Jean Henri Latude

The ruse was discovered, and Mme de Pompadour, not appreciating the humor of the situation, had Latude put in the Bastille on May 1, 1749.

A certain Madame Legros became interested in him through a chance reading of one of his memoirs, and, through vigorous agitation on his behalf, secured his release in 1784.

He was lauded and pensioned during the Revolution, and, in 1793, the Convention compelled the heirs of Madame de Pompadour to pay him 60,000 francs in damages.

[4] An English translation of a portion of this work (Despotism Unveiled: or the Memoirs of Latude, Detained for Thirty-five Years in the Various Prisons of the State) was published in 1787.

Latude himself denied both the authorship and the accuracy of the pamphlet,[5] but it enjoyed a considerable popularity at the time of the French Revolution.