. The reader should note that from the first
his speeches show a refinement which to Leonie 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 Rhone, 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 _fetes_ of the _ancien regime_.]

[Footnote 5: #Ah bien oui!# _Indeed I would_, but nowadays one has
no time, etc.]

[Footnote 6: #nee 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: #timbree#, _post-marked_.--#pleine Vendee#, _in the
heart of Vendee_, 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: #maitre des requetes#, _referendary_, a minor officer of
the Council of State.]

[Footnote 9: #avec humeur#, _out of temper, irritated_.]

#Page 3.#

[Footnote 10: #Talleyrand# (1754-1838), a politician whose skill in
unprincipled intrigue made him a power under every form of government,
from the States-General that inaugurated the First Revolution until his
death. Many epigrams like this testify to his cynicism, which
anticipated remarkably the modern _blague_, as we find it, for instance,
in "Le Gendre de monsieur Poirier."]

ACT I. SCENE 2

[Footnote 11: See preceding note and, for historical details, any
biographical dictionary.]

[Footnote 12: The use of the imperfect subjunctive is far more
restricted in French conversation than our school grammars would imply.
Persons of little