"'If it were done,'" he began, in the hushed tone and slow pace appropriate to murderous thought, turning before our eyes like a cage'd tiger--

"when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly.  If th' assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease, success; that but this blow--"

(A long declining wail, as though uttered from within a tomb.)

"I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on th' other--"

The last words, whispered and yet utterly distinct, came like the gentle slip of leaves from a November bough; and his lips had scarcely ceased to move, when the applause that was his due rang forth in strenuous tumult.  Every throat swelled with praise, and the madness of cheering all but blotted out Hugh Conyngham's gentler thanks.  The actor's brilliant eye, and the fever of his cheek, spoke with firmer eloquence, however; and I read in his looks a grateful understanding.  For such an one, as yet so young in the life of the stage--for he can be but thirty--to take his place among the Garricks and the Kembles, if only in the estimation as yet of Bath, must seem like glory, indeed.

The cheering did not cease; the clapping hands acquired a measured beat; and it seemed as though Hugh Conyngham must bow to the desire of the guests, and speak on--when the tenor of the hoarsest cries declined by an octave, and gained a sudden accent of horror and dismay.  The acutest attention o'erspread the actor's face; the crowd's mood changed as perceptibly as though an icy draught had blown out th...