centimes a ticket, while here in Paris they will pay ten francs and crowd the theatre to see me. Why is that?"
Rachel resigned her position as a societaire of the Théâtre Français, and the throne was offered to Ristori by the director, Arsène Houssaye. The Emperor sent M. Fould as his advocate, begging her to accept.
But the Italian tragedienne was true to her flag; she would not desert the Italian language and drama. She won, and received the imperial decree, authorizing her to play at the Théâtre Italien for four months. Her first season brought her a half-million of francs.
To see this illustrious woman first play Marie Antoinette and Maria Stuarda, and then to hear her tell these facts with flashing eye was a most dramatic experience.
The Emperor sent her a beautiful bracelet in form of a serpent, the head sparkling with diamonds, which she was fond of wearing. Medals were struck in her honor, and all the world acknowledged her greatness as a tragedienne. The King of Prussia decorated her with the Order of Merit for her Deborah.
She had been emphatically a queen's favorite in Spain, and always spoke well of poor Isabella. She saved the life of a Spanish soldier, Nicolas Chapado, by her eloquence, kneeling first to Narvaez, then to the queen — a story she was fond of telling.
She played, in French, Beatrix at the Odeon; it proved a great success. Then she took Shakespeare to London! She played Lady Macbeth and Elizabeth, and was called the second Siddons. In 1864, she sailed for Egypt and played in Cairo, Athens, Constantinople, giving the tragedies of Alfieri beneath the shadow of the Pyramids.
She came to America with all this glory behind her, and was received, both as an actress and as a woman, with
