There was a considerable crowd outside and the people kept on trying to get in notwithstanding the loud protests of those already seated. Gounod shouted so as to be heard distinctly, "I will begin when everyone has _gone out!_" This amazing exclamation worked wonders. The groups which had blocked the entrance and approaches to the Hippodrome recoiled. They vanished as if by magic. The second of the Concerts Historiques, founded by Vaucorbeil, the Director of the National Academy of Music at the time, took place at the Opéra on May 20, 1880. He gave my sacred legend _La Vierge_. Mme. Gabrielle Krauss and Mlle. Daram were the principals and splendid interpreters they were. That work is a rather painful memory in my life. Its reception was cold and only one fragment seemed to satisfy the large audience which filled the hall. They encored three times the passage which is now in the repertoire of many concerts, the prelude to Part IV, _Le Dernier Sommeil de la Vierge_. Some years later the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire twice gave the fourth part of_ La Vierge_ in its entirety. Mme. Aïno Ackté was really sublime in her interpretation of the rôle of the Virgin. This success was completely satisfying to me; I had nearly said, the most precious of revenges. CHAPTER XIV A FIRST PERFORMANCE AT BRUSSELS My trips to Italy, journeys devoted to following, if not to the preparation of, the successive performances of _Le Roi de Lahore_ at Milan, Piacenza, Venice, Pisa and Trieste on the other side of the Adriatic, did not prevent my working on the score of _Hérodiade_ and it was soon finished. Perhaps such wanderings are surprising since they are so little to my taste. Many of my pupils, however, have followed my example in this regard and the reason is obvious. At the beginning of our careers we have to give hints to the orchestras, the stage manager, the artists and costumers; the why and wherefore of each scene must, oftentimes, be explained, and the tempo, as given by the metronome, is little like the true one. I have let such things go for a long time for they take care of themselves. It is true that, since I have been known for so many years, it would be difficult to make a choice and decide where I ought to go. And where should I begin--'twere among my keenest desires--personally to express my gratitude to all the directors and artists who now know my work. As to the hints I might have given them, they have gone ahead and departures from the true rendering have become rare, much more so than in the beginning when both directors and artists ignored my wishes and could not foresee them; in short, when my works were, to them, those of an unknown. I must recall, and I do so with sincere emotion, all I owe in the great provincial houses to those kind directors, so affectionately devoted to me: Gravière, Saugey, Villefranck, Rachet, and many others who can claim my thanks and my most grateful congratulations.