The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-08 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Bound to the TT/heel. By John Saunders, author
of " Abel Drake's Wife." 3 vols. Hurst and

Blackett.

This is a very interesting story. The plot is
ingeniously contrived, and keeps the reader for a
considerable period in due suspense. Anthony
Maude and Richard Sleuth, the two nephews of
old Alderman Maude, are the heroes of the tale.
Eortune fluctuates between them with more
than her customary caprice. At the opening of
the story Anthony, whose impetuous, passionate
nature too nearly resembled his uncle's own
hasty temperament, has been dismissed
for insubordination, and Richard Sleuth,
whose name seems wonderfully indicative of his
stealthy and treacherous nature, is the apparent
favourite. Yet as the obsequious heir expectant
watches with over-zealous care his uncle's death-
bed, the honest nature of the old man recoils from
the sycophant, and when too late he calls again for
Anthony. We do not profess to follow the details
of the story, which are sufficiently intricate and
elaborate. We must confess that we were not
favourably impressed by the style of the first chapter,
but as the author becomes interested in his narrative
his manner becomes more natural. in the nrst
chapter a group of vagrant children are introduced
listening to an itinerant organ-grinder, and their
dancing to his music is described in the following
most extravagant terms :
What manner of dance it may be it is impossible to say ;
but the bare brown feet, flayed with the sun and dust of a
long summer's day, are pattering the London pavement as
delicately as if it were a marbled floor of Pompeii. The
boy, meantime, is lying full length on the road, his head
just above the edge of the kerbstone, propped on his two
elbows, and his glittering eyes following their every move-
ment

Wonderful are the outlines of the flying rags, the wav-
ing arms, the animatod faces ! Wild as it is, there is a mad
sort of method in the dance, though it is difficult to trace
it. There are steps as buoyant, as full of joy as the step
of Jephthah's daughter dancing from the conqueror's house
to meet the conqueror. There are fits of languor, when
the spare elfish figures mock the voluptuous attitudes of
Mohammedan houris, rolling their dark almond-eyes, and
revealing their wealth of dazzling little teeth in " wreathed
smiles." There are fits of simulated rage, of savage In-
dian-like onslaught, when bonnets fall off, and rags fly out
like the torn plumage of birds. There are fits of gracious-
ness, when nothing can exceed the dainty propriety of step
and gesture; when the skirts might be satin, so gently are
they raised—the arms decked with bracelets of diamonds
and gold, so consciously graceful, so full of the sense of
richness and luxury are the rounding curves.
The organ-man has for some time been watching them ;
his first glance of contempt gradually changing to a wist..
ful smile, for he sees himself a child among them in his
little summer blouse, dancing in vineyards, where
his father, and the father of his little playmates, worked,
and where his mother and baby- sister came to meet them
at oven-fall. He sees that mother's smile as she approaches,
and the music ho plays changes to the merry harvester's
pipes. He is no longer a despised organ-grinder, dirty,
weary, reckless, but a child with his mother and father in
his own bright Italy.

The last touch is pleasing, and perhaps natural,
but the description of the dance is assuredly some-
what overdone.
We might give some extracts of a more attrac-
tive character, such as the spirited scene in the
library on the discovery of the lost codicil, or the
tantalising rapacity of the wretched possessor of the
stolen document when he alternately offers his price-
less gift and then withdraws it, demanding yet
another bribe. This scene is particularly well de-
scribed,,but to give it would spoil the interest of
the tale, and after all the chief attraction of a story
of this kind is its power of exciting interest.

EXTRAORDINARY REPTILE.—PLYMOUTII, May 7.
—The Black Ball packet Young England, 1,017
tons, Captain Alexander Clarke, belonging to Messrs. Jas.
Baines and Co.,was off Portland yesterday, bound for Lon-
don. She left Sydney on Feb. 1, with five passengers,
the Rev. T. Rich, Dr. 11. T. Scott, and Messrs. G. Baxter,
John Symes, and T. Best, and a cargo valued at £150,000,
which includes 80 tons of gum, 219 casks of tallow, 24
tons of copper, 2,647 bales of wool, 6,963 hides, 8 bales of
cotton, 300 cases of gum, and a large quantity of bones,
horns, hoofs, botanical specimens, &c., with gold-dust
valued at £48,000, and specie £3,000. The Young Eng-
land has brought home also a tremendous specimen of the
saurian tribe, which, in tho opinion of Australian savans,
is more closely allied to the extinct reptilia of the pre-
Adarnite era than any living animal yet discovered. It
inhabited the unexplored interior of Queensland, near
the source of the Fitzroy River. The accounts related
of the destruction caused by the monster upon the na-
tive population seemed perfectly incredible until the for-
midable jaws, armed with fangs of astonishing size, were
beheld. Added to this, its claws of prodigious power, and
its invulnerable skin, rendered it most formidable. In the
contest which ended in its destruction one claw was torn
off, but with this exception the body is in perfect preser-
vation. The Young England was off New Zealand Feb.
14, rounded Cape Horn March 8, crossed the Equator
April 9, passed the Azores on the 2Gth, the Lizard on the
4th inst., and spoke, March 26, let, 28 45 S., long. 21 IV.,
the ship Natal Star, 57 days from London ; April 4, lat.
9 20 South., long. 28 30 W., the Dutch ship Eolus, from
Rotterdam for Batavia ; 19th, lat. 26 N., long. 48 W., a
Bremen ship, showing No. 24, bound W. ; 22d, lat. 30 12
N., long. 37 20 /V., the ship Peruvian ; 23d, lat. 32 42 W.,
lone. 35 35 W., the ship Three Bolls, 108 days from Soura-
baya for Rotterdam ; and April 29th, lat. 43 30 N., long.
17 IV., the ship Jason, bound S ; the ship Berar, bound S. ;
the ship Her Majesty,
,from Liverpool for Bombay ; tie
brig Siloam, an English ship showing third pendant, No.
HA and the phip Quo= of England, both bcnnicl S.

wok,

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HER MAJESTY•

WINDSOR CASTLE, I\londay.
The Queen drove out yesterday afternoon, ac-
companied by her Royal Highness Princess Helena,
and attended by Lady Churchill.
Her Majesty, accompanied by Princess Helena,
walked and drove in the grounds this naorning• t
Prince Louise and Princess Beatrice also want
out walking.

The Prince and Princess of Wales•
The Prince and Princess of Wales and Prince
Alfred visited the Grand Duchess of Blecklellburg-
Strelitz at Gloucester House yesterday.
The Prince of Wales, accompanied by Prince
Alfred, rode out on horseback in the afternoon•

Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princos
of Wales, Major Teesdale, and suite, honoured the PE)r-
formanees at the Theatre Royal Now Adelphi last eVelli*

Attempt to Assassinate Count BisraarcJ

The following telegrams were received at
Reuter's office this morning :

BERLIN, Mg 7'
This afternoon, about six o'clock, a well-dressed
man fired several shots from a revolver at Count
von Bismarck in the Unter den Linden Street.
I,
Blind, the assassin, while unobserved in Pris.:
stabbed himself in the throat nine tiros with
pocket-knife having several blades.
The physicians declared the wounds not dangerci
ous, as no important artery had been severed/ Is
he; was put in a strait waisteoat, but he died t
morning.
BERLIN, May 7 (11 P. 11,
• The attempt upon the life of Count von 8
marck was made at five o'clock this evening, r
te-
the count was returning on foot along thee
8
den Linden, after having an audience of the 1,;1331
Upon reaching the Schadow Strasse he was fire"tivo
from behind by a man who discharged at hira. ed
barrels of a revolver. Both shots, however, 5116stbe
the count, who immediately turned and seized
man. - the

In the struggle which ensued between thenl
er,
assassin fired three more shots from his 00%,
Count Bismarck remained unhurt, with the Wes%
tion of a slight contusion. His clothes were 3es.
burnt by the nearness of the three last disehargo
The perpetrator of the attempted assassinati.°
who was immediately arrested by the police, yin
man 22 years of age, a son of the Reriilacto‘ e
refugee, Carl Blind. It appears that he cde.
from Hohenheim, in Wurtemberg, with the j3i3..
liberate intention of assassinating Count con

marck. 1,,0 life
The perpetrator of the attempt against t"" 0
of Count von Bismarck is named Blind, but'd,
understood that he is not the son of Carl )3""
the political refugee in London.