Have read the _Refugees_; Condé and old P. Murat very good; Louis XIV.
and Louvois with the letter bag very rich. You have reached a trifle
wide perhaps; too _many_ celebrities? Though I was delighted to
re-encounter my old friend Du Chaylu. Old Murat is perhaps your high
water mark; ’tis excellently human, cheerful and real. Do it again.
Madame de Maintenon struck me as quite good. Have you any document for
the decapitation? It sounds steepish. The devil of all that first part
is that you see old Dumas; yet your Louis XIV. is _distinctly good_. I
am much interested with this book, which fulfils a good deal, and
promises more. Question: How far a Historical Novel should be wholly
episodic? I incline to that view, with trembling. I shake hands with
you on old Murat.