"Well! That is a polite thing, indeed, to say to the spectators who followed the one hundred and thirty performances of _Antony_, the eighty representations of _Marion Delorme_, the ninety of _Richard Darlington_, the six hundred of _la Tour de Nesle_, the ninety productions of _Perrinet-Leclerc_, the one hundred and twenty of _Lucrèce Borgia_, one hundred of _Angèle_, seventy of _Marie Tudor_ and fifty of _Catherine Howard!_ What were these people, if your particular specimens are "men of taste," the "true friends of our national institutions," and "respectable persons"? They must be blackguards, subverters of government, thieves and gallows-birds? The deuce! Take care! For I warn you that the great majority of these people were not only from Paris, but from the provinces. This is how the moralist of the _Constitutionnel_ ends: "We are convinced that even the artistes of the Théâtre-Français, who see with satisfaction the enlightened portion of the public rallying to their side, will decide in favour of the successful efforts of our protests. It will depend on the Chamber and on the Home Minister. Political preoccupations, as is well known, turned his attention from the false and ignoble influences at work at the Théâtre-Français; there is no longer any excuse for him, now that he knows the truth." ÉTIENNE ["A. JAY"][2] Perhaps you thought, when you began to read this denunciation, that it was anonymous or signed only with an initial or by a masonic sign, or by two, three or four asterisks? No indeed! It was signed by the name of a man, of a deputy, of a dramatic author, or, thereabouts, of an académicien, M. Étienne! [M. Jay]. Now, the same day that this article appeared, about two in the afternoon, M. Jouslin de Lasalle, director of the Théâtre-Français, received this little note, short but clear. "The Théâtre-Français is forbidden to play _Antony_ to-night. "THIERS" I took a cab and gave orders to the driver to take me to the Home Minister. [1] We have borrowed the following quotations from M. Arland's excellent translation. If we had translated it ourselves, in the first place the translation would be bad, then people might have accused us of straining the Greek to say more than it meant. [2] TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.--The Brussels edition gives Étienne; the current Paris edition, A. Jay. CHAPTER IX My discussion with M. Thiers--Why he had been compelled to suspend _Antony_--Letter of Madame Dorval to the _Constitutionnel_--M. Jay crowned with roses--My lawsuit with M. Jouslin de Lasalle--There are still judges in Berlin!