Grisi declared that she, too, would become a
great tragedienne. "How I should love to play _Norma!_" she exclaimed
to Bellini one night behind the scenes. "Wait twenty years, and we shall
see." "I will play _Norma_ in spite of you, and in less than twenty
years!" she retorted. The young man smiled incredulously, and muttered,
"_A poco! a poco!_" But Grisi kept her word.

Her genius was now fully appreciated, and she had obtained one of those
triumphs which form the basis of a great renown. With astonishing ease
she passed from _Semiramide_ to _Anna Bolena_, then to _Desdemona_, to
_Donna Anna_, to _Elena_ in the "Donna del Lago."

The young artiste had learned her true value, and was aware of the
injury she was suffering from remaining in the service to which she had
foolishly bound herself: she was now twenty-four, and time was passing
away. Her father's repeated endeavors to obtain more reasonable terms
for his daughter from Lanari proved fruitless. He urged that his
daughter, having entered into the contract without his knowledge, and
while she was a minor, it was illegal. "Then, if you knew absolutely
nothing of the matter, and it was altogether without your cognizance,"
retorted Lanari, imperturbably, "how did it happen that her salary was
always paid to you?"

But the high-spirited Giulietta had now become too conscious of her
own value to remain hampered by a contract which in its essence was
fraudulent. She determined to break her bonds by flight to Paris,
where her sister Giuditta and her aunt Mme. Grassini-Ragani were then
domiciled. She confided her proposed escapade to her father and her old
teacher Marliani, who assisted her to procure passports for herself
and maid. Her journey was long and tedious, but, spurred by fear and
eagerness, she disdained fatigue for seven days of post-riding over
bad roads and through mountain-gorges choked with snow, till she threw
herself into the arms of her loving friends in the French capital.

II.

An engagement was procured for her without difficulty at the Opera,
which was then controlled by the triumvirate, Rossini, Robert, and
Severini. Rossini remembered the beautiful _debutante_ for whom he had
predicted a splendid future, and secured a definite engagement for
her at the Favart to replace Mme. Malibran. That this young and
comparatively inexperienced girl, with a reputation hardly known out of
Italy, should have been chosen to take the place of the great Mali