Léopoldine--The opinions of the son of the Vendéenne--The Delon conspiracy--Hugo offers Delon shelter--Louis XVIII. bestows a pension of twelve hundred francs on the author of the _Odes et Ballades_--The poet at the office of the director-general des postes--How he learns the existence of the _cabinet noir_--He is made a chevalier of the Legion d'honneur--Beauchesne-_Bug-Jargal_--The Ambassador of Austria's soirée--_Ode à la Colonne_--_Cromwell_--How _Marion Delorme_ was written. CHAPTER XI Reading of _Marion Delorme_ at the house of Devéria--Steeplechase of directors--_Marion Delorme_ is stopped by the Censorship--Hugo obtains an audience with Charles X.--His drama is definitely interdicted--They send him the brevet of a pension, which he declines--He sets to work on _Hernani_ and completes it in twenty-four days. CHAPTER XII The invasion of barbarians--Rehearsals of _Hernani_--Mademoiselle Mars and the lines about the _lion_--The scene over the _portraits_--Hugo takes away from Mademoiselle Mars the part of Doña Sol--Michelot's flattering complaisance to the public--The quatrain about the cupboard--Joanny. CHAPTER XIII Alfred de Vigny--The man and his works--Harel, the manager at the Odéon--Downfall of Soulié's _Christine_--Parenthesis about Lassailly--Letter of Harel, with preface by myself and postscript by Soulié--I read my _Christine_ at the Odéon--Harel asks me to put it into prose--First representation of the _More de Venise_--The actors and the papers. CHAPTER XIV Citizen-general Barras--Doctor Cabarrus introduces me to him--Barras's only two regrets--His dinners--The Princess de Chimay's footman--Fauche-Borel--The Duc de Bordeaux makes a mess--History lesson given to an ambassador--Walter Scott and Barras--The last happiness of the old _directeur_--His death. THE MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS BOOK I CHAPTER I I become a fully fledged employé--Bad plays--Thibaut--My studies with him--Where they have been of use to me--_Amaury_ and the consumptives--My reading--Walter Scott--Cooper--Byron--The pleasure of eating _Sauerkraut_ at the Parthenon