Sarah was so astounded she could scarcely speak, and before she could make an adequate protest she was outside the door of Perrin’s office, with the play a chose jugée. Then she turned upon Sarcey furiously.
“Why did you do that?” she asked.
“I wish you to play this part! You can have your Britanicus afterwards, if you like!”
Sarcey spoke carelessly, and his manner was an indication of the influence he exerted at the Comédie. Sarah was wise enough not to dispute his decision, but she was nevertheless angry with him, and refused to see or write to him for several days.
Her anger was increased when she found that her rôle in Mademoiselle de Belle Isle was not in reality the most prominent part in the play. Two other famous actresses, public favourites of the Comédie, were in the cast—Sophie Croizette and Madeleine Brohan. The latter, by her own request, retired from the play during rehearsals. Sophie Croizette was Sarah’s great rival for popular favour. She had held the first female rôle at the Français for several years—since before the war, in fact.
Sarah decided that she would play the name part, Mademoiselle de Belle Isle, so extravagantly well that none of the audience would spare a second thought for Croizette, in her part of the Marquise de Prie, who in the play is kissed in the dark by the Duc de Richelieu, in mistake for the lady from Belle Isle. At rehearsals Sarah was magnificent. Croizette, who was an intimate friend, despite their rivalry, used to come to her in despair.
“You are splendid—but you give no opportunity to the rest of us!”
The play was produced on November 6, 1872, and the first act was a triumph for Sarah. There was indeed every indication that new glory was about to descend on the immortal queen of Ruy Blas when, at the beginning of the second act, she caught sight of her mother in a stage-box.
Julie was leaning back in a chair, her eyes closed, and beads of perspiration on her forehead. Sarah knew immediately what had happened. Her mother suffered from a weak heart, and several times before had had a similar seizure.
The tragic death of Chilly, which she had all but witnessed, was fresh in Sarah’s mind, and doctors had told her years before that she must expect her mother’s disease to end fatally one day. She watched the stage-box in agonised fashion, while the audience became bewildered at the extraordinary change which had come over their star.