clubs, schools, factories, workshops, and poorer citizens, who will obtain them by ballot.
Paris, March 24th, 1848.(Signed)Ledru Rollin.
The result of this patriotic endeavour was that the Français was perfectly empty ou the second night of the Répresentations Nationales, and would have been in as bad a plight as all the other theatres of Paris, had not Mademoiselle Rachel introduced the recitation of the "Marseillaise," for which the house filled towards the end of the evening. Ruin, indeed, was only averted by her strenuous exertions. The sociétaires expressed their gratitude in the following terms:—
Dear Comrade,
You have double reason to feel proud and happy. Never has your success been so brilliant, never has it been so useful to the interests of our company. You have struggled for us with indefatigable devotion against the difficult circumstances which for the past two months have afflicted all artists. You have maintained the Maison de Molière in a more prosperous state than any other theatre.
We are proud to see in this, dear comrade, not so much the accomplishment of a duty as a proof of real sisterly friendship. Accept in return the unanimous thanks of your friends and colleagues. They hope this letter, signed by them all, will remain one of the most precious memories of your dramatic career; for if it is meritorious to obtain triumphs as brilliant as yours, it is no less flattering to have deserved the affection and gratitude of one's comrades.
The Artists Sociétaires of the
Théâtre de la République.
In June Rachel went a tour, of which her brother Raphaël was the organizer. Strasbourg, Metz, Besançon, Nancy, Dijon, Bâle, Geneva, Lausanne, Marseilles, Avignon, Toulon, Montpellier, Beziers, Cette, Orleans, Tours, Blois, Agen, &c., were visited in turn at, we need not say, what an immense exertion and fatigue. Her arrival was heralded two months beforehand to all the directors of provincial theatres in a circular issued
