Pierre Beaumarchais was a man of many talents. He made watches, played the harp, wrote blockbuster plays, and also got involved in international arms dealing . . . . you know, as one does. Well, Louis XV also sent him on a secret mission to London to suppress the publication of a libelous pamphlet. Above: Scene from Marriage of Figaro , Beaumarchais's most celebrated comedy.

Historian Julie Wheelwright tells us about one of history's most notorious spies, Mata Hari. Mata Hari worked as a double agent during World War I, spying for both the French and the Germans.

In the late eighteenth century, Grace Elliott became a royal courtesan, famously sharing a bed with the Prince of Wales, later to reign as King George IV. She later got together with the Duke of Orléans in Paris. When the French Revolution broke out, Elliott sided with the royalists and risked her life to sneak aristocrats out of the country. Above: 1778 portrait of Grace Elliott by Thomas Gainsborough. TRANSCRIPT It was July 12, 1789, and Grace Dalrymple Elliott was enjoying