Hundreds of persons have probably been disappointed by this
work--an historical novel, of the time of Edward the Third, by
Mr. Power, of Covent Garden Theatre. Scandal-loving people are so fond of
concatenation, or stringing circumstances, causes, and effects together,
that in the present case they made up their minds to some _secret_ of
our times: some boudoir story of Windsor or St. James's, which might
show how royalty loves. On the contrary, "the _secret_" does not
come out;--the reader is only tickled, his curiosity excited, and the
tale, like an ill-going clock, is wound up without striking.
We attempt something like an outline of the plot, although it is just
to induce Our reader to turn to the work itself, for we foretel he
will be pleased with its details. Artevelde, a beer brewster of Ghent,
intrigues with Edward to transfer the coronet of Flanders from Count
Lewis to the young Prince of Wales. The scheme fails, and Artevelde
perishes in an affray with the citizens In his negotiations he had
employed his daughter, and dispatched her on one occasion, in a private
yacht, to the Thames, to confer with the King. In her passage she is
observed and recognised by the follower of a Flemish noble, who has a
direct interest in defeating Artevelde's scheme for the marriage and
settlement of his daughter, who, before she reaches the King, is seized
by this noble and his agents, but is rescued by a brave young citizen.
Here the love begins. This young citizen is the nephew of a wealthy
old goldsmith, but he abominates the traffic and filthy lucre of his
uncle's profession--for, it should be added, the goldsmiths were the
money-jobbers of those days--and aspires to become a soldier of fortune.
London was a fitting place for such ambition, for those were chivalrous
times. Artevelde's daughter entrusts the youth with the commission, and
dispatches him to the King: he acquits himself with courtly discretion,
and, having displayed some prowess in a passage of arms, soon obtains
an appointment in the royal service. Edward's interview with the lady
determines him to start instantly for Flanders, and the young citizen
(Borgia) accompanies him. They fall into the hands of the same Flemish
noble who had attacked the heroine; but they are rescued, and land at
the Flemish coast.--The scheme fails, as we have said: after Artevelde's
death, his daughter becomes the King's ward. The interests of the
parties now become too complicated for us to follow: we may, however,
state that "the King's Secret" is the parentage of Borgia; it was
asserted that he was "the very child reported to have been born during
the period of Queen Isabella's romantic love passages with Roger
Mortimer, at the court of Hainault."--"Be content, therefore, with
that you and til here already are possessed of, since what remains is,
and must continue, '_The King's Secret_.'"
The heroine is the gemmy character of the story; but, in that of the
King so much license has been used as almost to defy its identification
with history. Scenes, situations, and sketches, of uncommon interest,
abound throughout the work; the manners and customs of the times, and
the details of costume and pageant glitter are worked up with great
labour--perhaps with more than is looked for or will be appreciated in
a novel. Still, they are creditable to the taste and research of the
author. Occasionally, there are scenes of bold and stirring interest,
just such as might be expected from an actor of Mr. Power's vivid
stamp. The storm sketches towards the close of the second volume are
even infinitely better than any of John Kemble's shilling waves or
Mr. Farley's last scenes. In other portions of the work, bits of
antiquarianism are so _stuck on_ the pages as to perplex, rather
than aid the descriptions, by their technicality. Here and there too
the tinsel is unsparingly sprinkled.
Nevertheless, there is a vividness--a freshness--and altogether a
superior interest, in all the details which must render "The King's
Secret" a favourite work with the fiction-and-fact-reading public.
The scenes are so complicated in their interest, that it is scarcely
possible to detach an extract.
In the early part of the first volume occurs a passage relative to the
resistance of the people of Ghent to the oppression of their rulers,
which smacks strongly of the enthusiasm of liberty.
"Whilst impelled on the one hand by the strong desire to regulate
the arbitrary and oppressive exactions, which cramped their energies
and held them for ever at the mercy of their despot's caprice, and
restrained on the other hand by their habitual reverence for their
feudal princes. Artevelde stepped forth, and in their startled ears
pronounced the word "_Resist!_" His eloquence was well seconded by
the grasping severity of a needy and extravagant court, until gradually
combining their wrath and intelligence with the energies of the populace
jealous of their rights, the merchants and citizens of the cities of
Flanders rose upon the bears and butterflies who infested and robbed
them, and, thrusting them forth, set modern Europe the first fearful
example of a people's strength, and the rottenness of the wooden gods
for whom they laboured. Whilst princes, on their parts, learned a lesson
they have not since forgotten or ever ceased to practise, and combining
their hosts of slaves, lashed them onward to scare this stranger,
Freedom, from the earth, even as in our times of intelligence they have
done, and will do; and the brainless slaves, so lashed, shouted and went
forward to the murderous work which rivetted their own fetters, even as
in our time they have done, and will again do in times to come."
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