The Verrière family lived in the country six miles from Saumur, in Anjou, where many nobles, fleeing from the storm, had found a safe refuge. The vicinity of the forest of Fontevrault enabled them to gain the Vendée, and thus escape the fury of the Revolutionists. Mme. Verrière had met Lady Atkyns in Paris years before, perhaps during the golden days of Versailles. Recalling their former friendliness, Lady Atkyns went to them in her trouble. The welcome they extended to her justified her hopes, and she dwelt with them for some time, until the police had lost all trace of her. About this period, vague reports began to be spread about with reference to the imprisonment of the children of Louis XVI. in the Temple. The obscurity which had cloaked the last hours of the Dauphin was still keeping certain brains at work. And a book which was published in 1800 helped to reawaken public curiosity. In _Le Cimetière de la Madeleine_, a romance written by an author until then little known, Regnault-Warin deliberately questioned the alleged death of the Dauphin, and, in fact, based a story of adventure upon the supposition of his being still alive. Written in the fashion of the time, full of surprising episodes, and bristling with more or less untrustworthy anecdotes touching on the captivity of the Royal Family in the Temple, this novel had an immense success. If it came before Lady Atkyns it must have served to stimulate her anxiety to solve the problem she had so much at heart. In the summer of 1801 Lady Atkyns appears to have addressed herself to Louis XVIII., unwarned by her failure with _Monsieur_. In this case also failure was to be her portion. “Your letter,” ran the reply, signed by M. de Thauvenay (whom she had met some years before), and addressed, as a precaution, to Monsieur James Brown, dated October 2, “would have been enigmatic to me had I not placed it before my master, who, by a curious series of accidents, had received only a few days before the communication you sent him on the 12th of July. In requesting me to reply to you, monsieur, he charges me to express to you his recognition of your constant interest and indefatigable zeal for his welfare, and his regret that he is prevented by his present position from learning the particulars of the speculation that your heart has formed, and that he cannot have any share in it.” Six weeks later Lady Atkyns received a second letter, despatched, like the first, from Varsovie, reinforcing the above:--