r the _Young Widow_, or
_Deaf as a Post_. Ladies (unprofessional) are going to play, for the
first time. I wrote to Mitchell at New York for a wig for Mr.
Snobbington, which has arrived, and is brilliant. If they had done
_Love, Law, and Physick_, as at first proposed, I was already 'up' in
Flexible, having played it of old, before my authorship days; but if it
should be Splash in the _Young Widow_, you will have to do me the favor
to imagine me in a smart livery-coat, shiny black hat and cockade, white
knee-cords, white top-boots, blue stock, small whip, red cheeks, and
dark eyebrows. Conceive Topping's state of mind if I bring this dress
home and put it on unexpectedly! . . . God bless you, dear friend. I can
say nothing about the seventh, the day on which we sail. It is
impossible. Words cannot express what we feel, now that the time is so
near. . . ."

His last letter, dated from "Peasco's Hotel, Montreal, Canada,
twenty-sixth of May," described the private theatricals, and inclosed me
a bill of the play.

"This, like my last, will be a stupid letter, because both Kate and I
are thrown into such a state of excitement by the near approach of the
seventh of June that we can do nothing, and think of nothing.

"The play came off last night. The audience, between five and six
hundred strong, were invited as to a party; a regular table with
refreshments being spread in the lobby and saloon. We had the band of
the twenty-third (one of the finest in the service) in the orchestra,
the theatre was lighted with gas, the scenery was excellent, and the
properties were all brought from private houses. Sir Charles Bagot, Sir
Richard Jackson, and their staffs were present; and as the military
portion of the audience were all in full uniform, it was really a
splendid scene.

"We 'went' also splendidly; though with nothing very remarkable in the
acting way. We had for Sir Mark Chase a genuine odd fish, with plenty of
humor; but our Tristram Sappy was not up to the marvelous reputation he
has somehow or other acquired here. I am not however, let me tell you,
placarded as stage-manager for nothing. Everybody was told they would
have to submit to the most iron despotism; and didn't I come Macready
over them? Oh, no. By no means. Certainly not. The pains I have taken
with them, and the perspiration I have expended, during the last ten
days, exceed in amount anything you can imagine. I had regular plots of
the scenery made out, and l