"The Court will appreciate that point."
"This will not prevent you from writing a new piece for us."
"Good! So that they may refuse you the budget of 1835? Thanks!"
"You will think better of your determination."
"I? I will never set foot in your offices again!"
And out I went, sulking and growling; which I would certainly not have done had I known that, in less than two years' time, this same Thiers would break his word to Poland, by letting the Austrians, Prussians and Russians occupy Cracow; to Spain, by refusing to intervene; and to Switzerland by threatening to blockade her. What was this paltry little broken promise to a dramatic author in comparison with these three great events?
I rushed to Dorval, whom the ministerial change of front hit more cruelly than it did me. Indeed, Antony was only banned by the Théâtre-Français; elsewhere, its reputation was well established, and its revival could not add anything to mine. But it was different in the case of Dorval: she had never had a part in which she had been so successful as she had been in that of Adèle; none of her old rôles could supply the place of this one, and there was no probability that any new part would give her the chance of success, which the suppression of Antony took away from her. She began by writing the following letter to the Constitutionnel:—
"MONSIEUR,—When I was engaged at the Français, it was on the express condition that I should begin in Antony. That condition was ratified in my agreement as the basis of the contract into which I entered with the management of the Théâtre Richelieu. Now, the Government decides that the piece received at the Théâtre-Français in 1830, censured under the Bourbons, played a hundred times at the Porte-Saint-Martin, thirty times at the Odéon and once at the Italiens, cannot be acted by the king's comedians. A lawsuit between the author and M. Thiers will settle the question of rights. But, until that law-suit is decided, I feel myself compelled to cease appearing in any other piece. I am anxious, at the same time, to make clear that there is nothing in my refusal which can injure the authors of une Liaison, to whom I owe particular thanks for their generous dealings with me.
"MARIE DORVAL"
This was the serious and sad side to the situation; then, when she had accomplished this duty towards herself,—and especially to her family, of whom she was the only support,—Dorval was desirous of repaying M. Étienne [M. Jay], after her own fashion, not having the least doubt that I should also pay him back in my own way some day or other. I came across the fact that I am going to relate in an album which the poor woman sent me when dying, and which I have tenderly preserved.
"On 28 April 1834, my appearance in Antony at the Théâtre-Français was forbidden, at the solicitation, or rather upon the denunciation, of M. Antoine Jay [M. Étienne], author of Joconde and editor of the Constitutionnel. I conceived the idea of sending him a crown of roses. I put the crown in a card-board box with a little note tied to it with a white favour. The letter contained these words:
'MONSIEUR,—Here is a crown which was flung at my feet in Antony, allow me to place it on your brow. I owe you that homage.
"'Personne ne sait davantage
Combien vous l'avez mérite!'"
"MARIE DORVAL"