account how one day was passed, and he represents that as an accurate specimen of all the rest. It was an interchange of ceremonies, I imagine, rather than of friendship or of conversation.

He relates a pleasing anecdote of Count Kaunitz (son of the imperial minister), who was ambassador to the court of Spain at the same time that Cumberland was upon his mission there. When Cumberland was at the Spanish theatre one night, shortly after his arrival at Madrid, witnessing the exhibition of a comedy that "seemed to be grounded upon the story of Richardson's Pamela," this nobleman entered the same box, and placed himself at the back seat. There happened to be, in the play, a character which was meant to personate a British naval officer. When he made his appearance on the stage, it was with so little resemblance of the original either in dress or manner, that Cumberland could not but smile at the awkward imitation, which Count Kaunitz perceiving, leaned forwards and addressed him in the following elegant and courteous manner: "I hope, Sir, you will overlook a small mistake in point of costume, which this gentleman has very naturally fallen into, as I am convinced he would have been proud of presenting himself to you in his proper uniform, could he have found among all his naval acquaintance any one who could have furnished him with a sample of it." This ingenious remark led to a conversation that terminated in an inti

macy between theCount andCumberland, which was uninterrupted but by the departure of the latter. . Among those who used to frequent his evening circle at home Cumberland enumerates, besides Count Kaunitz, (who subsequently formed an attachment to his eldest daughter, but died, soon after, at Barcelona), Signior Giusti, an Italian, secretary of the embassy; General Count Pallavicini, the Nuncio Colonna, cardinal elect, the Venetian Ambassador, those of Saxony and Denmark, Colonel O'Moore of the Walloons, Signior Nicholas Marchetti, and some of the heads of religious fraternities.

In this society he represents himself as passing his time with tolerable ease and gratification; and he was inclined to estimate it the more highly, perhaps, because he could not weaken the pleasures which it afforded, by any that could be obtained by external search. Amusements were few in Madrid, and those few not much suited to a foreign taste. The theatre, which is a common centre of attraction in every country, was here reduced to a state of meanness which could only excite contempt. It was "small, dark, ill-furnished, and ill attended." Yet, it had one attraction, and that one powerful beyond what any other theatre in Europe possessed. This was the performances of the celebrated Tiranna, as she was called, a wonderful tragic actress, of whom Cumberland gives the following interesting account:

"That extraordinary woman, whose real name I do not remember, and whose real origin cannot be traced, till it is settled from what particular nation or people we are to derive the outcast race of gypsies, was not less formed to strike beholders with the beauty and commanding majesty of her person, than to astonish all that heard her, by the powers that nature and art had combined to give her. My friend Count Pietra Santa, who had honourable access to this great stage-heroine, intimated to her the very high expectation I had formed of her performances, and the eager desire I had to see her in one of her capital characters, telling her at the same time that I had been a writer for the stage in my own country; in consequence of this intimation she sent me word that I should have notice from her when she wished me to come to the theatre, till when she desired I would not present myself in my box upon any night, though her name might be in the bill, for it was only when she liked her part, and was in the humour to play well, that she wished me to be present.

"In obedience to her message I waited several days, and at last received the looked-for summons; I had not been many minutes in the theatre before she sent a mandate to me to go home, for that she was in no disposition that evening for playing well, and should neither do justice to her own talents, nor to my expectations. I instantly obeyed this whimsical injunction, knowing it to

be so perfectly in character with the capricious humour of her tribe. When something more than a week had passed, I was again invited to the theatre, and permitted to sit out the whole representation. I had not then enough of the language to understand much more than the incidents and action of the play, which was of the deepest cast of tragedy, for in the course of the plot she murdered her infant children, and exhibited them dead on the stage, lying on each side of her, whilst she, sitting on the bare floor between them, (her attitude, action, features, tones, defying all description), presented such a high-wrought picture of hysteric phrensy, laughing wild amidst severest woe, as placed her in my judgment at the very summit of her art; in fact I have no conception that the powers of acting can be carried higher; and such was the effect upon the audience, that whilst the spectators in the pit, having caught a kind of sympathetic phrensy from the scene, were rising up in a tumultuous manner, the word was given out by authority for letting fall the curtain, and a catastrophe, probably too strong for exhibition, was not allowed to be completed.

"A few minutes had passed, when this wonderful creature, led in by Pietra Santa, entered my box; the artificial paleness of her cheeks, her eyes, which she had dyed of a bright vermillion round the edges of the lids, her fine arms bare to the shoulders, the wild magnificence of her attire, and

the profusion of her dishevelled locks, glossy black as the plumage of the raven, gave her the appearance of something so more than human, such a Sybil, such an imaginary being, so awful, so impressive, that my blood chilled as she approached me, not to ask but to claim my applause, demanding of me if I had ever seen any actress that could be compared with her in my own, or any other, country. 'I was determined,' she said, to exert myself for you this night; and if the sensibility of the audience would have suffered me to have concluded the scene, I should have convinced you that I do not boast of my own performances without reason.'

"The allowances, which the Spanish theatre could afford to make to its performers, were so very moderate, that I should doubt if the whole year's salary of the Tiranna would have more than paid for the magnificent dress, in which she then appeared; but this and all other charges appertaining to her establishment were defrayed from the coffers of the Duke of Osuna, a grandee of the first class, and commander of the Spanish guards. This noble person found it indispensably necessary for his honour, to have the finest woman in Spain upon his pension, but by no means necessary to be acquainted with her, and at the very time, of which I am now speaking, Pietra Santa seriously assured me, that his excellency had indeed paid large sums to her order, but had never once visited, or even