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In 1803 she died obscurely; and the same year there also passed out of the world two other celebrated women, the great actress Clairon and the singer De Beaumesnil, once Sophie's rival. Lord Mount Edgcumbe, in his "Musical Reminiscences," speaks of Sophie Arnould, whom he heard in ante-revolutionary days, as a woman of entrancing beauty and very great dramatic genius.
This young woman, who is not in her first youth, for she is nearly thirty, is the natural daughter of the celebrated Mademoiselle Beaumesnil of the Theatre Francais and Peyrade, the commissary-general of police under the Empire, and the uncle of our friend.
The robbery was committed in a house in the rue de Tournon, occupied by Mademoiselle Beaumesnil. Charles Crochard, who was a handsome fellow, was said to have the run of it " "Yes, yes," cried Cerizet, "I remember Mademoiselle Beaumesnil's embarrassment when she gave her testimony and also the total extinction of voice that attacked her when the judge asked her age."
Her opera, "Cephale et Procris," was successfully given at the Academic Royale in 1694. Another composer of the same century was Mme. Louis, whose operetta, "Fleur d'Epine," met with a good reception. In the eighteenth century, Henriette de Beaumesnil was one of the foremost musical women in France.
"That was pretty plucky," said Cerizet; the tale excited him, and he showed openly that he saw the matter as an artist and a connoisseur. "In that interval," continued du Portail, "Madame Beaumesnil died, leaving her daughter a few fragments of a once great fortune, and the diamonds which the will expressly stated Lydie was to receive 'in case they were recovered."
"I was manager of one of my newspapers at the time, and I used to write the 'Paris items. But stay, I remember, the actress who lost them was Mademoiselle Beaumesnil." "Precisely; the mother of Mademoiselle de la Peyrade." "Consequently, this miserable old Toupillier no, I remember that the thief was convicted; his name was Charles Crochard. "Well," said du Portail, "this is how it happened.
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