rish--

"... Had I thought,
'All had gone otherwise'...."
(vol iv. p. 59.)

Mildred is waiting for her lover. The usual signal has been made: the
lighted purple pane of a painted window sends forth its beckoning gleam.
But Mertoun does not appear; and as the moments pass, a despairing
apathy steals over her, which is only the completed certainty of her
doom. She has never believed in the promised happiness. In a strange
process of self-consciousness she has realized at once the moral and the
natural consequences of her transgression; the lost peace of conscience,
the lost morning of her love. Her paramount desire has been for
expiation and rest. In one more pang they are coming. Lord Tresham
breaks in on her solitude. His empty scabbard shows what he has done.
But she soon sees that reproach is unnecessary, and that Mertoun's death
is avenged. It is best so. The cloud has lifted. The friend and the
brother are one in heart again. She dies because her own heart is
broken, but forgiving her brother, and blessing him. He has taken
poison, and survives her by a few minutes only.

Mildred has a firm friend in her cousin Gwendolen: a quick-witted,
true-hearted woman, the betrothed of Austin Tresham, who is next heir to
the earldom. She alone has guessed the true state of the case, and,
with the help of Austin, would have averted the tragedy, if Lord
Tresham's precipitate passion had not rendered this impossible. These
two are in no need of their dying kinsman's warning, to remember, if a
blot should again come in the 'scutcheon, that "vengeance is God's, not
man's."

This tragedy was performed in 1843, at Drury Lane Theatre, during the
ownership of Macready; in 1848, at "Sadlers Wells," under the direction
of Mr. Phelps, who had played the part of Lord Tresham in the Drury Lane
performance.

COLOMBE'S BIRTHDAY is a play in five acts, of which the scene is the
palace at Juliers, the time 16--. Colombe of Ravestein is ostensibly
Duchess of Juliers and Cleves; but her title is neutralized by the Salic
law under which the Duchy is held; and though the Duke, her late father,
has wished to evade it in her behalf, those about her are aware that he
had no power to do so, and that the legal claimant, her cousin, may at
any moment assert his rights. This happens on the first anniversary of
her accession, which is also her birthday.

Prince Berthold is to arrive in a few hours. He has s