t passed without
disapproval. The third, I knew, would mean success or disaster. It
called forth cries of fear, but also thunders of applause; never before
had they seen a dramatic situation so realistically, I had almost said
so brutally, presented. Again I visited my mother; how I wished she
could have been there! Then came the fourth and fifth acts, which were
received by a tumultuous frenzy of delight; and when the author's name
was called, the Duke of Orleans himself stood up to honour it.

The days of struggle were over, the triumph had come. Utterly unknown
that evening, I was next morning the talk of Paris. They little knew
that I had spent the night on the floor, by the bed of my dying mother.

* * * * *

JOHN EVELYN

Diary

John Evelyn, English country gentleman, courtier, diarist, and
miscellaneous author, was born at Wotton, in Surrey, on
October 31, 1620, and was educated at Lewes, and then at
Balliol College, Oxford. He then lived at the Middle Temple,
London; but after the death of Strafford, disliking the
unsettled state of England, he spent three months in the Low
Countries. Returning for a short time to England, he followed
the Royalist army for three days; but his prudence overcame
his loyalty, and, crossing the Channel again, he wandered for
four years in France and Italy. His observations abroad are
minutely recorded in the "Diary," which in its earlier part
too often resembles a guide-book. Having married, in Paris,
the British ambassador's daughter, Evelyn made his home, in
1652, at Sayes Court, Deptford, until he moved, in 1694; to
Wotton, where he died on February 27, 1706. He was honourably
employed, after the Restoration, on many public commissions,
and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. Like his
friend Samuel Pepys, Evelyn was a man of very catholic tastes,
and wrote on a multitude of subjects, including history,
politics, education, the fine arts, gardening, and especially
forestry, his "Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees," 1664,
being, after the "Diary," his most famous work. Evelyn's
character is very engaging in its richness, uprightness, and
lively interests. His "Diary," like that of Pepys, lay long
unpublished, and first saw the light in 1818.

_I.--Early Years_

I was born at Wotton, in the cou