(unless he happened to be an antiquarian) as they would be to an
Englishman. These the Translator has, as far as possible, got rid of,
and has endeavoured to reduce the explanatory foot-notes--those
'blunder-marks,' as they have been well styled--to as small a number
as is consistent with clearness in the text."

M. Lajétchnikoff takes occasion, while referring to some anachronisms
which will be found in _The Heretic_, to state, in the following terms,
his opinion of the duties of an historical novelist--

"He must follow rather the poetry of history than its chronology. His
business is not to be the slave of dates; he ought to be faithful to
the character of the epoch, and of the _dramatis personae_ which he
has selected for representation. It is not his business to examine
every trifle, to count over with servile minuteness every link in the
chain of this epoch, or of the life of this character; that is the
department of the historian and the biographer. The mission of the
historical novelist is to select from them the most brilliant, the
most interesting events, which are connected with the chief personage
of his story, and to concentrate them into one poetic moment of his
romance. Is it necessary to say that this moment ought to be pervaded
by a leading idea?... Thus I understand the duties of the historical
novelist. Whether I have fulfilled them, is quite another question."

We are not quite sure what is here meant by "a leading idea." If it be
that some abstract idea is to be developed or illustrated, we can neither
subscribe to the canon nor discover the leading idea of this specimen of
the author's productions; but we rather suppose that he only means to say
that there should be a main stream of interest running through the whole
story, to which the others are tributary--and in this sense he has acted