English actors in Paris--Literary importations--_Trente Ans_, or _la Vie d'un Joueur_--The _Hamlet_ of Kemble and Miss Smithson--A bas-relief of Mademoiselle de Fauveau--Visit to Frédéric Soulié--He declines to write _Christine_ with me--A night attack--I come across Adèle d'Alvin once more--I spend the night _au violon._ CHAPTER VII Future landmarks--Compliments to the Duc de Bordeaux--_Votes_--Cauchois-Lemaire's Orléaniste brochure--The lake of Enghien--Colonel Bro's parrot--Doctor Ferrus--Morrisel--A tip-top funeral cortège--Hunting in full cry--An autopsy--Explanation of the death of the parrot. CHAPTER VIII Barthélemy and Méry--M. Éliça Gallay--Méry the draught-player and anatomist--_L'Épître à Sidi Mahmoud_--The Ponthieu library--Soulé--The _Villéliade_--Barthélemy the printer--Méry the improvisator--The _Vœux de la nouvelle année_--The pastiche of _Lucrèce._ CHAPTER IX I pass from the Secretarial Department to the Record Office--M. Bichet--Wherein I resemble Piron--My spare time--M. Pieyre and M. Parseval de Grandmaison--A scene missing in _Distrait_--_La Peyrouse_--A success all to myself. CHAPTER X The painter Lethière--Brutus unveiled by M. Ponsard--Madame Hannemann--Gohier--Andrieux--Renaud--Desgenettes--Larrey, Augereau and the Egyptian mummy--Soldiers of the new school--My dramatic education--I enter the offices of the Forestry Department--The cupboard full of empty bottles--Three days away from the office--Am summoned before M. Deviolaine. CHAPTER XI Conclusion of _Christine_--A patron, after a fashion--Nodier recommends me to Taylor--The Royal Commissary and the author of _Hécube_--Semi-official reading before Taylor--Official reading before the Committee--I am received with acclamation--The intoxication of success--How history is written--M. Deviolaine's incredulity--Picard's opinions concerning my play--Nodier's opinion--Second reading at the Théâtre-Français and definite acceptance. CHAPTER XII Cordelier-Delanoue--A sitting of the Athénée--M. Villenave--His family--The one hundred and thirty-two Nantais--Cathelineau--The hunt _aux bleus_--Forest--A chapter of history--Sauveur--The Royalist Committee--Souchu--The miraculous tomb--Carrier. CHAPTER XIII M. Villenave's house--The master's despotic rule--The savant's coquetry--Description of the sanctuary of the man of science--I am admitted, thanks to an autograph of _Buonaparte_--The crevice in the wall--The eight thousand folios--The pastel by Latour--Voyages of discovery for an Elzevir or a _Faust_--The fall of the portrait and the death of the original. CHAPTER XIV