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Madame Du Barry
BE GON COURT
WITH PHOT*
FIFTEEN OTHER
E AND
LONDOJ
JO
NORRIS STREET, H,
MADAME DU BARRY
BY
EDMOND AND JULES DE GONGOURT
WITH PHOTOGRAVURE AND
FIFTEEN OTHER PORTRAITS
LONDON
JOHN LONG, LIMITED
NORRIS STREET, HAYMARKET
MGMX1V
JC/35"
DC
CONTENTS
I.
Hardy's Journal dated February ist, 1769 Esther du Barry and
" Haman " Choiseul. The struggle between the Encyclopedic Party
and the Devotee Party. The " Republican Multitude." Choiseul on
his defence with regard to his religion. Certificate of birth of
Jeanne Bequs, called "La Du Barry." Her Childhood. She takes
up her Abode with "La Frederique." The Community of Sainte-
Aure. The Chateau of Cour-Neuve. Madame Labille's Millinery
Establishment. The Comte du Barry. His Past. His second-hand
Traffic in Mistresses. The Supper at Lebel's 3
II.
Guillaume du Barry ordered to Paris. The Forged Vaubernier
Certificate of Birth. The articles of the Contract of Marriage with
the Comte Guillaume. The Bride's Share. The Celebration of the
Marriage and the Husband's Return to Toulouse. Madame du Barry
taking possession of Lebel's Quarters. The furniture of the Apart-
ments at Versailles 26
III.
The Choiseul Monarchy. The Minister's Brutality towards Ma-
dame d'Esparbes. Influence of the Duchesse de Gramont on her
Brother. The " Bourbonnaise " and the Satirical Prints. The Roue's
Diplomacy aided and sustained by "La Chon."The Marechal de
Richelieu in the role of protector. The Presentation of the Comtesse
du Barry at Versailles. The Perfection and the Childlike Daintiness
of the Woman's Beauty , , 42
Contents
IV.
Repugnances of titled women towards the Favourite. Purchase of
the Marechale de Mirepoix's " Chaperonnage." The Duchesse de
Valentinois, the Marquise de 1'Hopital, the Princesse de Montmo-
rency. Skilful effacement of the Favourite. The Bellevue Supper.
The Gift of Luciennes. The Courtiers' Meannesses and the Che-
valier de la Marliere's Dedication. Portrait of Chancellor Mau-
peou 59
V.
The Review in the Royal-Lieu at Compiegne. The Honqurs of
Chantilly paid by the Prince of Conde to the Comtesse du Barry.
The Two Portraits by Drouais in the Salon of 1769. Choiseul's Act
of Submission. Louis XV.'s Letter "with reference to his Mistress.
Chignons a la Du Barry. Flung from a Stag to the King's Pavilion.
Bouret's Design 74
VI.
Nomination of the Abbe Terrai to the post of Controller-General.
Choiseul alarms the Favourite with the announcement of the Dauph-
iness's Arrival. The Continuation of the Case of D'Aiguillon Ac-
cused of Acts-which stained his Honour. The Chancellor's "Job-
bery." Madame du Barry becoming D'Aiguillon's Mistress ancl the
Instrument of Choiseul's Dismissal. Removal from the Records of
the Palais de Justice of the Minutes of the D'Aiguillon case. Cool-
ness of the King towards Choiseul. Denunciation of the Abbe de la
Ville. -The Rising of the Council of September 21, 1770 89
VII.
The Signature of Contracts on Sunday, September 23, 1770.
The Intrigues of Cromot with the Prince of Conde. Lettre de
Cachet exiling the Due de Choiseul to Chanteloup. Monteynard's
Appointment to the War Office. Madame du Barry's " I take back
my Promise." The Gracious Intervention of the Favourite in the
Dismissal of M, de Choiseul from his Post of Colonel-General of
Contents
S w i ss .-_ The Purchase of Vandyke's Picture representing Charles
I. The Due d'Aiguillon's Appointment as Minister of Foreign Af-
fairs made the occasion of a Dinner at Luciennes Mortal Appre-
hensions amongst Choiseul's Party. The "respectful" Homage of
the Princes of the Blood 104
VIII.
The Luxury of a Woman of Pleasure. The Accounts of Madame
du Barry. Invoices of Mile. Bertin, of the " Traits Galants," of
Roettiers, &c. The Gold Toilet The Palace-Boudoir of Luciennes.
The Dining-room. The Square Salon. The Two Parlours.
Zamore. The Complaisances of the Controller-General 128
IX.
Efforts of the Favourite to have Social Intercourse with Marie
Antoinette. Mercy-Argenteau's Interview with the Comtesse du
Barry. Madame Adelaide preventing Marie-Antoinette from Speak-
ing to f-he Favourite. The Roue's Unreasonable Claims. The
" Drolesse " Ballad. The Low Amusements of Luciennes. The
Lowering of Royalty through Contact with a Courtesan 143
X.
Madame du Barry's Qualities as a " Good-natured Girl of the
Town/' Her Family. Her Daughter, Madame de Boissaisson.
Marriage of the Vicomte Adolphe. Fresh Attempts of the Favourite
to Get into Marie Antoinette's Good Graces. The Ear-rings worth
700,000 livres. Project of a Dissolution of the Du Barry's Marriage
by the Pope 159
XL
Intrigues of Women Seeking to dispossess Madame du Barry of
the King's Heart. Madame Louise, the Carmelite. The Chancellor
passing over to the Devotee Party. The Physique of Old Louis XV.
The Remark of the Surgeon, La Martiniere. The Lent of 1773.
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Madame du Barry Frontispiec
Madame de Pompadour facing page 22
Louis the Dauphin 52
Louis XV 66
Madame du Barry 88
Madame Necker n8
Marie Antoinette 144
Madame Louise ...... 180
Madame de Chateauroux 192
Louis XVI 202
Princesse de Lamb'alle ,, 246
Marat . . 258
Due d' Angouleme . . . . . . 270
Duchesse d' Angouleme 290
Fouquier-Tinville .... . . 304
Madame Elisabeth 322
2
Madame Du Barry
i.
Hardy's Journal dated February ist,.i769. Esther du Barry and
"Haman" Choiseul. The struggle between the Encyclopedic Party
and the Devotee Party. The " Republican Multitude." Choiseul on
his defence with regard to his religion. Certificate of birth of
Jeanne Bequs, called "La Du Barry." Her Childhood. She takes
up her Abode with "La Frederique." The Community of Sainte-
Aure. The Chateau of Cour-Neuve. Madame Labille's Millinery
Establishment. The Comte du Barry. His Past. His second-hand
Traffic in Mistresses. The Supper at Lebel's.
HARDY, a citizen of Paris, who in the eighteenth century
had the patience to keep a record of the various events of
his time, the rumours and news of the city of Paris, all the
things that he saw, heard, and learned, relates in his
" Manuscript Journal/' 1 hitherto unpublished, that on the
ist of February, 1769, CancfTdmas^Eye, a priest, who was a
friend of his, went to dine at a house trte-name of which is
not mentioned. It was the moment when the gossip of
Paris was all about the Comtesse du Barry. At dessert,
another priest, who was dining at this house with two of
his brethren, invited Hardy's friend, as well as the rest of
the company, to drink " to the presentation ;" and as Hardy's
friend was not quite sure as to what this meant, and asked
whether it referred to the presentation of Our Lord in the
1 Fragments of this Journal have been published by the Nouvelle
Revue Encyclopedique, but the manuscript has not yet been pub-
lished in book form.
I
Madame D\i Barry-
Temple which was to take place next day, the priest who
had proposed the toast, said to him in reply : " It refers
to the presentation which took place yesterday, or is going
to take place to-day the presentation of the new Esther,
who is to replace Haman and to rescue the Jewish people
from oppression." *
Ponder over this scene and those words : they furnish the
explanation of Madame du Barry's good-fortune.
In that war of ideas, the great war of the eighteenth
century, in that conflict of minds, and of souls, ardent and
ruthless, in that civil war of consciences, in which blood no
longer flowed, but in which persecution continued, in the
time of the excommunication and proscription of public
opinion, when a sort of retaliation for the Edict of Nantes
was exercised against the militant order of the Jesuits
on that army of old men driven by the hand of Choiseul out
of that France where their houses were falling into ruin,
in the midst of that rending and clash between the usages
of the old French spirit and the new audacities which had
for their minister M. de Choiseul between those two ir-
reconcilable extremes, the Church and Royalty on one side,
the Revolution on the other, thinking mea-ito longer saw
in Madame du Barry the woman, the courtesan, the lady of
the pavement, "theT5u Barry": they only saw in her an
instrument, a weapon, by means of which a party kills a
party. And so it was strange fact that in this eighteenth
1 " Journal of Events as they came to my knowledge." By Hardy.
National Library MSS. 6680-6682.
Madame Dvi Barry-
century, accustomed to make woman the agent whereby
changes of Government could be brought about, Madame
du Barry unwittingly rallied around her all the religious
sentiments and all the political sentiments which had been
thwarted, wounded, humiliated by the minister, Choiseul.
All that was left of old France rooted in her beliefs, and
terrified by the chain of incredulity in which the links con-
necting Fontenelle with Voltaire were joined together by
the physician La Mettrie, the geologist Demaillet, the
physicist Boulanger, the naturalist Buffon, the geometri-
cian d'Alembert, all the men whose minds were disturbed
by the attack which the knowledge of natural things, the
exact, positive, material sciences, provoked against the
mysteries of the supernatural world, the men who were
opposed to the novelty of governmental theories, to the
dream of systems, to the experiment of progress, those
who, after the meeting of the Bishops, believed that the
Church and the State were united in life and in death, and
saw a political revolution at the end of a religious revolu-
tion, those who so far back as 1765 announced that " the
philosophic spirit was destined to give birth to the stran-
gest revolutions and to precipitate France into the horrors
of anarchy," those again who thought that the human
mind was held fast and safeguarded in the future by the
education imparted to youth by the Jesuit body 1 all this
1 In 1762, President d'Aiguilles declared that, with the destruction
of the Jesuits, " Anglicism," otherwise called Republicanism, " would
on:: day form the spirit of the nation."
Madame D\i Barry
great party was condemned to silence its repugnances in
order to push forward Madame du Barry into the position
in which she might be of service to it. A thousand pas-
sions, a thousand devotions, the relations, friendships,
memories, interest which a great order leaves behind it,
the fright of Louis XV.'s heart in the presence of the " Re-
publican multitude," 1 over which his successor should
reign, the secret resentments of the Dauphin and the
Dauphiness against Choiseul, bequeathed in the testament
of Louis XVL, the hopes of the Queen embroidering with
her hands, which were soon to be chilled by death, an or-
nament for the first house of the Jesuits after their restora-
tion all rallied or attached themselves through the party
to this State presentation. Hence this understanding, this
instinctive complicity around the mistress, those hands and
those invisible succours which sustained the Du Barry;
hence that breath and that aid of a strong public opinion
which carried her to power on the cloud of Psyche.
M. de Choiseul did not deceive himself as to the mean-
ing of Madame du Barry's accession to favour. His reply
to every reproach made in detail to his administration was
that which he had made in 1765 when the party grouped
by Soubise behind Madame d'Esparbes, the same which
he again found behind Madame du Barry, had sought to
effect his dismissal. " What though people may say," re-
1 An expression used in a letter of Louis XV. to Choiseul dated
Fontainebleau, October 15, 1765, and communicated by the Due de
Choiseul to the Revue de Paris, 1829, Vol. IV.
6
Madame Du Barry-
marked M. de Choiseul in a sort of justification addressed
to the King, " that I have striven to drive out the Jesuits
and that I have upheld the claims and pretensions of the
Parliaments, on every side, I have taken no step to pro-
mote these objects, and have had no other ideas save those
which your Majesty has observed when my advice was
asked for in the Council Chamber. . . . Finally the
great reproach falls on my religion. It is difficult to at-
tack me positively on this serious matter. I never speak
about the subject; but, as far as form is concerned, I pay
strict attention to decency, and in the conduct of affairs
my principle is to sustain religion." 1 And the Duke did not
deceive himself. Three years after that time, in a family
assembly at the residence of Mesdames, in the presence of
the Dauphiness, whom the King's aunts knew to be se-
cretly attached to the person and the policy of Choiseul,
the conversation happening to turn on the fall of his min-
istry, Madame Adelaide exclaimed that the exile of the
Duke had saved religion in France, inasmuch as it was
manifest that this minister's object had been to destroy it
utterly. 2
What, nevertheless, was this woman to whom the ironies
of History assigned and thought fit to entrust such a part
as the restoration of the monarchic authority and of the
1 Memoirs of the Due de Choiseul, delivered up to the King in
1765, and referred to in the Revue Franqaise of July, 1828.
" Secret Correspondence of Mercy- Argenteau." Didot, 1875.
Despatch from Mercy to Maria Theresa, May 18, 1773.
Madame D\i Barry
religious authority? We are going to tell, as best we can,
the story of this woman's life.
"Jeanne, natural daughter of Anne Bequs called Quan-
tiny, was born on the I9th of August, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and forty-three and was baptized
the same day. Her godfather was Joseph Demange and
her godmother Jeanne Birabin who have attached their sig-
natures along with mine.
"L. GALON,
"Vicar of Vaucouleurs
" Jeanne Birabin.
" Joseph Demange/' 1
Such is the certificate of Madame du Barry's birth, the
truth as to her origin, a truth hitherto ignored or mis-
understood by history.
In the midst of contradictory narratives, in view of the
evident hostility of the anecdotes and memoirs published
the day after Louis XV. 's death, in view of the predisposi-
tion towards the paradox of rehabilitations since attempted,
and in the face of biographies which seem to take into ac-
count only the novel-reading public, it is rather difficult to
trace up, to distinguish, and to determine the exact truth
with regard to the childhood and early youth of Madame
1 This certificate of the birth of Madame du Barry, extracted from
the records of the civil government of the town of Vaucouleurs, and
delivered to Saint-Mihiel, on the 25th of September, 1827, has been
confirmed for us by a letter of the Mayor of Vaucouleurs, date the
30th of November, 1859.
8
Madame Du Barry
du Barry. It is necessary, it seems to us, to be satisfied
with probable truth. Besides, that is sufficient for biog-
raphies of this kind, and posterity may console itself for
not possessing absolute certainty and perfect knowledge as
to the precise degree of weakness to which a woman de-
scended who has become a historic personage by chance,
and, as it were, by sheer inadvertence.
Out of all the traditions of the eighteenth century which
agree in giving Madame du Barry a certain Gomard de
Vaubernier as a father, an error to which we shall find the
key later on, and a financier named Dumonceau as a god-
father, it seems that there is scarcely any authentic fact
to be gathered save that the mother and daughter endured
great privations in Paris, and perhaps that, before going
to Paris, Anne Becu had been the recipient of charity and
kindness at the hands of this M. Dumonceau, who was one
of the principal persons interested in supplying provisions
to the army. It is in this sense that we are going to follow
the narratives of the time.
Little Jeanne's mother, left without resources, conceived
the idea of setting out for Paris to try her luck there, and
her first visit was to the rich financier, whose memory and
whose acts of kindness had left an impression on her
heart. M. Dumonceau, who had almost forgotten his lit-
tle protegee, was astonished at her pretty face and her arch
manner. He gave the mother twelve livres, promising to
allow her an equal sum every month to enable little Jeanne
to learn to read and write. At the end of some months
Madame Du Barry
and some dozens of livres, the worthy Dumonceau became
deeply interested in the mother's distress; and, in the in-
genuousness of his character, he could think of nothing
better than to send the mother and daughter to live with
his mistress, Mademoiselle Frederique, a courtesan, who
enjoyed almost a reputation at this period. 1
The pretty child was developing into a charming young
girl when Mademoiselle Frederique, who was a lively
young woman, thought she was growing very quickly, and
began to have some apprehensions as to the future. She
persuaded M. Dumonceau, who on another side was
preached at by a very pious parent, to make little Jeanne
enter the convent of Sainte-Aure. 2
1 La Frederique, also known by the name of Souville, had origi-
nally been kept in rather a mean style by M. de Vouvray, Master of
Requests. To M. de Vouvray had succeeded one M. de Boisgelin, a
follower of the Due de Berry, who had the beauty removed from the
Rue de la Truanderie and installed in a pretty apartment in the Rue
de Richelieu and liberally supplied her with everything she needed.
This did not prevent La Frederique from being a gay woman and
frequenting the suppers at the little house of La Brissault and others.
La Frederique was a tall, beautiful girl, very red-haired, and cele-
brated for her "accomplished debauchery." Journal of M. de Sar-
tines's Inspectors. Dentu, 1863.
a "Anecdotes about the Comtesse Du Barry." London, 1775.
This is the book containing the greatest amount of documentary in-
formation as the life of Mme. du Barry, and a great portion of it
has been made out of the " Secret Memoirs," a book which other
books that followed it have only copied and paraphrased. But let
us give here a list of the favourite's biographies :
"Authentic Memoirs of the Comtesse de Barre (sic), Mistress of
Louis XV., King of France, extracted from a manuscript in the pos-
session of the Duchesse de Villeroy." By the Chevalier Fr. V. . . .,
10
Madame Dm Barry
The daughters of Sainte-Aure were a community whose
specialty and aim were quite peculiar. Sainte-Aure did
not serve the purpose of a refuge for the frail, a retreat for
sinners: this convent was intended to save persons from
London. Printed at the expense of the Publishers, 1772 (one volume,
I2mo). This is a little romance which has not the slightest resem-
blance to the history of Madame du Barry.
" Historic Summary of the Life of the Comtesse du Barry, with
her Portrait." Paris, 1774 (one small volume, I2mo or 8vo).
" Cythera's Gazette, or the Secret History of Madame du Barry."
London, 1775 (one small volume, I2mo).
" History and Life of the Comtesse du Barry." Pont-aux-Dames,
1775 (one small volume, I2mo).
"Remarks on the Anecdotes of the Comtesse du Barry." By
Madame S. G. (oudar). London, 1777 (one small volume, I2tno).
" The Pleasures of the City and of the Court, or Refutation of the
Anecdotes and Summary of the Life of the Comtesse du Barry,
written by Herself." London, 1778 (one volume, I2mo). A rare
little romance which paraphrases the "Anecdotes."
" Letters of the Comtesse du Barry, with those of the Princes,
Noblemen, Ministers and others who have written to her, gathered
from all Possible Sources." London, 1779. (Apocryphal corre-
spondence.)
" Life of the Comtesse du Barry, followed by her epistolary Cor-
respondence and her Gallant and Political Intrigues." (8vo.) This
biography, in which her death is announced, contains a portrait with
the words underneath: "The Messalina whom you see. . . ."
" The Illustrious Victims Avenged." By Montigny. (8vo.) Con-
taining a long notice about Madame du Barry.
"Historic Memoirs of Jeanne Gomart de Vaubernier, Comtesse
du Barry. Prepared from Two Authentic Fragments." By M. de
Favrolles (Madame Guenard). Paris, Lerouge, 1803 (four volumes,
I2mo). This book, written without being subjected to stricture, con-
tains, in three or four volumes, the greater number of fragments
seized at Luciennes, and to-day in the National Archives.
" Memoirs of the Comtesse du Barri." By Lamothe-Langon. Abel
Ledoux, 1843 (five volumes, 8vo). A romance without the least his-
torical value.
ii
Madame Dxi Barry
falling. According to the view of the reformers of this in-
stitution, it was an asylum open, at a modest cost of two
hundred francs, to every young woman who, born of a
virtuous family, " found herself in circumstances in which
she ran the risk of being ruined." 1 The ten livres were
paid for the bed ; the little girl was provided with two pairs
of sheets and six napkins 2 and the gates of the convent in
the Rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve were closed upon her.
To a young girl brought up in this fashion, knowing
nothing of life except what she had seen at Madamoselle
Frederique's, cradled in this luxury of a young girl's exist-
ence, with her head and her eyes dazzled by ribbons and fine
dresses, to a child spoiled by petting and caresses like this
pretty young creature, already coquettish, and already dis-
playing that roguish humour which even Versailles could
not restrain, the descent was great and the change severe.
Farewell to the charming little gown, fashionably cut,
1 " Picture of Humanity and Beneficence, or Historic Summary of
the Charities which are practised in Paris."
2 " State or Picture of the City of Paris." 1760.
" The Comtesse du Barry." By Capefigue. Amyot, 1858.
"Madame du Barry, 1768-1793." By J. R. Le Roy. Versailles,
1858. A pamphlet full of original documents of the greatest interest.
Two fragments are also connected with the history of the Favourite.
The first, " Equality Acquired Shadily, or the Little History of Pro-
tection," is the most complete narrative of the persecution to which
she was subjected in 1793 at Luciennes. The other has no interest
save that of its title : " The Descent of La Barry into Hell, and her
reception at Pluto's Court by the Widow Capet, who has become the
Favourite Fury of Proserpine."
12
Madame Du Harry
which she wore at La Frederique's ! On this head so full
of gaiety behold a double veil of plain black stuff accom-
panied by a common " guimpe " without starch. Behold
on those fair tresses a band of coarse linen which con-
ceals them and falls down so as to cover three-fourths of
the forehead. Her gown is of white Aumale serge of an
ordinary pattern without any arrangement or superfluous
ornament, and her little feet are cased in calfskin shoes
yellow and unfashionable, fastened with two similar laces.
And no way of avoiding this pitiless discipline as to cos-
tume: do not the archives of the community preserve as a
model and as a pattern a hieratic statue thus attired?
And everything around little Jeanne is plain, severe, and
sad, like her new costume, in this community so curtailed
that she has no silver save the plate of the infirmary and
no gold save the gilding of the altar. It is the vow of pov-
erty in all its rigour, forbidding to each one personal pos-
session, suppressing the thine and the mine ; it is the work
of the hands, the work of instruction, while maintaining
deep silence. There are prohibited and punished the jests,
the dainty airs, the exaggerated or sudden outbursts of
laughter, every pleasant phrase, every bantering tone. 1
Vain prohibitions! over which little Jeanne soon jumped,
bringing into the austere house the gaiety of her age and
her disposition, and causing there the revolution of Vert-
" Constitution of the Nuns of Saint-Aure according to the rule
of Saint Augustine." Paris, at Simon's Printing-house, Printer to
the Archbishop of Paris, 1786.
13
Madame Du Barry
Vert. The noise, the bad example of such youthful mirth,
vainly chidden and curbed, the contagion of which was to
be feared, got the charming little madcap sent home to
her mother, that is to say to La Frederique's. La Frede-
rique, considering that the attractions of her protegee, now
grown up and formed, were more dangerous than ever, and,
tired of the mother, whom she suspected of spying on her
domestic concerns, conceived the idea of making a great
outcry as to the singularly familiar relations of Jeanne's
mother with a Capuchin friar named Gomard. Owing to
this scandal and the well-simulated indignation of La
Frederique, M. Dumonceau had the mother and daughter