translated from the French, a sort of melodrama in blank verse, in
which I have to act a part that I cannot do the least in the world,
but of course that doesn't signify.

["Katharine of Cleves," translated from the French play of "Henri Trois
et sa Cour," and made the subject of one of Mr. Barham's inimitably
comical poems in the "Ingoldsby Legends." Mdlle. Mars acted the part of
the heroine in Paris, and it was one of several semi-tragical
characters, in which, at the end of her great theatrical career, she
reaped fresh laurels in an entirely new field, and showed the world that
she might have been one of the best serious, not to say tragic,
actresses of the French stage, as well as its one unrivaled female
comedian.]

We have spent a wretched Christmas, as you may suppose; a house
with its head sick all but to death, and all its members smitten
with the direst anxiety, is not the place for a merry one. God
bless you, my dear, and send you years of peace of mind and health
of body! this is, I suppose, what we mean when we wish for
happiness here, either for ourselves or others. Give my love and
kindest good wishes to your people.

Have you seen in the papers that poor Torrijos and his little band,
consisting of sixty men, several of whom John knew well, have been
lured into the interior of Spain, and there taken prisoners and
shot? This news has shocked us all dreadfully, especially poor
John. You may imagine how grateful we are that he is now among us,
instead of having fallen a victim to his chimerical enthusiasm. I
hardly know how to deplore the event for Torrijos himself: death
has spared him the bitter disappointment of at last being convinced
that the people he would have made free are willing slaves, and
that the time when Spain is to lift herself up from the dust has
not yet come.

I went the other day with John to the Angerstein Gallery.... The
delight I find in a fine painting is one of the greatest and most
enduring pleasures I have; my mind retains the impression so long
and so very vividly.... Good-by, my dearest H----.

Ever affectionately yours,
F. A. K.

_Saturday, 31st._--After breakfast went to the theater to rehearse
"The Grecian Daughter," and Mr. Ward, for whom the rehearsal was