A FRIEND OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE (LADY ATKYNS) [Illustration: MADAME CHARLOTTE ATKYNS. (_After a miniature in the possession of Count Lair._) [_Frontispiece._] A FRIEND OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE (LADY ATKYNS) TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF FRÉDÉRIC BARBEY WITH A PREFACE BY VICTORIEN SARDOU OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY [Illustration] LONDON CHAPMAN & HALL, LTD. 1906 PREFACE When I brought out at the Vaudeville in 1896 my play, entitled _Paméla, Marchande de Frivolités_, in which I had grouped together dramatically, with what verisimilitude I could, all the various Royalist attempts at rescuing the son of Louis XVI., the Dauphin, from the prison of the Temple, there were certain scholars who found fault with me for representing an Englishwoman, Lady Atkyns, as the protagonist, or at least the prime mover in the matter of his escape. Some of them went so far as to accuse me of having invented this character for the purpose of my piece. Lady Atkyns, certainly, has left but few traces of her existence; she was a Drury Lane actress, pretty, witty, impressionable, and good--it seems there were many such among the English actresses of the time. Married (we shall see presently how it came about) to a peer, who gave her wealth at least, if not happiness, and who does not appear to have counted for much in her life, Lady Atkyns became a passionate admirer of Marie-Antoinette; she was presented to the Queen at Versailles, and when the latter was taken to the Temple, the responsive Englishwoman made every effort to find her way into the prison. She succeeded by the use of guineas, which, in spite of the hatred professed for Pitt and Coburg, were more to the taste of certain patriots than the paper-money of the Republic.