Alexandrine des Écherolles

She was born in the Château des Écherolles in La Ferté-Hauterive, Allier, the daughter of Joseph-Étienne Giraud des Écherolles, a royalist officer of the provincial lower nobility.

Her mother, Marie Anne Odile (née de Tarade), died while Alexandrine was still a child, so she was brought up by her paternal aunt.

Her aunt was arrested and executed during the Reign of Terror following the Siege, while her father fled to Switzerland.

[2] They were first published in Moulins-sur-Allier in 1843 as Quelques Années de ma vie,[4] and republished in 1879 in Paris as Une Famille Noble sous la Terreur.

[5] English translations appeared as Private Trials and Public Calamities; or, The Early Life of Alexandrine des Écherolles during the troubles of the first French Revolution (London, 1853) and Side Lights on the Reign of Terror; being the memoirs of Mademoiselle des Écherolles (London, 1900).