Just about a year ago my old friend, Jules Simon, author of Devoir, came to me with a request that I write a novel for the Journal pour Tous. I gave him the outline of a novel which I had in mind. The subject pleased him, and the contract was signed on the spot. The action occurred between 1791 and 1793, and the first chapter opened at Varennes the evening of the king's arrest. Only, impatient as was the Journal pour Tous, I demanded a fortnight of Jules Simon before beginning my novel. I wished to go to Varennes; I was not acquainted with the locality, and I confess there is one thing I cannot do; I am unable to write a novel or a drama about localities with which I am not familiar. In order to write Christine I went to Fontainebleau; in writing Henri III. I went to Blois; for Les Trois Mousquetaires I went to Boulogne and Bthune; for Monte-Cristo I returned to the Catalans and the Chteau d'If; for Isaac Laquedem I revisited Rome; and I certainly spent more time studying Jerusalem and Corinth from a distance than if I had gone there. . . .