ip. The king was going to the House
of Parliament, and Palace Yard was thronged with people, and we sat
round one of the Bridgewater House windows to see the show. At
about one the royal carriages set out--such lovely cream-colored
horses, with blue and silver trappings; such splendid, shining,
coal-black ones, with coral-colored trappings. The equipages looked
like some enchanted present in a fairy story. The king--God bless
him!--cannot, I should think, have been much annoyed by the
clamorous greetings of his people. I'm afraid that ominous, sullen
silence is a bad sign of the times. We rehearsed very steadily.
Lord Francis, who is taking the old duke's part because of Mr. St.
Aubin going abroad, is much improved by some teaching Young has
bestowed upon him; but still he is by no means so good as Mr. St.
Aubin was....

_Wednesday, 22d._--Read "La Chronique de Charles Neuf," which is
very clever, but the history of that period in France is so
revolting that works of fiction founded upon it are as disagreeable
as the history itself. Hogarth's pictures and Le Sage's novels are
masterpieces, and yet admirable only as excellent representations
of what in itself is odious. However, they are satirical works, and
so have their _raison d'etre_, which I do not think a serious novel
about detestable times and people has. Drove to Bridgewater House,
feeling so unwell that I could scarcely stand, and was obliged to
lie down till I was called to go on the stage. We had a magnificent
audience--all the grandeurs in England except the King. The Queen,
the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of
Cumberland, Princess Elizabeth, Prince Leopold, the Duke of
Brunswick. And lesser magnificoes the room full. Such very superior
people make a dull audience, of course; the presence of royalty is
always understood to bar applause, which is not etiquette when a
Majesty is by. I played very ill; my voice was quite unmanageable,
and broke twice, to my extreme dismay. The fact is, I am fagged
_half_ to death; but as I cannot give up my work and cannot _bear_
to give up my play, the only wonder is that I am not fagged _whole_
to death. Mr. Craven acted really capitally, and I wondered how he
could. They put us out terribly in one scene by forgetting the
benc