"Quelle voix, quel regard, et quel aspect terrible! Quel bras oppose au mien un obstacle invincible?... L'effroi s'est emparè de mes sens éperdus ... Je ne pourrais jamais égorger Marius!" The play was dedicated to Monsieur. I have heard M. Arnault relate, in his extremely fascinating way, that success made him very vain, very peremptory and very scornful. One day, in 1792, he was in the balcony of the Théâtre-Français, talking loudly, in his customary fashion, making a great noise with his cane and hindering people from hearing; this went on from the raising of the curtain till the end of the first act, when a gentleman, who was behind M. Arnault and only separated from him by one row, bent forward, and touching his shoulder with the tips of his gloved hand, said, "Monsieur Arnault, pray allow us to listen, even though they are playing _Marius à Minturnes_." This polite and, I might even add, witty gentleman was Danton. A month later, this same polite and witty gentleman had instituted the September massacres. M. Arnault was so alarmed by these massacres that he fled on foot. On reaching the barricade, he found it guarded by a sans-culotte in name and in reality; this sans-culotte was engaged in preventing a poor woman from passing, under the pretext that her passport for Bercy had not been _vised_ at the section des Enfants-Trouvés. Now, while he noted the persistence of this honourable sentinel, an idea occurred to M. Arnault--that this terrible Cerberus could not read. Joking is a bad disease, of which one is rarely cured. M. Arnault, who suffered much from this malady, boldly walked up to the sans-culotte and presented his passport upside down to the man, saying-- "_Viséd_ at the Enfants-Trouvés: there is the stamp." M. Arnault guessed rightly. "Pass," said the sans-culotte. And M. Arnault passed. In the interval that had elapsed between _Marius_ and the 3rd of September, the date at which we have arrived, M. Arnault had produced his tragedy of _Lucrèce._ The play falling flat, the author laid its want of success at Mademoiselle Raucourt's door.... It is known that this famous actress's aversion to men was not entirely imputed to virtuous causes. However that may be, later, we shall have to speak of Mademoiselle Raucourt in connection with her pupil, Mademoiselle Georges.