principal _roles_ in three comedies. The
notary in whose office he had been placed was present on the occasion,
and warmly applauded the young actor, but the next day sent his
refractory pupil back to Paris. Finally, Roger's relatives decided that
his vocation for the stage was stronger than their powers of combating
it, and they placed him at the Conservatoire. He remained there for one
year only, at the end of which time he carried off two first prizes--one
for singing and the other for declamation.

And here a curious fact must be remarked. Side by side with the great
lyric or dramatic celebrities that have won their first renown at the
_concours_ of the Conservatoire there is always some other pupil of
immense promise, who does as well as, if not better than, the future
star at the moment of the competition, but who afterward disappears into
the mists of mediocrity or of oblivion. Thus, in the year in which the
elder Coquelin obtained his prize the public loudly protested against
the award of the jury, declaring that the most gifted pupil of the class
was a certain M. Malard, who now holds a third-rate position on the
boards of the Gymnase. When Delaunay, the accomplished leading actor of
the Comedie Francaise, left the Conservatoire, it was with a second
prize only: the first was carried off by M. Blaisot, who now plays the
"second old men" at the Gymnase. So with Roger as first prize was
associated one Flavio Ping, a tall, handsome young man with a superb
voice. So far as physical advantages were concerned, he was better
fitted for a theatrical career than was the future creator of John of
Leyden, as Roger was not tall and had a tendency to embonpoint. M. Ping,
however, went to Italy, accepted engagements at the opera-houses of
Rome, Naples and Milan, sang there with success for a few years, lost
his voice, and finally disappeared.

In 1838, Roger made his debut at the Opera Comique in _L'Eclair_, by
Auber. His success was immediate and complete. He remained at that
theatre for some years, his favorite character being George Brown in _La
Dame Blanche_. But his greatest triumphs at this period were those which
awaited him in the great opera-houses of London, where he sang the
leading tenor roles in the operas of Bellini and Donizetti. In his
recently-published diary he gives some interesting details respecting
Jenny Lind, then at the height of her fame and the very zenith of her
powers. His first impression, afte