Now the Royalist reaction of which we were speakingbefore we interrupted ourselves to address the high public functionaries who had the honour of appearing before our readers in the last chapterdid not only strike at literary men, but it hit out cruelly, bitterly and mortally at public men. It began by the expulsion of Manuel from the Chamber; it closed with the execution of Riégo. But I must confess I was not so much occupied at that time with the quarrels of the Chamber, or the Spanish War, or the fête that Madame de Cayla (who was very kind to me later) gave to Saint-Ouen to celebrate the return of Louis XVIII., or the death of Pope Pius VII. ; there were two events which were quite as important to my thinking: the first production of Lucien Arnault's "Pierre de Portugal", and that of the "École des Vieillards", by Casimir Delavigne.
Although the dramatic statistics for the year 1823 showed a total production of 209 new plays and of 161 authors acted, the best theatres, especially during the first nine months of the year, presented but a sorry show, and were very far removed from reaching the level of the preceding year.
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