All the parts were entrusted to performers of the first merit. Mademoiselle Sainval, who was the tragic actress then in vogue, had, at the urgent request of Beaumarchais, accepted the part of the Countess Almaviva, in which she displayed a talent the more striking from being quite unexpected. Mademoiselle Contat enchanted the public in the character of Susanna by her grace, the refinement of her acting, and the charms of her beauty and her voice. A very young and pretty actress, destined soon afterwards, at the age of eighteen, to be nipped in the bud by death--Mademoiselle Olivier, whose talent, says a contemporary, "was as naïve and fresh as her face"--lent her _naïveté_ and her freshness to the seemingly ingenuous character of Cherubino. Molè acted the part of Count Almaviva with the elegance and dignity which distinguished him. Dazincourt represented Figaro with all his wit, and relieved the character from any appearance of vulgarity. Old Préville, who was not less successful in the part of Bridoison, gave it up after a few days to Dugazon, who interpreted it with more power and equal intelligence. Delessarts, with his rich humour, gave relief to the personage of Bartholo, which is thrown somewhat into the background. The secondary parts of Basil and Antonio were equally well played by Vanhove and Bellemont. Finally, through a singular caprice, a somewhat celebrated tragedian, Larive, not wishing tragedy to be represented in the piece by Mademoiselle Sainval alone, asked for the insignificant little part of Grippe-soleil. [Illustration: PLACE DE LA BASTILLE AND COLUMN OF JULY.] "The success of this Aristophanic comedy," writes De Loménie, "while it filled some persons with anxiety and alarm, naturally roused the curious crowd, who are never wanting, particularly when a successful person takes a pleasure in spreading his fame abroad--and this foible of Beaumarchais is well known. It was in the midst of a fire of epigrams in prose and verse that the author of the _Marriage of Figaro_ pursued his career, pouring out on his enemies not torrents of fire and light, but torrents of liveliness and fun." Beaumarchais, on the famous first night, sat in a _loge grillée_--a private box, that is to say, with lattice-work in front--between two abbés, with whom he had been dining, and whose presence seemed indispensable to him, in order, as he said, that they might administer to him _des secours très spirituels_ in case of death.