Some time after my _Henri VIII_, in which Vaucorbeil had imposed another collaborator on me, Ritt asked me for a new work. We were looking about for a subject, when Gallet came to my house and timidly, as if fearing a rebuff, proposed _Benvenuto Cellini_. I had thought of that for a long time, and the idea had come to me of putting into Mp3 Musical form that fine drama, which had had its hours of glory, where Melingue modeled the statue of Hebe before the populace. I, therefore, accepted the suggestion with pleasure. This enterprise brought me in touch with Paul Meurice, whom I had known in my childhood, when he was wooing Mlle. Granger, his first wife and an intimate friend of my mother"s. Paul Meurice revealed a secret to me: that the romance _Ascanio_, attributed to Alexander Dumas, had been entirely written by Meurice. The work met with a great success, and out of gratitude, Dumas offered to help Meurice in constructing a drama from the romance, which was to be signed by Meurice alone. So it is easy for one who knows Dumas"s dramas to find traces of his handiwork in _Benvenuto Cellini_.