Shall he attack the newspapers? He could do no more than declare that they have verified by their conduct all he ever said about them.
Yet in the midst of the disaster which the energy of government has caused, but which the slightest sagacity in the world might have prevented, the author has found some compensation in the testimony of public sympathy which has been given him. M. Victor Hugo, among others, has shown himself as steadfast in friendship as he is pre-eminent in poetry; and the present writer has the greater happiness in publishing the good will of M. Hugo, inasmuch as the enemies of that distinguished man have no hesitation in blackening his character.
Let me conclude by saying that Vautrin is two months old, and in the rush of Parisian life a novelty of two months has survived a couple of centuries. The real preface to Vautrin will be found in the play, Richard-Coeur-d'Eponge,[*] which the administration permits to be acted in order to save the prolific stage of Porte-Saint-Martin from being overrun by children.
[*] A play never enacted or printed.
PARIS, May 1, 1840.
PERSONS OF THE PLAY
Jacques Collin, known as Vautrin
The Duc de Montsorel
The Marquis Albert de Montsorel, son to Montsorel
Raoul de Frascas
Charles Blondet, known as the Chevalier de Saint-Charles
Francois Cadet, known as the Philosopher
Fil-de-Soie
Buteux
Philippe Boulard, known as Lafouraille
A Police Officer
Joseph Bonnet, footman to the Duchesse de Montsorel
The Duchesse de Montsorel (Louise de Vaudrey)
Mademoiselle de Vaudrey, aunt to the Duchesse de Montsorel
The Duchesse de Christoval
Inez de Christoval, Princesse D'Arjos
Felicite, maid to the Duchesse de Montsorel
Servants, Gendarmes, Detectives, and others
SCENE: Paris
TIME: 1816, after the second return of the Bourbons.