In the Rue de Béthisy, Paris, stood a house, the Hôtel de Châtillon,
from the window of one of whose rooms assassins flung the gory head of
the great Admiral de Coligni down to the Duke de Guise on the night of
Saint Bartholomew, 1572. In that same room was born, February 14, 1744,
Sophie Arnould, the daughter of the proprietor, who had transformed the
historic dwelling into a hostelry. She grew up a bright, lively, and
beautiful child, and was conscious from an early age of the value of her
talents. Anne, as she was then called (for the change to Sophie was made
afterward), would say with exultation: "We shall be as rich as princes.
A good fairy has given me a talisman to transform everything into gold
and diamonds at the sound of my voice."

Accident brought her talent to light. It was then the fashion for
ladies, after confessing their sins in Passion Week, to retire for some
days to a religious house, there to expiate by fasting the faults and
misdemeanors committed during the gayeties of the Carnival. It chanced
that when Anne was about twelve years old the Princess of Modena retired
to the convent of Val-de-Grace, and in attending vespers heard one voice
which, for power and purity, she thought had never been surpassed.
Fine voices were at a premium then in France, and the Princess at once
decided that she had discovered a treasure. She inquired who was the
owner of this exquisite organ, and was informed that it was little Anne
Arnould. The Princess sent for the child, who came readily, and was not
in the least abashed by the presence of the great lady, but sang like a
nightingale and chattered like a magpie. The wit and beauty of the girl
charmed the Princess, and she threw a costly necklace about her throat.
"Come, my lovely child," said she; "you sing like an angel, and you
have more wit than an angel. Your fortune is made." As a result of the
praises so loudly chanted by the Princess of Modena, the child was