a _mime_, and did not dance.

As there was no time to look for another dancer that season du Locle, to
keep me patient, had me write with Louis Gallet _La Princesse Jaune_,
with which I made my debut on the stage. I was thirty-five! This
harmless little work was received with the fiercest hostility. "It is
impossible to tell," wrote Jouvin, a much feared critic of the time, "in
what key or in what time the overture is written." And to show me how
utterly wrong I was, he told me that the public was "a compound of
angles and shadows." His prose was certainly more obscure than my music.

Finally, a real dancer was engaged in Italy. It seemed as though nothing
more could prevent the appearance of the unfortunate _Timbre_. "I can't
believe it," I said. "Some catastrophe will put us off again."

War came!

When that frightful crisis was at an end, the dancer was re-engaged. The
parts were read to the artists, and the next day Amede Achard threw up
his role, declaring that it belonged to grand opera and was beyond the
powers of an opera-comique tenor. It is well known that he ended his
career at the Opera.

Another tenor had to be found, but tenors are rare birds and we were
unable to get one. To use the dancer he had engaged du Locle had Gallet
and Guiraud improvise a short act, _Le Kobold_, which met with great
success. The dancer was exquisite. Then du Locle lost interest in _Le
Timbre d'Argent_ and then came the failure of the Opera-Comique.

During all these tribulations I was preparing _Samson_, although I
could find no one who even wanted to hear me speak of it. They all
thought that I must be mad to attempt a Biblical subject. I gave a
hearing of the second act at my house, but no one understood it at all.
Without the aid of Liszt, who did not know a note of it, but who engaged
me to finish it and put it on at Weimar, _Samson_. would never have seen
the light. Afterwards it was refused in succession by Halanzier,
Vaucorbeil, and Ritt and Gailhard, who decided to take it only after
they had heard it sung by that admirable singer Rosine Bloch.

But to return to _Le Timbre d'Argent_. I was again on the street with my
score under my arm. About that time Vizentini revived the
Theatre-Lyrique. His first play was _Paul et Virginie_, a wonderful
success, and he was preparing for the close of the season another work
which he liked. They were kindly disposed to me at the Ministry of Fine
Arts and they interested themselv