s"
among these many splendid stories may at least
partly be accounted for by the fact that it
grew out of the heat of a great conviction
about life. Early in 1879 the news reached
England of the death of the Prince Imperial of
France, who fell while serving with the English
forces in South Africa during the war with the
Zulus. Perhaps the present-day reader needs to
be reminded that the Prince Imperial was the
only son of the ex-Empress Eugenie, who, with
her husband Napoleon III had taken refuge in
England after the loss of the French throne at
the close of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.
Napoleon's death shortly after made the young
prince a central figure in all considerations
of the possible recouping of the fortunes of
the Napoleonic dynasty. Full of the spirit of
adventure and courage, he had joined the
English forces to learn something of the
soldier's profession. Unexpectedly ambushed,
the prince was killed while the young officer
who had been assigned to look after him escaped
unhurt. There immediately ensued a wide
discussion of the action of this young officer
in saving himself and, apparently, leaving the
Prince to his fate. Now, Mrs. Ewing was a
soldier's wife and believed in the standard of
honor which would naturally be reflected in
military circles on such an incident. But
hearing the rule of "each man for himself" so
often emphasized in other circles, she was
moved to write the protest against such a view
which forms the central motive in "Jackanapes."
There is no argument, however, no undue
moralizing. With the finest art she embodies
that central doctrine in a great faith that the
saving of a man's life lies in his readiness to
lose it. It was Satan who said, "Skin for skin,
yea, all that a man hath will he give for his
life." The pathos in the story is naturally
inherent in the situation and is never
emphasized for its own sake. Mrs. Ewing was
always a thoroughly conscientious artist. She
believed that the laws of artistic composition
laid down by Ruskin in his _Elements of
Drawing_ applied with equal force to
literature