"'I have not read M. Gaillardet's MS.; it only left M. Harel's hands for a second and it was returned to him at once; for, in consenting to write a work under a title and about a known situation, I was afraid of being influenced by a work anterior to my own, and thus lose the freshness which is essential to me before I can do such a piece of work.' "Now, since M. Gaillardet thinks the public is not sufficiently informed about this sorry business, let him convoke the arbitration of three men of letters, _of his own choice,_ and come before them with his MS., while I will with mine; they shall then judge on which side is the delicacy of feeling and on which the ingratitude. "In order that I may be faithful to the extreme limits of the conditions which I self-sacrificingly imposed upon myself in the letter I wrote to M. Gaillardet, allow me, sir, not to give my name here, any more than I have done on the bills. "THE AUTHOR OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF _La Tour de Nesle_" Henceforth, it will be understood, war was declared between M. Gaillardet and myself. [Footnote 1: I am obliged, in order not to alter the text, to reproduce the letters in their entirety; only, I now disapprove of every wounding expression contained in mine.] CHAPTER IV The use of friends--_Le Musée des Familles_--An article by M. Gaillardet--My reply to it--Challenge from M. Gaillardet--I accept it with effusion--My adversary demands a first respite of a week--I summon him before the Commission of Dramatic Authors--He declines that arbitration--I send him my seconds--He asks a delay of two months--Janin's letter to the newspapers Although great events were gathering like a dreadful storm on the horizon, and were about to take place in the midst of the miserable controversy about which we are writing, I think it is better, as we have begun it, to follow it to the end, rather than to return to it later. M. Gaillardet persisted in his lawsuit and won it. I have mentioned that I had completely refused to second Harel in his defence. The ill-advised stars which had stolen a march upon M. Gaillardet's name were obliged to fall behind it; but, as Harel had wished, all Paris knew that I was the real author of _La Tour de Nesle._