Page:Rachel (1887 Nina H. Kennard).djvu/28



"La VendéeneLa Vendéenne [sic] was one of those plays," Jules Janin tells us, "which the Gymnase has given hundreds of times and will give hundreds of times again. Ephemeral and slight, they are acted a few nights and then sink into oblivion."

This little drama would have shared the same fate had it not been for the young actress who appeared in the principal part. On her account, and on her account alone, it will be remembered as long as dramatic art exists.

The plot was borrowed to a certain extent from Sir Walter Scott's novel of the Heart of Midlothian. A poor girl, daughter of Thibaut, a peasant who has been condemned to death during the insurrection in La Vendée, travels alone and unprotected to Paris, for the sake of imploring Josephine, wife of the First Consul, to use her influence in saving her father's life. The plot is of the simplest. Fresnault has been sent to pacify La Vendée. The General, though a kindhearted man anxious to spare the Vendéens, is devoted heart and soul to the First Consul.

On one occasion he receives an order to arrest and try by court-martial a certain peasant called Thibaut.