r all the country--burnt itself out,
lost subscribers--in fact the whole business was declared insolvent,
and the nervous, gifted, but too sanguine editor-in-chief (there were
three editors), M. Anselme-Ferdinande Placide De Lery, _avocat_, and
the devoted, conscientious, but unprogressive secretary, old Amedee
Laframboise, scientific grubber and admirable violinist, had to get out
of Rue St. Dominique as best they could and go back to the law and the
local orchestra. For several years the house was vacant, and then at
last it held a still more gifted, more numerous, and, all things
considered, more successful coterie within its walls than "Le Flambeau"
had been able to procure for it. A certain travelling organization, a
company of good actors and actresses direct from Paris, which had
landed in America the previous year, giving comedies and pretty
domestic pieces in New York and other cities, not meeting with the
success it expected, came to French Canada in the hope of reaping
substantial profits in a congenial atmosphere. Ah--what a mistake was
this! To think that if in Philadelphia or Boston "Le Bourgeois
Gentilhomme" or "La Joie Fait Peur" did not make money, either play
would do so in the Montreal of thirty years ago! It was a mistake,
certainly, from the monetary point of view; on the other hand, many
friends were made, much good feeling and admiration prevailed and, in
short, the company, stranded in a Canadian town, found living cheap and
easily earned, plenty of good fellows--French--and settled down as a
local stock affair, fitting up at no great expense the banker's house
with the walnut-trees and bright green shutters under the name of the
Theatre des Nouveautes.

This was the playhouse in which Mlle. Clairville acted. This was the
clever company which, secure in New France from blase critics, produced
the comedies and tragedies of Moliere, Corneille, Dumas, Halevy, Mme.
de Genlis, as well as serving up adaptations like "Le Vieux Oncle Tom,"
"Le Prince de Denmarque," "Le Condamne," "L'etranger," also attacking
with superb, delicious confidence the then popular operas of "La Grande
Duchesse," "La Belle Helene," and "Il Trovatore." What acting it was,
so vigorous, dashing, resourceful! How Mme. d'Estarre jumped easily
from a Precieuse to Eva, and from Gertrude, a dark-eyed _bourgeoise_
Queen with frizzed hair and train of cotton velvet, to
Camille--wickedest play known at that time! Then when Mlle.