BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13307, 13 October 1906, Page 5 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

The White Plumes of Xavabre : Br S. R. Crockett. E.T. Society, 4, Bou-verie-strcet, London, EX'.— Religious Tract Society has of late years been providing largely the healthy, stirring stories in ■which boys delight, and in this romance of the "Wars of Religion'' it has given a treatf, to all British lads who are interested in the French Huguenots, and whose parents wish them to know the Huguenot side. The book is well bound and contains no less than 16 vigorous full-page illustrations ' by W. H. Markets on. The following description of the treatment of the Huguenots ' condemned to the galleys for the crime of worshipping God in their own way is illustrative of the style of the book: —

' It chanced that in the late autumn, when the great heats were beginning to abate and the equinoctials bad not yet begun to blow on that exposed eastern coast of Spain, that for a private reason the duke-captain desired to be at Tarragona by nightfall. So all that day the slaves were driven by the 'executioners' the duke invariably named his ' comitea'—till they prayed for death. _" Although it was ft known sea and a time of peace the slaves were allowed no quarter—that is, one half rowing while the other rested. All were forced most mercilessly through a long day's agony of heat and labour. "'Strike, bourrcau—strike!' cried the captain incessantly; 'what else are you paid the King's good money for? If*wo do not get to Tarragona by four o'clock this afternoon I will have you hung from the yardarm. So you ate warned. If you cannot animate, you can terrorise. Once I saw a "comite" in the galleys of Malta cut off a slave's arm. and beat the other dogs about the head with it till they doubled their speed!' "It- was in order to give a certaiu entertainment at Tarragona that the Duke of Err was so eager to get there. For hardly had the Conquistador anchored before the great- sail was down, the fore-rudder mi-' shipped, the after part of the deck cleared, and a. gay marquee spread, with tables set out underneath for a banquet. ~ " By this time,, what with the freshness of the sea and fear of missing a. stroke occasionally— crime always relentlessly punished—the men were so fatigued with the heat, the toil, and the bruising of their chests upon the oar-handles that many would' gladlv have fallen, asleep as they werebut the order came not. All were kept at their posts readv for the salute when the guests of tho duke should come on board—that is, the lifting of the huge oars out of the water all iu a moment and holding them parallel and dripping, a thing which,' when well performed, produces a very happv effect. "After dinner the duke conducted his guests upon the coursier, or raised platform, to look down upon the strange and terrible spectacle beneath. It, was full moon, and the guests, among them several ladies, gazed upon that mass of weary humanitv as on a spectacle. • ; "' God' who made us all,' murmured the Abbe John, 4 can woman born of woman bo so cruel?' . " The young duke was laughing and talking to a" lady whom he . held cavalierly by the hand, to preserve" her from slipping upon the narrow ledge of the coursier. ' f '"I told you I had the secret of sleep, he said; 'I will prove it. I will make three hundred and fifty men sleep with a motiou of my hand.' "He signed to one of the ' comitcs, whom he was accustomed to call his ' chief hangman,' and the man blew a long modulated note. Instantly the whole of the men who had kept at attention dropped asleep— most of them', being really so, because of their weariness. And others, like John d'Alb ret and Francis the Scot, only pretended to obey the order. " At the sight of the hundreds of miserable wretches beneath, crowded together, naked to the waist (for they had had no opportunity of dressing), their backs still bleeding from the blows of the bourreau, the lady shuddered aud drew her arm hastily from that of the captain. But he, thinking that she was pleaded, and only in fear of slipping "among such a horrid; gang, led her yet farther along the estrade, ana continued his jesting in the' same strain as before. ~ > . '"My dear lady,' he said, 'you have now. seen that I am possessed of the art of making men sleep. Now you will see that, I know equally well bow to awake them. " Again .he signed to the ' comites' to blow the reveille. "A. terrible scene- ensued as the men rose to resume their oars. The chains clanked and jingled. The riveted iron girdles about their waists glistened at the part where the back-pull of the oar catches' it'.' Hardlv one. of the crew was fit to move.' With "the long strain of waiting' their limbs had stiffened ; their arms had become like branches of trees.. Even the utmost efforts of ' hangman' were hardly- able to put into them a semblance of activity. .

I SixrEXNY Reprints :* Greening and Co., Ltd., Loudon. (Received through Messrs. Gordon aud Gotcb, London.)— great demand for the modern popular ' novels is shown by the rapidity with which cheap reprints are now wrought out, fttid that • of, $ character which could not possibly be profitable excepting when circulated in large numbers. Among those recently reprinted by Messrs. Greening in sixpenny form are:; "'London by Night," being Mr. George R. Sims' noted Telegraph articles ; on . the social evil; "The Emperor's Candlesticks," by the Baroness Orczy; " A King and a Few Dukes," a smart tale of Balkan love and adventure, bv R. W. Chambers; " Ashfts Tell no Tales'," a story of a modern Borgia ; bv Mrs. Albert S. Bradshaw; and " Nora,'' story of the Family Herald, by T. W. . Speight. * Machillax's Magazine (September) con* tains an article on Imperial recruitinggrounds, from which we extract the following :"The Empire is large and its responsibilities, both within and without its borders, are ever increasing, Fighting men will always be required, in;numbers increasing; in geometrical progression as the years go by. Please God the day may come when the white man of the Empire will quit himself like a man and take upon his shoulders the duty of universal training in the militia or volunteer forces throughout our dominions, so as to tit himself for his duty in defence of his home aud country if need be; and let .us pray that this may be ere our fighting jnptipcip have become as dulled as those of the descendants of the victors of Arcot and Plasty, and ere our enemies, take us unawares at our gates. We should, however, look to the martial instinct? and training of the coloured tribes within , the EmSire as well as to our own. for on them we nave depended in the past, and on them we shall have to depend in the future to maintain the integrity of our vast inheritance. Is it wise to consider only the present when, the future looms so, big before us? Is it wise to endeavour to obtain,a temporary peace within our borders by destroying for ever the magnificent fighting qualities of the . Zulus and.' other, martial races within the Empire? The loyalty, ol the Sikhs and the Ghoorkas* was worth. tc us, after .we had fought *ide by side, in 1857, treble what it was before. A Zulu brigade that had wetted its assegais and shouldered its rifles alongside the British and native Indian forces in battle, for the Great White King , would go far, to instil into the tribe the loyalty and devotion which is the typo of all that is noblest and best in a soldier, and which is found day in our former opponents in and Punjab wars, of in our army Imperial native troops j~four of the Empire, and ♦ tnopfher in the comradeship ot war gSU'i*' l *" l "' impossible. . ■-. ' The Windsor Magazine (September) opens with a series of reproductions of the work of Louise Jopl ing, an Euglish worn anartist, who has long been noted for brilliant work. " The Chronicles of Our Own Times" deals with " Empire-Builders," and shows cartoons of sutili men as- Lords Dufferin, Northcote, and Curzon, Rhodes, Lauriev, and Richard John. Seddon. > . here is the usual collection of smart stories, a.nl among the more serious articles is one of special interest on the " killer' whale. *• ' !v ■ ■ ... !