Page:An adventure (1911).pdf/156

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146
AN ADVENTURE

prevailed with the King, against his better judgment, to allow the Mariage de Figaro to be acted in Paris.[1] In the following year, the older version of the same play had been performed at Trianon;[2] she had acted Rosina, the Comte d'Artois had taken the part of Figaro, and Vaudreuil that of Almaviva. Four years later the King's prophecy had come true, and the destruction of the Bastille had been the signal for Vaudreuil's hurried flight from the country.[3]

Well she remembered that false friend,[4] whom she had willingly received into her most intimate circle, though latterly he had often wearied her with his violent temper and importunities for more lucrative posts.[5]

There was one day in that last summer at Trianon, shortly before Vaudreuil's final departure in July, which stood out, every detail being

  1. Beaumarchais' play of Le Mariage de Figaro had been rewritten with political intention from the old play of Le Barbier de Séville in 1783.
  2. Twice played at Trianon, September 13th, 1784, and August 19th, 1785.
  3. July 14th, 1789.
  4. La Reine Marie Antoinette, De Nolhac, pages 161-212, 223, 224.
  5. Le Petit Trianon, Desjardins, pages 180, 178, 342.