The novel of _Cinq-Mars_, which had a great success, is a free treatment of history; but Vigny's best work is rather the embodiment of ideas than the rendering of historical matter. His _Stello_ in its conception has something of kinship with _Moise_; in three prose tales relating the sufferings of Chatterton, Chenier, and Gilbert, it illustrates the sorrows of the possessors of genius. Vigny's military experience suggested another group of tales, the _Servitude et Grandeur Militaires_; the soldier in accepting servitude finds his consolation in the duty at all costs of strenuous obedience. In 1827 Vigny quitted the army, and next year took place his marriage--one not unhappy, but of imperfect sympathy--to an English lady, Lydia Bunbury. His interest in English literature was shown by translations of _Othello_ and the _Merchant of Venice_. The former was acted with the applause of the young romanticists, who worshipped Shakespeare ardently if not wisely, and who bore the shock of hearing the unclassical word _mouchoir_ valiantly pronounced on the French stage. The triumph of his drama of _Chatterton_ (1835) was overwhelming, though its glory to-day seems in excess of its deserts. Ten years later Vigny was admitted to the Academy. But with the representation of _Chatterton_, and at the moment of his highest fame, he suddenly ceased from creative activity. Never was his mind more energetic, never was his power as an artist so mature; but, except a few wonderful poems contributed to the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, and posthumously collected, nothing was given by him to the world from 1835 to 1863, the year of his death.