[7] H. Belloc, _Marie-Antoinett_, pp. 311-312, states that clause VIII. of Brunswick's manifesto was "drafted" by Marie Antoinette, i.e. that the idea of holding Paris responsible for the safety of the royal family was first suggested by her. He bases this statement entirely upon the queen's letters of July 3rd to Fersen, of July 4th to Mercy, the reception of which Fersen notes in his Journal on July 8th and 9th (Fersen ii. 21). But these letters were obviously the answer to Fersen's letter of June 30th to the queen (Fersen ii. 315), in which he tells her the terms of the manifesto. Moreover, the suggestion of holding the Assembly responsible is to be found as early as in the memo. of the Constitutionals of September the 8th, 1791, and is included in the Instructions of Mallet du Pan (Mems. ed. Sayous, i. 281, and appendix 445). Fersen (_Fersen_ ii. 329, 337, 18th July and 28th July to the queen, and p. 338, 29th July to Taube) states that it was he who drew up the manifesto by means of the marquis de Limon. MARIE DE FRANCE (fl. c. 1175-1190), French poet and fabulist. In the introduction (c. 1240) to his _Vie Seint Edmund le Rey_[1] Denis Pyramus says she was one of the most popular of authors with counts, barons and knights, but especially with ladies. She is also mentioned by the anonymous author of the _Couronnement Renart_. Her lays were translated into Norwegian[2] by order of Haakon IV.; and Thomas Chestre, who is generally supposed to have lived in the reign of Henry VI., gave a version of _Lanval_.[3] Very little is known about her history, and until comparatively recently the very century in which she lived remained a matter of dispute. In spite of her own statement in the epilogue to her fables: "Marie ai num, si suis de France," generally interpreted to mean that Marie was a native of the Île de France, she seems to have been of Norman origin, and certainly spent most of her life in England. Her language, however, shows little trace of Anglo-Norman provincialism. Like Wace, she used a literary dialect which probably differed very widely from common Norman speech. The manuscripts in which Marie's poems are preserved date from the late 13th or even the 14th century, but the language fixes the date of the poems in the second half of the 12th century. The _Lais_ are dedicated to an unknown king, who is identified as Henry II. of England; and the fables, her _Ysopet_, were written according to the _Epilogus_ for a Count William, generally recognized to be William Longsword, earl of Salisbury. The author of _Couronnement Renart_, says that Marie had dedicated her poem to the count William to whom the unknown poet addresses himself. This is William of Dampierre (d. 1251), the husband of the countess Margaret of Flanders, and his identification with Marie's count William is almost certainly an error. Marie lived and wrote at the court of Henry II.,