MADAME D'AULNO Y.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."' SIR,—In your article of January 9th, headed "The Latest Folk-Lore," you speak of Madame d'Aulnoy, the author of the fairy-tales, as having been compromised by intriguing for a friend's escape from the guillotine. To my edition of the fairy-tales there is prefixed a short notice, beginning, " Marie Catherine de Berneville, Comtesse d'Aulnoy, nacquit en 1650 ;" and ending, " Elle mourut a Paris an mois de Janvier, 1705." It is difficult to see, therefore, what she could have to do with the guillotine, if the notice is correct, which, indeed, is con- firmed by her style, that is manifestly of the grand siecle. What follows, moreover, that she witnessed an auto-de-fi (spelt auto-da-fe), seems hardly consistent with what precedes. There appears, therefore, to be some confusion, whence arising, I know not.—I am, Sir, &c., 119 Cromwell Road, January 9th. HARBERTON.
[The " guillotine " was a mere slip for "the scaffold." We had forgotten for the moment the Revolutionary origin of the guillotine."—En. Spectator.]
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