I replied to all, for I was in luck." _Athalie_ had not the same brilliant success as _Esther_.

The devotees and the envious had affrighted Madame de Maintenon, who had requested Racine to write it.

The young ladies of St.Cyr, in the uniform of the house, played the piece quite simply at Versailles before Louis XIV.

and Madame de Maintenon, in a room without a stage.

When the players gave a representation of it at Paris, it was considered heavy; it did not, succeed.