"I had scarcely been gone a month before I had to write to M. Janin to ask him about an announcement relative to _La Tour de Nesle._ A book had just appeared upon the same subject (_L'Écolier de Cluny),_ and I did not wish it to be thought that my play was taken from the book. Janin replied-- "'I will willingly do what you ask me: but what is the good? I announce the approaching performance of your play. I say _your_ and not _our,_ because I count for _absolutely_ nothing in it; you know the matter rests between you and M. Harel; that was agreed upon a long time ago, etc. JULES JANIN' "'10 _May_ 1832' "After that, not a word further. I wrote to Paris, and I learnt that M. Dumas _has been made and has constituted himself_ my collaborator. I leave the reader to imagine what my feelings were!... "Beside myself, trembling with rage and indignation, I wrote to M. Harel to forbid him to act the play; to M. Dumas to beg him to prevent it. 'You have doubtless been misinformed,' I said to him; 'the play belongs to me and to me alone; I do not wish to have collaborators at all, certainly not clandestine ones, imposed upon me; I therefore appeal to you, for your own honour's sake, and I point out to you the necessity for stopping the rehearsals, etc.' "No answer either from M. Harel or M. Dumas!... I set off, and, before going to my home, I went in travelling garb, as I was, straight to M. Harel. 'I am ruined!' he said to me; 'it is true I have deceived you.... Now, what are you going to do?... Stop the play!--You will not succeed in doing that; I shall change the title of it and play it. You can attack me for forgery, theft, plagiarism, what you like: you would obtain 1200 francs damages. Ask a lawyer! If, however, you let it be played you will gain 12,000 francs, etc.' He spoke the truth, for such is the protection ordinarily granted by our judges to the author who is robbed!... I returned home, pale with rage, and it was then I found the grandiloquent letter from M. Dumas, quoted by me at the beginning of this article. Such are the principal facts.