Baroness Staal Marguerite Jeaunc Cordier De Lannay De, a French writer, born in Paris about 1090, died at Gennevilliers, near Paris, June 16, 1750. She was a daughter of a poor painter named Cordier, was educated in an abbey at Evreux till 1710, was afterward an inmate of the priory of St. Louis at Rouen, and finally became a maid' to the duchess du Maine. With her she was implicated in the conspiracy of Prince Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador at Paris, against the duke of Orleans, and for giving the regency to the king of Spain. After being confined in the Bastile from December, 1718, to 1720, she resumed her former post in the duchess's petty court at Sceaux, and retained it even after her marriage in 1735 with the aged baron de Staal. Her memoirs (3 vols., 1755) passed through many editions, and with her correspondence are included in her complete works (2 vols., 1821). An extract from the memoirs, entitled Deux annees a la Bastile, appeared in 1853. - See Sainte-Beuve's Derniers portraits litteraires (1852).