PREFACE.
An indistinct recollection of the very pretty little tale, called "The
Bellows-Mender," suggested the plot of this Drama. The incidents are,
however, greatly altered from those in the tale, and the characters entirely
re-cast.
Having long had a wish to illustrate certain periods of the French
history, so, in the selection of the date in which the scenes of this play are
laid, I saw that the era of the Republic was that in which the incidents
were rendered most probable, in which the probationary career of the hero
could well be made sufficiently rapid for dramatic effect, and in which the
character of the time itself was depicted by the agencies necessary to the
conduct of the narrative. For during the early years of the first and most
brilliant successes of the French Republic, in the general ferment of
society, and the brief equalization of ranks, Claude\'s high-placed love; his
ardent feelings, his unsettled principles (the struggle between which makes
the passion of this drama), his ambition, and his career, were phenomena
that characterized the age, and in which the spirit of the nation went along
with the extravagance of the individual.