CHAPTER II

My régime against the cholera--I am attacked by the epidemic --I invent etherisation--Harel comes to suggest to me _La Tour de Nesle_--Verteuil's manuscript--Janin and the tirade of the _grandes dames_--First idea of the _prison scene_--My terms with Harel--Advantages offered by me to M. Gaillardet--The spectator in the Odéon--Known and unknown authors--My first letter to M. Gaillardet