to realize that the majority of the supporters of the revolution were interested in the rights of men and not in the rights of women. Beginning in November 1789, the Parisian royalist press began to construct a flamboyant and infamous caricature of Théroigne as a "patriots' whore" and "female war chief." According to the pages of these pamphlets, she assaulted the Bastille and led the October Days march on Versailles; she fought soldiers and was "ever to be found where the unrest was greatest," attired in a "scarlet riding-habit and... black plume." She was portrayed as a shameless libertine who was sexually involved with "Deputy Populus" ("the people") and one tabloid wrote that "every representative [of the National Assembly] may fairly claim to be the father of her child." Austrian imprisonment (1790–1792) In May 1790, impoverished and much affected by the libels of the royalist press, Théroigne left Paris for Marcourt. After a short stay, she proceeded to Liège, in which town she was seized by warrant of the Austrian Government, and conveyed first to Tyrol and thereafter to the Kufstein Fortress, where she was interrogated about her revolutionary activities. She was taken by mercenaries on a 10-day journey to Austria during which she was bullied and nearly raped by her three captors. The Austrians, influenced by Théroigne's portrayal in the Paris tabloids, attributed to her an exaggerated role in the Revolution. They portrayed her as a subversive "Pythia," a possible spy who had corrupted soldiers with inflammatory rhetoric, threatened the royal family, and instigated the October Days. François de Blanc was appointed by Prince Kaunitz, the Imperial Chancellor, to be Thèroigne's interrogator. After about a month of heavy interrogation, Blanc found that she had no useful information to offer and that many of the rumors regarding her were false. Eventually Blanc grew an affection to her and arranged for her release after he discovered that she had many health issues, including depression, insomnia, migraines, and coughing of blood. Role in the French Revolution cont. (1792–1793) Return to Paris In January 1792, Théroigne returned to Paris. News of her Austrian captivity had preceded her, and she was welcomed as a hero. On 1 February, she spoke at the Jacobin Club, where she described her ordeal and was lauded as "one of the first Amazons of liberty." Throughout the spring of 1792, she campaigned for women's rights to bear arms, and