And so, to ‘this beautiful country of France’ once again with Mrs Molesworth and one of her favourite storytelling structures, the story wrapped within another tale. The central story is that of Edmeé (daughter of the Count de Valmont and the young girl in the little old portrait itself) and her experiences of the French Revolution told in a handwritten written memoir.

As a novel for older children Mrs Molesworth was quite clear of the moral of her story: ‘cruel as were the leaders of this revolt, frightful as were the deeds they committed, it is impossible, and it would altogether be unjust, to blame them and their followers alone … and certainly the misdeeds which were at the bottom of this most terrible of quarrels, were far more on the side of the upper classes than of the lower.’

From the bucolic estate of Edmeé’s childhood, Valmont-les- Roses in Touraine, the narrative takes the reader to the triumph and fear of revolutionary Paris. There is an eery appearance of a mob singing and dancing to La Carmagnole as well as reflections on the condemned approaching their ‘ghastly journey to death’. ‘Some of them appeared ‘strong in despair, some fainting and unconscious as if already dead, a few, but very few, shrieking wildly for mercy to their brutal keepers - others, many even, with looks of sweet resignation and noble courage, to whom the guillotine was indeed but the gate of Heaven.’

Can Edmeé and her mother escape the guillotine? As a character comments to good Pierre Germaine, Edmeé’s peasant foster-brother, ‘Madame Guillotine will tell you; she’s the only Madame now!’

This novel was later reissued with a different title Edmeé: a tale of the French revolution.