Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. * * * * * BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXXVI. FEBRUARY, 1852. VOL. LXXI. CONTENTS. THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH, 135 MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE. PART XVIII., 165 A CANTER TO CALIFORNIA, 187 STRUGGLES FOR FAME AND FORTUNE. PART II., 196 LONGFELLOW'S GOLDEN LEGEND, 212 BULL-FIGHTS, IN PICTURES AND PROSE, 225 CUPID IN THE CABINET.--AN ATTIC LEGEND, 231 THE OLD SOLDIER.--IN THREE CAMPAIGNS, 236 RESULTS OF REVOLUTION IN EUROPE, 242 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET; AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXXXVI. FEBRUARY, 1852. VOL. LXXI. THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.[1] [1] _The Life of John Duke of Marlborough; with some Account of his Contemporaries, and of the War of the Succession._ By ARCHIBALD ALISON, LL.D. Second edition, greatly enlarged, 2 vols. 8vo. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London. 1852. Mr Alison's _Life of the Duke of Marlborough_ is an enchaining romance--the romance of a dazzling but stern reality; and Marlborough is its equally stern and dazzling hero. It is, moreover, a romance equally exciting and instructive to both soldier and civilian; told, too, with the scrupulous truthfulness befitting reality, and by one of sagacity sufficient to perceive that, by so doing, he would preserve the ethereal essence of the romance, rendering it intense to the reader for mere excitement, (whose name, alas! is now legion,) while irradiating the path of the plodding inquirer after mere matter of fact. We assert that in these volumes are to be found many essential elements of the most enthralling romance of actual life.[2] Hairbreadth personal 'scapes of the hero, from captivity and death; glorious battles, but of long doubtful issue; devouring and undying love; plots and counterplots without end, now on a grand, then on a paltry scale, national and individual; implacable animosities, deadly jealousies; enthusiastic gratitude suddenly converted into execrable ingratitude; court favour now blazing in its zenith, then suddenly and disastrously eclipsed; stern fortitude, magnificent heroism amidst exquisite trials and tremendous dangers; the wasting anxieties of the stateman's cabinet and the warrior's tent; what would one have more? And yet there is more, and much more, to be found in these volumes, as we shall hereafter see.