The Opera, that temple of pleasure at Paris, was burned in the month of June, 1781. Twenty persons had perished in the ruins; and as it was the second time within eighteen years that this had happened, it created a prejudice against the place where it then stood, in the Palais Royal, and the king had ordered its removal to a less central spot. The place chosen was La Porte St. Martin.  
The king, vexed¹ to see Paris deprived for so long of its Opera, became as sorrowful as if the arrivals of grain had ceased, or bread had risen to more than seven sous the quartern loaf. It was melancholy² to see the nobility, the army, and the citizens without their after-dinner amusement; and to see the promenades³ thronged⁴ with the unemployed⁵ divinities, from the chorus-singers to the prima donnas.
 
An architect was then introduced to the king, full of new plans, who promised so perfect a ventilation, that even in case of fire no one could be smothered⁶. He would make eight doors for exit, besides five large windows placed so low that any one could jump out of them. In the place of the beautiful hall of Moreau he was to erect⁷ a building with ninety-six feet of frontage towards the boulevard, ornamented⁸ with eight caryatides on pillars forming three entrance-doors, a bas-relief above the capitals, and a gallery with three windows............