t on the stage, and accepting the story as
worked out by Mr. GRUNDY'S characters, the acting is excellent all
round. There are two powerful situations, one in the First Act between
the Judge's son, Mr. FRED TERRY, and the innocent victim, Mr. FERNANDEZ,
admirably played; and another in the Second between Mr. TERRY and Miss
LECLERCQ, also rendered with considerable power. Little Miss NORREY'S
shrill squeak, or scream, or whatever it is, at the end of the First
Act, imperils the situation, and might be toned down with advantage, as
also might her spasmodic melodramatic acting later in the piece. Mrs.
TREE'S is a pretty part, but not a strong one. To sum up, apart from the
two situations I have cited, I should say, that what will linger in the
memory of man when it runneth not to the contrary, is not the false
sentiment, but the real water which fills the real watering-pot, the
blossoming apple-tree, and, above all, the stolidly-chivalrous Mr. ALLEN
as _Captain of Gendarmes_. By the way, the exterior of the presbytery is
that of a small cottage. Excellent. The interior, representing the
Abbe's sitting-room, is a large and lofty Gothic cell--a regular
cell--capable of holding two such presbyteries as we have just seen from
outside. But there--it is another lesson--never judge by appearances.

[Illustration: Probable future of the ex-Abbe In-Constantin. He marries
Madame D'Arcay, and they come over to England and join the Salvation
Army.]

To return for the last time to the _dramatis personae_, everyone who sees
this play will regret that the Author has not bestowed as much pains on
the character of the _Captain of Gendarmes_ as he has on the maudlin
water-pottering old _Cure_. The drama, after the Third Act, is
lugubrious. Why not lighten the general depression by bringing on the
_Captain of Gendarmes_ to the "_Boulanger March_," and making him as
amusing as _Sergeant Lupin_ in _Robert Macaire_? The piece is well
mounted, why should not the Gendarmes be also mounted? There are four or
six of them. What an effect has been missed by not bringing them in on
real horses, and giving them a quartette or a sestette _a cheval_, with
a solo for the Captain! Then the Captain might know all about the
murder, and _he_ would reveal it without breaking the seal--unless it
were to crack a bottle--and all would end happily. As it is, all ends
miserably, or would so end, but for the Captain, whose last words before
the fall of the Curtain,