Maria Johanna Elselina Versfelt (27 September 1776 – 19 May 1845), also known as Ida Saint-Elme, Elzelina av Aylde Jonghe, and by her pseudonym La Contemporaine, was a Dutch writer and stage actress, known for her adventurous life with the armies of revolutionary France and Napoleon and her travels in Egypt and the Mediterranean, described in her best-selling books, and for "possibly the earliest satirical magazine written, illustrated, and published by a woman." Versfelt was born in Lith. Her parents were the vicar Gerrit Versfelt (1735–1781) and Alida de Jongh (1738–1828), and she was married around 1792–1796 to merchant Ringeling Claasz (1768–1801). She was known for her love affairs: by the age of 19 she had run away from her husband, had her first affair with a French officer, and was the wildly extravagant young mistress of French General Jean Victor Marie Moreau (1763–1813), with whom she had an affair from 1795 to 1799. She left the Netherlands after the French conquest in 1795 and followed her lovers on their military campaigns over Europe. The love of her life was General Michel Ney, later Marshal of France. The French writer Jehan d'Ivray describes how Versfelt "adored" Ney, and was "constantly" at his side, often dressed in men's clothing because this made it easier for her to ride on horseback. In the battle of Eylau she "fought as a soldier" and was "badly wounded by an enemy lance." She "took part in the battle of Moscow" and the disastrous retreat of the French army from Russia in 1812. Her stormy relationship with Ney eventually broke up, and she later accompanied another French officer who went with Napoleon into exile on the island of Elba. Before Ney was executed in 1815, Versfelt tried desperately to see him one last time, and watched over his body in a night-long vigil after his death. After 1801, she also worked as an actress in traveling theatres in France and Italy. She published her memoirs in 8 parts from 1827 to 1828, Mémoires d'une Contemporaine, which made her famous. This was one of the classic 'kiss and tell' books of the 19th century. The front piece of the book showed a marble sculpture of Versfelt "representing her at the age of 19, lying naked on an ancient Greco-Roman bed." In the words of one outraged reviewer, she was the "indiscreet and immoral confidante of the men