M. Perrin decided that I should make my début in “Mademoiselle de Belle Isle,” according to Sarcey’s wish. The rehearsals began in the _foyer_, which troubled me very much. Mlle. Brohan was to play the part of the _Marquise de Prie_. At this time she was so fat as to be almost unsightly, while I was so thin that the composers of popular and comic verses took my meager proportions as their theme and the cartoonists as a subject for their albums. It was therefore impossible for the _Duc de Richelieu_ to mistake the _Marquise de Prie_ (Madeleine Brohan) for _Mademoiselle de Belle Isle_ (Sarah Bernhardt) in the inconvenient and conclusive nocturnal _rendezvous_ given by the _Marquise_ to the _Duc_, who thinks he embraces the chaste _Mademoiselle de Belle Isle_. At each rehearsal, Bressant, who took the part of the _Duc de Richelieu_, would stop, saying: “No, it is too ridiculous. I must play the _Duc de Richelieu_ with both my arms cut off!” And Madeleine left the rehearsal to go to the director’s room, in order to try and get rid of the rôle. This was exactly what Perrin wanted; he had from the earliest moment thought of Croizette, but he wanted to have his hand forced for private and underhand reasons which he knew and which others guessed. At last the change took place, and the serious rehearsals commenced. Then the first performance was announced for November 6 (1872). I have always had, from the very beginning, and still have, a terrible fear, especially when I know that much is expected from me. And I knew a long time beforehand that the _Salle_ had been let; I knew that the Press counted on a big success, and that Perrin himself was reckoning on a succession of good takings. Alas! all these hopes and predictions went for nothing, and my débuts at the Comédie Française were only mediocre. The following is an extract from the _Temps_ of November 11, 1872. It was written by Francisque Sarcey, with whom I was not then acquainted, but who was following my career with very great interest: