ALSO BY MICHELLE MORAN
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2011 by Michelle Moran
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
For my editors
Heather Lazare, Matthew Carter, and Allison McCabe
TIME LINE
DATE EVENT May 5, 1789 The Estates-General meets at Versailles, bringing together all three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners June 17, 1789 The Third Estate, made up of commoners, declares itself the National Assembly July 14, 1789 Fall of the Bastille August 27, 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen is adopted October 5–6, 1789 Parisian women march on Versailles and force the royal family to move to Paris October 1, 1791 Meeting of the Legislative Assembly April 20, 1792 France declares war on Austria August 10, 1792 After the storming of the Tuileries Palace, the royal family takes refuge with the Legislative Assembly September 2–6, 1792 The September Massacres September 21, 1792 The monarchy is abolished January 21, 1793 Louis XVI is executed February 1, 1793 France declares war on Great Britain April 6, 1793 The Committee of Public Safety is created with the intent of rooting out all “traitors” and anyone deemed a threat to the Revolution October 5, 1793 The Revolutionary Calendar is adopted, with Year One beginning on September 22, 1792 October 16, 1793 Queen Marie Antoinette is executed May 7, 1794 Cult of the Supreme Being proclaimed by Robespierre June 8, 1794 Robespierre leads the celebration of the Festival of the Supreme Being June 10, 1794 The Law of 22 Prairial is adopted, encouraging citizens to denounce anyone who might be a counterrevolutionary
CHARACTERS
Marie Antoinette: Queen of France
Comte d’Artois: Youngest brother of King Louis XVI
Baron de Besenval: Commander of the Swiss Guard; father of Abrielle de Besenval
Henri Charles: Inventor, balloonist, and showman
Jacques Charles: Mathematician, inventor, and balloonist
Philippe Curtius: Wax modeler and showman
Georges Danton: Revolutionary and journalist
Jacques-Louis David: Painter
Camille Desmoulins: Lawyer and revolutionary journalist
Lucile Duplessis: Young revolutionary engaged to Camille Desmoulins
Princesse Elisabeth: Sister of King Louis XVI
Anna Grosholtz: Mother of Marie Grosholtz
Edmund Grosholtz: Marie’s eldest brother and captain in the Swiss Guard
Isabel Grosholtz: Wife of Johann Grosholtz and mother of Paschal
Johann Grosholtz: Marie’s second-eldest brother and soldier in the Swiss Guard
Marie Grosholtz: Curtius’s “niece”; wax modeler and show-woman
Wolfgang Grosholtz: Marie’s youngest brother and soldier in the Swiss Guard
Thomas Jefferson: American ambassador to France
Marquis de Lafayette: French aristocrat and American Revolutionary War hero
Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun: Popular female painter employed by the queen
Louis-Charles: The dauphin; first son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Louis-Joseph: Second son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Louis the XVI: King of France
Jean-Paul Marat: Swiss lawyer and journalist
Comte de Mirabeau: Revolutionary and journalist
Duc d’Orleans: Cousin of King Louis XVI who later changes his name to Philippe Egalite
Comte de Provence: Eldest brother of King Louis XVI
Maximilien Robespierre: Lawyer from Arras, revolutionary
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Philosopher and writer
Marquis de Sade: Criminal and writer
Princesse Marie-Therese: Daughter of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
AUTHOR’S
NOTE
THE YEAR IS 1788, AND QUEEN MARIE ANTOINETTE’S POPULARITY is on the decline. Food shortages are widespread throughout her kingdom, caused in large part by the unpredictable weather, which has destroyed most
