Bataille de dames
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.]
[Footnote 9: #avec humeur#, out of temper, irritated.]