AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: 11-1899 275 



and sundry changes having been made, most of them ver 

 bal, the whole, after considerable discussion, was adopted. 



At ten I left, via Hook of Holland and Harwich, for 

 London, arriving about ten the next morning, and attend 

 ing to various matters of business. It was fortunate for 

 me that I could have for this purpose an almost complete 

 lull in our proceedings, the first and second committees of 

 the conference being at work on technical matters, and the 

 third not meeting until next Monday. 



In the evening I went to the Lyceum Theatre, saw 

 Henry Irving and Ellen Terry in Sardou s &quot;Robes 

 pierre,&quot; and for the first time in my life was woefully dis 

 appointed in them. The play is wretchedly conceived, 

 and it amazes me that Sardou, who wrote &quot; Thermidor, 

 which is as admirable as &quot; Eobespierre is miserable, 

 could ever have attached his name to such a piece. 



For the wretchedness of its form there is, no doubt, 

 some excuse in the fact that it has been done into English, 

 and doubtless cut, pieced, and altered to suit the Lyceum 

 audiences ; but when one compares the conspiracy part 

 of it with a properly conceived drama in which a con 

 spiracy is developed, like Schiller s &quot;Fiesco,&quot; the dif 

 ference is enormously in favor of the latter. As literature 

 the play in its English dress is below contempt. 



As to its historical contents, Sardou resorts to an ex 

 pedient which, although quite French in its character, 

 brings the whole thing down to a lower level than any 

 thing in which I had ever seen Irving before. The center 

 of interest is a young royalist who, having been present 

 with his mother and sister at the roll-call of the con 

 demned and the harrowing scenes resulting therefrom, 

 rushes forth, determined to assassinate Robespierre, but 

 is discovered by the latter to be his long-lost illegitimate 

 son, and then occur a series of mystifications suited only 

 to the lowest boulevard melodrama. 



As to the action of the piece, the only thing that showed 

 Irving s great ability was the scene in the forest of 

 Montmorency, where, as Eobespierre, he reveals at one 



