The audience to whom a new play was being offered instead of an old drowned the manager's words with applause. The curtain fell, and rose almost immediately afterwards. At this moment, Déjazet came down out of his dressing-room in the uniform of an Austrian colonel.
"Ah! good heavens!" exclaimed Desforges, stopping him, "what are you going to play?"
"To play? Why le Fils del'Homme ... Come, let me pass, monsieur author!"
Desforges' arms fell and Déjazet passed on.
The great event of the Théâtre des Nouveautés was in fact the representation of le Fils de l'Homme; only, Bossange, who feared some hindrance from the Government, had preserved the profoundest secrecy and, as we see, played the comedy suddenly.[2]
"But, you may say, was there a censorship in 1830?"
"D'Artagnan, my good friend, take your hat off to the person who has honoured us by putting that question to us, and salute profoundly, then reply:
"Ah! monsieur, worse luck, there is always a censorship."
[1] See Appendix.