Molier also trained equestrians for the pad and the _haute école_. His first pupil was the pretty Mademoiselle de Trèves. [p317] He placed her on a horse, and made her an exceptionally good rider, capable of riding standing, on a bare-backed horse and of leaping over barriers, in the best style of the _haute école_. Then followed Mademoiselle Irma Viollat, one of the ornaments of the corps de ballet. The master taught her to repeat on horseback all the dances that she excelled in upon the stage. [Illustration] Insensibly a crowd of amateurs had gathered round Molier; and they formed a complete company. At last Molier one day yielded to the entreaties of his comrades and consented to give a performance in his circus. [p318] [Illustration] It was quite understood that it was to be a private entertainment. [p319] [Illustration] All Paris tried to get in. Artists and society people broke open the doors. [p320] They left the circus in great astonishment, and loudly proclaimed their admiration. Of course, the newspapers were full of it. The people who had been left out were very severe. They declared it was a scandal. Noblemen playing at acrobatics were an easy subject for abuse. “What do you say? Messrs. Hubert de la Rochefoucauld, Martel, de Saint-Aldegonde, de Maulde, de Visocq, de Sainte-Marie, Courtay, d’Arquevilliers and de Pully had appeared in spangled tights?” They recalled the Romans during the decadence, and M. Prudhomme crossed his arms upon his breast in the attitude of the philosopher of Couture. Since then, men have realized that these acrobatic amusements were only the artistic form, the blast of trumpets preceding the vanguard of the revolution, which has just ended in the formation of the Society of Physical Education. Molier and his friends, who, with legitimate pride, remember that on one occasion they presented the Duchesse d’Uzès with 50,000 francs for the benefit of the Hospital for Incurables, claim, with some reason, a share in influencing this national movement. They certainly rendered bodily exercises fashionable once more, and this is a great deal in a country where routine is the only queen that has never been dethroned. Moreover the warm applause which greeted the tirade of the Brettigny in the _Révoltée_ last winter, proved to the acrobats of the Cirque Molier that they had won their cause in the opinion of the public. [Illustration: M. ERNEST MOLIER.] You may remember the indignant tirade in which the gentleman acrobat defends his favourite amusement against the witticisms of Madame Herbeau: [p321]