.. Borrow spares none
of them. I see he hits right and left, and floors his man wherever he
meets him. I am pleased with his honest sincerity of purpose and his
graphic abrupt style. It is like an old Spanish ballad, leaping in _res
medias_, going from incident to incident, bang, bang, bang, hops, steps,
and jumps like a cracker, and leaving off like one, when you wish he
would give you another touch or _coup de grace_ ... He really sometimes
puts me in mind of Gil Blas; but he has not the sneer of the Frenchman,
nor does he gild the bad. He has a touch of Bunyan, and, like that
enthusiastic tinker, hammers away, _a la Gitano_, whenever he thinks he
can thwack the Devil or his man-of-all-work on earth--the Pope. Therein
he resembles my friend and everybody's friend--_Punch_--who, amidst all
his adventures, never spares the black one. However, I am not going to
review him now; for I know that Mr. Lockhart has expressed a wish that I
should do it for the _Quarterly Review_. Now, a wish from my liege
master is a command. I had half engaged myself elsewhere, thinking that
he did not quite appreciate such a _trump_ as I know Borrow to be.
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