It is almost
unnecessary to add, that he is immeasurably more attractive than the
real hero, Mr. Linden.
We regret to say that the conception is not carried out so well as it
deserves to be. Doctor Harrison descends to some low business, quite
unworthy of him, such as tampering with the mails. This is not only
mortifying, but entirely unnecessary; inasmuch as Doctor Harrison has
a subordinate villain to do all the low villany, in the person of
Squire Deacon, who shoots at Mr. Linden from behind a hedge (!), and
is never called to account therefor,--a strange remissness on the
part of everybody, which seems to have no recommendation except that
it leaves him free to do this very work of robbing the mails, and
which, by his failure to do it, is left utterly unexplained and
profoundly mysterious. All this is very bad. The Doctor's meanness is
utterly inconsistent; and the bare thought of a sober and uncommonly
awkward Yankee, like Squire Deacon, deliberately making _two_
separate attempts at assassination, is unspeakably ludicrous.
Moreover, we are hopelessly unable to see the need of having the
unfortunate Mr. Linden shot at all. Everything was going on very well
before, as nearly as we could see, and nothing appears to come of it,
after all,--not even the condign punishment of the incongruous and
never-to-be-sufficiently-marvelled-at assassin, who is suspected by
several people, and yet remains as unharmed as if murder on the
highway were altogether too common an occurrence in New England to
excite more than a moment's thought.
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