"Say the 31st," replied the queen; "and if on that day I receive the key of my box, I promise you the Order of St. Michael in exchange." The key was sent to her majesty on the 26th, who not only decorated Lenoir with the _cordon_ of St. Michael, but also conferred on him a pension of six thousand francs; and on the 27th the theatre was opened to the public. * * * * * In 1784, Sacchini's _Chimène_, adapted from _Il Gran Cid_, an opera he had written for the King's Theatre in 1778, was produced at the Académie with great success. The principal part in this work was sustained by Huberti, a singer much admired by Piccinni, who wrote some airs in the _cantabile_ style specially for her, and said that, without her, his opera of _Dido_, in which she played the principal part, was "without Dido." M. Castil Blaze tells us that she was the first true singer who appeared at the Académie. Grimm declares, that she sang like Todi and acted like Clairon. Finally, when Madame de Saint Huberti was performing at Strasburgh, in 1787, a young officer of artillery, named Napoleon Bonaparte, addressed the following witty and complimentary verses to her:-- "Romains qui vous vantez d'une illustre origine Voyez d'où dépendait votre empire naissant: Didon n'eut pas de charme assez puissant Pour arrêter la fuite où son amant s'obstine; Mais si l'autre Didon, ornement de ces lieux, Eût été reine de Carthage, Il eût, pour la servir, abandonné ces dieux, Et votre beau pays serait encore sauvage." Sacchini's first opera, _Œdipe à Colosse_, was not produced at the Académie until 1787, a few months after his death. It was now no question, of whether he was a worthy successor of Gluck or a formidable opponent to Piccinni. His opera was admired for itself, and the public applauded it with genuine enthusiasm. [Sidenote: SALIERI.] In the meanwhile, Salieri, the direct inheritor of Gluck's mantle (as far as that poetic garment could be transferred by the mere will of the original possessor) had brought out his _Danaides_--announced at first as the work of Gluck himself and composed under his auspices. Salieri had also set _Tarare_ to music. "This is the first _libretto_ of modern times," says M. Castil Blaze, "in which the author has ventured to join buffoonery to tragedy--a happy alliance, which permits the musician to vary his colours and display all the resources of genius and art." The routine-lovers of the French Académie, the pedants, the blunderers, were indignant with the new work; and its author entrusted Figaro with the task of defending it. "Either you must write nothing interesting," said Figaro, "or fools will run you down."