Now, following on the introduction of women dancers to the stage, we come to another interesting point in the history of the dance and ballet; for, once again, it was due to a woman that we had the invention--or rather the revival--for it had not been seen since the days of Bathyllus and Pylades in Augustan Rome--of ballet-pantomime, a ballet acted entirely pantomimically, or in dumb-show. It was the happy idea of the learned and extravagant Duchesse du Maine, whose _Nuits de Sceaux_ have been chronicled by that fascinating bluestocking, Mlle. Delaunay, who was later to become famous as Madame de Staël. Among the endless round of fêtes and entertainments at Sceaux, at the little theatre in which she took such prominent part, the ever-restless Duchess never presented her guests with a greater novelty. Day and night--and especially night--they had all been requisitioned to invent ingenious amusements. Sleep had been banished from the exigent little Court. Dialogues, “proverbs,” “literary lotteries,” songs and comedies had been turned out without cessation as from a literary factory. Always it had been “words, words, words,” and play on words. Now, for the first time for centuries--as it _was_, in fact, and must certainly have _seemed_ to the Duchess’s house-parties!--there was to be silence on the stage at Sceaux. [Illustration: The Duchesse du Maine] Having chosen the last scene of the fourth act of Corneille’s “Horace,” the Duchess commanded the composer Mouret to set it to music as if it were to be sung. The words were then ignored, the music was played by an orchestra, and the two well-known dancers, M. Ballon and Mlle. Prévôt, of the Royal Academy, mutely mimed the actions and emotions of the leading characters, so dramatically and with such intensity of feeling that, it is said, both they and their audience were moved at times to tears! Françoise Prévôt, or Prévost, was born about 1680, made her _début_ at the age of eighteen, and when Subligny retired in 1705, took her place as _première danseuse_. For some twenty odd years she was the joy of all frequenters of the Opera, for her grace and lightness of style. She retired in 1730, and died eleven years after. Among the more famous of her pupils were Marie Sallé and Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo, of both of whom there will be more to say in due course. Meanwhile, among the dances mainly in vogue during Prévôt’s earlier period were the _Courantes_, _Allemandes_, _Gigues_, _Contredanses_; and in her later years, _Chaconnes_, _Passacailles_, and _Passepieds_. For the dancing of the last Prévôt was especially famed.