Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/286

 in the world to believe the numerous adverse statements circulated about her merely on account of her brilliant success.

It was in the September (1902) Review of Reviews that Mr. Stead devoted four pages to his criticism of "Temporal Power," which was described as "a tract for the guidance of the King."

"The fact" (continued Mr. Stead) "that her pages reflect as in a glass darkly, in an exaggerated and somewhat distorted shape, the leading personages in the English Court, and in contemporary politics, may be one of those extraordinary coincidences which occur without any intention on the part of the authoress of the book."

The King and the Queen are then described, and attention is drawn to the position of the Heir Apparent after he has contracted what is known as a morganatic marriage.

The King and Queen (proceeds the review) insist upon ignoring the marriage, and try to compel their son to commit bigamy by marrying a woman of the royal caste. The Prince, however—and in this Marie Corelli departs from the old legend which appears to have suggested this episode—has an unconquerable repugnance to the demand that he should commit bigamy for the good of the State.

The King, at the time when the story opens, has as his Prime Minister an aged Marquis, who is a dark, heavy man of intellectual aspect, whose man