How did it happen? What brought about this catastrophe? I asked myself these questions but could get no answer. It had seemed to me that all was going as well as could be expected with my publisher. I was utterly stupefied at hearing that all the works published by the house of Hartmann were to be put up at auction; that they would have to face the ordeal of a public sale. For me this was a most disturbing uncertainty.
I had a friend who had a vault, and I entrusted to him the orchestral score and piano score of Werther and the orchestral score of Amadis. He put these valueless papers beside his valuables. The scores were in manuscript.
I have already written of the fortunes of Werther, and perhaps I shall of Amadis, the text of which was by our great friend Jules Claretie of the French Academy.
As may be imagined, my anxiety was very great. I expected to see my labor of many years scattered among all the publishers. Where would Manon go? Where would Hérodiade bring up? Who would get Marie Magdeleine? Who would have my Suites d'Orchestra? All this disturbed my muddled brain and made me anxious.
Hartmann had always shown me so much friendliness and sensitiveness in my interests, and he was, I am sure, as sorrowful as I was about this painful situation.
Henri Heugel and his nephew Paul-Émile Chevalier, owners of the great firm Le Ménestrel, were my saviors. They were the pilots who kept all the works of my past life from shipwreck, prevented their being scattered, and running the risks of adventure and chance.
They acquired all of Hartmann's assets and paid a considerable price for them.
In May, 1911, I congratulated them on the twentieth anniversary of the good and friendly relations which had existed between us and at the same time I expressed the deep gratitude I cherish towards them.
How many times I had passed by Le Ménestrel, and envied without hostility those masters, those published, all those favored by that great house!
My entrance to Le Ménestrel began a glorious era for me, and every time I go there I feel the same deep happiness. All the satisfactions I enjoy as well as the disappointments I experience find a faithful echo in the hearts of my publishers.