[1] The particulars given by O. Alger in Englishmen in the French Revolution, London, 1889, pp. 125-126, reproducing and condensing information already available, including that which we owe to the Comtesse MacNamara, are not of any interest.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
[I.]The Chevalier de Frotté [1]
[II.]London [36]
[III.]The Odyssey of a Breton Magistrate [69]
[IV.]The Mystery of the Temple [94]
[V.]The Mystery of the Temple (continued) [125]
[VI.]The Friends of Lady Atkyns [139]
[VII.]The “Little Baron” [166]
[VIII.]After the Storm [206]
[Epilogue] [229]
[Appendix] [235]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE PAGE
Madame Charlotte Atkyns[Frontispiece]
(After a miniature in the possession of Count Lair.)
Charlotte Walpole, in “The Camp”[12]
(After an engraving in the British Museum.)
Jean-Gabriel Peltier, 1765-1825 [44]
(After an engraving in the British Museum.)
Marie-Pierre-Louis, Count de Frotté, 1766-1800 [140]
(After a portrait belonging to the Marquis de Frotté.)

A FRIEND OF
MARIE-ANTOINETTE
(LADY ATKYNS)

CHAPTER I
THE CHEVALIER DE FROTTÉ

At dawn, on April 7, 1790, a singular disturbance was going on in the streets of Lille. In the northern districts, not far from the citadel, troops of soldiers stood all along the avenues, filled the squares, ransacked the courtyards of the houses. Shots went off every instant, and the extraordinary thing was that this fusillade from the soldiers was directed against other soldiers. In the midst of the smoke, the deafening noise, and the cries of the awakened townsfolk, were to be seen the blue uniforms, with sky-blue facings, of the Regiment of the Crown, one of the four quartered in the garrison.[2]

Every horseman who appeared was greeted with successive volleys; evidently the combat was to the death between the light cavalry of Normandy, who charged upon the pavements or fought on foot with their muskets, and the grenadiers of the Crown and of the Royal-Vaisseaux.