those of the nascent Third Republic, a new regime which the Countess de Loynes did not like. Her visitors included Georges Clemenceau, Georges de Porto-Riche, Alexandre Dumas fils, Ernest Daudet, Henry Houssaye, Pierre Decourcelle, and soon many young writers and musicians led by Maurice Barrès, who gave her his two books Huit jours chez M. Renan (1890) and Du sang, de la volupté, et de la mort (1894) luxuriously bound by Charles Meunier in 1897. Others included Paul Bourget, Marcel Proust, Georges Bizet and Henri Kowalski. Between 1880 and 1885, through Arsène Houssaye, she met the critic Jules Lemaître, who was 15 years younger than her. Under his leadership, she founded, the League of the French Homeland in 1899, and became its first president. Encouraging nationalism, they put their political hopes, like other personalities such as the Duchess of Uzès, in General Boulanger and became passionately anti-Dreyfusards. This led to a break with some of her friends including Georges Clemenceau, Georges de Porto-Riche and Anatole France. From then on she received into her home Édouard Drumont, Jules Guérin and Henri Rochefort. In her latter years she supported the political position of Charles Maurras, and shortly before her death on 21 January 1908, Detourbay helped Maurras and Léon Daudet to found the Royalist newspaper L'Action française by donating 100,000 gold francs. The Countess of Loynes was buried in Montmartre Cemetery, alongside her parents. Residences Reims 58, rue neuve, (now rue Gambetta), from her birth in 1837 16, rue du Cadran-Saint-Pierre (in 1852); 8, rue de la Grosse-Écritoire (in 1854, middle-class pension). Paris Place Royale (Place des Vosges); Rue de Vendôme (in 1857); 28, rue de l'Arcade (8th arrondissement) (in 1865); 53, avenue d'Iéna (in 1886); 152, avenue des Champs-Elysées (8th arrondissement) (from 1896). References Bibliography External links Généalogie La tombe de la comtesse de Loynes. 1837 births 1908 deaths People from Reims French salon-holders French courtesans Burials at Montmartre Cemetery