The Persian later travels to Paris and takes up living in a small, middle-class flat in the rue de Rivoli, across the street from the Tuileries, and employs a servant named Darius. He becomes known as a fixture of the Opera, considered an eccentric Persian who is allowed to wander backstage where he pleases. Research into Leroux's sources has revealed that Leroux based this description upon a real-life Persian who frequented the Paris Opera in the 19th century, a mysterious exiled prince living on a pension from the British government.