The audience of the Bordeaux theatre considered this confession so becoming in the mouth of the singer who had to utter it, that Lays took care not to give them an opportunity a second time of manifesting their views on the subject. Lays made his next appearance in _Œdipe à Colone_. As in this opera he had to represent the virtuous Theseus, he felt sure that the public would not be able to confound him in any manner with the character he was supporting; but he had to submit to all sorts of insults during the performance, and at the fall of the curtain was compelled to begin the _Réveil du Peuple_. After the third verse, he was told he was unworthy to sing such a song, and was driven from the stage. [Sidenote: MADELEINE GUIMARD AGAIN.] On the 23rd of January, 1796, Mademoiselle Guimard re-appeared at a performance given for the benefit of aged and retired artists. A number of veteran connoisseurs came forward on this occasion to see how the once charming Madeleine looked at the age of fifty-nine. After the ballet an old _habitué_ of Louis the Fifteenth's time called for a coach, drove to his lodging, and on getting out, proceeded naturally to pay the driver the amount of his fare. "You are joking, my dear Count," said the coachman. "Whoever heard of Lauragais paying the Chevalier de Ferrière for taking him home in his carriage?" "What! is it you?" said the Count de Lauragais. "Myself!" replied the Chevalier. The two friends embraced, and the Chevalier de Ferrière then explained that, when all the royalists were concealing themselves or emigrating, he had determined to do both. He had assumed the great coat of his coachman, painted a number over the arms on his carriage, and emigrated as far as the Boulevard, where he found plenty of customers, and passed uninjured and unsuspected through the Reign of Terror. "Where do you live?" said the Count. "Rue des Tuileries," replied the Chevalier, "and my horses with me. The poor beasts have shared all my misfortunes." "Give me the whip and reins, and get inside," cried de Lauragais. "What for?" inquired the Chevalier. "To drive you home. It is an act which, as a gentleman, I insist on performing; a duty I owe to my old companion and friend. Your day's work is over. To-morrow morning we will go to Sophie's, who expects me to breakfast." "Where?" "At the Hotel d'Angivillier, a caravansary of painters and musicians, where Fouché has granted her, on the part of the Republic, an apartment and a pension of two thousand four hundred francs--we should have said a hundred _louis_ formerly. This is called a national reward for the eminent services rendered by the _citoyenne_ Arnould to the country, and to the sovereign people at the Opera. The poor girl was greatly in need of it." [Sidenote: SOPHIE ARNOULD AGAIN.]