In any
other country I should have done more, but, on account of my
employment, not being able to see persons in place, I was often
obliged to apply to the consul, and the consul, who was settled in the
country with his family, had many persons to oblige, which prevented
him from acting as he otherwise would have done. However, perceiving
him unwilling and afraid to speak, I ventured hazardous measures,
which sometimes succeeded. I recollect one which still makes me laugh.
No person would suspect it was to me the lovers of the theater at
Paris owe Coralline and her sister Camille; nothing, however, can be
more true. Veronese, their father, had engaged himself with his
children in the Italian company, and after having received two
thousand livres for the expenses of his journey, instead of setting
out for France, quietly continued at Venice, and accepted an
engagement in the theater of Saint Luke,* to which Coralline, a
child as she still was, drew great numbers of people. The Duke de
Gesvres, as first gentleman of the chamber, wrote to the ambassador to
claim the father and the daughter. M. de Montaigu when he gave me
the letter, confined his instructions to saying, voyez cela, without
giving me further details. I went to M. Blond to beg he would speak to
the patrician, to whom the theater belonged, and who, I believe, was
named Zustinian, that he might discharge Veronese, who had engaged
in the name of the king. Le Blond, to whom the commission was not very
agreeable, executed it badly.
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