f Court ladies
inexplicably gay; the same old Duke of BUCKINGHAM; the old dull sport of
improvisations; the old pathetic lack of wit; a _rechauffe_ only
tempered by slight variations, such as the substitution of LELY for
PEPYS, and the failure of the Monarch himself to put in an appearance.

For the rest, a generous allowance of swashbuckling, of kidnapping, of
standing and delivering, of interludes for dancing and gallantry--in a
word all the approved features of the High Toby. Nothing, you will
guess, that threatened to overstrain our intelligence, but enough for
the moderate excitation of those sympathies which we always concede to
heroic villainy.

The _clou_ of the evening was the scene of the waylaying of his lover's
coach by _Claude Duval_ on the Newmarket road. Animals on the stage (as
distinct from the circus-ring) always make me nervous. Mr. BOURCHIER
seemed to have anticipated my apprehension. On the approach of the
travellers, having hitherto, with his horse's consent, sat motionless at
the cross-roads, he retired with it into the wings and there dismounted
and continued the scene on foot. But the memory of those few moments of
superb equitation remained with the audience, and when, at the fall of
the curtain, he led his steed forward by the bridle (a just tribute to
its connivance) the pair of them brought down the house--and not the
scenery, as I had feared.

I am no pedant that I should cavil at Mr. JUSTIN HUNTLY MCCARTHY'S
re-adjustment of history. It was all for our delight that _Claude
Duval_, instead of perishing on the scaffold, should escape from prison,
have his freedom confirmed by the KING'S pardon, confound everybody
else's knavish tricks and marry the lady of his heart. Nor do I complain
that the historic highwayman (as I am credibly informed--for I got the
facts from another critic) was only twenty-nine when they hanged him,
and that Mr. BOURCHIER is--well, let me say, past the military age, or
he wouldn't have been there at all. At the same time he will not mind my
saying that, though he brought a very gallant spirit to his work, he
lacked something of that resilience which is so desirable a quality in a
Chevalier of the Road. Perhaps I liked best in him the quiet restraint
with which he met the assaults of _Orange Moll_ upon his loyalty to his
lady. He was not given very many good things to say, but he made up for
this defect by dropping his aspirates and talking in what I took to be a
Se