The Light of Scarthey

Romantic scenes from a romantic time, that of Napoleon's Hundred Days. The recluse of Scarthey Lighthouse on the Lancashire coast, and his love-tale, the dare-devil privateer, the gold-smugglers, and the preventives. There are three characters in the book, however, which are not only well- drawn, but have nearly all the elements of romance in them. These are Sir Adrian Landale, his wife Molly, and Captain Jack, otherwise Hubert Cochrane, who is too passionately loved by Molly, and who yet loves her sister, Madeleine, —although she cannot rise to the height of his self-sacrifice. The story of Molly's advance from childhood to womanhood is told with a minuteness not unworthy of Richardson ; and Mr. Hardy himself, except at his very best, could not have surpassed the agony of the last chapters of the book, in which Captain Jack dies on the scaffold, and Molly goes mad for a time.