were those of a _poissonnière_. In the last act, when one expected the
catastrophe, Narbas, more interested than anybody to see the event,
remained coolly on the stage to hear the story. The Queen's maid of
honour entered without her handkerchief, and her hair most artfully
undressed, and reeling as if she was maudlin, sobbed out a long
narrative, that did not prove true; while Narbas, with all the good
breeding in the world, was more attentive to her fright than to what had
happened. So much for propriety. Now for probability. Voltaire has
published a tragedy, called "Les Guèbres." Two Roman colonels open the
piece: they are brothers, and relate to one another, how they lately in
company destroyed, by the Emperor's mandate, a city of the Guèbres, in
which were their own wives and children; and they recollect that they
want prodigiously to know whether both their families did perish in the
flames. The son of the one and the daughter of the other are taken up
for heretics, and, thinking themselves brother and sister, insist upon
being married, and upon being executed for their religion. The son stabs
his father, who is half a Guèbre, too. The high-priest rants and roars.
The Emperor arrives, blames the pontiff for being a persecutor, and
forgives the son for assassinating his father (who does not die)
because--I don't know why, but that he may marry his cousin. The
grave-diggers in Hamlet have no chance, when such a piece as the Guèbres
is written agreeably to all rules and unities. Adieu, my dear Sir! I
hope to find you quite well at my return. Yours ever.

[Footnote 1: Mme. Dumenil, as has been mentioned in a former note, was
the most popular of the French tragic actresses at this time, as Mrs.
Porter was of the English actresses.]


_THE FRENCH COURT--THE YOUNG PRINCES--ST. CYR--MADAME DE MAILLY._