The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-10 00:00:00

THE PRINCESS'S.

A romance in two acts, entitled Ike Muleteer of Toledo,
or King, Queen, and Knave, adapted from an opera with a
similar title lately produced at the Theatre Lyrique, was
the piece de resistance provided at the Princess's last night.
The plot of this romantic drama is not easily described
within moderate compass. The young Queen of Murcia
(Miss Carlotta Leclercq) is a young lady who is more given
to liberty and masquerading than to the confinement of a
court and the solemn duties of state. She takes it into her
royal head to make a matutinal excursion, disguised as a
peasant girl, and accompanied by her confidential lady in
waiting, the Donna Carmen (Miss Murray), habited as a
masculine rustic, for the purpose of making a personal ac-
quaintance with her cousin, Don Sancho, brother of the
King of Castile, to whom she is to be married, in accord-
ance with the desire of her father, the late King of Murcia.
Don Senile, she is informed, is also for some reason tra-
velling incog.,- under the undignified name, and supporting
the character,. of one Manuel the Muleteer. The adven-
turous sovereign is about to be subjected to the rough salu-
tations of a possee of muleteers and villagers at the come-
'try posado where she has gone, when she purchases ex-
emption from the kissing tax by dancing a fandango, which
she does to ravishment. Manuel the Muleteer (Mr. Walter
Lacy) then appears, and saves her from fuither molesta-
tion of the rusqcs, and love at fist sightis the natural
consequence of the personal acquaintance tints auspiciously
begun between her Mejeetrand the person she believes to
be the disguised Dim Seuchis of 0 tstile. But another per
sou art ives on the scene, lion Pedro (Mr. James Vining!,
the pretender to the throne, and he, struck with the re-
markable likeness of the young country girl to the queen,
is sorely puzzled to know whether she is :,he real sovereign
or not. ;Vow, he inclines to the first Opinion, anti frames
a plat to have her arrested on her return to her capital;
and then, believing she is only what she seems, he lays a
scheme to have her . produced before her cowl, and to get
her to make a declaration of abdication in his favour, while
the real queen shah be conveyed privately to a convent. In
these schemes the traitorous ant Pedro is assisted by C iunt
Torribio tie Potopolo (Mr. Harley), the most amusingly
s Lgaeiotts of Cabinet Ministers, and by Diu Scipio (Mt.
G. Everet!). But the plotters tied that the little queen,
young as she is, is inure- than a match for all their crafty
plots and stratagems. She dresses the magnificent Cetm-
toss tie Poinpolo (Mrs, Wiustauley) iu the royal roues, and
this august repri.sentatiise of majesty, at least ,six yards in
ciscunifereuce, is arrested, instead of the slim and sylph
like monarch. She escepes from the custody of her gaoler,
the Count se Pointd°, who thereby forfeits his head to
his toaster, Den Pedro. She alternately plays the Queen
and the peasant to laud, ation. She outs its all the con-
spi: eters, marries the muleteer, refuses to abdicate on any
pretence ; and completes her triumph by discovering that
the man of her clfoice is no other than Sebastian, King of
Castile, in propria persona. It is unnecessary to say that
Mi-s Leclercq was the soul of the piece, and a most en-
chanting soul she was. She danced, she sang, she co-
quetted, she filled the throne, and she entertained her
princely and rustic adsnirers with equal grace and vivacity.
Mr. Harley nib infused a large share of cpnic humour into
the piece, and Miss Murray and Mrs. Winstanley con-
tributed, the latter in an immense degree, to its success.
Tne scenery introduced was very pretty, and a tambourine
Glance by the ladies of the corps de ballet was beautifully
arranged, and is likely to become very popular. Altogether
the Muleteer of Toledo was a decided hit, and was an-
nounced for repetition amidst enthusiastic applause. The
house was crowded.