The result of this _liaison_, if we are to believe the scandal-loving scribes of the time, was a child, to which the _danseuse_ gave birth in a barn, in the midst of winter, “_sans feu et sans linge_.”[70] The story of the child is very probably apocryphal; at any rate, we hear nothing further about it, though, of course, it may have died in infancy. But there can be no doubt that Madeleine Guimard did live for a time with Léger, and in great poverty too; for some years later, when she had risen to fame and opulence, the poet Barthe, in his _Statuts pour l’Opéra_, alludes to the episode in the following verses: “Que celles qui, pour prix de leurs heureux travaux, Jouissent à vingt ans d’un honnête opulence, Ont un hôtel et des chevaux, Se rappellent parfois leur première indigence Et leur petit grenier et leur lit sans rideaux. Leur defendons, en conséquence, De regarder avec pitié Celle qui s’en retourne à pié; Pauvre enfant dont l’innocence N’a pas encore réussi, Mais qui, grâce à la danse, Fera son chemin aussi.”[71] The “widow” Guimard--the lady gave out that she was a widow, to account for the non-appearance of the inspector of cloth manufactories--was not nearly so ferocious a guardian of her daughter’s honour when the _soupirant_ did not happen to be a poor devil of a dancer; and when, not long afterwards, the wealthy financier, M. Bertin, of whose unfortunate connection with Sophie Arnould we have spoken in our study of that singer, appeared upon the scene and offered to furnish, for Mlle. Madeleine’s accommodation, a handsome apartment near the Comédie-Française, the fond mother seems to have regarded his advances with complacency, if not with a warmer feeling. In 1761, Mlle. Guimard quitted the Comédie-Française and accepted an engagement at the Opera, to double Mlle. Allard, at the very modest salary of 600 livres a year. Here, on May 9, 1762, she made her first appearance, in the part of Terpsichore, in the prologue of the _Fêtes Grecques et Romaines_, and obtained a great success. Her nimbleness and her grace, though at that time perhaps a little affected, gained her loud applause, which never failed her during the twenty-seven years of her theatrical career. The year which followed her _début_, Mlle. Guimard secured a genuine success at a performance of _Castor et Pollux_ before the Court, at Fontainebleau. “This young person,” says the _Mercure de France_, “already known and applauded on the Paris stage, has given before the Court, at Fontainebleau, agreeable proofs of her progress, and particularly in the ballets of this opera, where she danced several _pas de deux_.”