French history in the English-speaking theatre of France (1494–1547). Sarah Pogson Smith wrote another play on Charlotte Corday's murder of Jean-Paul Marat (1793) during the Reign of Terror, entitled "The Female Enthusiast" (1807). Dion Boucicault wrote "Louis XI" (1855), an adaptation of a French play of the same title (1832) by Casimir Delavigne, based on events during the reign of Louis XI of France (1461–1483). Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote "Richelieu" (1839) based on the cardinal of the same name who dominated political events during the reign of Louis XIII of France (1601–1643). Harry Forrest and Paolo Giacometti wrote "Marie Antoinette"(1890), based on the life of Marie Antoinette.
In the Reign of Terror: The Adventures of a Westminster Boy – much of the St. Caux family are killed for the sake of their aristocratic status. Harry, himself a middle-class English boy, "sympathizes with the oppressed peasantry but tries to protect his adoptive noble French family from the terror." The theme of class divisions is threaded with nationalistic rhetoric: Harry’s father states that "the condition of the vast body of the French nation has been terrible," and that England, in contrast, has "long conquered our liberties." "In the Reign of Terror" was well received in its time and is one of Henty's more popular works. Contemporary reviews were positive: The