AT THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE: 111899 277 



Irving, whom, in all his other pieces, I have vastly ad 

 mired. He completely misconceives his hero. Instead of 

 representing him as, from first to last, a shallow Rousseau 

 sentimentalist, with the proper mixture of vanity, sus 

 picion, and cruelty, he puts into him a great deal too much 

 of the ruffian, which was not at all in Robespierre s char 

 acter. 



The most striking scene in the whole was the roll-call 

 at the prison. This was perhaps better than that in Sar- 

 dou s &quot; Thermidor, and the tableaux were decidedly 

 better. 



The scene at the &quot;Festival of the Supreme Being&quot; 

 was also very striking, and in many respects historical; 

 but, unless I am greatly mistaken, the performance re 

 ferred to did not take place as represented, but in the 

 garden directly in front of the Tuileries. The family 

 scene at the house of Duplay the carpenter was exceed 

 ingly well managed ; old Duplay, smoking his pipe, listen 

 ing to his daughters playing on a spinet and singing 

 sentimental songs of the Rousseau period, was perfect. 

 The old carpenter and his family evidently felt that the 

 golden age had at last arrived ; that humanity was at the 

 end of its troubles ; and that the world was indebted for 

 it all to their lodger Robespierre, who sat in the midst 

 of them reading, writing, and enjoying the coddling and 

 applause lavished upon him. And he and they were to 

 go to the guillotine within a week ! 



Incidentally there came a little touch worthy of Sardou ; 

 for, as Robespierre reads his letters, he finds one from 

 his brother, in which he speaks of a young soldier and 

 revolutionist of ability whose acquaintance he has just 

 made, whom he very much likes, and whose republicanism 

 he thoroughly indorses one Buonaparte. This might 

 have occurred, and very likely did occur, very much as 

 shown on the stage ; for one of the charges which nearly 

 cost Bonaparte his life on the Ninth Thermidor was that 

 ihe was on friendly terms with the younger Robespierre^ 

 who was executed with his more famous brother. 



