Author’s Note
121 Words
Author’s NoteBaden-Baden, ‘The Pearl of the Black Forest’ in the 1860s, was the summer Capital of Europe. The description of the visitors to this enchanted town is accurate.
‘Madame Maximus’, Léonide Leblanc was there with the Royal Duc d’Aumale and she twice broke the Bank at the casino.
In 1868 Caroline Letessier was forced to leave St. Petersburg and the Grand Duke left with her.
They settled in a sumptuous Villa just off the Lichtenthal Strasse, and the incident in the casino with Hortense Schneider is authentic.
When Léonide Leblanc died of cancer at the age of fifty-two, Dumas fils said jokingly, “She will have a national funeral and the Duc d’Aumale will command the troops.”
Caroline Letessier saved nothing of her fortune and died ugly and forgotten in absolute poverty.
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