Told of Sir Henry.

Otago Witness, Issue 2416, 28 June 1900, Page 70

Told of Sir Henry.

Mr Clement Soott, in his recently-published Reminiscences, tells of a_practical ic'ko played by Sir Henry (then Mr) Irving and Mr Henry J. Montague, another actor, upon a number of their friends, and "in its execution was Feen the first dawning glimmer of that tragic force that was ultimately to find expression in Ilood's 'Dream of Eugene Arair' and the 'Bells.' "

Irving and Montague — liitherto the best allies — began to quarrel on their way to a picnic, and their friends feared some tragic consequence; 1 . After luncheon, both of the men disappeared. Tom Smale, one of the picnickers, turned deadly pale. With one wild cry, "They're gone! What on earth has become of them?" he made a dash down the liillside over the rocks and boulders with the rest of the picnic party at his heels. At the bottom of a "dreadful hollow behind the little wood" a fearful sight presented itself to the astonished friends. There, on a stone, 'sat Henry Irving in his shirt-sleeves, his long hair matted over his> eyes, his thin hands and white face smeared with blood, and dangling an open clasp knife.

He was muttering to himself in a savage tone :

"I've done it ! I've done it ! I said I would ! I said I would."

Tom Smale, in an agony of fear, rushed up to Irving, who waved him on one side with threatening gestures. "For heaven's sake, man," screamed the distracted Smale, "tell iis where he is !"

Irving, tcarcely moving a muscle, pointed to a heap of dead leaves, and in sepulchral tones qried :

"He's there! there! I've done for him! I've murdered him !"

Smale literally bounded to the heap, anrl began flinging aside the leaves in every direction. Presently he found the bodj r of Montague lying face downwards. Almost paralysed with terror, Smale just managed to turn the head round, and found Montague convulsed with laughter, with a handkerchief in his mouth to prevent an explosion. Never was better acting seen on the stage.