HIS FIGHT IS OURS

This novel, by the leading living exponent of the Stuart Cause, fills a gap in the history of the Jacobite risings. Despite the mass of literature which has accumulated concerning the last rising of 1745, the question as to why the Highland clans rose for a second time in thirty years on behalf of their legitimate King has not been specifically answered by any writer of history or fiction. The partisan replies to the question have been (a) because the clans were incurably rebellious, or (b) because their generous loyalty to their native kings overcame all considerations of personal welfare.

Miss Lane proves in this absorbing novel that neither of these answers is satisfactory, both being based upon ignorance of the history of Scotland and of the Gaelic character. It is, therefore, a long overdue attempt to trace the real reasons which induced Gaeldom to sacrifice itself in 1745 for the second time in thirty years. Miss Lane shows, through the eyes of one small chief, the hopes and fears, the idealism and the practical interests, which persuaded the majority of the Highland clans to join in the second attempt to restore King James VIII and III, erroneously called "The Old Pretender," to his rightful throne. In He Stooped to Conquer, her best-selling novel about the Massacre of Glencoe, Miss Lane proved that she has a right understanding of the Highlanders, their culture, their way of life, their habits and customs, their ideals and prejudices. Through the eyes of Maclain, chief of the small branch of Clan Donald which lived in Glencoe, she shows the problems which confronted the leaders of a proud and ancient race during the period which elapsed between the rising of 1715 and the even more disastrous rising of 1745. Written during the year of the bi-centenary of the Forty-Five, this novel clarifies an historical obscurity with that combination of historical erudition and story-telling power which has distinguished all her novels. It appears, too, at an opportune time when the fate of small nations which have so lately sacrificed themselves for freedom to live their own lives, and to preserve their culture, remains to be settled by the makers of peace.