The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-13 00:00:00

francs would be second. Gaspard is full of resource's end
is resolved to effect his object. He tries various ruses :he ,
eiter, the Marquis's house at last as police commisuire, iss
all the paraphernalia of the awful °ice. Meanwhile, ano-
ther drama is playing at Bonneau's house. The wife (Mrs., Morn) of the Marquis (Mr. H. Horneastle) has effected
1 (by means not stated) the escape of her husband from the
Bastille; and she seeks a confidant in Bonneau, Bonnemia
house being fixed upon as the rendeseous, after the escape.
Boatman is the Bonlsomene of French romance—mirtieu-
lously honest and inhumanly good. The wife, Madame
Bt. Prie, easily induces Dim to risk all for his neighbour
and patron, the Marquis. In the dead of eight the Marquis
reaches Bunsen's Douse. There he first becomes ac-
quainted with the fact that he owes his freedom to his in-
sulted wife ; and on the spot an intensely French recon-
ciliation is accomplished. The Marquis further enters into
an alliance with Bonneau, in respect to the son, and sends
Bonneau by a back way Into his (the marquis') house, for
the purpose of taking iron a secret drawer, for the son's
use, some money :—the Marquis, after Bonneati's depar-
ture, entering his poor neighbour's house, with the
intentioa of clothing himself in • disguise, preliminary to •
journey to the coast and to • long ri.yage. Then comes
ACMa the stage the bona fide cooscuirsaire, and 1,0 enters
the Marquis's house. Thus Gaspard, the true cernmissaire,
and lionueau are in one house; while the Marquis is in
Bonneau's house, suddenly, in the starters of the night,
there Is raised the cry of " fire." A fire engine is hurried
acres the stage; 'lames are seen in u well-managed side-
street; and there are crowds, and shouting, and confusion.
Soldiers break open Bonneau's house ; the Marquis,
only half disguised, is in terror ; but he is
pushed into the crowd, volunteers assistance, and
rushes on to the burning building. At that moment a
window in the Marquis's house is opened, and Gaspard,
with the will in his hand, drops into the erect, and, as he
is hastening away, • bier, with the dead body of a man
killed at the lire, meets him. A cry from the crowd tells
him that this is the body of the Marquis de Melcy. Gaspard
knows then that he has a great game in his bands. The
curtain falls on the tableau.

Act the second is a scene, End only a 6C ?ne. A great ship,
with her bow nearly on to the footlights, is labouring in a storm
her masts riven, and the lightning playing round her. She
goes down; two of the human beings who were in her suc-
ceed in struggling to the shore; and these two arc Gaspard,
with the will safe, and Georges Michel (Mr. Belton), who
is the husband of Thert‘se (Miss Laura Keene), the
daughter of Bonneau, and who has loin emiarating with-
out his wife, in this ship, from Fiance to St. Domingo.
Such a " shipwreck " was never accomplished in a theatre
before; and the scene elicited the loudest atinlauxe.
Act third is a shop, kept by Therese, in one of the markets
at Paris ; and here there is • great sumptuary display in
connexion with the " dames de la hallo" class, of whom
Therese has become" 'dueen." Here there are indications
of plot rather than plot itself. Gaspard re-appears on the
scene. On reaching St. Domingo, he found his patron, the
Duke, dead ; and, with the Marquis's will in his possession,
he resolved to make a Marquis of his own, and he selected
his fellow-passenger, Georges Michel. Ho persuaded Mi-
chel thathe was really the missing son : He sent to Michel'a
wife a certificate of her husband having been drowned at
sea ; and then, with his dupe and accomplice, he returned
to Paris, asserting claims to the De Medley patrimony, and
plunging at once into all the luxuries of affluence. In this,
the third, act, also, there comes on the scene tho
real De Moiler heir, in the person of a poor student, Vic-
tor (Mr. Dosiere,„ lodging in TherZae's house. Therese is
informed of her liusband's death ; but the news is scarcely
communicated when a carriage is stopped by some street
impedimenta opposite her shop, and the inmate of that
carriage, despite the elegance of his air and dress, she at
once recognises to be her husband. It is. in Let, Michel
converted into a grand Marquis; and in his new greatness,
though not false to her, conveniently indifferent to the
fate of his wife. Here, in this discovery, is another
tableau, perfected by the presence of horses and a sheriitian
sort of carriage—exceeding the traditional excellence of
the " real gig." and, of course, the audience were vocifer-
ous in approval.
The fourth set is occupied with some under plots—the
loves of persoes not identified with the main story—and the
confession by Madame Boatman that she had spent all the
money in trust with her husband from the late marquis for
his son in buying lottery tickets—the conclusion be log
another tableau of domestic grandeur, and such as may be
conceived as likely to follow from such a confession
to so rigid a moralist as the Pere Bonneau.
The fifth act is in an apartment at the pseudo-
Marquis's house. Here Therese has intruded, resolute
on ascertaining the truth. Michel finds himself in the power
of Gaspard, who noes his power tyrannically, threatening
his, restive victim with sending him to the galleys for
fraud, in having been an accomplice in forging the certifi-
cate of Michel's death, if he does not consent to disown
TherZse and to marry moth( r, the daughter of a great
family, whose aid is necessary to putting Gaspard, for
Michel, in complete possession of the Do Mele) estates.
But Michel braves all, and acknowledges Therise. The
next act is occupied by the tortuous windier of Gaspard's
intrigue. Ile traps Victor into a kromise to leave France. lio
gets • latre de cachet, and sends flierZse to the Bastille. The
neat act is an interpellated scene—the market of the Inno-
cents by moonlight —for the sake of a ballet—and only
marked by one incident in connexion with the pint—tho
rescue of Therese on her way to the Bastille by one of her
friends, who single-handed beats tour of her guards, and
carries her off safely. The last act exhibits the denolsetne.stt
Gaspard is beaten at all points, throws up the cards, and,
still cool, seeks to escape front the vengeance of his many
victims. But he is shot ere he can steal away—poetical
justice being thus satiatied.
Such a plot as this is full of absurdities and
incongruities. But it is pushed on with a rapidity and
with a bustle which takes an audience by etorns, and for-
bids weariness. Apart from the glaring improbabilities of
structure the separate portions of the play, in themselves
complete, are excellent—full of situation, and every charac
ter talking with point and (Wert. Mr. Charles Mathews,
the evil genius of the drams, played in that consummately
easy manner, which was all the more striking from the
whirl and rush of plot around him. Mr. Frank
Mathews also did wonders with an absurd part ;
and Madame Vesitris (as Marie Bonneau) and Hies
Keene, as Therese, acted on the one hand with a
pathos, and, on the other, with an eucrgy which were per-
fect. But Mr. Beverly, as the painter, earned the play
through. The market-place scene—the moon lighting up
a vast area, and a fountain playing (not the worst per-
former present) is extremely beautiful. The period
of the play is that of the ancMn regime, end there
has, therefore, been full play for the picturesque in
costume. No doubt there was great " lagging '
in the last three of the eight acts; but some excisions will,
we think, be profitably resorted to—everything, in such a
piece, depending on speed.
The gentlemen who have adapted the play are Mr. G. H.
Lewes and Mr. C. Mathews.