A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Staal, Madame de

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STAAL, MADAME DE,

Whose maiden name was De Launai, was born, in 1693, at Paris, and was the daughter of an artist. She received an excellent education in the convent of St. Sauveur, in Normandy, and displayed precocious talents. For many years she was waiting-woman to the Duchess of Maine; and having been privy to some of the duchess's political intrigues, which she refused to betray to the government, she was, for two years, imprisoned in the Bastile; for which honourable fidelity she was but ill rewarded. She married the Baron de Staal, and died in 1750. She wrote her own memoirs, letters, and two comedies.