Radcliffian or Monk-Lewisian vein--perhaps studied more directly from
Maturin (of whom Balzac was a great admirer) than from either--they
often begin with and sometimes contain at intervals passages not
unlike the Balzac that we know. The attractive title of _Jane la Pale_
(it was originally called, with a still more Early Romantic avidity
for _baroque_ titles, _Wann-Chlore_) has caused it, I believe, to be
more commonly read than any other. It deals with a disguised duke, a
villainous Italian, bigamy, a surprising offer of the angelic first
wife to submit to a sort of double arrangement, the death of the
second wife and first love, and a great many other things. _Argow le
Pirate_ opens quite decently and in order with that story of the
_employe_ which Balzac was to rehandle so often, but drops suddenly
into brigands stopping diligences, the marriage of the heroine Annette
with a retired pirate marquis of vast wealth, the trial of the latter
for murdering another marquis with a poisoned fish-bone scarf-pin, his
execution, the sanguinary reprisals by his redoubtable lieutenant, and
a finale of blunderbusses, fire, devoted peasant girl with _retrousse_
nose, and almost every possible _tremblement_.

In strictness mention of this should have been preceded by mention of
_Le Vicaire des Ardennes_, which is a sort of first part of _Argow le
Pirate_, and not only gives an account of his crimes, early history,
and manners (which seem to have been a little robustious for such a
mild-mannered man as Annette's husband), but tells a thrilling tale of
the loves of the _vicaire_ himself and a young woman, which loves are
crossed, first by the belief that they are brother and sister, and
secondly by the _vicaire_ having taken orders under this delusion. _La
Derniere Fee_ is the queerest possible cross between an actual fairy
story _a la_ Nordier and a history of the fantastic and inconstant
loves of a great English lady, the Duchess of "Sommerset" (a piece of