Though we were assured in 1908 by a very good authority, that no gentleman now living at Versailles would wear a large cloak either in winter or summer, there might be nothing surprising in what we saw if the kiosk could be found. But considering that it is gone, it is historically interesting that we discovered in 1904 that there is one man in the story of Trianon who exactly suits the description.
Most of the intimate accounts of the period say that the Comte de Vaudreuil was a Creole and marked by smallpox.[1] He was at one time one of the Queen's innermost circle of friends, but acted an enemy's part in persuading her to gain the King's permission for the acting of the politically dangerous play of Le Mariage de Figaro. The King had long refused to allow it, saying that it would cause the Bastille to be taken. The earlier version of the same play, Le Barbier de Séville,[2] was last acted at
- ↑ La Reine Marie Antoinette, De Nolhac, pp. 61, 212.
- ↑ Le Barbier de Séville, by Beaumarchais, was first played in 1775; it was re-written and made politically scandalous as Le Mariage de Figaro in 1781. This version was played in Vaudreuil's private theatre at Gennevilliers and at the Odéon, 1783, and for the first time in Paris, by permission, April 27th, 1784.
