The cost of love and intrigue for real-life Scottish socialite and courtesan, Grace Dalrymple Elliott (1758–1823), was nearly a trip to the guillotine. Mistress to the Duc d'Orleans and in the center of Paris social life, Elliott was arrested and spent 18 months in prison, all the while expecting to lose her head. Despite his support of the revolutionaries and his hatred of his cousin the king, d'Orleans was beheaded. Grace Elliott was devastated. She soon had more to worry about since her own monarchist sympathies got her rounded up with other aristocrats.