 In his memoirs Gounod writes that on 2 April, shortly after Augier had completed the libretto, Gounod's architect brother Urbain became gravely ill.The following day Gounod signed the contract, and on 6 April Urbain died, leaving behind a two-year-old child and a widow who was two-months pregnant, a distraught mother, and several unfinished architectural projects.It was a month before Gounod could even begin to think about working on the opera.