Page:An adventure (1911).pdf/43

 noted that M. de Nolhac related the traditional story of the Queen's visit, and that the Comte de Vaudreuil, who betrayed the Queen by inviting her to the fatal acting of the "Barbier de Séville" in her own theatre at Trianon, was a Creole and marked by smallpox (pages 61, 212). Turning over the pages of Desjardins I found Wertmüller's portrait of the Queen, and exclaimed that it was the first of all the pictures I had seen which at all brought back the face of the lady. Some weeks later I found this passage: "Ce tableau fut assez mal accueilli des critiques contemporains qui le trouvèrent froid, sans majesté, sans grace. Pour la posterité, au contraire, il a le plus grand mérite; celui de la ressemblance. Au dire de Madame Campan, il n'existe de bon portrait de la reine que cette toile de Wertmüller et celle que Madame Lebrun peignit en 1787" (page 282).

In January, 1904, Miss Lamont went to the Comédie Française to see the "Barbier de Séville," and noticed that the Alguazils standing round were dressed exactly like our garden officials, but had red stockings added. This was interesting, as the Comédie Française