The Sovereigns Reign (The Venturian Chronicles Book 2)

Elmire crossed a gulf when she left her humble roof for the palace of a king, but she filled her new position without effort. Elmire, wiser than her predecessor, took no notice of the scandalous biographies and the fictitious or falsified letters, which were so assidu- ously circulated. Elmire will have no cause to fear the judgment of posterity. Claude Saint-Andr6 has brought before us in this brilliant and valuable book more than the conventional portrait of a courtesan ; he has delineated the character of a woman. For the first time we see Madame Du Barry live, an actual personality of incontestable charm.

The author has reconciled seemingly contradictory qualities by his conscientious historical research. Nothing has been hidden: Yet the part she played is explained without prejudice and with a thorough knowledge of the period. Friend and foe alike have been minutely interrogated, and if one may here and there suspect the young writer of some weakness for his heroine, it is because he has that gift of sympathy without which one may not hope to gain true insight into a man's soul, a precious gift to him who would study the personalities of the past.

By his skilful exposition of the facts he has verified, and by his attention to the evidence of witnesses, many of whom were unknown or forgotten, he has been able to deal fairly by the base legends that have gathered round Madame Du Barry. On the other hand, he gives with exactness the list of the liaisons of this woman, whom the unfortunate circumstances of her life devoted to a career of pleasure.

Despite the elegance with which she sinned, she is to be pitied for having been taught by that terrible master of depravity, the " Roue". If there are degrees in vice, Louis XV. Such history must be lightly dealt with, and though we should be careful not to absolve what ought to be condemned, we must not forget, in the words of Merimee, that " the same actions are differently valued at different times. Thus the clerical party, blinded by their hatred of Choiseul, accepted a favourite, " since there had to be one," provided she had no ideas on philosophy.

There have been tales of the levity of certain ecclesiastics, on hearing of Madame Du Barry's long-desired presentation, in which they chose to see the triumph of Esther over the persecutor of the Hebrews. At that period, too, a priest of the Cevennes wrote to one of his fellow-clergy: The king knew quite well that he would have been forgiven soon enough for a Duchess de Grammont, or some such great lady. He wrote to his minister: In fact, the severest cannot but recognise that his well-bred depravity, accom- panied as it was by all the graces of the period, was much less repellent than the intemperate life of so many monarchs of the age.

As far as possible we must rehabilitate the reign of Louis XV. The achievements of the France of that day were not confined to the world of letters. The nation often enjoyed the services of an admirable staff of ministers, generals and provincial governors. The abuses ascribed to this century apply to all periods, and there would be little difficulty in finding them in our own. But this reign was so long that the glories of Fontenoy were dimmed by the miseries of its end, a tragedy which leaves much the deeper impression on the mind.

In future, Madame Du Barry should be less of a shameful memory to our time.

Even if she is to be blamed for much foolish expenditure, we must remember that it encouraged the arts, of which, indeed, she was a noteworthy patron ; many a masterpiece in our possession owes its existence to her commands. By no means one of the lesser merits of this book is the fresh light it throws on her active and well-directed personal interest in art, kept up according to her means even after her disgrace.

Indeed, had she been longer at Versailles, the titles so often given to Madame de Pompadour might well have been assigned to her. In his study of Madame Du Barry during the Revolution, the young historian has attacked a difficult problem, which none of his predecessors has solved. The Goncourts, whose interest was confined to the woman of pleasure, lost them- selves among papers taken at random from the Archives without discovering those of most importance. The conscientious Vatel, indignant at their levity, corrected many inaccuracies and used a number of original documents, but was himself occasionally liable to mistake.

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His obvious intention was to prove Madame Du Barry's innocence of all the charges which brought her to the scaffold, and the end of his work, which he was unable to revise, is only a medley of unclassified material. Much elucidation had still to be done, requiring many new sources of information. From the beginning of the Revolution she placed her fortune at the disposal of the royal family, and a sale of some of her diamonds, which took place in Holland at the end of , was probably connected with this offer. We cannot doubt her liberality if we read a letter from the Count d'Espinchal, which confirms and particularises the evidence of Senac de Meilhan.

Introduced into the nobility of France and enriched by the king to the displeasure of all, the Countess was yet able to fulfil with great generosity those obligations to the descendants of Louis XV. Happy in her retirement and her luxury, this still beautiful and beloved woman appears to have sacrificed all to what she considered to be her duty ; urged by events which appealed to her goodness of heart, and guided by partisans who could make use of her good-nature, she and her riches cannot have failed to perform signal service to the counter-revolution.

In this respect there was un- doubtedly justification for the denunciations which were poured on her, and for the attacks of her enemy, the citizen Greive ; the Tribune of the Revolution, so blindly prodigal of innocent blood, certainly struck down a genuine con- spirator in Madame Du Barry. Too little is known of the secret movements of Nathaniel Parker Forth, the English agent who was involved in our revolutionary troubles, and who was mentioned both in contemporary pamphlets and diplomatic correspondence as being charged with important missions.

It was he who by a singular coincidence became the controlling influence of Madame Du Barry's life after the theft of her diamonds at Louveciennes. This theft, committed by English sub- jects on the night of January 10, , and accompanied by suspicious circumstances in the household of the Countess, was thought later by many to have been engineered by Forth himself. From this point of view, they could benefit exceedingly by the lawsuit which took place in London, and there is no reason why they should not have played some such game, since it imperilled none but the Countess.

In order to identify and lay claim to her jewels, and to give evidence in an interminable lawsuit which can scarcely have required her constant presence, Madame Du Barry made four journeys to England, of which the last took place at the most dangerous time of the Revolution, when the severest decrees were issued against the emigres. The need for maintaining her private interests abroad made it possible for her to ask for passports without arousing over-much suspicion, and by this means she was able to do for her friends all kinds of services as the bearer of corre- spondence and money.

The evidence brought before the revolutionary jury, and the information added to it by her new historian, show clearly enough how she occupied her visits to London, and whom she saw there. As was natural she renewed her acquaintance with former friends ; but more than that, she threw herself heart and soul into the activities of the emigres among the English aristocracy, which had given her such an unexpectedly warm welcome.

In passing it may be mentioned that her conduct was irreproachable, which is more than can be said for all the fair emigrees. Her salon was one of the centres of attrac- tion of that pleasure-loving world, which only such terrible blows as the death of Louis XVI. The murder of the Duke de Brissac had made Madame Du Barry one of the earliest sufferers, and gave her from the first a more serious view of the situation, while the evidence of Bouille is sufficient to prove the sincerity of her mourning for the king.

We shall probably never know whether her opportunities of travel and her position in English society were any help to the princes to whom she was so devoted. The Countess did not realise that she was followed and spied on, and that gatherings, which were without doubt chiefly devoted to worldly pleasures, were destined to form the subjects of an overwhelming and fatal charge against her.

The intercourse of Madame Du Barry with the emigres, her " newsbearing," which was then a breach of the law, were so open that it is surprising she could have enjoyed complete immunity for so long. It explains the indignation of such savage accusers as Greive and Blache, who, made keen-eyed by hatred, guessed that the lady of Louveciennes had faithful supporters even in the administration. They knew full well that chateau which figured among the " aristocratic haunts " on the banks of the Seine, and their indignation was excited by the quantity of treasure accumulated there by " the courtesan of despots.

More than that, she received a number of " suspects," many of them notorious, and after the beginning of the Terror, " conspiracies " went on daily in her charming retreat ; there all the " ci-devants " were welcomed by their still beautiful hostess, a woman whom one would have thought had no care but to please. If we knew the hidden actions of the Duke de Rohan-Chabot, who was Madame Du Barry's last lover, we should no doubt be able to justify what was the essential point of the trial of Frimaire, year II.

However that be, it is certain that the Public Prosecutor condemned to death hundreds of women less " guilty " than citizeness Du Barry. This book, vividly written yet without extravagance, puts the last and most significant touches to the character it portrays. It will be possible to understand how it was that the Countess, for the sake of this new friendship born of a sacred memory, did not hesitate to risk her life by her last return to France ; and it will be vain to seek in the cross-examination at her trial signs of the panic in which she was supposed to have betrayed names and secrets, that according to popular belief brought many victims to the scaffold.

Not even the Princess Lubomirska herself was compromised by the accused, who only men- tioned her because a note seized at Louveciennes was signed in full ; besides, how could she imagine that her innocent correspondence would cost the unfortunate Polish Princess her life? As for the last moments of Madame Du Barry, does not her sacrifice of her life for her beliefs and her friends make pardonable her weakness before the guillotine, a nervous collapse which in another would not have been considered blameworthy.

The Revolution laid bare the souls of many whose true selves had been hidden by their easy life, and in this time of stress Madame Du Barry showed qualities that are irreconcilable with the supposed degradation of her youth. In her last days Fate brought her into contact with another famous woman, imprisoned at the same time as she at Sainte- Pelagie.

But Madame Roland no doubt averted her eyes from her fellow-prisoner, who was no more to her than a vile creature, the dissolute favourite of a detested king. It would have surprised the valiant Girondine if she had been told that this despised courtesan had shown in her time disinterestedness, devotion and self-sacrifice, that she, too, had served her party with courage, and that the friend of Buzot might well look without contempt on the friend of Brissae.

I must proclaim my indebtedness to the researches of my predecessor, Charles Vatel, which have been of great use to me. He was the first to react against the pamphleteers who had previously formed the historian's only source of inspiration. But the special circumstances under which he completed his work were not favourable to an accurate portrayal of the image of whose true features he had caught a glimpse.

Vatel is far from having exhausted the archives from which he has drawn his material, and which still contained many interesting surprises. It has further been found necessary to verify the originals of the extracts printed by his editor, and those which I have reproduced are now given more correctly. Numerous recent publications have given me very useful help. The originals of the texts, which I have mentioned or quoted in full in the present work, are to be found among the " National Archives," among those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the De'partement of Seine-et-Oise, and in various private collections.

I have made use of the manuscript memoirs of the Count d'Espinchal, and of the letters which have only recently been attributed to him. Numerous extracts of Madame Du Barry's papers may also be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale, to which so far little reference has been made. I mention in the course xvii xviii PREFACE of the book those who have been so kind as to give me information on the subject ; but I owe an especial debt of gratitude to M. Pierre de Nolhac, who has allowed me access to the unpublished documents of the Versailles Library, and who has done me the great honour of presenting this book to the public.

Photogravure Frontispiece From a hitherto unpublished miniature by N. Audinet from a painting by H. A Royal Supper Party at Louveciennes. Madame Du Barry From a bust in terra-cotta by J. Madame Vige Le Brun Madame Du Barry From a miniature by Cosway. His left arm was in a sling, having recently been injured in a fall when riding ; he was pale, and showed a slight tendency to the portly, the result of his years, but a supreme elegance marked him out from among his brilliant courtiers.

A low murmur rose from the inquisitive crowd that had collected below the windows of the Chateau. Choiseul himself was absent, but his supporters were radiant, feeling sure that Madame Du Barry would not be presented after all. Soon, however, a smart equipage bearing the double escut- cheon of a married woman appeared and stopped at the grand staircase. The usher opened the doors and Richelieu triumphantly announced the favourite, who entered pre- ceded by her sponsor, the Countess de Beam.

At the dazzling apparition the King started, his eyes under their heavy eyelids lighting up with joy. When she rose after the three " reverences d'adieu," kicking back her long train with accustomed ease, even her enemies gave way to admiration and did homage to the power of beauty. On this occasion, too, she had enhanced her attraction by choosing the most marvellous of costumes.

Madame Du Barry loved to set off her fair and slender form with sumptuous white fabrics of diaphanous texture ; on her presentation dress were scattered, in a mad profusion of knots, clusters and garlands, diamonds which the King had sent her the previous evening. More diamonds were on her little high-heeled slippers, and again in the elaborate coiffure whose intricacies had delayed the ceremony. The etiquette of the period had compelled her to powder her lovely golden hair and to rouge her already beautiful com- plexion ; but such artifices served only to deepen the blue of her long, caressing eyes, half closed in lazy coquetry, and to make doubly attractive her delicate features and her mutinous lips, parted in a mocking smile at the envious and malicious.

She seemed to leave a luminous trail in the salons and staircases where an open-mouthed crowd had come to gaze at her. Serene and proud at having been chosen from among all by His Majesty, she passed on and paid her diffi- cult visit to Mesdames de France and Monseigneur le Dauphin without a hint of awkwardness. The latter was so astounded at her audacity that he wrote in his hunting- diary, in which he noted only the most memorable events: Presentation of Madame Du Barry. Had she wished, she could not forget her lowly origin, for the satirists and pamphleteers of the ANGE 3 day made it their business to remind her of it.

From this her moment of triumph her enemies assailed her with that i8th century weapon, the lampoon, and no one has been the victim of more scurrilous calumnies than she. These took the form of rhymed couplets, sometimes witty, sometimes merely coarse, and were heard everywhere, hi the streets, in the salons of the capital and in the antechambers of Versailles.

She was born in the little town of Vaucouleurs in the diocese of Toul. Her baptism is registered as follows: Jeanne, natural daughter of Anne Becu, surnamed Quantigny, was born on the nineteenth of August, seventeen- hundred-and-forty-three, and was baptised the same day, having for godfather Joseph Demange and for godmother Jeanne Birabin, who have signed with us. Gabon, curate of Vaucouleurs. Joseph Demange, Jeanne Birabin. His name was Jean Baptiste Gomard de Vaubernier, but he was known in the monastery as " frere Ange," and for a long time the little girl who was supposed to be his daughter was called " 1'Ange.

But though her origin was so humble, little Jeanne was not forgotten by the good fairy of the fairy-tales, who waved her wand over her cradle and promised her the magic gift of beauty. It was indeed a safe promise, for her grand- father, Fabien Becu, keeper of an eating-house in Paris, was one of the most handsome men of his time, and had seduced and married a Countess de Montdidier, a de Cantigny. This accounts for the noble name of Cantini, taken by 1 The facsimile of this extract is given by Vatel, Histoire de Madame Du Barry, who took it from the register of births during in Vaucouleurs.

Anne Becu was born at Vaucouleurs in In , at the age of 34, Anne gave birth to a second child, Claude, a natural son, and she then decided to leave Vaucouleurs, undoubtedly acting on the advice of M. Billard-Dumouceaux, the paymaster of the Hotel de Ville of Paris. As he was also in the Commissariat Department of the Army, his work took him to the garrison town, and he cannot have failed to notice the beautiful sempstress. She found several relations in the capital and even at Ver- sailles, all good people of whom history has nothing to tell but their modest position, whether as priests or shop- keepers, artisans or domestics.

Though he had already a titled mistress, the famous Francesca, he con- tinued to protect the young couple after the marriage, but such a trifle would not disturb a philosophic husband of the age. Was not gallant Farmer-General Tournehem the best friend of Monsieur Poisson, although he lived openly with Madame de Pompadour's mother? Principles and preju- dices have changed since then, when an easiness of morals was frankly displayed which offends against modern stand- ards.

Yet we must bear in mind that we are comparing our own times with a century that delighted in making the worst of its own vices and foibles. The pretty child was for some years the joy of Francesca and Dumouceaux. But her education had to be thought of, and she was sent to a convent, probably on the advice of Canon Becu or of the Abbe Becu, both her relations, or even of Gomard himself, now the priest of Saint-Eustache. She had to wear a coarse black veil, a band of cloth around her brow and the plainest of chem- isettes ; her frock was of white serge, and rough yellow shoes completed the uniform of the boarders.

The regulations of this pious retreat were exceedingly strict, and no murmurs from outside were allowed to penetrate its walls. Thus it differed widely from the more worldly convents of the tune. Those of Penthemont and la Presentation, for instance, allowed much latitude in the matter of dress, and on certain days their parlours were turned into salons, with all the salon's chatter, vanities and affectations.

But although life at Sainte-Aure was severe and monotonous, joyous youth held its own, and Jeanne was even then the laughing child she remained all her life long. After eight or nine years our heroine left the convent, her education finished ; she was well grounded in her religion, her writing was elegant and well formed, her spelling quite good, and she had acquired more than the elements of music and drawing.

Even if we possessed the papers of the now vanished community we should probably find nothing about little Jeanne Rangon, as she was called. But we know that the results of her excellent education enabled the future favourite to develop, adorn and refine a mind naturally sensitive and attracted by the world of letters and of art.

Like Madame de Pompadour, the brilliant pupil of the Ursulmes, Anne's daughter showed from the day she left the convent a grace and charm which captivated all hearts, and she was not long in learning and using her power. The prayers of the good sisters who loved her so well could not save the soul of their pupil from the snare set in the path of her beauty. More often than not she was the victim of circumstances, and of her own lighthearted, impressionable nature, which made her so ready to obey Du Barry.

Yet even in the midst of a whirl of festivities she sometimes remembered and with- drew awhile from the world, and in her time of fear and trouble she used to tell the beads of those jewelled rosaries that were found at Louveciennes with her Manuel de Chretien. When she was fifteen Jeanne returned to her family. She was ravishingly beautiful, with her long fair hair, her clear complexion and her convent-bred air of ingenuousness.

What could be done with this dainty child, with her refined tastes and love of elegance, who watched with wonder as the great ladies passed in their gilded coaches? What else but let things take their course? He immediately fell in love with the young girl and offered to initiate her in the mysteries of his craft. She accepted, and for five months he came and instructed her in the complicated art of dressing high coiffures, powdered d la marechale, and of arranging feathers, flowers and ribbons with taste and elegance.

Later this episode gave rise to many calumnies, which can, however, easily be refuted by referring to a police-court affair connected with it. Madame Lametz, a milliner, had no doubt better things in view for her son than a match with the little Ranc,on. So she came to rue Neuve-Saint-tienne, in the parish of Notre-Dame-Bonne-Nouvelle, where Jeanne's relations lived, and overwhelmed them with a storm of insults and accusations, among which that of procuration was one of the least outrageous.

Judgment was in their favour, and Inspector Charpentier concluded his report as follows: In Madame du Deffand sent the following lines to Walpole as current in the society of Choiseul after his disgrace. Je sais qu'autrefois les laquais Ont ffite ses jeunes attraits, Que les cochers, les perruquiers L'aimaient, 1'aimaient d'amour extreme, Mais pas autant que je ne 1'aime! Avez-vous vu ma Du Barry? Jeanne was nearly sixteen, poor, beautiful, and her future still uncertain, when she became companion to Madame de Delay de la Garde, the widow of a Farmer- General.

This old lady had many acquaintances in the opulent world of finance, and very soon the girl's gaiety and pretty chatter won her a court of indiscreet admirers. With her lightheartedness and her love of luxury and pleas- ure, which had been denied throughout her childhood, she could not long be held back by her early scruples. Both the de la Gardes are supposed to have been her lovers.

The elder had married a Mademoiselle Duval d'Epinoy, and had taken the name of Saint- Vrain from his wife's estate, one day to be bought by the banished favourite. The other was the husband of the notorious Elizabeth de Ligniville, whom in her widowhood the Chatelet sentenced as insane for the singularity of her morals. This Lametz episode proves the exaggeration of the Anecdotes, which always give " for every two lines of truth two pages of lies, or at least of errors.

Vatel on the puerile assertions of the Goncourts and many others. In the pride of her splendid youth she dreamt of a wonderful future in store for her, and she took what seemed the shortest way of arriving at it. Her lovers were but the rungs of the ladder that led to fame. She bound herself to none, only laughed and waited for him who would give her at once the luxury and the affection which she most certainly deserved. When Madame de la Garde noticed the conduct of her companion she instantly dismissed her. This was in or , when Jeanne was eighteen. She had had enough of strict and careful supervision.

Accordingly she became an assistant at the shop of a milliner, Labille, in rue Neuve- des-Petits-Champs. This made it possible for her to keep up appearances, while leaving her free to wear, without exciting remark, the flounced dresses that emphasised the slenderness of her waist, and to have her long hair in ringlets under her black hood.

In the luxurious showroom, with its bowls of flowers and decorated windows, she moved behind the counter, a supremely graceful figure, shedding the light of her beauty on the wealthy customers. These were not women only ; among them were red-heeled mar- quises, great financiers, officers of the French Guards and little perfumed abbe's, who helped the merry apprentice to measure out the lace they had just selected. Many a billet-doux passed and many an appointment was made though, perhaps, not kept, for the strictness of the master made it difficult to get away.

But often, at about five o'clock, Jeanne could slip off to the promenade of the Palais Royal, to watch and laugh at the noisy courtesan, the grisette in her light lawn frock, and the lady of quality, her cheeks as painted as the flowers on her gown. From there off to the Cafe Gaussin, and then home again in a hurry, already fearful of the suspicious Labille and his unsparing reprimands.

That their staff might be always fresh and bright, the employers had provided them with a dormitory on the pre- mises, where they could sleep peacefully. What gaiety there is in their careless, happy faces ; we can find Jeanne in every one of these children ; here she lies dreaming on one of the great white beds ; here she is in a passion whipping a little rogue whose frock is all undone ; and here again she is the centre of a group of slender forms delicately silhouetted against the light.

And what chatter there is in the dormi- tory. It is like a bird's nest, with some telling stories, and some confiding their hopes and fears in low voices to their bosom friends, or laughing over the day's doings. Youth, indeed, is ever the same, though the fashion of its garments may have changed and changed again. But on Sundays all these charming young girls were quite free to amuse themselves. Jeanne went off to see her mother, 2 and she wore her most attractive frocks on these occasions. A spring day would see her in a fine ivory- coloured dress and a wide blue cloak, a gauzy white fichu crossed over her bare throat, and a little flower-trimmed hat perched on the top of her high coiffure, shading her beautiful eyes.

For she knew well that she would not be alone where she was going. She and her companion went to the fair at Saint-Germain ; or else to the fte at Saint- Cloud, whose great trees and marbles and bubbling fountains have been made so familiar to us by the paintings of the period. There they listened to the pleasantries of Columbine, or joined the crowd of young women who watched the tricks of the jugglers. They paid a visit to the puppet-show, and while the great ladies drove past in their carriages they were trying their luck at the games of chance, and laughing at the sallies of powdered pierrots.

Supper they usually had 1 A water-colour by Lawreince supplements Fragonard's sketch. In this part of our history the artistic documents of the period have been followed, as they have at least the advantage of a general accuracy. There is no reference to Claude in the life of the future Royal mistress, and if he had lived she would surely have bought him a marquisate as Madame de Pompadour had done lor her " little brother. Then every night in her dreams the little white bed and the bare dormitory would vanish and she would be transported to the midst of rich and luxurious apartments.

For a long time this life continued, and Jeanne changed nothing but her friends ; she was as inconstant as any grisette, with the carelessness and, at the same time, the shrewdness of a beautiful young girl, who knows her value, and knows, too, how to wait before binding herself permanently. In the meantime her exquisite beauty, her tenderness of heart, her spirit of mischief and of roguery, her strangely mingled levity and prudence won her eager homage. In Labille's great establishment, with its harmonies of rich colours, its marvellous laces and delicate fabrics, Jeanne was surrounded by lovely things, and her beauty-loving soul expanded like a flower under their influence.

Near by lived her employer's daughter Adelaide, famous later on as Madame Labille-Guiard, the artist. The two girls had in common their blonde beauty and their keen interest in the arts ; even as a child Mademoiselle Labille had had the run of many a studio, enjoying a liberty that never overstepped the limits of perfect decorum. At any rate the future academician, who early in life began to train pupils, must have noticed the most gifted of her father's employees, especially as Jeanne had learnt drawing at Sainte-Aure.

This small talent of hers, and, above all, her beauty, also attracted the attention of the group of artists who frequented the Labille studio. At that time too, old La Tour made the fresh little sketch of her, a gentle face with long blue eyes, now in the Museum of Saint-Quentin. One day Pajou, who had known her when she was with Labille, and Drouais and many others were to vie with one another in immortalising the image of the Royal mistress. It is surprising that Mme. Labille-Guiard did not follow their example. She might at least have given us the por- trait of the Countess Du Barry after the latter left the Court, at the time when she herself had reached the height of her success.

Pride or policy may have kept them apart, for the artist was dependent on the good graces of the Princesses, and a visit to Louveciennes might entail their displeasure and a meeting with her rival, Madame Vigee Le Brun. When Jeanne rose to power, street-songs and caricatures were published recalling the years she spent with Labille, and making them the subject of the most outrageous calumnies. But her enemies only went against their own interests by their resort to such low weapons, for in the face of absurd exaggeration and flagrant lies the King was blind to all but the beauty and sweetness of his favourite.

The Duke de Choiseul, in his memoirs, and hired pamphleteers have written of the young woman as a "vile courtesan" and a " woman of the streets. Restif de la Bretonne, who considered himself a connoisseur on the subject, held them to be falsehoods 2 ; and since then 1 See the little known book by Sara G. Restif de la Bretonne, Annees des Dames nationales. The imagin- ation refuses to associate the fair, dainty child, so charmingly fastidious in her attire, with the unfortunate women thrown into a waggon, and taken to Salpetriere amid the hooting of fishwives. Another witness is the Count d'Espinchal.

Of all men of the period he was the most exactly acquainted with its every item of news, and he carefully noted the par- ticulars of Jeanne's first steps in the career which she had chosen. At this time, when eighteen years of age, she was known as Mademoiselle Lange, and, although she bore herself modestly, " her remarkable beauty had already caught the attention of the grands amateurs of the capital.

Monsieur de Monville, who then and after saw her frequently, has often told me how at that time she was so pretty and charming that several artists sought to have her for a model. Had it been so, Monsieur d'Espinchal could not have failed to include them among his indiscreet memories, for his whole object in life " was limited to finding out day by day all that happened in Paris," and he was " even more fully acquainted with thousands of things than the lieutenant of police.

He loved women, gaming and the pleasures of the table, and above 1 The results of Vatel's investigation may be verified by reference to Monsieur Camille Piton's volume, Paris sous Louis XV. In a letter which he wrote to his relative Monsieur de Malhesherbes about the year , after the fall of the favourite, he displays his true character with all its adroitness, subtlety and cleverly assumed sincerity: I shall hi a few words lay before you the whole truth, and my fate depends on the impression it will make on you.

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I was born a gentleman, and in good circumstances. I lived hi Toulouse until twenty-eight years of age, when love of the Arts and the call of pleasure took me to Paris. Through Madame de Malause I was presented to the Princes and introduced into good society. I spent several years solely in the pursuit of these two objects. Then the desire to improve my position and to increase my means induced me to attempt to enter the Foreign Service.

Monsieur Rouille, to whom I had been recommended by the Duke de Duras, sent me to various German courts, and on my return appeared to be fully satisfied with the knowledge I had acquired. Just when he was intending to employ me in some work in Franconia, he was replaced by Monsieur le cardinal de Bernis, who promised me much, but who, replaced in turn by Monsieur de Choiseul, fulfilled nothing. The latter having declared on his accession to the ministry that he had several claims to satisfy prior to mine, and my fortune being much impaired, Monsieur Berryer allowed me to receive under an assumed name the profits accruing from several naval contracts.

Further, Monsieur de Belle- Isle permitted me to enjoy the same privilege in his depart- ment ; so that when peace was restored my fortune had attained considerable dimensions, which were maintained and even increased by the interest I had in the Corsican commissariat. All that Jean Du Barry wrote in the above survey of his life was certainly founded on fact, but only in a general way, and without supplying the particulars which would have given it accuracy.

It was true that he had been presented to the Princes by Madame de Malause, the descendant of a bastard branch of the Bourbons. The Malauses were connected with the Roue's mother, who bore the same name. That he was well-born is undeniable, and he came of a very old family. The Histoire de Languedoc records that in the year sire Jean Du Barry, chevalier, swore allegiance to his lord, the King of France, and did homage for his land at Gourville ; several women of the house, too, are mentioned as abbesses in the Gallia Christiana.

Of his three sons, Elie, the youngest, had entered the Ecole Militaire in , and this he could only have done by proving the purity of his blood through four generations, at least on the side of the father. The Du Barrys asserted that they were descended from the Barrymores, who settled in England at the time of the Norman Conquest, and their claim was supported by Hozier. The armorial bearings of the two branches were indeed the same, but the French one had neither coronet, nor wolf, nor motto. However, Jean and his brother, Guillaume, 1 took the title of Count without any kind of authority.

They also re-established the following coat-of- arms: Argent, three bars gemelles, gules ; crest: The eldest, nicknamed Chon, appears again in this history ; Bitschi, the second, lived at Toulouse ; the third, of whom there is little mention, married a gentleman living in Levignac. Jean Du Barry's life at Paris may well be imagined from the following description of him by one of his contemporaries: Left to his own devices at an age when the passions are most powerful, he had recklessly given himself up to their indulgence.

Never has a man carried further that base intemperance in debauchery which is the very refuse of love. Nor did he attempt to conceal his depravity, thus rendering it all the more hideous, and this shamelessness earned him the many evil titles that disgraced him hi the eyes of society even more than the vices from which they sprang.

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Avaricious by temperament and prodigal by choice, all the treasures of the universe would not have been sufficient to satisfy his desires. He had a powerful intellect, though endowed with acuteness and subtlety rather than with genius. On a day of action or, in other words, of intrigue, it was as if new powers were given him, his spirit rose, and his fertile imagination could discover expedients where others had long since come to the end of their resources. He would make his plans with a complete grasp of all the issues involved, and in working them out would never lose the thread of the most insignifi- cant detail.

When engaged in this type of intrigue he did not hesitate to enlist the services of Julie, Madame de Grammont's first lady's maid, to avert the suspicions of Choiseul. Nor was this the only form of speculation in which he indulged ; his activities in other directions were attended by equally lucrative results. When Madame de Pompadour was hi power he tried, though without success, to introduce into the Royal seraglio the beaut iful Dorothy, a Strasburg 1 Sara Goudar, Remarques sur les Anecdotes. About the same time he offered Richelieu a certain Demoiselle Martin, whom the Marshal, used to- such affairs, chose to regard as a very shrine of innocence.

The character of the Roue appears still more odious in the light of these shameful dealings, and that he actually drove such a traffic has been abundantly proved by serious con- temporary evidence. The Journal of Monsieur de Sartines' Inspectors states that the Roue had seduced many pretty girls, up to the day on which he met Jeanne. The Count first came to be acquainted with Rangon and his family through his interest in the Corsican commissariat. He soon had the former sent to Fresnay in the Maine as a collector of taxes, and Jeanne and her mother he took into his house, where they were "to do the honours and take charge of its management.

She was then known by a name scarcely masking that of her supposed father, Vaubernier. The police inspectors observed on December 14, , the appearance of a " young woman of nineteen years, of noble bearing and the greatest beauty " ; it was " demoiselle Beauvamier, mistress of Du Barry, who brought her to his box at the opera.

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One evening Jeanne appeared at the Opera Ball " unmasked, and dressed all in white," and Monsieur d'Espinchal adds: Voltaire's description of Agnes Sorel would have fitted her to perfection: Jamais 1' Amour ne forma rien de tel ; Elle avait tout ; elle aurait dans ses chalnes Mis les heros, les sages et les rois. His name and fortune opened the doors of the nobility to him, but he preferred the brilliant, though mixed world of letters.

Through his friend Favier both he and Jeanne had come to know Mademoiselle Legrand, the most famous blue-stocking of the period, and a woman whom for intellect and caustic wit Du Mouriez in his Memoires compares to Ninon de L'Enclos. At her house they met such men as the younger Crebillon, Colle, and the Count de Guibert, and freedom of manner and thought was the order of the day in this gay world of critics and of savants.

Crebillon, with an unexpected air of modesty, would join issue with Colle, readiest and most brilliant of talkers, in as dazzling a display of verbal fencing, with thrust and parry of epigram, witty retort and quick repartee, as a spirit of mockery, that was no respecter of things and persons, could call forth. In his hotel the Roue brought together for his mistress " a little circle of learned men, the Abbe Arnaud, Marin, Turpin, La Morliere and some others, who kept her in touch with the literature of the period, and taught her to trifle with philosophy.

In such surroundings, where the libertinism of the age appeared in its most attractive light, her intercourse with these " intellectuals " gave her refinement and culture, adding to her natural good sense all the elegance of scepti- cism and all the graces of learning. Her pliant nature found its chief delight in acquiring the grand manners of the people of quality whom Du Barry entertained in large numbers ; among them were such great noblemen as the Duke de Duras and the Duke de Richelieu, to whom the house offered attractions other than those of its art treasures.

In this elegant and distinguished society Jeanne's natural qualities and refinement were developed and soon won recognition. For seven years the beautiful Italian had been the mistress of William Douglas, third Earl of March, an accomplished gentleman and a leader of London fashion ; his pride of bearing was rivalled only by that of Richelieu, who was at all times le grand seigneur, " even when he most aimed at playing the part. I have always given her in the past, and shall always continue to give her my regard and respect.

Nothing would induce me to cause her the smallest anxiety, for indeed I love her very dearly. Jeanne in her turn received her friend at the Roue's house, and Madame La Rena wrote in December, , to Lord William, who had remained in London, " Monsieur Du Barry is charming, he has given us balls where we can meet Princesses. But otherwise she had only to choose, for, in the words of a contemporary account, " this demoiselle is very beautiful, and all our gallants of high rank pay her assiduous court.

Later the Marshal undertook to extol her beauty to his monarch, who was hesitating in his choice of a new mistress, and Louis XV. Public opinion, however, ascribes that position both to the financier Sainte-Foy and the one-armed Viscount de Boisgelin, but how many others have not been included? The police reports with their usual generosity have swelled the list and stigmatised Du Barry's " infamous " acquies- cence.

At all events, Jean was not in the least jealous, and the relations between them remained unchanged. He was a gentle, delicate child, and he must certainly have preferred to his strange father the woman who surrounded him with loving care. His charming disposition had won him general esteem at Court, and the tenderness with which the affection- ate Jeanne regarded her young Royal Lieutenant may be imagined. Their little love-story and its tragic end have not been touched by the libellers, except by the author of the Gazetier cuirasse in a page full of obscenities.

Yet the Viscount was always at her side, and she used to lean on liim for advice and support, as the following incident seems to indicate. It is taken from the police report: On Tuesday, May 12, , at ten o'clock in the evening, there appeared before us, etc. In December, , and January, , Jeanne is supposed to have left the Roue for some unknown reason, and lived alone at rue Montmartre.

As Monsieur d'Espinchal also bears witness, Jeanne had already taken the title of Countess Du Barry, which was legitimately hers when she came to Versailles after she had married Jean's brother Guillaume. But, although she then severed her connection with the rest of the family, she would not be parted from Adolphe ; he attended all the Royal functions, through her influence he was made His Majesty's chief equerry, and she secured him a dowry on his marriage with Mademoiselle de Tournon.

Such, then, were her surroundings before she came to Court. They seemed as if made to refine her to the utmost, and the Roue" was right when he smilingly and shrewdly remarked, " She is fit for a king. Jeanne, on leaving the office of Foulon, the Superintendent of Finance, used to go to the Chateau, and thus found herself, no doubt pur- posely, in the path of her sovereign, who could not fail to notice the dazzling apparition. This version of the origin of the Royal liaison agrees in the main with that given by Choiseul in his memoirs.

The Duke apologises himself for his embittered pages when he confesses to having written the story of his exile " in the heat of the moment. In , some time before the Court went to Compiegne, one of my friends wrote to beg me to receive a woman in whom several people were interested, and who desired to ask a favour of me. I was in Paris, and said I would see her the following day ; she came and appeared to me only fairly good-looking, while her awkwardness and air of constraint gave me the impression of a woman bred in the country.

Nor was this opinion altered by the business on which she came. She told me that she had trusted a certain Nallet with the whole of her somewhat insignificant fortune, and as he had formerly been contractor for the provisions of the seven battalions in Corsica, she besought me to reserve an interest for him in the administration of 1 The Roue's account has been followed here, as on this occasion he does not seem to have had anything to gain by concealing the truth.

I gently represented to her the impossibility of changing in her favour a general arrangement, and said that Nallet had done very well for those seven battalions, but that I doubted whether he was capable of undertaking a larger work. As she continued to insist in a manner as indecorous as it was stupid I got rid of her by advising her to turn to Monsieur Foulon, who was responsible for these details.

After the funeral obsequies the King went to Marly and then to Compidgne. The day after my arrival Monsieur de Saint-Florentin came and told me that there was at Compiegne a Madame Du Barry whom the King visited, with whom he passed the night, and with whom he was said to be deeply in love ; he added that this Madame Du Barry was a girl to whom Du Barry, the Roue, had given his name, a brilliant retinue and powdered lackeys, and that he said he had married her to one of his brothers. Evidently the Roue had several strings to his bow ; by some means or other he intended to derive benefit from Jeanne's future.

We may disregard Choiseul's accusations of " awkwardness " and " stupidity " in the pretty petitioner, as well as the low means of persuasion he alleged she employed. At least he confirms the Roue's account of the fortuitous circumstances which brought Jeanne to the King's notice. As the father, Antoine Du Barry, was dead, a power of attorney was obtained from his widow, Dame Catherine de Lacaze, who gave her consent on con- dition that the union was consecrated with canonical rites. This contract exhibits with unequalled audacity the lies and pretensions of Jean Du Barry.

Among those who appeared before the notaries of the Chatelet were " Nicolas Ranon, in the service of the government, and Dame Anne Becu his wife. The Roue seems to have vented all his malice in this parody of a contract: There shall be no community of goods between the said Seigneur and the Demoiselle his future wife, herein running counter to the custom of Paris or of any other place. Her movables consist of the sum of 30, livres, composed of jewels, diamonds, dresses, linen, lace and household goods in her use, the whole derived from her gains and savings, and of which an inventory has been made.

The said Seigneur and future husband has settled on the Demoiselle and future wife 1, livres in yearly income, the capital of which laid out at 4 per cent, interest shall belong to the children to be born of the marriage. The bride was made younger by three years, and was asserted to be the issue of the marriage of Anne Becu and Jean- Jacques Go- mard de Vaubernier, an imaginary person supposed to have died in On September i, , in the church of Saint-Laurent, at five o'clock in the morning, the ceremony took place, at which the former " frere Ange," now invested with the high-sounding title of King's Almoner, alone represented the family of the bride.

It amused the Roue to complicate matters ; he cheated at the new game for pleasure, sure of impunity, although a severe law was directed against these frauds. There were various precedents to encourage him. Had he not seen, on the occasion of a recent marriage, another bride and Royal mistress, the lovely Morphise, call herself O'Murphy de Ballimore de Boisfailly? Besides, it was worth taking some trouble to gain the end in view, and though he may have expected rather more from his enterprise, at least he had the satisfaction of having performed his work well.

His retinue of scribblers and adventurers were by no means niggardly with their compliments, and even those who most condemned his cynicism were able to write: Le Roi, and is to be found in his CuriositSs historiques, Paris, The inten- tional inexactitudes which give it its fraudulent character have been italicised. He had helped her to attain her exalted position, but her own personal qualities were enough to make it secure.

In the meantime, he took the final arrangements in hand ; he sent the nominal husband back to Languedoc immediately after the ceremony ; he paid for the dresses and jewels, ordered the livery, the coach, and a very beautiful sedan-chair on which he had the arms of the Du Barrys painted, quartering on them those of the Gomards de Vau- bernier, as blazoned by some chance herald he had come across: Thus provided for, and in a position to do her new family credit, the young Countess left for Fontainebleau, where the Court had just arrived.

At Compiegne she had resided in a private house, but now the King had her live with him in the Chateau ; and Monsieur de Mercy, Ambassador of the Austrian Empire, in his astonishment at the serious turn events had taken, thought it his duty to write to his Cabinet: Such treatment, so different from that suitable to a simple girl, is daily attracting more attention from the courtiers. THE King had given his favourite a suite of apartments at Fontainebleau, and he could do no less at Ver- sailles. When the Court returned in December, , six rooms in the chapel wing of the Chateau were assigned to her, which were temporarily unoccupied owing to the death in August of the old valet Lebel.

She rented an hotel in the rue de 1'Orangerie for her suite, where she could also receive visitors, for though Jean Du Barry had disappeared, their former friends still came to see her. The men of letters and the " intellectuals " in particular continued to visit her, and the Prince de Ligne speaks of having heard Robbe recite his wanton verses at her house.

It is a scarcely veiled allegory presenting " the ornament of the Court " hi the guise of a Hebe, fair as one of the Graces. In the copy he gave her he wrote the follow- ing dedication: Un sourire flatteur m'annoncait leur suffrage ; J'ai redoute leur fuite a 1'instant du reveil, Mais je les vois encor, ce n'est pas un mensonge, Un seul de vos regards realise mon songe, Et j'etais moins heureux dans les bras du Sommeil.

These verses were the first to celebrate the new divinity. It was said that she adopted as her own the witticisms of others. A letter, supposed to be by her hand, appeared in an English journal, but it was in reality written by Claire- Franoise Du Barry, nicknamed " Chon. The Countess soon recognised her qualities, and when in any difficulty would turn to her for advice. Mademoiselle Chon generously put at the service of her friends the ascend- ancy she thus obtained over the young favourite.

For instance, she brought about the recall of La Beaumelle, who had been exiled from Paris by Madame de Pompadour. She was " if not on the best of terms with him, at least on the next best. And the audacious girl actually carried out her plan one day, when she recited before amused Royalty these verses: Amour, lasse d'etre bizarre, Veut reunir enfin, par un coup qui surprend, Ce que 1' Europe a de plus rare: Des femmes la plus belle et des rois le plus grand.

Son choix est bientdt fait et sa main se depdche, Aux yeux des peuples eblouis De blesser de la meme flche Les coeurs de Jeanne et de Louis. Certain pamphlets, passed by the Lieutenant of Police, showed an unheard-of audacity. In January, , for instance, the Brevet d'apprentissage d'une jeune fille de modes appeared, a venomous little poem in which the heroine's aunt is given the name of "La Babille," which bears a sufficient resemblance to Labille. At the same time a wretched novel was printed, the history of a depraved peasant girl, written by herself and entitled Vie de la Bourbonnoise ; in this the authors introduced the apocryphal anecdotes against Madame Du Barry, which were so sedulously repeated by many other libellers.

The book, whose title was in itself a direct allusion, had a con- siderable vogue, and was more than once adapted for the stage ; but the songs alone could popularise the malevolent legend, and it was not long before the first couplets of La Bourbonnoise were in general circulation: Most helpful customer reviews on Amazon. Can't wait to get book 3 so I can complete the trilogy. The book was given to me in exchange for a non-biased and honest review.

Which is good, as it is the only kind of review I choose to offer. Let me begin by saying the star system doesn't quite work here. I am a picky dang reader who gives almost no fours and pretty well no one but JRR Tolkien gets a 5. The story of Davros and Jesse resumes without losing new readers or boring those who read the first book. The Phoenix and the Alliance are forced to continue in their struggle to defeat Gar and his armies, and the reader is drawn into Jesse's battles and doubts about herself, the warm and whether she can fulfill Davros' prophecy.

Jesse has grown as a character but retains her spunky attitude and determination. Davros remains my favorite alien prince. Under the pressure of the war the Alliance begins to shatter and betrayal begets mistrust and threatens to destroy them and their only hope. The supporting cast, if anything, is more diverse than in the first book and the stakes are increasingly higher.

The author's world-building is exemplary, the characters continue to grow and evolve through their trials and successes in an engaging and enjoyable read. The story stays more firmly in pov than the first book, and succeeds where many 'middle' of a series books fail. This is no saggy middle but a fast-paced and entertaining story stronger in its own right than its predecessor. Some readers seem to doubt Davros and his intentions as this part of the trilogy comes to a conclusion I will leave that to the reader, but I think in the end he will remain true to himself and his destiny Loved the book it was well written and a easy read.

I wanted to kick Davros's ass for what he did to Jesse. I cant wait until I get to read book Get to Know Us.

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