[121] La Harpe, _Correspondance littéraire_, iii. 327. La Harpe states that a rumour was current that Mlle. Raucourt had only lent her name to the play, and that it was really the work of either Durosoy or Monvel. This rumour, however, is indignantly repudiated by the _Mémoires secrets_, which declare it to be nothing but a malicious invention of the lady’s enemies. [122] _Mercure de France_, March 1782. [123] Hawkins, “The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century,” 339. [124] _Mémoires de Fleury_, v. 228, _et seq._ [125] _Souvenirs_, i. 82. [126] M. Gaston Maugras, _Les Comédiens hors la loi_, p. 460 _et seq._ [127] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 151. [128] Campardon, _Les Comédiens du Roi de la Troupe italienne_: Article, “Dugazon.” [129] _Mes Récapitulations_, i. 124. [130] _Souvenirs_, i. 94. [131] Thurner, _Les Reines de Chant_, p. 66. [132] _Correspondance littéraire_, xi. 417. [133] _Correspondance littéraire_, xii. 261. At the conclusion of the piece on the first evening, Madame Dugazon was called before the curtain, “an honour,” say the _Mémoires secrets_, “which had never yet been accorded to any actress at this theatre or any other.” [134] Campardon, _Les Comédiens du Roi de la Troupe italienne_: Article, “Dugazon.” [135] _Mes Récapitulations_, i. 125. [136] _Correspondance littéraire_, xiii. 132. [137] Thurner, _Les Reines du Chant_, p. 65. [138] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 163. [139] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 165. [140] Madame Dugazon’s feelings were probably intensified by the fact that her husband had espoused the popular side with enthusiasm, and had been appointed aide-de-camp to the notorious Santerre. After the 9th Thermidor, the actor was, for some time, the object of hostile demonstrations whenever he appeared on the stage. But he courageously refused to bow before the storm, and, little by little, the public forgave him. In 1807 he retired from the stage, and, two years later, died, “a raving madman,” on an estate which he had bought near Orléans. [141] _Souvenirs._ [142] He composed three operas: _Marguerite de Waldemar_ (1812), _la Noce écossaise_ (1814), and _le Chevalier d’industrie_ (1818); and two ballets: _les Fiances de Caserte_ and _Alfred le Grand_. But none of these pieces seem to have been at all favourably received. He died in 1826, five years after his mother. [143] Gaboriau, _Les Comédiennes adorées_, p. 170. [144] In Louise Contat’s _acte de naissance_, which bears date June 16, 1760, her father, Jean François Contat, describes himself as “_soldat de la maréchaussée et marchand de bas privilégié à Paris_.”--Jal, _Dictionnaire de Biographie et d’Histoire_, article “Contat.” [145] Hawkins, “The French Stage in the Eighteenth Century,” ii. 209. [146] _Mémoires de Fleury_, ii. 217.