how, for one moment, she can have been compared to Rachel. Time has readjusted the scales which the passions and jealousies of the moment had put so hopelessly out of gear.
On the 27th July, four days after her series of representations at the Français, Rachel left for London. To the last moment the public did not realise that she really intended leaving them. She had gone to Moscow, England, Germany, they said, but would never make up her mind to cross the Atlantic; and, indeed, she seemed of the same opinion herself, for she actually came down to the station and on the platform hesitated about going. Later in the day, however, she started, and arrived in London about the same time as the rest of the company.
On the 30th of the month she gave her first representation at the St. James's Theatre, under the direction of Mr. Mitchell. "No spark of the old fire," the English critics declared, "was wanting." No worn-out reputation did she take to the other side of the Atlantic, they averred, and they only regretted that the actress, in full perfection of her powers, should leave an appreciative public. The Duke d'Aumale, who was present at her representation of Les Horaces, said to Mr. Mitchell as he left, "Cette belle langue de Corneille, cette langue de mon pays, que je viens d'entendre, est pour moi comme une fraîche rosée dans une brûlante journée de printemps."
Rachel appeared for the last time in Europe on the boards of old Drury Lane. On the 4th August she wrote to her son Alexander:—
Dear Son,
How are you and my little Gabriel? Write and tell me you are both well and good, and you may be sure I shall keep quite