1

Émilie’s Plan

By Antoine Marie Chamans, Comte de Lavalette

The night before the Comte de Lavalette was to be executed, his wife Émilie came to visit him with a proposal that left him speechless.

2

The Best Laid Plans

By Victor Duruy

Louis XIV picked up the reins of power in France vowing to to drive the national economy in the common interest, not his own.

3

The Prisoner from Provence

By Tighe Hopkins

When Saint-Mars arrived to take over as warden of the Bastille in 1698, staff at Paris’s most famous prison had eyes only for his prisoner.

4

Politics and the Pulpit

By Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke begged the clergy of England to give us all a break from the twenty-four-hour news cycle.

5

Wait and See

By Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke urged Englishmen not to congratulate the French revolutionaries on their new-found liberty until they knew what they would do with it.

6

The King Who Would Not Turn His Back

By William Camden

When Richard I heard that the town of Verneuil in Normandy was under threat, he made a vow that few could be expected to take so literally.