as the great interest and curiosity the young actress excited had been satisfied, the public ceased to flock in the same crowds. In 1846 the Comédie only realised 423,591 francs (Rachel acting sixty-five times); in 1847 only 331,144 francs (fifty-eight performances of Rachel). The receipts increased again slightly in 1850, the year of Angelo and Horace and Lydie. Then the enthusiasm of the first few years began to decline. Rachel's later representations never yielded the brilliant results of 1838 and 1839. But, as Védel says, "Of what importance are financial results weighed in the balance with the glory and honour she brought to the Français? She far surpassed Georges, Duchesnois, Adrienne Lecouvreur, and since her death, in 1858, many attempts have been made to revive our ancient tragedies, but without success."
To return, however, to Rachel's dispute with the sociétaires in 1848, the year at the beginning of which they had expressed themselves so grateful to their "chère camarade." In 1846 she had declared herself in favour of a dictatorship, instead of the rule of the Committee of six men, all actuated by different motives and interests. Greatly owing to her influence, M. Buloz, editor of the Revue des Deux Mondes, was nominated sole director. Things went better under the new régime; but, in 1848, Buloz, by an act of political jobbery, was deprived of his functions, and Rachel lent all her influence to the election of M. Lockroy. His national performances, however, and his permitting the singing of the "Marseillaise," were made as much a matter of reproach after 1848 as Buloz's constitutional tendencies had been before, and, during Rachel's absence in the south of France, he was deposed. His dismissal annoyed her exceedingly, and she sent in her
