Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/288

 Perousse is made tall and thin in the book, with the express object that he shall escape association with the said Italian minister, who was short and fat. Nothing has astonished the novelist more than the numerous letters she has received from members of Mr. Chamberlain's party in which it is stated that the villainous Perousse is "exactly like" their leader. We have only to refer such correspondents to Miss Corelli's public speeches in Edinburgh and Glasgow to prove that she has always spoken in high praise of the Colonial Secretary.

The King of the book is no more intended to be a suggested picture of Edward the Seventh than of Haroun Alraschid. The performances of the latter potentate are certainly "impossible" and "outrageous"—to quote press diatribes on "Temporal Power"—but they live, and their forgotten writer is not branded with lèse-majestè. This romance of Marie Corelli's was written to show how a King, in spite of modern surroundings, can still be a hero. Marie Corelli's king is the best man in the whole story, and is represented as winning the love of all his people.

The authoress readily admits that an attack on Jesuitism is contained in the book, nor is she the only one who has waylaid that persuasion. She is