Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/54

 of the classic school, and he smilingly bade the young iconoclast go back to his desk—and stay there. Yet again the play was read, and once more set aside for revision; and this time Dumas took the opportunity of remodelling and entirely altering the motive of the play.

Poor "Christine"! No sooner was she clad in her new robe, than bureaucratic and social intrigues forced Dumas to consent to the indefinite postponement of its production, in favour of another version of the subject by a more influential writer. But he was far from being daunted, and a chance occurrence set him on the road to success by another path.

One day the office cupboard from which Dumas usually got his writing-paper was locked, and he was obliged to go into another office to fetch some. As he passed through the room his eyes fell on a book which was lying on a desk. It was a volume of Anquetil, open at the passage which describes the Duke de Guise's jealousy of St Mégrin, and the trick which he played upon the Duchess in consequence. Guise gave her a dose of what he called "poison," but which turned out to be harmless soup. The incident seemed so dramatic that it excited Dumas's interest, and he sought for and read the story of the murder of St Mégrin, and of Bussy d'Amboise in the "Mémoires d'Estoile." From