AN EVENING WITH RACHEL. 363 " TancrMe," in which she played the part of the heroine, Amenaide, the beloved of Tanerede, a part in which she produced thrilling effects. In the audience, on that occa- sion, sat Alfred de Musset, one of the most admired of recent French poets, who had been for some time a friend of the new actress and of her family, as well as one of the warmest appreciators of her genius. At the end of an act he went behind the scenes to compliment her upon the beauty and fitness of her costume. Toward the close of the play she was to read a letter from her lover, mortally wounded upon the field of battle, who was dying under the impression that she had betrayed him. The letter runs thus : " I could not survive your perfidy. I die on the battle- field, but I die of wounds inflicted by you. I wished, cruel woman, in exposing myself for you, to save at once your glory and your life." Never before had she read this letter with such tender pathos ; and she said afterwards that she had been moved to such a degree herself, that she could scarcely go on with the part. At ten o'clock the play ended, for a French tragedy only lasts about an hour and a half. De Musset on leaving the theater met her by chance in the street, going home with one of her friends, and- followed by a crowd of her special admirers, members of the press, artists, and others. The poet saluted her, and she responded by saying : " Come home to supper with us." So he joined the throng, and they were soon all seated in her parlor — Rachel, her sister Sarah, their mother, Alfred de Musset, and several others. The events of the evening were afterwards recorded by the poet, as he says, "with the exactness of shorthand," and the narrative has been published since his death in a volume of his last writings and familiar letters. After some trifling
