for auguste vitu the play evoked painful memories of 1870 : "streets full of bodies, palaces in flames, the homeland forsaken in the presence of the dumbfounded foreigner, and as if scandalized by so many distractions, such are the unforgettable sights which our consciousness is still soured, and of which our hearts still bleed. the widows and orphans in black, i have seen them bowed in our churches, the air rent with their sobs. the door of deathly memory re-opens wide within us; and sadness envelops us with its great black wings."