The doors of the "Wauxhall" being closed to the subscribers, Mademoiselle Guimard invited them to meet at her palace, in the Chaussée d'Antin. The municipality again interfered; and in the middle of the banquet Vestris and Dauberval were arrested by lettres de cachet and taken to For-l'Evèque, on the ground that they had refused to dance the Tuesday previous in the divertissement of Armide.
Gaetan Vestris was present at the arrest of his son, and excited the mirth of the assembly by the pompous, though affectionate, manner in which he bade him farewell. After embracing him tenderly, he said—
"Go, Augustus; go to prison. This is the grandest day of your life! Take my carriage, and ask for the room of my friend, the King of Poland; and live magnificently—charge everything to me."
On another occasion, when Gaetan was not so well pleased with his Augustus, he said to him:
"What! the Queen of France does her duty, by requesting you to dance before the King of Sweden, and you do not do yours? You shall no longer bear my name. I will have no misunderstanding between the house of Vestris and the house of Bourbon; they have hitherto always lived on good terms."
For his refusal to dance, Augustus was this time sentenced to six months' imprisonment; but the opera goers were so eager for his re-appearance that he was set free long before the expiration of the appointed term.
He made his rentrée amid the groans and hisses of the audience, who seemed determined to give him a lesson for his impertinence.
Then Gaetan, magnificently attired, appeared on the stage, and addressed the public as follows:—
"You wish my son to go down on his knees. I do not say that he does not deserve your displeasure; but remember, that the dancer whom you have so often applauded has not studied the pose you now require of him."
"Let him speak; let him endeavour to justify himself," cried a voice from the pit.