r I know
not. Good-by, dear; ever yours,

F. A. K.

The piece which I have referred to in this letter, calling itself
"Bonaparte," was a sensational melodrama upon the fate and fortunes of
the great emperor, beginning with his first exploits as a young
artillery officer, himself pointing and firing the cannon at Toulon, to
the last dreary agony of the heart-broken exile of St. Helena. It was
well put upon the stage, and presented a series of historical pictures
of considerable interest and effect, not a little of which was due to
the great resemblance of Mr. Warde, who filled the principal part, to
the portraits of Napoleon. He had himself, I believe, been in the army,
and left it under the influence of a passion for the stage, which his
dramatic ability hardly justified; for though he was a very respectable
actor, he had no genius whatever, and never rose above irreproachable
mediocrity. But his military training and his peculiar likeness to
Bonaparte helped him to make his part in this piece very striking and
effective, though it was not in itself the merest peg to hang
"situations" on.

I was at this time sitting for my picture to Mr. Pickersgill, with whose
portrait of my father in the part of Macbeth I have mentioned my
mother's comically expressed dissatisfaction. Our kind friend, Major
Dawkins, wished to give my father and mother a good portrait of me, and
suggested Mr. Pickersgill, a very eminent portrait-painter, as the
artist who would be likely to execute it most satisfactorily. Mr.
Pickersgill, himself, seemed very desirous to undertake it, and greatly
as my sittings interfered with my leisure, of which I had but little, it
was impossible under the circumstances that I should refuse, especially
as he represented that if he succeeded, as he hoped to do, his painting
me would be an advantage to him; portraits of public exhibitors being of
course recognizable by the public, and, if good, serving the purpose of
advertisements. Unluckily, Mrs. Jameson proposed accompanying me, in
order to lighten by her very agreeable conversation the tedium of the
process. Her intimate acquaintance with my face, with which Mr.
Pickersgill was not familiar, and her own very considerable artistic
knowledge and taste made her, however, less discreet in her comments and
suggestions with regard to his operations than was altogether pleasant
to him; and after exhibi