It must be allowed, that the author has displayed great adroitness in
the "denouement" of his tale. In the course of a few pages all the
principal characters, male and female, are suddenly produced, safe
and unscathed, before the reader. To be sure, this is done by the aid
of a little "diablerie," but then it is done very neatly,--much more
so than in some of the clumsy fictions of the late Ettrick Shepherd,
to say nothing of the edifying legends about the Romish saints which
the good people of southern Europe are taught to swallow as gospel.
Finally, be it remembered, that Oriental story-tellers have never
subscribed to Horace's precept,--
"Nec deus interait, nisi digens vindice nodus
Inciderit"
On the contrary, their rule is, when, by a free use of the
supernatural, you have got the whole of your characters into a regular
_fix_, it is but fair that you should get them off by the same means.