POSTHUMOUS NOVEL OF A GREAT WRITER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 292, 7 December 1907, Page 7

POSTHUMOUS NOVEL OF A GREAT WRITER.

"GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSEv" By lAN MACLAEEN. The last story written by" the lamented lan Maclaren (Dr. John Watson) is entitled " Graham of Claverhause," ~and will appear next week in "The New Zealand Graphic." It is written in a style I entirely different from that of any pre- > vious work of the gifted author. | Dr. John Watson was proud of the Highland blood in his veins. He found in Graham of Claverhouse one of the half-' dozen most picturesque figures in Scot- , tish history, a fascinating, complex, and ! dramatic personality, whom he has made the centre of a stirring story. We live again in the fateful years when Protestantism in England and Presbyterianism in Scotland were fighting their last victorious fight with the Stuarts. Graham was on the wrong side, as obstinate a» the Stuarts themselves. He was the merciless harrier of the Covenanters. But. when, with the coming of William of Orange, the tables were turned, he was faithful to the fallen James, and defended. the Royal cause in the Highlands with reckless courage till a bullet from a traitor in.his own ranks laid him low in the hour of victory at Killiecrankie. While.he is whole-heartedly with, the Covenanters, lan Maelaren,wins our. admiration for, GJayerhous.e, as he. moves. forward to his doom. The tragedy of the story is in the fact that from its opening scenes in Belgium, on the eve of tiie" Battle of Sineffe, we are -chilled by the shadow- of that doom. IxrlSeaxi Cochrane, daughter of a Covenanting house, lan Maclaren has created a heroine as eaglespirited as Claverhouse himself. There is a.great dramatic scene between Jean and Claverhouse, which the reader will never forget. ' : . "Graham of Claverhouse " shows that lan. Maqlaren ,was capable' of great- work in the field of historical ictipn, and it is interesting to compare his-presentation of Claverhonse with that of- Sir Walter Scott in "Old Mortality. ,, ' The fact that the author did not live to further explore the field adds a melancholy interest to the story..