#Bataille de Dames#, adapted by Charles Reade to the English stage as "The Ladies' Battle," might signify also "a game of checkers," and "a battle of the queens" at cards, to which there is an allusion in the closing speech of the play. #Page 1.# [Footnote 1: #salon d'été#, _summer parlor_, which of course implies a mansion of some elegance.] [Footnote 2: #plan#. French playwrights divide the stage into three or four lateral divisions called _plans_, and corresponding to similarly designated side-scenes, or _pans coupés_, between which are passages called _coulisses_; but those speaking from the _coulisses_, or addressing persons supposed to be in or behind them, are said to speak _à la cantonade_. The rear of the stage is called _fond_, and to this actors are said to _remonter_ while they _descendre_ toward the _premier plan_, nearest the footlights. These are all the stage terms used in this play that present any difficulty.] ACT I. SCENE 1. [Footnote 3: #madame#. French and German usage requires that a title of courtesy be prefixed to designations of adult relatives of the person addressed, as, e.g., _madame votre mère, monsieur votre frère, mademoiselle votre soeur_; but Charles, as valet, should have said, _madame la comtesse_ alone. The reader should note that from the first his speeches show a refinement which to Léonie seems a surprising presumption. The disguised noble is too courteous to act a menial part successfully.] #Page 2.# [Footnote 4: The letter begins with allusion to the _troubles at Lyons_, in the environs of which the action is placed. This is the chief city on the Rhône, and was in 1817 the centre of a region seething with political intrigue against the recently restored Bourbon monarchy. That summer a rising had been sternly suppressed, and twenty-eight persons executed by General Canuel, who was recalled in the autumn (cp. p.14, line 24, and p.12, line 14); but there is no accuracy in details. The last lines of the letter allude to the dissatisfaction of the royalists, who had passed their youth in exile, with the studious moderation and cautious prudence of the new king, who gradually fell under the influence of clerical reactionaries, while many nobles would have preferred a return to the gallant _fêtes_ of the _ancien régime_.] [Footnote 5: #Ah bien oui!# _Indeed I would_, but nowadays one has no time, etc.] [Footnote 6: #née Kermadio#, _born a Kermadio_, and so, as this name implies to a French ear, a Breton noble, and therefore almost certainly an extreme royalist, and so least likely to be suspected of sheltering a Bonapartist conspirator.] [Footnote 7: #timbrée#, _post-marked_.--#pleine Vendée#, _in the heart of Vendée_, in Poitou, noted for the fierce civil war between the French Republic and the local royalists (March-December, 1793), and the scene of frequent royalist outbreaks for many years after.] [Footnote 8: #maître des requêtes#, _referendary_, a minor officer of the Council of State.]