Fantôme de l'Opéra. English

  [1] M. Pedro Gailhard has himself told me that he created a fewadditional posts as door-shutters for old stage-carpenters whom he wasunwilling to dismiss from the service of the Opera.

  [2] In those days, it was still part of the firemen's duty to watchover the safety of the Opera house outside the performances; but thisservice has since been suppressed. I asked M. Pedro Gailhard thereason, and he replied:

  "It was because the management was afraid that, in their utterinexperience of the cellars of the Opera, the firemen might set fire tothe building!"

  [3] Like the Persian, I can give no further explanation touching theapparition of this shade. Whereas, in this historic narrative,everything else will be normally explained, however abnormal the courseof events may seem, I can not give the reader expressly to understandwhat the Persian meant by the words, "It is some one much worse thanthat!" The reader must try to guess for himself, for I promised M.Pedro Gailhard, the former manager of the Opera, to keep his secretregarding the extremely interesting and useful personality of thewandering, cloaked shade which, while condemning itself to live in thecellars of the Opera, rendered such immense services to those who, ongala evenings, for instance, venture to stray away from the stage. Iam speaking of state services; and, upon my word of honor, I can say nomore.

  [4] All the water had to be exhausted, in the building of the Opera.To give an idea of the amount of water that was pumped up, I can tellthe reader that it represented the area of the courtyard of the Louvreand a height half as deep again as the towers of Notre Dame. Andnevertheless the engineers had to leave a lake.

  [5] These two pairs of boots, which were placed, according to thePersian's papers, just between the set piece and the scene from the ROIDE LAHORE, on the spot where Joseph Buquet was found hanging, werenever discovered. They must have been taken by some stage-carpenter or"door-shutter."