May 3ist, 1856, 2 The Wolf-L eader is to be associated in conception with the group of romances which Dumas wrote at Brussels between the years 1852 and 1854, tnat sto say, after his financial failure and the consequent defection of his collaborator Maquet, and before his return to Paris to found his journal Le Mousquetaire. Like Conscience VI nnocent and Catherine Blum, which date from that period of exile, the present story was inspired by reminiscences of our authors native place Villers Cotterets, in the department of the A isne. In The Wolf-L eader Dumas, however, allows his imagination and fancy full play. Using a legend told to him nearly half a century before, conjuring up the scenes of his boyhood, and calling into requisition his wonderful gift of improvisa tion, he contrives in the happiest way to weave a romance in which are combined a weird tale of diablerie and continual delightful glimpses of forest life. Terror, wood-craft, and humour could not be more felicitously inte