"Dorval is engaged? Bocage and Frédérick shall be later?" "Granted." "And Dorval shall make her début in _Antony?_" "She shall have that specified in her agreement." "Excellent!... Here's to the first night of the revival of that immoral play!" "To-day I will engage my box in order to secure a place." We parted and I ran to Madame Dorval's house to announce this good news. She had not been re-engaged at the Porte-Saint-Martin; she was, therefore, free and could go to the Théâtre-Français without delay. The following day she received a call from Jouslin de la Salle. The terms did not take long to discuss; for, as I had said, to be engaged at the Théâtre-Français, and to play _Antony_ there, Dorval would have engaged herself for nothing. The rehearsals began immediately. I had signed my contract with the manager, and it was specified in this contract that, by order of the government, _Antony_ was revived at the Comédie-Française, and that Dorval was to make her début in that drama. _Antony_ re-appeared on the bills in the rue de Richelieu; and, this time, the odds were a hundred to one that it would be performed, since it was to re-appear under Government commands. The bill announced the piece and Dorval's appearance for 28 April 1834. But we were reckoning without _The Constitutionnel._ That paper had an old grudge against me, concerning which I did not trouble myself much: I thought it could no longer bite. I was the first who had dared,--in this very _Antony_,--to attack its omnipotence. It will be remembered that, in _Antony_, there is a stout gentleman, who, no matter what was said to him, invariably answered, "Nevertheless, monsieur, _The Constitutionnel .._" without ever giving any other reason. Moëssard acted this stout gentleman. That was not all. A piece called _la Tour de Babel_ had been produced at the Variétés. The scene that was the cause of scandal in that play was the one where subscription to _The Constitutionnel_ is discontinued, which they naturally laid at my door, on account of my well-known dislike of that journal. I had not denied it, and I was, if not the actual father, at least the putative sire. On the morning of 28 April 1834, as I had just done distributing my tickets for the performance that night, my son, who had just turned ten, came to me with a number of _The Constitutionnel_ in his hands. He had been sent to me by Goubaux, with whom he was at school, and who cried out to me, like Assas, _A vous! c'est l'ennemi!_ "To arms! the enemy is upon you!" I unfolded the estimable paper and read,--in the leading article if you please,--the following words. A literary event was thus considered as important as a political one. "PARIS, 28 _April_ 1834