The three daughters of Louis XV. had books of their own which were bound by Vente, binder and librarian to the king. Probably the books of Madame Adelaide entitle her alone of the three to a place among book-lovers, though the others certainly owned some books. All their books had stamped upon the binding the same design, but each had her books bound in a different color,- those of Madame Adelaide being in red, those of Madame Victoire in green, and for those of the youngest, the Princess Sophie, citron was chosen. The Princess Adelaide was the most intellectual of them all, while to her next sister belonged the largest measure of personal beauty and charm of manner. Sophie was considered dull and silent, but in reality her manner was due more to reflection than to a natural lack of pleasing qualities. She used to read, before all other books, the lives of the Saints and such moral essays as came her way.
There is a very charming plate, once the property of M. de Joubert, about which little is known, but which belongs to the Louis XV. period, and which shows the interior of the library of the owner. The books are ranged in this case behind a rich curtain, and only the top rows are to be seen; these are in curved shelves fitting the dome which crowned the library. The arms of M. de Joubert are on the curtain, and the usual rich ornamentation of flowers and ribbons is displayed to good advantage. In a copy of L'Etat de la France published in 1749, M. de Joubert is called Chevalier, which explains the De on his book-plate, and shows him by its record to have been holding at that date the office of Tresorier des Etats de Languedoc.
There is a little group of three book-plates extant which, to the student of French history, should seem of special importance, inasmuch as they owe their existence to the career of that most remarkable woman Joan of Arc. It is true that she used no book-plate herself and that she can hold no place with the women bibliophiles of her country, but it is interesting to find her arms as designed by Charles VII. himself used upon these plates of her descendants. The hand holding the sword was the device borne by the Maid and hers was the motto, Consilio firmata Dei, " Strengthened by consent of God." Her third brother bore among other titles those of Chevalier du Luys and Seigneur de l'Ile-aux-Boeuf. The first of the three plates is anonymous, and consists of two shields accolle bearing the arms of Gauthier and Hordal du Luys with crest, helmet, and mantling above, as usual.
This is in the German style. The second is very rare, and dates from the time of Louis XVI., being that of Claud Francois Pagel de Vautoux, whose family was connected with the Maid's by marriage. The arms of the two families are supported by no less a personage upon the dexter siuc uuiu himself, while Joan grants similar service upon the sinister side. There is also some ornamentation, and a landscape at the foot shows in its distance trees and a castle, perhaps in remembrance of the exploits of the Maid on the field of battle and before the walls of castles. The third of these plates is simpler than the others, and shows the arms of Du Luys with the coronet above. This belonged to Nicolas Francois Alexandre de Haldat du Luys. Surely, all will admit the deep interest which attaches to these plates, with their plain indebtedness to the famous deeds of one of the most remarkable personages of history, for their very being.
A little plate dated 1772 bearing the legend, Livres de Mr. Terray Maitre des Requetes, brings to mind the scandalous corruption of morals and politics of the times of Louis XV. Terray was one of the boldest and most dissolute of those men who by their conduct of public affairs, and the profligacy of their private life, were in no small measure responsible for the sad condition of France, and for the Revolution which succeeded her wrecked credit and general distress. Surely he did collect a fine library of books, and employed not a few good bookbinders ; but as these are the only good traits one finds recorded of him, it cannot be thought that the books were properly his, or the bindings paid for with money rightfully his to be used on private matters.

In Querard's La France Litter air e there are a few biographical details of Thomas Simon Gueulette, a dramatist of some renown towards the close of the eighteenth century. This distinguished author used a striking book-plate engraved by H. Becat, and by the legend upon it we judge the learned writer to have been a generous lender of books. It reads as do so many of that and earlier periods, Ex Libris Thorns Gueulette et Amicorum. But the design itself is worth a moment's notice as showing more invention and originality than was common among his contemporaries. The arms are shown of course, and about them for supporters are four figures which by their dress are seen at once to represent an Italian Arlequin, a Tartar, a Chinese Mandarin, and a Cyclops in whose arms reposes, or more properly struggles, an infant. A familiarity with the writings of this dramatic: master shows these figures to be representative of his works. Up in the sky above the figures there is a figure of Cupid bearing, as he flies, a streaming ribbon on which are these words, Duke est desipere in loco, and which have been translated in the following happy manner, by a lover of books and book-plates in London : — u Duke, — Delightful says the poet, Est — is; it, and right well we know it, Desipere — to play the fool, In loco — when we're out of school."
The next plate of historic interest brings vividly to mind that day in November, 1793, when the tumbril, having made many trips to the guillotine, came at last for its final load of two condemned mortals, Lamarche, a trembling old man, and Madame Roland, still young and winsome.
Unnoticed alike by the crowd were her youth and beauty, and the tears of her weaker companion. They shouted, " A la guillotine," and to her gay rejoinder that she was going there, they retorted with language of the vilest and grossest sort. Arrived at last at the Place de la Concorde, they see the instrument of death set up under a huge clay figure of Liberty, noticing which the brave little woman stepped to her fate with the words " Oh ! Liberty, Liberty ! how many crimes are committed in thy name". Firmly she walked to the place of death, and in a few moments her head rolled into the waiting basket.
Thus at the age of thirty-nine died Marie-Jeanne Phlippon Roland, one of the most noble and highly gifted women her country ever saw, and whose husband, unwilling to live without her, was found dead the next week with his stiletto still sticking in his heart. The bookplate of Madame Roland was prettily designed and, in addition to the shields of arms, was embellished with cupids, with figures of Religion and Justice, and with the representation of two hearts and a celestial crown above the pyramid which formed the background of the whole design. It is of extreme interest, not only to the collector of bookplates, but to those who find something worthy of attention in the story of the persecuted Huguenot families.
Lavoisier, the chief founder of modern chemistry, and whose lamentable execution could not be delayed in the interests of science, used a handsomely engraved heraldic plate giving his name with the titles conferred upon him. The plate is signed De la Gordette fecit. It has no motto.
A little collection of books still preserved with loving care was once the property of Charlotte Corday. No engraved book-plate adorns their simple covers, it is true; but as they contain what may be called a manuscript plate, they are eligible to mention here, particularly as their owner's life history makes them of rare interest and value to all with the least interest in history or biography. This is the inscription which one at least of these books contains, C. Corday d'Armont, Sainte Trinite de Caen 20 Decembre 1790. The name " Charlotte " in monogram also accompanies this. It is quite likely that the book came into her possession very soon after she had come to the Grand Manoir of old Madame de Bretteville to live, and from which place she set forth upon her errand of death. She was a granddaughter of Corneille, the great dramatic author, the founder indeed of the French drama, and as a child she was taught to read from an old copy of his works. It was for some three years that she stayed quietly in the convent at Caen, and she had many books then, although when she finally set out for Paris, she gave them to her friends, saving only a favorite copy of Plutarch's Lives. Among her intimate friends she was always known as Marie, her full name being Marie Anne Charlotte, and in the very few letters now known in her handwriting she signs herself Marie de Corday.
There is some surprise that her name has come down to us as Charlotte only. The death of Marat, which she accomplished, doomed her to the scaffold, and some five months before the beheading of Madame Roland she ended her young life. In writing of her Lamartine says, " There are deeds so mingled with pure intentions and culpable means that we know not whether to pronounce them criminal or virtuous."
The Chevalier d'Eon, who performed so many services for France in the diplomatic service and whose latter years were so strangely occupied, used a book-plate of handsome appearance. The arms are on an oval shield, and the cross of his order depends therefrom, while skin-clad men carrying weapons support it. A helmet and the motto, Vincit amor patriae, are above the shield.



Continued on this page