Read Ebook: Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry With Minute Details of Her Entire Career as Favorite of Louis XV by Lamothe Langon Etienne L On Baron De

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Ebook has 2115 lines and 160477 words, and 43 pages

Letter from Lebel--Visit from Lebel--Nothing conclusive--Another visit from Lebel--Invitation to sup with the king--Instructions of the comte Jean to the comtesse

The king's message--Letter from the countess--A second supper at Versailles--The duc d'Ayen--A short account of M. de Fleury--The duc de Duras--Conversation with the king--The next day--A visit from the duc de Richelieu--Visit from the duc de la Vauguyon--Visit from comte Jean--Visit from the king--A third supper--Favor

The duc d'Aiguillon--The duc de Fronsac--The duchesse de Grammont--The meeting--Sharp words on both sides--The duc de Choiseul--Mesdames d'Aiguillon--Letter from the duc d'Aiguillon--Reply of madame du Barry--Mademoiselle Guimard--The prince de Soubise--Explanation--The Rohans--Madame de Marsan--Court friendships

The duc de la Vauguyon and the comtesse du Barry--The marquis de Chauvelin and the comtesse--M. de Montbarrey and the comtesse--Intrigues--Lebel--Arrival of the du Barry family--The comte d'Hargicourt--The demoiselles du Barry--Marriage of the comtesse--The marquis de Bonrepos--Correspondences--The broken glass

The king of Denmark--The courtesans of Paris--The duc de Choiseul and the bishop of Orleans--Witty repartees of the king of Denmark--His visit to madame du Barry--"The court of king Petaud," a satire--Letter of the duc d'Aiguillon to Voltaire--The duchesse de Grammont mystified--Unpublished letter of Voltaire's

A word concerning the duchesse de Choiseul--The apartment of the Comte de Noailles--The Noailles--Intrigues for presentation--The comte de Bearn--M. Morand once more--Visit of the comtesse Bearn to the comtesse du Barry--Conversation--Interested complaisance--The king and the comtesse du Barry--Dispute and reconciliation

Of the presentation--The king and the duc de Richelieu at comtesse du Barry's--M. de la Vauguyon--Conversation--Letter of the duke to the comtesse du Barry--Reply--The countess unites herself with the Jesuit party--Madame Louise--Madame Sophie--M. Bertin--Madame de Bercheny

The princesses consent to the presentation of madame du Barry--Ingenious artifice employed by the king to offer a present to the duc de la Vauguyon--Madame du Barry's letter respecting it--The duke's reply--The king's letter--The court in despair--Couplets concerning madame du Barry--Her presentation--A change in public opinion--An evening party at the house of the countess--Joy of her partizans--Conversation with the chancellor respecting the lady of the mar?chal de Mirepoix

The Comte de la Marche, a prince of the blood--Madame de Beauvoir, his mistress--Madame du Barry complains to the prince de Soubise of the princess de Gu?men?e--The king consoles the countess for this--The duc de Choiseul--The king speaks to him of madame du Barry--Voltaire writes to her--The opinions of Richelieu and the king concerning Voltaire

Unpublished letter of Voltaire to madame du Barry--Reply of the countess--The mar?chale de Mirepoix--Her first interview with madame du Barry--Anecdote of the diamonds of madame de Mirepoix--The king pays for them--Singular gratitude of the mar?chale--The portfolio, and an unpublished letter of the marquise de Pompadour

Madame du Barry separates from madame de Bearn--Letters between these ladies--Portrait of madame de l'H?pital--The ladder--The bell--Conversation with madame de Mirepoix--First visit to Chantilly--Intrigues to prevent the countess from going thither--The king's Displeasure towards the princesses--The archbishop de Senlis

The prince des Deux Ponts--Prince Max--The dauphin and Marie Antoinette--The comtesse du Barry and Bridget Rupert--The countess and Genevi?ve Mathon--No?l--Fresh amours--Nocturnal adventure--Conclusion of this intrigue

The comte de la Marche and the comtesse du Barry--The countess and the prince de Cond?--The duc de la Vauguyon and the countess--Provisional minister--Refusal of the secretaryship of war--Displeasure of the king--The mar?chale de Mirepoix--Unpublished letter from Voltaire to Madame du Barry--Her reply

A few words respecting Jean Jacques Rousseau--The comtesse du Barry is desirous of his acquaintance--The countess visits Jean Jacques Rousseau--His household furniture--His portrait--Th?r?se--A second visit from madame du Barry to Jean Jacques Rousseau--The countess relates her visit to the king--Billet from J. J. Rousseau to madame du Barry--The two duchesses d'Aiguillon

Conversation with the king--Marriage of the comte d'Artois--Intrigues--The place of lady of honor--The mar?chale de Mirepoix--The comtesse de Forcalquier and madame du Barry--The comtesse de Forcalquier and madame Boncault

Marriage of madame Boncault--The comte de Bourbon Busset--Marriage of comte d'Hargicourt--Disgrace of the comte de Broglie--He is replaced by M. Lemoine--The king complains of ennui--Conversations on the subject--Entry into Paris

Visit from a stranger--Madame de Pompadour and a Jacobinical monk--Continuation of this history--Deliverance of a state prisoner--A meeting with the stranger

A conspiracy--A scheme for poisoning madame du Barry--The four bottles--Letter to the duc d'Aiguillon--Advice of the ministers--Opinion of the physicians--The chancellor and lieutenant of police--Resolution of the council

Interview with the joiner's daughter--Consultation of the physicians respecting the king--The small-pox declares itself--the comte de Muy--The princesses--Extreme sensibility of madame de Mirepoix--The king is kept in ignorance of his real condition--The archbishop of Paris visits Versailles

First proceedings of the council--The dauphin receives the prelates with great coolness--Situation of the archbishop of Paris--Richelieu evades the project for confessing the king--The friends of madame du Barry come forward--The English physician--The abb? Terray--Interview with the prince de Soubise--The prince and the courtiers--La Martini?re informs the king of France the true nature of his complaint--Consequences of this disclosure

The duc d'Aiguillon brings an order for the immediate departure of madame du Barry--The king's remarks recapitulated--The countess holds a privy council--Letter to madame de Mirepoix and the ducs de Coss? and d'Aiguillon--Night of departure--Ruel--Visit from madame de Forcalquier

The duc d'Aiguillon's first letter--The mar?chale de Mirepoix--A second letter from the duc d'Aiguillon--Numerous visitors

SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT ARNOT

Jeanne Vaubernier--known in the bagnios by the name of Mademoiselle Lange--was born at Vaucouleurs, as was Jeanne d'Arc. Better still, this later Jeanne said openly at Versailles--dared she say otherwise?--that she was descended in a straight line from the illustrious, the venerated, the august, sacred, national maid, Jeanne. "Why did Du Barry come to Paris?'" says Leon Gozlan in that account of the Ch?teau de Lucienne which makes a brilliant and learned chapter in the history of France. "Does one ever know precisely why things are done? She obeyed the magnet which attracts to Paris all who in themselves have a title to glory, to celebrity, or to misfortune. Du Barry had a pretty, provincial face, bright and charming, a face astonished at everything, hair soft and ash-colored, blue eyes, veiled and half open, and a skin fair with rose tints. She was a child of destiny. Who could have said, when she crossed the great town in her basket cart, which rolled lazily along on its massive, creaking wheels, that some day she would have equipages more beautiful than any of those which covered her with mud in passing, and on her arms more laces and diamonds than any of these ladies attended by footmen in liveries?"

When Jeanne left the provinces to come to Paris, she found her native country. She was granted the freedom of the city, and expanded in her joy like a delicate plant transplanted into a hothouse. She found herself at home for the first time; and felt that she could rule as a despot over all frequenters of the streets. She learned fashion and love at one and the same time. Gourdan had a hat made for her, and, as a reward, initiated her into the customs. But she was called to other destinies.

One day, when she was walking in the Tuileries, a lunatic--and lunatics have second sight--asked her favor when she should become queen. Du Barry said to herself: "This man is mad." But then she thought of the Pompadour, blushed--it was the only time--and turned her eyes towards Versailles.

But Versailles was an unhoped-for shore to such a girl as this, a girl known to all Paris. Would the King care to be the lover of one who had ruled all his courtesans? Who could say? The King often wearied of what he had. Had not a poet already been found who compared her to Venus:

O Jeanne, thy beauty seduces And charms the whole world; In vain does the duchess redden And the princess growl; They know that Venus rides proudly The foam of the wave.

The poet, while not Voltaire, was no less a man than Bouffiers.

While the King was seeking a mistress--a nocturnal reverse of Diogenes, fleeing from the lanterns of the wise--he found Jeanne Vaubernier. He thought he could love her for one evening. "Not enough," said she, "you must love me until broad daylight." So he loved her for a whole day. What should one eat in order to be loved by royalty? Was it necessary to have a coat of arms? She had them in number, because she had been loved by all the great names in the book of heraldry. And so she begged the Viscount Jean du Barry to give her the title of viscountess. "Better still," exclaimed Jean, "I will give you the title of countess. My brother will marry you; he is a male scamp, and you are the female. What a beautiful marriage!"

Du Barry threw out her fish-wifely epithets with ineffable tenderness. She only opened her eyes half way, even when she took him by the throat. The King was enchanted by these humors. It was a new world. But someone said to him: "Ah, Sire, it is easy to see that your Majesty has never been at the house of Gourdan."

Yet Du Barry was adored by poets and artists. She extended both hands to them. Jeanne's beauty had a penetrating, singular charm. At once she was blonde and brunette--black eyebrows and lashes with blue eyes, rebellious light hair with darker shadows, cheeks of ideal contour, whose pale rose tints were often heightened by two or three touches--a lie "formed by the hand of Love," as anthology puts it--a nose with expressive nostrils, an air of childlike candour, and a look seductive to intoxication. A bold yet shrinking Venus, a Hebe yet a Bacchante. With much grace Voltaire says:

"Madame:

"M. de la Borde tells me that you have ordered him to kiss me on both cheeks for you:

"What! Two kisses at life's end What a passport to send me! Two is one too much, Adorable Nymph; I should die of pleasure at the first.

"He showed me your portrait, and be not offended, Madame, when I tell you that I have taken the liberty of giving that the two kisses."

Perhaps Voltaire would not have written this letter, had he not read the one written by the King to the Duc de Choiseul, who refused to pay court to the left-hand queen:

"My Cousin,

"The discontent which your acts cause me forces me to exile you to Chanteloup, where you will take yourself within twenty-four hours. I would have sent you farther away were it not for the particular esteem in which I hold Madame de Choiseul. With this, I pray God, my cousin, to take you into His safe and holy protection.

"Louis."

"Madame," said M. de Sartines to her one day, "I have discovered a rogue who is scattering songs about you; what is to be done with him?"

"Sentence him to sing them for a livelihood."

But she afterwards made the mistake of pensioning Chevalier de Morande to buy silence.

"As soon as Childeric had returned from Thuringia, he was crowned King of France And no sooner was he King than he espoused Basine, wife of the King of Thuringia. She came herself to find Childeric. The first night of the marriage, and before the King had retired, the queen begged Childeric to look from one of the palace windows which opened on a park, and tell what he saw there. Childeric looked out and, much terrified, reported to the princess that he had seen tigers and lions. Basine sent him a second time to look out. This time the prince only saw bears and wolves, and the third time he perceived only cats and dogs, fighting and combating each other. Then Basine said to him: I will give you an explanation of what you have seen: The first figure shows you your successors, who will excel you in courage and power; the second represents another race which will be illustrious for their conquests, and which will augment your kingdom for many centuries; but the third denotes the end of your kingdom, which will be given over to pleasures and will lose to you the friendship of your subjects; and this because the little animals signify a people who, emancipated from fear of princes, will massacre them and make war upon each other."

Louis read the prediction and passed the paper to the Countess: "After us the end of the world," said she gaily. The King laughed, but the abb? de Beauvais celebrated high mass at Versailles after the carnival of 1774, and dared to say, in righteous anger: "This carnival is the last; yet forty days and Nineveh shall perish." Louis turned pale. "Is it God who speaks thus?" murmured he, raising his eyes to the altar. The next day he went to the hunt in grand style, but from that evening he was afraid of solitude and silence: "It is like the tomb; I do not wish to put myself in such a place," said he to Madame du Barry. The duc de Richelieu tried to divert him. "No," said he suddenly, as if the Trappist's denunciation had again recurred to him, "I shall be at ease only when these forty days have passed." He died on the fortieth day.

Du Barry believed neither in God nor in the devil, but she believed in the almanac of Li?ge. She scarcely read any book but this--faithful to her earliest habits. And the almanac of Li?ge, in its prediction for April, 1774, said: "A woman, the greatest of favorites, will play her last role." So Madame the Countess du Barry said without ceasing: "I shall not be tranquil until these forty days have passed." The thirty-seventh day the King went to the hunt attended with all the respect due to his rank. Jeanne wept in silence and prayed to God as one who has long neglected her prayers.

At the last moment it was not God who held the heart of Louis--it was his mistress. "Ask the Countess to come here again," he said.

"Sire, you know that she has gone away," they answered.

"Ah! has she gone? Then I must go!" So he departed.

Rose-colored mourning was worn in the good city of Paris. The funeral oration of the King and a lament for his mistress were pronounced by Sophie Arnould, of which masterpiece of sacred eloquence the last words only are preserved: "Behold us orphaned both of father and mother."

I have compared her to Manon Lescaut, and I believe her to have been also a sister to Ganesin. All three were destroyed by passion.

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