As he and his friends are conveying the damsel to Cologne, they are accidentally met by Ethelbert and another officer of the king. After a severe scuffle the lady is rescued, and is afterwards received with much affection by the sainted Clothilde, whom chlovis had but lately espoused. In the scuffle Ethelbert is severely wounded, and in the fever which followed his wounds discloses his love for Ierne. Ierne herself admits to the King and Queen that the passion is returned; and the king, who honours Ethelbert as one of his best warriors, determines to have the young people united as soon as possible. But here occurs a very pathetic and very noble scene. During a period of Ethelbert's illness his chances of recovery seemed to disappear; and Ierne, who was watching him, and who, though as yet unbaptized, had still some knowledge of Christianity, vowed to God that if He spared her valiant champion, she would evermore live the life of a Christian virgin. When the king hears of the vow, and hears that Ierne is bent on keeping it, he is somewhat angry; but after a time it is agreed that Ethelbert himself should be asked to determine whether the maiden shall procure ecclesiastical releasement from it or go on to preserve it. The passages which describe the subsequent interview between the lovers are very touching. We are sorry that we can give only a couple of extracts. After putting Ethelbert in possession of the state of the case, Ierne goes on: "Dost thou comprehend, most dear and valiant youth, all this vow implies ? "Not your death, lady? Oh, say it is not that !' he implored, with eager eyes raised to her. "No; not my death in the one sense thou fearest, noble Ethelbert; but my death to all that is held most dear in the world. By consecrating my life in this manner, I put it beyond my power ever to share the highest human joys, ever to fulfil the wishes of the king my Lord, who designed to give me to thee.' "The king? Did he wish ?-did he mean it? Oh, no, no; believe me, most illustrious lady, that I never dared to hope for such high reward. That I had dared to love you with a worship which makes all other women as mere shadows to me I confess with deep humility; but I never dared to raise my aspirations to such an audacious height. To be allowed to reverence you at a distance, to think of you as the one guiding star of all my actions, to be called your warrior, to be your servant, to be allowed to bear your beloved symbol on my shield, to shout your beloved name in the thickest of the fight is all, all I ever dared to hope.'" It was now the turn for Ierne's tears to fall in a raining shower from her eyeş. She looked into his face, as if in homage to his noble spirit, and said to him as soon as she could command her voice : Thou "And so it shall be, beloved youth. Thou shall be all this to me. shall love me all thy life. And I, in the depths of the Holy House of Refuge, where the rest of my life will be spent, will offer up my prayers daily, hourly, for thy welfare and thy honour. And thou shalt live for me, knowing that nothing can be more dear to me than thyself. Thou shalt live to devote thyself to my unhappy country. Would my best heart's bloot could redeem her from the tyranny and oppression of a cruel worship, and restore her to the pure Faith she once enjoyed!" (pp. 305, 306). And so the lovers, as yet unstrengthened by Christian baptism, agree on their great mutual sacrifice of self. But the sacrifice was fated to be but of brief duration. The Druids again try to recover their young priestess, and, by the treachery of a Greek slave, they, though with much loss to themselves, succeed in bearing her away. Chlovis at once, for this time he has a good exeuse, marches an army into Armorica; the Druids are beaten; but the savage high priest, sooner than let his niece be restored to the Franks, stabs her to the heart on the field of battle. She dies; but before her death is baptized by a Christian officer. Her lover does not survive her long. Chlovis has soon to declare war against Alaric, King of the Visigoths; and though the enemy is miraculously routed, chiefly through the visible help of the dead Ierne, Ethelbert is killed. But he had before been received into the Church, and in his dying hour his Ierne is permitted to attend him. The remainder of the book describes the consolidation of the new French kingdom. Chlovis and his chiefs are all (somewhat suddenly) converted. We have given merely an outline of the story as it is in the story of Ierne. But it is much more the story of Clothilde and Clovis ; and we doubt whether its title is properly selected. But there is not much in a name. And the book is excellent. If we are to have a literature of fiction at all, we hope it will include many volumes like that of Mr. Bateman. INDEX. ACTA ET DECRETA Sacrosancti et Ecumenici Concilii Vaticani, die 8 Annual Reports of the Presidents of Queen's Colleges, and Appendices, Anselm (S.), Book of Meditations and Prayers, noticed, 513. Arnold (Mathew), Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects, noticed, 209. BAGSHAWE (Rev. J.), Threshold of the Catholic Church, noticed, 517. Baring-Gould (Mr. S.), Lives of the Saints, noticed, 255. Bateman (J. C.), Ierne of Armorica, noticed, 530. Beale (L. M.B.), The Mystery of Life, noticed, 235. Beste (K. D.), A May Chaplet, and other Verses for the Month of Mary, Birks (Rev. T. R.), The Scripture Doctrine of Creation, noticed, 242. Brennerhassett (Sir Rowland), Speech on the Second Reading of the Bill Boudon (M.), Book of Perpetual Adoration, noticed, 521. The Hidden Life of Jesus, noticed, 222. CANDOLLE (A. DE), Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis deux Siècles, Catholic Family Almanack, 1873, noticed, 278. CHURCH (THE), AND MODERN MEN OF SCIENCE, 401-420: remarkable further progress how magnificent will be the contrast afforded by the Conscience (Hendricke), The Merchant of Antwerp, noticed, 273. Conversion of the Teutonic Race. Conversion of the Franks and English, Craven (Madame A.), Fleurange, noticed, 279. Crawford and Balcarres (Earl of), Etruscan Inscriptions Analysed, Translated, Crusade (The), or Catholic Association for the Suppression of Drunkenness, DEFENCE OF THE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION, reviewed, 381. Divine Sequence (The), noticed, 515. Documenta ad illustrandum Concilium Vaticanum anni 1870, reviewed, 159. EARNSCLIFFE HALL, noticed, 279. FILIOLA, noticed, 279. Finotti (Rev. J. M.), Bibliographia Catholica Americana, noticed, 527. Formby (Rev. H.), The Book of the Holy Rosary, noticed, 225. purpose of Mr. Froude's work is to ruin the Irish character, 433; the GLADSTONE (Right Hon. W. E.), Address delivered at the Liverpool Collegiate Speech on moving for leave to bring in a Bill relating to GORDON RIOTS (THE), 381-401: deplorable state of the English Catholics in Greg (W. R.), Enigmas of Life, reviewed, 48. |