The feudal edifice and the industrial--The workmen of Lyons--M. Bouvier-Dumolard--General Roguet--Discussion and signing of the tariff regulating the price of the workmanship of fabrics--The makers refuse to submit to it--_Artificial prices_ for silk-workers--Insurrection of Lyons--Eighteen millions on the civil list--Timon's calculations--An unlucky saying of M. de Montalivet CHAPTER II Death of _Mirabeau_--The accessories of _Charles VII._--A shooting party--Montereau--A temptation I cannot resist--Critical position in which my shooting companions and I find ourselves--We introduce ourselves into an empty house by breaking into it at night--Inspection of the premises--Improvised supper--As one makes one's bed, so one lies on it--I go to see the dawn rise--Fowl and duck shooting--Preparations for breakfast--Mother Galop CHAPTER III Who Mother Galop was--Why M. Dupont-Delporte was absent-- How I quarrelled with Viardot--Rabelais's quarter of an hour--Providence No. I--The punishment of Tantalus--A waiter who had not read Socrates--Providence No. 2--A breakfast for four--Return to Paris CHAPTER IV _Le Masque de fer_--Georges' suppers--The garden of the Luxembourg by moonlight--M. Scribe and the _Clerc de la Basoche_--M. d'Épagny and _Le Clerc et le Théologien_--Classical performances at the Théâtre-Français--_Les Guelfes_, by M. Arnault--Parenthesis--Dedicatory epistle to the prompter CHAPTER V M. Arnault's _Pertinax_--_Pizarre_, by M. Fulchiron--M. Fulchiron as a politician--M. Fulchiron as magic poet--A word about M. Viennet--My opposite neighbour at the performance of _Pertinax_--Splendid failure of the play--Quarrel with my _vis-à-vis_--The newspapers take it up--My reply in the _Journal de Paris_--Advice of M. Pillet CHAPTER VI Chateaubriand ceases to be a peer of France--He leaves the country--Béranger's song thereupon--Chateaubriand as versifier--First night of _Charles VII._--Delafosse's vizor--Yaqoub and Frédérick-Lemaître--_La Reine d'Espagne_--M. Henri de Latouche--His works, talent and character--Interlude of _La Reine d'Espagne_--Preface of the play--Reports of the pit collected by the author CHAPTER VII Victor Escousse and Auguste Lebras CHAPTER VIII First performance of _Robert le Diable_--Véron, manager of the Opéra--His opinion concerning Meyerbeer's music--My opinion concerning Véron's intellect--My relations with him--His articles and _Memoirs_--Rossini's judgment of _Robert le Diable_--Nourrit, the preacher--Meyerbeer--First performance of the _Fuite de Law_, by M. Mennechet--First performance of _Richard Darlington_--Frédérick--Lemaître--Delafosse--Mademoiselle Noblet CHAPTER IX Horace Vernet CHAPTER X Paul Delaroche CHAPTER XI Eugène Delacroix CHAPTER XII