a very handsome person of but mediocre talent. In Racine's play, she comes on in the scene before Hermione. The English public, seeing Mademoiselle Larcher, thought it was Rachel, and greeted her with thunders of applause, which quite bewildered the poor girl, unaccustomed to any demonstration of the kind. When the real attraction of the evening appeared, aware of their error, the audience gave her a still more enthusiastic reception, which was repeated every time she acted. By the following letter, written to M. Carré a few days after her arrival, we can see the favourable impression made by the warmth with which she was welcomed:—
Here I am in London, enjoying an unprecedented success. My first appearance was in Hermione, and I can tell you that when I first came on, my knees trembled, and I felt so shaky that I think I should have fallen, if thunders of applause had not come to encourage me, and to rouse me to fuller consciousness of all it behoved me to do to merit this reception, which was mere kindness, and nothing but kindness, since they had not yet heard me. The bravos and plaudits lasted without intermission to the end, and then I was recalled. Hats and handkerchiefs were shaken out of the boxes, and several bouquets fell at my feet. A splendid engagement has been offered to me for the season of 1842. Voilà, belle Emilie, à quel point nous en sommes.
In no particular did the actress exaggerate the success she had achieved or the enthusiasm she created. Her enemies in Paris declared her triumph to be the result of tripotage, and, in a pamphlet published about this time, called La Vérité Rachel, M. Maurice the author says:—
We will not speak of the origin of the celebrated puffs that have been sent to London. They are born in Paris, brought into the world by Papa Félix, his daughter, and M. V. M. C wrote them out, corrected them, and gave them to M. V, who paid for them, and sent them to London to a certain M. B, who translated them, or had them translated and inserted in the London papers.
