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- The story opens in the country home of Manon and her brother, who have been brought up by a religious father. The father insists that Manon shall enter a convent for life. He compels her to go. But on the way, stopping at an inn at Amisne, she meets the Chevalier Des Grieux. It is a case of love at first sight between them. Manon and Des Grieux escape the vigilance of her traveling companions and flee to Paris. The Baron De Bretigny, a rich nobleman, occupies a residence adjoining their home in Paris. He sees the lovely Manon and, attracted by her beauty, makes her acquaintance. Failing in his attempts to separate her from Des Grieux, the Baron finally writes to Des Grieux's father, an old friend of his in Picardy. The father, objecting to his son's choice, sends his elder brother and two servants to Paris, who takes Des Grieux away by force. The Baron then bribes Manon's maid, who tells her mistress that Des Grieux has deserted her, and, as he does not return, the heartbroken girl believes he has left her forever. Alone in Paris without friends or money she is finally compelled to accept the protection of the scheming Baron. Meantime the Chevalier, believing that Manon no longer cares for him, is persuaded by his faithful friend. Abbe Tiberge, to renounce the world and become an abbe. He goes to Paris and begins his studies at St. Sulpice. But Manon is still the unforgotten object of his affections. Through the false maid Manon discovers the trick by which the Baron separated her from her lover. She leaves the Baron's house and visits the Chevalier at St. Sulpice, where, after a pathetic and emotional scene she induces him to go with her. Manon's brother, Lescaut, a dissolute and unprincipled guardsman in the army of King Louis XV, is hired by the Baron to attack the Chevalier and bring Manon back to him. Ruffians engaged by Lescaut carry out this plan. But after a furious street combat the Chevalier escapes. Manon, however, is taken to the Baron's house and kept prisoner. Here the Chevalier follows her and alone and unaided rescues her after a struggle with the perfidious Baron. The lovers leave Paris and establish themselves in a suburban villa, where Lescaut comes and convinces them that he had no part in the plot. Their financial circumstances go from bad to worse. Des Grieux finds himself beset by creditors and is finally persuaded by his false friend, Lescaut, to gamble at a fashionable club in Paris. The Baron is present, induces the Chevalier to play with him and accuses him of cheating at cards. Manon interferes, but both are arrested and thrown into separate prisons. The Chevalier escapes from St. Lazare after wounding a guard and compelling the prison governor to open the doors for him. Meantime Lescaut has quarreled with the Baron and decides to help the Chevalier rescue Manon from the Magdalen. This is accomplished, and disguised in boy's clothes, Manon escapes in a coach with the Chevalier, driven by Lescaut. The prison guards start in pursuit. The coach is wrecked in an accident, Lescaut is killed and Manon recaptured. Taken back to prison she is sentenced to be transported to America, to the French province of Louisiana, as was the custom of that period. Chained to a number of unfortunate women prisoners Manon is taken to Havre. Des Grieux follows, seeking for some means of saving her, but finding none he smuggles himself as a stowaway on board the ship, which carries his beloved to far-away New Orleans. In the new world Manon and the Chevalier are kindly treated by the Louisiana Governor. But when the Governor's nephew becomes infatuated with Manon the Governor decides to separate them on his nephew's account. The Chevalier fights a duel with the nephew, then escapes with Manon to the forests, where she dies.
- Opening in Russia, the action of the play speedily transports the beholder across Europe and the Atlantic to New York and concerns itself with the theft in St. Petersburg, by a notorious thief, Dou Plou, of the famous Romanoff diamonds from the Count Garbiadoff. The pursuit of these renowned jewels takes the spectator into the palatial homes of the millionaires, and into the underground dens of thieves, into the gold-laden ballrooms of the wealthy, and into the dark alleys, of crime and death. Don Plou, unable to dispose of the stolen jewels in Russia, flees to America. His former sweetheart, Maria Marino, fascinates and marries a wealthy attache of the United States Embassy in St. Petersburg, Mr. Bulford, and with him also comes to America. On his death-bed, Don Plou, repentant and still unable to dispose of the ill-fated jewels because of their world-wide police renown, sends for Mr. Bulford, with the intention of having him restore the stones to their rightful owner, Count Garbiadoff. The crafty Maria intercepts the letter, and hastily going to Don Plou's lodging, she gets possession of the precious diamonds before the death of her former associate. Consequently, when Bulford, accompanied by a shrewd young detective, Dick Brummage, arrives on the scene, they are greeted by Don Plou's corpse, and the diamonds are not to be found. Damaging evidence they do find, however, in the form of a package of old letters which Bulford takes home with him. On examining them he finds evidence of his wife's relations with the dead Don Plou, and suffers an apoplectic stroke while renouncing her. Maria gives him a glass of poisoned wine, and he dies. Instantly Maria manages to fasten suspicion of the crime upon a young clerk, Frank, whom Bulford had quarreled with and discharged. To further suspicion, Maria, with the connivance of her scoundrelly brother, manages to get Frank shanghaied upon a villainous tramp steamer, from which he finally escapes in a small boat. Although the criminals believe themselves safe, detective Brummage has run to earth several clues that lead him to believe that Maria is really the guilty party, and not Frank, who is the brother of Brummage's fiancée, Mary. Working along these lines, Brummage introduces Mary into Maria's home as a maid to assist in piling up evidence against the adventuress and her brother. It is not long before Maria attempts to dispose of the diamonds to a certain notorious "fence," Mother Rosenbaum, who hates Don Plou and his woman accomplice because they betrayed her son to the police in Russia. Mother Rosenbaum has vowed eternal vengeance upon the pair, and learning Maria's true identity, she is about to avenge herself, when Maria, discovering that Mary is in league with Dick, makes Mother Rosenbaum believe that Mary, and not herself (Maria) is the former accomplice of Don Plou. Accordingly, Mother Rosenbaum decoys Mary to her house on the lower East Side, and imprisons her in the cellar, where she is finally rescued by Dick after a series of most thrilling events. Meanwhile Maria has sought and won the protection of a powerful politician, Senator McSorker, and feeling secure in his patronage, appears at a grand ball at the Senator's home, brazenly displaying the famous Romanoff jewels. In the midst of the revelry, Maria is suddenly confronted by Dick, who is accompanied not only by Mary and Frank, but also by the Count Garbiadoff, who has just arrived from Russia. Realizing that the end has come, the adventuress swallows poison, and in her death agony rolls headlong down the grand staircase to die at the feet of her accusers. So at last the wonderful diamonds are restored to their rightful owner, and the triumphant Dick Brummage is united to his sweetheart.