The Dewsbury Chronicle, and West Riding Advertiser. — 1875-04-24 (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England)

CASE DRAMATISED. The Paris correspondent of the Times telegraphs over two columns of the version of the Tiehborne case, dramatised under the title of the " Affaire Coverley," which was produced on Tuesday night, at the Anibigu. He says :—After numerous postponements, the first' representation of the " Affaire Coverley," or rather, to call it by its right name, the " Tichborno Case," came off this evening. Ever since the play was announced it has excited considerable curiosity. Ignorant as peeple here generally are of what passes abroad, this cause cele,brc has too long excited public attention and warm controversy in England for them to remain indifferent to it. The Ambigu, therefore, this evening had a more animated aspect. uud contained a more select audience than usual. Observers with a regard for historical truth can only see in the piece a romance embroidered on the real event. It comprises very moving scenes and improbable inventions, it bristles with striking blunders, it irritates good sauce, and it excites the imagination. The Tichborne case, however, net being a page of history, but only a contemporary episode, the vagaries of the authors may be judged indulgently, and the piece may be looked at merely from a scientific point of view. He details the plot, which includes epi3odes on board the Bella and in Australia. Orton becomes Gordon, a butcher, who returns to England and personates Roger Coverley. Ile is made to meet his real mother and Lady Coverley. Mrs. Gordon rushes towards him, crying, "My son, ray son lives; thank God. my son lives! " Gordon is for a moment taken aback, but only for a moment. He says, " You are mistaken, my good woman. Arthur Gordon perished in the wreck of the Bella." Eat the mother recognises the voice of her son, and she claims him as her own more loudly than ever. till he persists. "Who are you, then?" she asks. "lam Sir Roger Coverley," he replies. "Yes," says Lady Coverley, "he is my son." Your son ! " cries the unhappy mother, " then I must be mad, or," she added suddenly, "you are." The way in which Mdlle. Dugueret said these words was positively fearful in its intensity, and, indeed, the acting throughout the scene was magnificent in its alternate doubt, horror, mad joy, and deep despair. Meanwhile even Gordon's resolution begins to waver, for, wretch though he is, he still retains some spark of filial affection. His mothers convinced at last against her will, believes, or feigns to believe, that Arthur is really dead. " Arthur," she cries in heartrending accents, " must be dead. He would never have denied his own mother. But did he not leave some message with you for me ?" Gordon for a while is silent, wresting with his own evil spirit. He is for a moment irresolute. "Yes," at last he says, "he did leave a message for you, but to be told to you in private." Toe others withdraw. Gordon approaches , his mother, and looks her in the face with sombre, horrible implacability. She is about to renew her appeals. " Silence," he hisses, "I am your son. I murdered Roger Coverley to get possession of his name, his fortune, and his bride. If you still persist in saying that I am your sou I go to the gallows." The poor mother gives one long blank look of horror, and then, going up to Lady Coverley with a gesture in which terror and despair are mingled, she cries, "You are right; I was mistaken; my son is indeed dead." This is a depkrture with a vengeance from the facts of the real case, but the denoument is even more strange as Arthur Gordon, instead of being tried and sentenced to penal servitude, dies from remorse, he being haunted by the spectre of the murdered Roger.