contempt with which her nationality was treated had made on her.
Dans ce sombre palais j'ai reçu la naissance,
J'en suis sortie un jour, le cœur plain d'espérance;
J'ai voulu voir de près ce que j'osai rêver.
J'ai vu; ma mere attend, je vais la retrouver.
Tel sera mon asile. *****
We can imagine the tone of voice with which Rachel uttered the words "J'ai vu."
Mes sœurs, mes pauvre sœurs, ô comble de misère,
Vont au seuil des chateaux mendier pour leur mère
Et chanter au hasard, les larmes dans les yeux,
Ces vieux refrains gaulois si chers a vos äieux!" ***** Ces barbares Seigneur, sont plus fiers qu'on se pense.
Ils ne se montrent pas pour un morceau de pain;
Leur visage est voilé lorsqu'ils tendent la main.
And the King answers—
Qu'ils gardent donc en paix cet orgueil solitaire,
Qui les fait exiler du reste de la terre!
Alfred de Musset took the fragment to her in the summer of 1839. She was apparently delighted with it, and recited it several times to small circles of intimate friends. She did not urge the poet, however, to complete his work, but seemed bent rather on the production of Polyeucte and Phèdre. Time passed. Alfred was pressed by the Revue des Deux Mondes for more work, and, being in want of money, he put away the MS. of La Servante du Roi and directed his energies to the completion of some short tales, to meet his most immediate debts. Enthusiasm on both sides cooled. The story told in Paris at the time was that Alfred de Musset, being invited to supper by Rachel to discuss some of the details of the piece, went to the Café de la Régence beforehand to play a game of
