"THE STROLLING SAINT"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 61, 15 March 1924, Page 17

"THE STROLLING SAINT"

By Rafael Sabatini. London: Stanley Paul and Co., Ltd. This is an extraordinarily effectively written story, and quite a departure from the usual type of the well-known author, though throughout it runs the well-defined strength that has made his books so popular. It is doubtful whether it will be liked in some quarters. The story is of the time when the Holy See and the Emperors were at variance, each seeking to obtain full sway, and concerns more closely the life of Agustino D'Anguissola, who when\an unborn child was. made, a votive, offering to the service of the Holy Church by his mother, a dolorous woman w;ho afterwards strove so hard to set the child's feet upon the ways of sanctity—a sort of thanksoffering for the recovery of her husband, who was badly wounded on the field of battle. Following this, . the author quickly passes over the first few years of Agustine, and the many terrible passages between husband and wife over, what the former describes as "an outrageous votive offering of something that is not yours to bestow," ending with the supposed death of the father, who throughout his lifo has defied the Pope. From this stage the story deals more exclusively with' the education, inclinations, hopes, temptations, and falls of a man who, is ; obviously much more at .home witli a sword in his hand than anywhere, leading finally to the romantic and exciting incidents in which the Pontifical sway is broken in the State of Piacenza. ',The last chapter in the work is one of 'most dramatic intensity. ■ ■ ■