AND LOWER EGYPT. 20. 



down the theatre : we were not greatly disquieted 

 at this. At length, after five or six representations, 

 during which the opposition gradually diminished, 

 wc had the satisfaction to see our principles gene- 

 rally adopted. The actress who, before our arri- 

 val, had constantly been received with unbounded 

 applause, ceased to enjoy the public approbation, 

 which was all transferred to her whom we protected. 

 Satisfied with this triumph, which was that of good 

 taste, we gave an entertainment on board the fri- 

 gate to both the ladies. She whose success we had 

 interrupted accepted with a very good grace, and 

 we did everything in our power to compensate the 

 slight reverse of reputation which we procured heiv 



At this same spectacle it was that I saw, for the 

 first time, those degraded beings who have nothing 

 of man but the exterior. Sacrificed to the improve- 

 ment of the loveliest of arts, they acquire, at the 

 expense of their very existence, a voice sonorous, 

 melodious, but which is totally out of nature, as it 

 is neither the voice of a man nor of a woman. 

 France has not sullied itself with such a crime. 

 Unknown likewise to most of the nations of Eu- 

 rope, it was reserved for priests beyond the Alps, 

 the men, in whose hands excommunication was a 

 piece of armour so harmless, that they discharged it 

 in season, out of season ; these men shuddered not 

 at the thought of composing choirs destined to sing 



the 



