The Sun. — 1840-06-11 (London, England)

LITERATURE.  STEPBlle.Entlem, London, 11)8:103 Yeas. . " Stephen Dugard" is a story more carefully put together than is the case with the generality of modern works of fiction. We give a brief synopsis of the plot. Sir Everton Azledine, a baronet of ancient descent, who possesses a fine family estate on the borders of South Wales, has a son and two daughters ; the eldest of whom, Arabella, is on the eve of marriage with a young man, named Aston, a college friend of her brother, Cameron. A few days, however, before the nuptials are appointed to take place, the bridegroom receives a mysterious communication from his father, insisting on his breaking off all connexion with Miss Azledine ; and on hurrying to London for the purpose of ascertaining what can be the cause of such an unexpected and peremptory command, he learns, to his infinite astonishment, that a claimant has appeared to the Azledine estates, in the person of the Baronet's nephew, Stephen Dugard, who, Sir Everton had always supposed, was the illegitimate son of his elder brother, from whom he inherits the property. But despite this disastrous intelligence, and his father's rigid orders, young Aston resolves to marry Arabella ; but on explaining to her the whole circumstances of the case, the high-minded girl refuses to accept his hand, until more auspicious times shall arise. Meantime, the law-suit instituted by Stephen Dugard—at the instigation of an old smuggler named Andrew Mayfield, who had become acquainted with all the facts of the youth's birth, and had taken care to keep him constantly in his eye—this law-suit is successful ; the Baronet and his family are ejected from the estate ; and Stephen Dugard, now Sir Stephen Azledine, accompanied by his wife, the daughter of Mayfield, and a squad of Smugglers, in whose select society he had spent several yeari of his life, takes Possession of it. Inottue time, however, the former malpractices of the new Baronet and his friends transpire ; suspicion is roused against them ; and it is at length discovered that they have not merely been free traders, but have committed divers robberies, together with one or two supplemental murders, by way of agreeable variety. They are consequently committed to prison —such of them at least as have not previously contrived to make their escape from Azledine Hall—and among the imprisoned are Andrew Mayfield and Stephen, the former of whom dies in gaol by the hand of one of his female confederates—an amiable creature, half shrew half tigress, who rejoices in the euphonious name of Jennett Macblee ; while the latter is killed by the fall of some heavy bricks from an old chimney in the cell, at the moment when he is half way up it, on his way to the prison roof. Immediately on Sir Stephen's death becoming known, Sir Evcrton, as his next heir, returns with his family to the estate ; Arabella is married to Aston ; her brother to a young lady, Miss Caroline Bagot ; and all parties are left, at tho close of the third volume, in a state of supreme felicity. Such is a hasty summary of the chief incidents of a story which is told with uncommon tact and vigor, and only halts in those places where the author essays the sentimental. Mr. Mudford has clearly no idea of sentiment. His love passages—or what are intended to be such—are stiff, dull, and passionless. But he works up a scene of terror with an energy and earnestness that remind us of sonic of the closing chapters of Oliver Twist. One of his descriptions, that, we mean, of a murder committed at night on a wild Sussex heath, by a gang of smugglers, absolutely curdles the blood. The scenes, too, at the cave of the Black Rock, where the she-smuggler, Jennett Macblee, figures in a conspicuous manner, are, in their way, equally striking. Mr. Mudford, however, has no fancy—no knowledge of the picturesque. His scenes of guilt and terror are presented to us in all their naked deformity—in short, in as matter-of-fact a style as if they had been 80. much evidence that had been taken down verbatim at a Coroner's Inquest or an Old Bailey trial. We do not doubt for an instant of the success of Stephen Dugard. It is an excellent ad captandum talc; crowded with wild, startling incident, that goes to the very verge of probability without trespassing beyond the boundary lino.  A