At the same time the condition of his fame in the present day bears out the general truth of my contention, for there is little doubt that he would be more widely read than he is were it not for those too frequent longueurs and inert paddings which resulted from his too hurried workmanship.

It gives one the impression of being written not "according to plan" but out of a random fancy, with so hurried a pen that not merely have irrelevant incidents, absurdities of diction, and indubitable longueurs escaped excision, but such lapses from the King's fair English as "save you and I" and "I shoot with my own hand he who refuses."

Happily the resemblance extends only to the rondeurs, and not to the occasional longueurs, of his predecessor.