Later Queens of the French StageWilliams, H. Noel (Hugh Noel)
History
Later Queens of the French Stage
Williams, H. Noel (Hugh Noel)
Actresses -- France -- Biography
On an order from the Lieutenant of Police, a portion of the stolen
property was subsequently restored; but if Madame Saint-Huberty
flattered herself that she was safe from further depredations, she was
speedily undeceived. On August 10, she removed to a little apartment in
the Rue de l’Arbre Sec, in the house of Gourdan, one of the King’s
_valets-de-chambre_, for which she paid a rental of 490 livres and had
furnished herself. Three weeks later, at seven o’clock in the morning,
she was sleeping peacefully, dreaming perhaps of the time not far
distant when all the musical world would be at her feet, when she was
abruptly awakened by the entrance of four men, amongst whom she at once
recognised the scoundrelly Saint-Huberty. That worthy, pointing to a
person attired in the black garb of a commissary of police, to indicate
that he had legal authority for what he was about to do, cried: “The
pockets, Messieurs; search her pockets.” The hapless woman was then
dragged from her bed, and, while the man in black held her in his arms,
her husband showered blows upon her, after which he took a pair of
scissors and cut the ribands of the pockets of her night-dress,
inflicting several severe scratches in the process. Next, having
possessed himself of her keys, he opened all the drawers and cupboards
in the apartment, and proceeded to ransack them, at the same time
addressing to his wife the most shocking language. Finally, a fifth
person, also clad in black, entered, who announced himself as the
procurator of the husband, but, like his fellows, only laughed at the
poor actress’s distress, and declined to answer when she demanded to see
his authority. When her husband and his confederates had taken their
departure, Madame Saint-Huberty found that she had been robbed of a
packet of twenty-two letters, “which, at first sight, appeared to be
love-letters,” and a pair of diamond shoe-buckles of the value of six
louis.
This outrage was, of course, made the subject of a complaint by its
victim, of which the aforegoing account is a summary. But, as
Saint-Huberty had really had legal authority for his proceedings, having
had the audacity to declare to the police that his wife had “secretly
quitted their common abode and carried away with her numerous effects
belonging to him,” no steps could be taken against him. When, however,
Madame Saint-Huberty threatened to retire from the Opera, “unless her
personal safety were guaranteed,” she received an assurance that she
need no longer fear the visits and assaults of her husband.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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