A Fair Penitent | Page 3

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A FAIR PENITENT
by WILKIE COLLINS

About A FAIR PENITENT
This story first appeared in Charles Dickens' magazine, "Household
Words," volume 16, number 382, July 18, 1857. Published
anonymously, as all contributions to the magazine were, it was
attributed definitely to Wilkie Collins by Anne Lohrli in her analysis of
the magazine's finanacial accounts. In the original, there is an acute
accent over the final "e" of "Rance"; "Theatre Francois" should have an
acute accent over the first "e", a circumflex accent over the first "a",
and a cedilla under the "c".

A FAIR PENITENT

Charles Pineau Duclos was a French writer of biographies and novels,
who lived and worked during the first half of the eighteenth century. He
prospered sufficiently well, as a literary man, to be made secretary to
the French Academy, and to be allowed to succeed Voltaire in the
office of historiographer of France. He has left behind him, in his own
country, the reputation of a lively writer of the second class, who
addressed the public of his day with fair success, and who, since his
death, has not troubled posterity to take any particular notice of him.
Among the papers left by Duclos, two manuscripts were found, which
he probably intended to turn to some literary account. The first was a
brief Memoir, written by himself, of a Frenchwoman, named
Mademoiselle Gautier, who began life as an actress and who ended it as
a Carmelite nun. The second manuscript was the lady's own account of
the process of her conversion, and of the circumstances which attended
her moral passage from the state of a sinner to the state of a saint. There
are certain national peculiarities in the character of Mademoiselle
Gautier and in the narrative of her conversion, which are perhaps
interesting enough to be reproduced with some chance of pleasing the
present day.

It appears, from the account given of her by Duclos, that Mademoiselle
Gautier made her appearance on the stage of the Theatre Francois in the
year seventeen hundred and sixteen. She is described as a handsome
woman, with a fine figure, a fresh complexion, a lively disposition, and
a violent temper. Besides possessing capacity as an actress, she could
write very good verses, she was clever at painting in miniature, and,
most remarkable quality of all, she was possessed of prodigious
muscular strength. It is recorded of Mademoiselle, that she could roll
up a silver plate with her hands, and that she covered herself with
distinction in a trial of strength with no less a person than the famous
soldier, Marshal Saxe.
Nobody who is at all acquainted with the social history of the
eighteenth century in France, need be told that Mademoiselle Gautier
had a long list of lovers,--for the most part, persons of quality, marshals,
counts, and so