Castles in the Air Author:Baroness Orczy, Baroness Emmuska Orczy He was a ruffian and a rogue, a cheat and a thief, a liar and a forger . . . Yet Hector Ratichon ended his days respected by friends and public, and honored by the very society that might just as easily have punished him. From his early days buffeted by hardship -- sometimes hungry, always thirsty -- to the years of rising success with... more »in the French Empire, Ratichon deported himself with wit and vivacity -- and ultimately became confidante to Robespierre, and secret factotum to Napoleon himself. A Paris long forgotten and consigned to the dusty pages of moth-eaten manuscripts comes stirringly alive in Baroness Orczy's Castles in the Air.« less