sources de Quinola," the house was almost empty. Thereupon a batch of
nondescripts was sent into the streets to dispose of the tickets at any
price; the bait was indignantly rejected, and the curtain fell amidst
violent hisses. I repeat, a masterpiece would have failed under such
circumstances; but the short run of the revival, almost a quarter of a
century later at the Vaudeville, proved that the piece was not even an
ordinary money-drawing one. It only kept the bills for about nine or ten
days.

Lireux was more fortunate with several other pieces, notably with that
of Leon Gozlan, known to students of the French drama as "La Main Droite
et la Main Gauche," but which originally bore the title of "Il etait une
Fois un Roi et une Reine." There could be no doubt about its tendency in
its original form; it was nothing less than an indictment for bigamy
both against Queen Victoria and her Consort; and the authorities had to
insist not only upon the change of title and the names of the _dramatis
personae_, but upon the action being shifted from London to Stockholm.
The author and manager had to comply; but the public, who had got wind
of the affair, crowded the house every night in order to read between
the lines.

One of my great sources of amusement for many years has been the perusal
of political after-dinner speeches, and political leaders in the English
papers, especially when the speakers and writers have endeavoured to lay
stress upon the cordial relations between the French and the English,
upon the friendly feelings guiding their actions on both sides. I am
putting together these notes nearly fourteen years after the conclusion
of the Franco-German War, nearly three quarters of a century after
Waterloo. There is not a single Frenchman, however Chauvinistic, who
ever thinks, let alone talks, of avenging Napoleon's defeat by
Wellington; while, on the other hand, there is not a single Frenchman,
however unpatriotic, who does not dream now and then of wiping out the
humiliation suffered at Sedan. Well, in spite of the almost entire
oblivion of the one disaster, and the poignant recollection of the
other, the French of to-day hate the English more than the Germans;
or--let me put it more correctly--they hate the Germans, they despise
us. Nothing that we can do will ever remove this dislike of us.

It has been thus as long as I can remember; no royal visits, no exchange
of so-called international courtesies will alter t