The eleventh character in our dramatis personae was the only one who had made himself at all conspicuous under the old order. He was also the only nobleman of the Twelve. It was nothing extraordinary to be a noble, for the French nobility, numbering perhaps 400,000, counting men, women and children, included most of the class that in England was called the gentry. The family of Hérault was unusual, however, in boasting of noble blood since the year 1390.