AS At ‘ gee AeA lone ee oe CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE JosEpH WuiTMorE Barry DRAMATIC LIBRARY ~~ THE GIFT OF TWO FRIENDS oF CorNELL UNIVERSITY 1934 y be oe Fg fp DATE DUE 0 28 ‘sy Nn 9 B Nov 1 81944 ‘ial 6 1997 APR 22 190m MAY 7 1952 niversit DC 135. D8" 1 1F69. aii BELASCO THEATRE BROADWAY AND FORTY-SECOND STREET Unpver THE SoLtE Manacement or Davip BeEtasco Evenings at 8 precisely Matinées Saturdays at 2 DAVID BELASCO PRESENTS firs. Leslte Carter IN HIS NEW PLAY “DU BARRY” “ Not the great historical events, but the personal incidents that call up single, sharp pictures of some human being in its pang or strug- gle, reach us more nearly.” — OLIVER WeNDELL HoLMEs. CAST Lous XV., King of France . . , . . C. A. STEVENson Comre Jean vu Barry, eventually brother-in-law of ‘*La du Barry” . . . . . . « CAMPBELL GoLLaN: Comte Guittaume, his prothee . . . Beresrorp WEBB Duc pe Brissac, Capt. of King’s Guard, Henry Weaver, Sr. Cosse-Brissac, his son (of the King’s Guard), known as‘*Cosse”. . . . . . . . « Hamirron REveILe Tue Para Newere ashi . . . . H.R. Roserts Duc pe RIcHELIEv, Marshal’) of France . . x 8 Under Gero. Barnum Maurgou, Lord Chancellor { Louis XV. | C. P. Frockron Terray, Minister of Finance | HG. Carrron Duc D’AicuILLton . .. . . . . Leronarp Coorer Denys, porter at the raillines hor. CraupE GILLING WATER Leset, confidential valet to His Majesty, Herbert MiLtwarD M. Lasrte, proprietor of the milliner shop, GitmorE Scorr Vausernier, father of Jeanette . . Cxarves Campneie Scarxo, one of ‘‘ La du Barry’s” Nubian serianisy J.D. Jonzs Zamone, a plaything of ‘* La du eee . Masrer Sams Fiure Prayer. . ae . . . « A. Joy 4 “DU BARRY”—CAST CONTINUED re Vatpoy. .... . Doveras J. Woop D’ALTAIRE © } King’s ae ef Louis Myit De CourcEL ‘ . Harotp Howarp LaGarpE. .. . Two Tavern (- .- . W.T. Bune Fonrenrtte . . . J Roysterers Tuomas Boone Benarp, one of the ** Hundred Swiss”. . Warren DEvEN Citizen Grieve, of the Committee of Public Safety . . . . . . Gasron MervaLe Manac, one of the SansGulottes . . « JAMES SARGEANT Denisot, Judge of the Revolutionary Court, H. G. Cartron Tavernier, clerk of the court . . . . . Joun Incram Gomanp. . . . . CxHarves Hayne Hortense, Manayeress Sve Labille the milliner . . . . . . . . . . . Exeanor Carey LovorreE .. . ~ . « . . Nina Lyn Manon. .... Girls |. Frorence St. Leonarp JUDIE ace oe ae atthe |}. . . . Coran Apams Leone . . . . . [ Milliner’s),| | Brancue Suerwoop NicHETTE Shop Ann ArcHER JULIETTE . . ~ . . . .May Lyn Marquise DU Beaavow, known as ‘“ “La Gourdan,” keeper of a gambling house . . . . . Buancue Rice Sornre ArnavLp, queen of the opera. . Muss Roserrson Tue Gyrsy Has, a fortune-teller . . . CC. P. Frockxron Mite. Le Granp Dancersfromthe|. .- Ruru Dennis Mute. Guimarp . Grand Opera . Exeanor Stuart Mme. La Daupuine, Marie Antoinette at sixteen . . . - oo. 2 . +. . » . Herren Hate Marquise DE re - . . «HeEten Ropertson Ducuesse D’AIGuUILLON . Ladi ~ . +. . . Miss Lyn adies Princesse ALIXE. . . of . . . « Miss Leonarp Ducnesse pE Cuorsy .f{ Louis’). . . Louise Morewin MarauisE pE Lancers .| Court |. . . May Monrrorp ComTessE DE Marsen_ . \Grace Van BenruuysEN Sopw1E,amaid ... . » . . . . «Irma Perry Rosa tre, of the Concitrgerie . . + .Heten Ropertson CerisEITE . - . . » . . . . Juste Linpsey AND JEANETTE VAUBERNIER, afterwards “La du Barry” . . . «MRS. LESLIE CARTER 2 “DU BARRY”—CAST CONTINUED Guests of the Féte, Dancers from the Opera, King’s Guardsmen, Monks, Clowns, Pages, Milliners, Sentries, Lackeys, Footmen, King’s Secret Police, Sans-Culottes, a Mock King, a Mock Herald, a Drunken Patriot, a Cocoa Vender, Federals, National Guards, Tricoteuses. SYNOPSIS OF SCENES. Act I. —The Milliner’s Shop in the Rue St. Honoré, Paris. JEANETTE TRIMS HATS. Act II.—(One month later.) Jeanette’s Apartments, adjoin- ing the Gambling Rooms of the Marquise de Quesnoy (‘* La Gourdan ”). “THE GAME CALLED DESTINY.” Act III. —(A year later.) Du Barry holds a Petit-Lever in the Palace of Versailles — at noon. “THE DOLL OF THE WORLD.” Act IV.—Scene 1. In the Royal Gardens. Before the dawn of the following morning. **FOLLY, QUEEN OF FRANCE.” Scene 2. Within the Tent. “THE HEART OF THE WOMAN.” Act V.—(A lapse of years.) During the Revolution. Scene 1. The Retreat in the Woods of Louve- ciennes. ““FATE CREEPS IN AT THE DOOR.” Scene 2. (Five days later.) In Paris again. «A REED SHAKEN IN THE WIND.” Scene 3. In Front of the Milliner’s Shop on the same day. «Once more we pass-this-way again, Once rhore! "I is where at first we met.” Time: Period of Louis XV and after the reign of his Successor. Place: Paris, Versailles, and Louveciennes. Mr. Belasco wishes to state that, as the traditional parting of Madame du Barry and the King of France is impossible for dramatic use, he has departed entirely from historical accuracy in this instance. e also begs to acknowledge his indebtedness to M. Arséne Houssaye for his sequence of scenes. (‘‘ Nouvelle a la main, sur la Comtesse du Barry.”) 3 “DU BARRY”—CAST CONTINUED Between Acts I, II, and III there will be intervals of 12 minutes ; between Acts IV and V an interval of 15 minutes. The entire production under the personal supervision of Mr. Belasco. Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . H.S. Muwarp Scenery by Mr. Ernest Gros. Incidental Music by Mr. William Furst. Stage decorations and accessories after designs by Mr. Wilfred Buckland. General Manager for Mr. Belasco . . Mr. B. F. Roeper BEFORE THE CURTAIN RIEF words, when actions wait, are well ; The prompter’s hand ts on his bell ; The coming heroes, lovers, kings, Are idly lounging at the wings ; Behind the curtain’s mystic fold The glowing future les wnrolled. One moment more: if here we raise The oft-sung hymn of local praise, Before the curtain facts must sway ; Here waits the moral of your play. Glassed in the poet's thought, you view What money can, yet can not do ; The faith that soars, the deeds that shine, Above the gold that builds the shrine. — Bret Harte Copyright by HoveuTon, Mirriin & Co. sauspap Suosso puy sipegg moestg XTAGIISA A SWIMS KC ; YS 4 play finds himself in the position of one who has 4 journeyed far and along a difficult way, but is home at last. To his home—and Mrs. Carter’s—he welcomes you, far as comfort and appoint- ment can make it, an annex of your own. A dedication is an outline of purpose, just as a christening is an act of faith. A word, therefore, as to the plans of this house. The Belasco Theatre will be devoted to such plays as prove suitable to the art and temperament of Mrs. Leslie Carter, who, by her tireless devotion to her work, her capacity for reaching the heart, and her flashes of insight into human nature as it is, has achieved a unique place upon the English-speaking stage of to-day. Here she will appear during a part of every season. Her plays will not be confined to those of any one author. It is the present 9 10 TO-NIGHT purpose to have Mrs. Carter seen in Shakesperean and classic réles, of which she has been making a close study. Mrs. Carter will share this season with her sister artist, Miss Blanche Bates, who will follow the “ Du Barry” in a new play now in course of preparation, Miss Bates has proved herself worthy of a stronger drama than any in which she has yet appeared, and her forthcoming réle is one which will offer her the opportunity of her career. Later, Mr. David Warfield, who has been called the “comedian of pathos,” will appear from time to time. Next season Mrs. Carter will open here in her new and unnamed play, which will appeal partic- ularly to her genius for sustained tragedy of intense, quiet suspense and depth of feeling. Eventually it is probable that a stock company may gather in under the roof-tree. A word as to the decorations in the interior of the theatre. On your chair you will see the Napoleonic bee; this Mr. Belasco has chosen for the house emblem because it means “ work, work, work!” The Napoleonic era has also been ad- hered to in other decorations, chiefly because this period was the luxurious cradle of romantic literature. The genius of drama was born among the ancient Greeks, and the best there is in our theatres can trace its source to them. They were the first to find outward expression for in- ward grace. To them beauty was a thing more Architects is and Cotton, Bigelow, Wall: INTERIOR TO-NIGHT 13 of spirit than human, and they created an art for the world that was severely classic in its exquisite balance of form and feeling. Not until Napoleon stirred the bitterness of men’s souls by the violence of war, did the warmth of luxury such as Greek philosophers had evaded in their expression of feeling appear in art. To-day the imperial wreath that crowns the proscenium arch is a symbol of the drama. The ornamental decorations of the Belasco Theatre have been taken directly from those made for Napoleon by the famous architects of the First Empire, Charles Percier and P. F. L. Fontaine. The Flying Pegasus and the Napoleonic eagles were originally made by these same architects, who built and decorated Napoleon’s throne room. The appliqué design in the box draperies is an exact copy of that used in the palace of the King of Spain. The general coloring is autumnal, the rich reds and sombre browns, with a lingering green among them all, blending the seasons in a restful ‘scheme of color. There is a reception room on every floor, including that of the second balcony. A Marie Antoinette boudoir, to be reached from the orchestra, is an exact duplicate of a room of that period. A smoking-room has been added for the comfort of guests. Behind the scenes the old- fashioned “green room” has been revived. As to further details of the realm behind the curtain, with its many new devices, that must of necessity: remain the hidden world of illusionment, and more—the land of camaraderie in art. The 14 TO-NIGHT mythical place where inspiration is born and romance identified ; where all that the heart dares feel the lips dare say, — and what darings, what sayings are possible in the sway of artistic camaraderie ! No labor of art is too long or too great, no creative faculty is spared — imagination and tra- dition are drained to the dregs, for they who build under the laws of the artist-world measure as high as the stars. There is no greed there, only a life to live, a soul to explore, a clasp of the hand now and then, a work to do by labor of love, and the whole standard of success — a word of sincere approval. To-night the foot-lights are not a dividing line, but a uniting tie, for there will be present many old friends, some personally unknown to Mr. Belasco and Mrs. Carter, who have formed their “public” in days past, and to whom author and player have always labored to be faithful. When the lights are dimmed and the theatre is empty, there will remain two people who will consecrate these walls with a deep reverence for what they represent to them. It will not be a gratitude for material prospects, just a deep sigh of relief that one more mile-stone has been passed since they began their work in art together. swarmpay “uorg pur syiva Smopdig AqdoT THE STORY OF DU BARRY THE STORY of DU BARRY \ BY -4vh he JAMES L. FORD With Six Full-Page Illustrations in Photogravure and Fifty-Five Half-Tone Engravings NEW YORK’ FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1902, By Freperick A. Stroxes Company Published in September, 1902 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. History sers tHe Stace II. A Lowry Bercinnine III. Enrertne upon wer CarEER IV. A New Sun on tHe Horizon or Ver- SAILLES V. Presentep at Court . VI. Tue Petir Lever VII. A Prime Minisrer’s DownraLu VIII. Tue Waces or Sin TX. Marie Anrornetre’s Reien . X. In Retirement . XI. Tue Storm Breaks XII. Drevrus-uike Justice Pace 19 40 72 94 111 138 157 182 217 240 258 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PHOTOGRAVURES Mrs. Leslie Carter . . . - . « « Frontispiece The Beginning of a Great on . Facing page 36 ANewFanceyy . ...... a “92 The Favorite of Royalty. . . . «144 “Swear on the Cross!” . . . . a « QT4 David Belasco . . . . .. . ss « 280 HALF-TONE ENGRAVINGS “ Fascinating Idlers and Handsome Noble- MEN @ Heo ew E Boe ww a ay Page 7 Reproduction of the Original aa of the Milliner’s Shop . . . . A “« 11 With her Shopmates at Labille’s . . . . 15 Milliner’s Doll . 2. 2. 2 1 ww wee 21 Something New in Bonnets. . . . . . i 8 Jeanette and Cossé-Brissac . . . . . . «© 31 Hurdy-gurdy Player . . . . «© . . - “ 35 The Belle of Labille’'s Shop. . . . . . “AI viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Copy of Affiche actually used in the Shop ofLabille . . . 1... . 1. . Page 47 A Noble Scoundrel . . . .... . « 49 Grands Seigneurs. . . . . . .. . Be The Corset ofthe Period . . . . . 2) “61 An Ominous Visit. . . . . . . “= 65 The Soothsayer’s Prophecy . .. . . “© 7 Orange Woman. - . . . s+ s ee ONG In Comedy Vein . . . eS es « 81 Her First Meeting with ~ King ee 8S «89 Objects seen in the Milliner’s Shop. . . “QI Wooed bya Royal Lover . . . . s F6 2OF Sedan Chair . . ... i ode Ce * 105 Jean Du Barry and Jeanette . . . . . “107 The Flute-player . . . . . 2. ws. “ 115 Punch Bowls « 2 # «= % & & © @ « « 119 A Courtesy to Royalty . . 2. 2... “123 The Father of Cossé-Brissae . . . . . “ 131 Slippers 4-4 = a # 4 ww a o> “133 The Petit Levée . . . .. . ef « 139 Screen and Toilet Table . . Poe x 145 A Queen of the Left Hand .... . «147 Ecclesiastical Homage . . . . . . . “« 153 Jeanette and the Cardinal . . . . . . « 159 Zamore . . . ‘ ) Bea ee ee. Se “161 The Diversions of oe RS we WS Ae LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Louis XV Table Alone with the King . A Loyal Officer : The Du Barry Coffee ais ; A Lover's Peril 5 With the Scent of the Violets Veritable Night Table actually used ~ Du Barry at Versailles . : é Fortiter in Modo . : The Search for the King’s Rival . Bodyguard of Louis XV . At the Height of her Power A Kingly Revel A Corner of Du Barry’s rat hcaeibinls in ie Palace at Versailles The Clowns’ Gambol . A Woman’s Intercession Spinnet of the Period With Breaking Heart A Jealous King i a A Corner of the Property Room . In the Garden of Louveciennes Condemned to Die On the Way to Execution . “c it? “ce oe ce ce ce ce “ee <3 ec ce ee ce oe ce it? ce ix Page 173 175 183 187 191 199 203 207 213 218 219 227 233 235 243 24:7 251 259 265 267 275 283 OF DU BARRY CHAPTER ONE HISTORY SETS THE STAGE NEVER go on the stage as Du Barry without see- 4) ing that awful guillotine (HWA knife shining before me FAW in every scene that I Vv S)) play,” said Mrs. Leslie 2eELES Carter one night just after the curtain had fallen on the last act of Belasco’s drama; and we who view the play from before the footlights, seeing every scene from the enlightened stand- point of latter-day knowledge, are perhaps inclined to wonder whether any vision of 1 2 THE STORY OF DU BARRY the guillotine ever troubled the dreams of Louis XV, Jeanette Du Barry and the rest of the dissolute court that went dancing and singing down the road that at last be- came the “deluge” that Pompadour had foreseen as the aftermath of it all. It seems inevitable, as we look back at it now, — this period of blood and vengeance that was the outcome of so many decades of luxury in high places and bitter poverty in the homes of the lowly; yet we of the present day can no more read the: future than could the nobles of a century and a half ago who danced and drank and wore fine clothes and cared little for the welfare of France so long as they basked in the favor of their king. They had had many warnings before the storm broke in its awful fury. In 1757,. Damiens, the shabby man with the pen- knife who was tortured to death for his futile attempt on the life of the king, had written from his prison cell these ominous words : “Sire, I am sorry that I was so unfor- tunate as to gain access to you; but if you HISTORY SETS THE STAGE 3 do not take your people’s part, before many years you and the dauphin and many others will perish.” Earlier than that the philosophers had sounded the note of protest and warning, generally by means of pamphlets and books hurled into France from some rock of exile to which they had been banished. Vol- taire had foreseen what destiny had in store for his mal-governed country as clearly as had Madame de Pompadour, whose re- mark “after us the deluge” became the by-word of her royal lover’s court. Sardou has said that when History makes a drama, the work is well done, and he speaks with a modesty that well becomes one of the first of modern French drama- tists. He might have added that History seldom does more than furnish the raw dramatic material which the playwright must knead into dramatic form, even as the sculptor kneads the rough clay into the statue which he imbues with his own genius. In the case of Madame Du Barry, the last of that long line of “ queens of the left 4 THE STORY OF DU BARRY hand~ whose influence was so potent in French statecraft during the eighteenth century, History has certainly set the stage for her in gorgeous fashion, and made ready for her first entrance by years of Bourbon rule which brought about the social and political conditions under which she played her picturesque and interesting part. The age in which she lived was worse than the present one, in that a certain number of men and women, forming the so- called “ privileged classes,” had free license to do a great many things that their coun- terparts of to-day would like to do, were it not for the force of public opinion. It was an age of wanton luxury and indulgence for the few, and one of great suffering and misfortune for the many. Happily enough for the purposes of the drama, the world was beginning to tire of these con- ditions, and was preparing for a great up- heaval at about the time that Madame Du Barry set her foot upon the threshold of her destiny. The fires of liberty were ready for kind- ling across the ocean, where George Wash- HISTORY SETS THE STAGE 5 ington of Virginia had already won his spurs in the French and Indian war ; and statesmen like John Hancock and Samuel Adams in Massachusetts were beginning to realize that there could be no loyalty and contentment in the colonies so long as George ITI continued to regard his Ameri- can subjects as people made only to be taxed for his benefit. But this king who, like his royal brother in France, believed that he ruled by divine right, paid no more heed to the remonstrances of those states- men of the colonies whose words should have had weight, than Braddock, the Gen- eral Redvers-Buller of his day and genera- tion, did to the warnings of his young staff officer, Washington, who had had his ex- perience in Indian fighting and was familiar with the red men’s tricks. Braddock’s conceit and ignorance led him to underestimate the strength of his enemy, while he placed an absurdly high value on his own prowess and the advan- tage to be derived from fighting the ‘ted men “according to the rules of war,” so it happens that the story of his defeat and 6 THE STORY OF DU BARRY death sounds very much like a chapter — almost any chapter —from the history of the Boer war. His disposition seems to _ have been not unlike that of King George, who certainly did not lose his American colonies because of his gracious and tactful methods of dealing with them. And while the people of these colonies were preparing for the struggle from which they were to emerge a powerful young nation, one whose future possibilities even the wisest among us cannot yet predict, the French people, who had been ground down by years of Bourbon misrule, were being driven by the inexorable force of cir- cumstances into a revolution of a totally different kind, and one that was second only to our own in its effect on the genera- tions that were to come after it. There is nothing in our civilization of to- day which more closely resembles what is poetically termed the “ancien régime” in France, than the stockyards in Chicago, with their owners as the Bourbon king, and the sheep, cattle, and pigs as the people. This, however, is not quite a fair compar- “Fascinating Idlers and Handsome Noblemen.” HISTORY SETS THE STAGE 9 ison, as the cattle are supplied with food, drink, and shelter, and are killed instantly, and not permitted to drag themselves off to remote parts of the field and there die of hunger, disease, or their wounds. They are of no use, however, except to be killed, and in this respect they bear a distinct resemblance to the subjects of Louis, known in the early years of his reign as “the well-beloved,” and of his predeces- sor, “the grand monarch,” by whom the common herd were looked upon as good for nothing except to pay taxes and stop bullets. Once in a while there are signs of revolt and dissatisfaction in the Chicago stock- yard, and in like manner, even before the Du Barry’s accession to power, there had been signs of dissatisfaction among the human cattle of her august lover. But these little rebellions, put down — and often by hired mercenaries —as quickly as they were begun, were nothing more than the mere angry tossing of a few pairs of horns, or a squeal of defiance from some far-seeing pig, drawing back from the 10 THE STORY OF DU BARRY shambles in a vain effort to escape his predestined fate. For the human cattle who made up the bulk of the population of France, far less consideration was shown than for their hoofed and horned counterparts in Chicago, for it was the fortune of the first-named to be ruled absolutely by a selfish, pleasure- loving monarch who believed that he gov- erned by divine right, and that those who lived under his dominion could have no higher duty to perform than that of servile obedience to his will. He it was who could consign men with whom, perhaps, he had supped and walked and talked the day be- fore, to a living death in the Bastille, merely to satisfy his own anger or the jealous whim of a mistress. He it was who stood watch- ing the funeral procession of his dead love, Madame de Pompadour, as it started from the courtyard in Versailles for Paris, and remarked, as he drummed with idle fingers on the window-pane, “ Madame la Marquise will have a wet day for her ride.” He it was who, in the early years of his reign, gained the surname of “well-beloved,” and who, HISTORY SETS THE STAGE 11 at the end, was hustled into the ground with less ceremony and respect than would have been shown to one of his own valets. Yet such was the divinity that : did hedge this king, this splen- / did type of the Bourbon) ff who could neither learn, nor forgive, nor for- get, that the greatest ladies in his court vied with one an- other for the honor of filling the position left vacant by the death of Madame de Pompadour. But Louis XV would have none of them. “I will never choose another mistress from the ranks of the nobility,” he said. ‘It’s too much trouble to get rid of them when they pall upon me.” Lord Chesterfield once said of him : “ By an unusual combination, Louis XV was both Reproduction of the original sign of the milliner’s shop. 12 THE STORY OF DU BARRY hated and despised,” and to the day of his death he never realized the awful and bloody depth of the abyss that lay directly beneath his feet and those of the wigged and per- fumed courtiers who helped him in his life- long race after pleasure, with ennui following close upon his heels. To the very end he lived only for himself, regarding the remon- strances of his cabinet and the opposition of his parliament as merely the outward and visible signs of a revolutionary spirit which must be crushed at all hazards. He went to his death still firmly believing that he had ruled by divine right, and little dream- ing that the Almighty, on whom he had sought to throw the responsibility for so much evil, was even then forging a thunder- bolt that was destined to involve Europe in a storm of unexampled violence, — one that would in the end clear the political skies and leave the atmosphere freer and purer than ever before. Within three months after the formal presentation of Madame Du Barry at the court of her king and lover, Napoleon Bonaparte was born in the Island of Cor- HISTORY SETS THE STAGE 13 sica. He took the field at a surprisingly early age, but that was because he was sorely needed, and the world had waited for him till its patience had long since been exhausted. Such, in brief, were the conditions under which History prepared the French stage for Jeanette Du Barry’s life-drama; but although she furnished a gorgeous setting, and associated her with various men and women of great historic and dramatic value, the work of building a play was left, as it always is in such cases, to be done by the dramatist. For example, in Julius Cesar, the greatest of all historical dramas, History has sup- plied the raw material in the shape of the life of Cesar, his murder, the events that led up to it, and its immediate results. From this splendid material Shakespeare constructed a drama which has done more than all else that has been written about Julius Cesar to impress upon the world the tragic story of his fall. In doing this, he did not content himself with arranging a number of scenes from the life of the great 14 THE STORY OF DU BARRY Roman emperor in order that his drama might be historically accurate in trivial as well as in important details. Had he done this, no matter if he had clothed his work in language as beautiful and convincing as that which still lives in his deathless drama, his work would not have survived a dozen representations, — in fact, it would not have been a play at all. But Shakespeare was a genius and not a mere cataloguer of events, and when it came to dealing with such a tremendous theme as that of the Roman conspiracy and the tragedy which it brought about, he set his imagination to work, and the touch of his genius transformed the dull clay of history into a living, breathing story that has touched the hearts of generations of playgoers and will continue to charm and interest and instruct so long as the English language shall be spoken. He invented the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius. He invented the great speech of Brutus to the Roman people. He invented that masterpiece of subtle, convincing ora- tory in which the brilliant Mare Antony ‘SaIpqvT Iv sawudogg 424 Yat HISTORY SETS THE STAGE 17 stirs the very stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. In short, the world is indebted to the illuminating genius of the playwright, and not to a mere recorder of history, for nearly every one of the great scenes and speeches which have kept alive in the hearts of generation after generation of humanity the impressive story of Cesar’s fall. It is a far cry from Shakespeare to Ros- tand, in time and in other respects as well, but apart from the interest that attaches itself to every chapter and paragraph of the Napoleonic story, what dramatic value do we find in the life of that “ dove that found birth within an eagle’s nest,” the Duc de Reichstadt ? None whatever, excepting that which the dramatist has invented. Even the character which Madame Bern- hardt portrayed with so much art is one in which Metternich, could he return to earth, would probably fail to recognize the unfor- tunate young prince whose unhappy destiny he helped to shape. But Rostand is per- fectly justified in what he has done. Given the son of the world’s conqueror, 2 18 THE STORY OF DU BARRY baptized at Notre Dame amid the acclama- tions of all Paris, anointed in the cradle with the oil by the virtue of which he was to rule by divine right, and accustomed from his very earliest childhood to the cere- monial deference due him not only as a king, but also as the only son of one who was almost a demigod in the eyes of his people, it was only fair to assume that the fires of ambition burned fiercely within his breast, although, as a matter of fact, they did not. And it is on this perfectly justifiable assumption that the play of “L’Aiglon” is constructed. The real Na- poleon’s son, whom we find in the pages of veracious, unimaginative history, could not have been made to serve as the central figure of a drama, because he did not possess the requisite attributes. PEA (JERSE LA Ae ONS Y, See Si ey VN FEO 2 = Nees ‘ TEA H\ CHAPTER II A LOWLY BEGINNING KAS \HIE life of Madame Du Ne IE Ni Barry, while not afford- Ki wh iS ing in itself as much in Ve oH | isa the way of raw dramatic WAN PONS material as does that of D Julius Cesar, has never- RN ELLOS theless been fashioned into a stage story of deep human interest, set in brilliant surroundings, and far better suited to the tastes of modern audiences than that of the poor little king of Rome. It is, moreover, a story which, while follow- ing the true course of history more closely than almost any successful historical play of modern times, is nevertheless sufficiently charged with the dramatist’s imagination to seem in the eyes of twentieth century of a A O SS “OAS yi H ae 6 20 THE STORY OF DU BARRY audiences an intensely interesting picture of what might very well have happened at the court of the French king. Historians differ widely as to the real character of this last of the Favorites, a cir- cumstance not to be wondered at when we study the conditions under which she lived, and take into account the extreme of adu- lation on the one hand and execration on the other that were the natural results of the king’s fondness for her. These historians differ also as to her parentage, the date of her birth, the exact extent of her power, and in scores of other respects. It is certain, however, that she was born in Vaucouleurs, the same little French village in which Joan of Arc first saw the light nearly three hundred and fifty years before. Indeed, Anne Bécu, the mother of Du Barry, always claimed a blood-relationship with the Maid of Or- leans, a boast which it would probably have been difficult for her to substantiate. Cer- tain it is that in the middle of the eighteenth century the Bécu family was not one of great distinction, most of its members being A LOWLY BEGINNING 21 engaged in domestic service, while the certificate of Madame Du Barry’s birth, taken from the parish records in the town of Vaucouleurs, describes her as “ Jeanette, natural daughter of Anne Bécu, sometimes called Quantigny, born on the 19th of August, in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-three, and baptized the same day.” a IH Who little Jeanette's fath- 1 aint er was will never be known. ‘ Tradition and history assert variously that he was a tax- collector, a sailor, and an unfrocked monk named Gomard Milliner’s de Vaubernier. From these possi- 7” ble parents, Mr. Belasco selected the last named as being more interesting than either of the others, and he actually introduces him for a moment in the first act of the drama in the guise of a shoe-cleaner, fitted out with his elaborate contrivance for clean- ing shoes and imparting to them the dead lustreless finish that was in vogue in Louis XV’s time. 22 THE STORY OF DU BARRY In her own memoirs,’ Madame Du Barry gives her birth as the 28th of August, 1746, and passes over the maternal claim to kin- ship with the inspired maid as if she put no faith in it. She speaks of her father as a man without fortune who had accepted a mean situation as clerk at the Barrieres, and who had married her mother from love. The reason for this will be shown in an- other chapter. But, whether married or no, Jeanette’s mother found herself, a few years after the birth of her daughter, absolutely without resources, and set out for Paris with the intention of trying her luck there. Through the kindness of a financier named Dumon- ceau, Jeanette was sent to the Convent of 1 The four volumes purporting to be the memoirs of the Countess Du Barry have been drawn on guardedly for some of the material of lesser importance contained in this book. In all probability these memoirs are largely apocryphal, but they have been compiled, if not entirely by Madame Du Barry herself, at least by some one who was thoroughly familiar with the history of her time, as well as with her own career, and who, for reasons of his own, did not wish to place his own name on the title-page. Other examples can be named of books which contain a vast amount of accurate and inter- esting information of a personal and delicate nature, and which are nevertheless apocryphal as to signature. Something New in Bonnets. A LOWLY BEGINNING 25 Sainte-Aure. This convent was designed as a retreat for young girls whose condition in life was such as to expose them to temp- tation, and here Jeanette remained until she was nearly fifteen. During all these years she lived a life of such extreme rigor that her subsequent relapse from austere virtue is not to be wondered at. It was an ex- istence of terrible severity for children as young as she. Clothed in an ugly dress, deprived of all the little ornaments that children hold dear, forbidden to laugh, jest or play with her little companions, and obliged to devote most of her time to work, nothing but her elasticity of spirit and marvellous birthright of roguish, infec- tious gayety enabled her to remain in the dreary Convent of Sainte-Aure as long as she did. Soon after leaving the convent, her mother lost her situation, and the young girl began to earn her living by going from door to door in Paris and the near-by coun- try with a little open box of watch-guards, imitation pearls, brilliants, and snuff-boxes which she offered for sale. Through the 26 THE STORY OF DU BARRY influence of a certain Madame Lagarde, the girl was removed from the temptations of the street and retained by her as a sort of lady’s companion in her Chateau Cour- Neuve. The old lady was charmed with the growing beauty and bright, amusing chatter of her new retainer, and, for a time, all went well. It was at Madame Lagarde’s that she gained that familiarity with certain of the outward and visible signs of high breeding which stood her in such good stead when in after years she was first admitted to the intimate circle of courtiers that clustered about the French king. Among those who frequented the house were Voltaire, at that time the most powerful, most quoted, most feared, and most sought-after man in the kingdom; M. Marmontel, the author of the famous “ Moral Tales,” and M. Grimm, whom she describes as “a cun- ning fox, witty, though a German, very ugly and very thin.” Besides these men of literary renown, Madame Lagarde’s salon was frequented by such aristocrats as the Duc de Richelieu, the Prince de Soubise, A LOWLY BEGINNING 27 and the Duc de Brissac, whose son was destined to play a part of no mean impor- tance in the story of her later years. Un- fortunately, however, Madame Lagarde had a young son living with her, and it was not long before she discovered and nipped in the bud a love affair between the two young people which had made a most promising beginning. Jeanette, cast once more upon her own resources, entered, under the name of Lancon—that of the new husband whom her mother had just taken— the millinery establishment of Monsieur Labille in the rue Saint- Honoré. Here, although safe from the brutal temptations of the street, she was exposed to others that were far more dangerous. “Imagine,” says that conscientious and entertaining chronicler, M. de Goncour, “stores with glass windows all around, where fascinating idlers and handsome noblemen kept ogling the girls from morn- ing till night; shutters which were used for correspondence and which allowed the notes, folded up fan-fashion, to be passed through the peg holes ; little trips out of 28 THE STORY OF DU BARRY doors where the smart milliner’s girl, such as Leclerc has sketched her in the series of costumes of D’Esnoult and Repilly, trotted about with a conquering air, her head cov- ered with a big black hat shaped like a calash, allowing her fair curls to slip down her rounded shapely waist, squeezed into a polonaise of printed calico, trimmed with muslin. Imagine, at the end of all this, conversations and proposals and, after the proposals and the responses to the proposals, it was for nearly every one of them, as it was for the little Lancon girl, some Monsieur Lavauvelarbiere (one of Jeanette’s early lovers) or some Monsieur Duval or some- body else.” This picture we may supplement with one given in Madame Du Barry’s own words : “T now commenced a new existence, and how different a one from that I had led at Sainte-Aure! There, all was wearisome and dull; there, the least motion, a word, a burst of laughter, was kept in check, and sometimes we were severely punished. At Madame Labille’s there was a constant watch to keep the house in order and regularity; but A LOWLY BEGINNING 29 how different from the unceasing surveillance of the convent! Here we were almost mistresses of our own actions, provided the allotted portions of our work were properly done. We might talk of any- thing that came into our heads; we were at liberty to laugh at anything that provoked our mirth, and we might sing as much as we pleased. And we did chatter, laugh and sing to an unlimited extent. Out of the shop on Sunday, we were at perfect liberty and at equal liberty in our chambers, which were situated at the top of the house. Each of us had her room, which was small but very neat. My god- father had mine decorated with a handsome carpet, and gave me a commode, a pier-glass, a small table, four chairs, and an armchair of velvet, magnificently gilt. This was all luxury, and when my fellow- apprentices came to see my apartment, the richness of the furniture excited surprise and universal ad- miration. For at least four and twenty hours the sole theme of conversation at Madame Labille’s was the chamber of Mademoiselle Lancon.” It is not easy for us of the present age to imagine such an establishment as that m which little Jeanette found employment. Patronized by women of the very highest social position, it was at the same time con- stantly frequented by the most notorious of female harpies, while it kept in stock sword- 30 THE STORY OF DU BARRY knots, shoe-buckles, and other articles of male adornment, the sale of which furthered those free and easy flirtations between the apprentices and the idle men of the town which were carried on across the counters without even the pretence of concealment. Moreover, we must bear in mind the fact that in the France of the eighteenth cen- tury millinery and dressmaking were in- dustries of the highest importance in the economic life of the nation, and the crea- tions of such a shop as that of Labille were viewed by everybody and discussed seriously like works of art. At that time French taste governed the entire world in matters of dress and adorn- ment, as for that matter it did a century later during the Second Empire. The new fashions for each season emanated from the court of the king, and were sent abroad by means of a manikin called “the great doll of France,” which was dressed in ac- cordance with the very latest styles, and sent to every court of Europe in charge of an envoy and a numerous suite of attachés and lackeys. So much importance did uD apyauval “IOSSLAG ASSO) A LOWLY BEGINNING 33 foreigners of fashion and distinction attach to the visits of this doll, the forerunner of the modern fashion-plate, which was of course unknown then, that once, during the Seven Years’ War, when the British had established such a complete blockade of the French ports that it was impossible for a single ship to break through the cordon, an exception was made in favor of the vessel bearing the great doll of France, which was allowed to cross the channel. And it is with no small degree of pride that French historians describe the manner in which the flags of the enemy’s fleet were dipped in salutation to the ship bearing the doll and its accompanying embassy on its way to teach the English how to dress themselves properly. It was toward the close of a reign char- acterized by luxury in personal adornment, wanton licentiousness, and selfish indiffer- ence to the needs of others, — a rococo age of elaborate ceremonial, superficial ornament, and over-gilding,— and in a shop that might very well have contributed to the outfit of the great doll of France, that Jeanette 3 34 THE STORY OF DU BARRY Vaubernier first made her bow. She was then at the very dawn of womanhood, and equipped with gifts of personal beauty and coquetry which made her, from the very first, the object of gallant attentions on the part of the young men of fashion who flut- tered about the rue Saint-Honoré, and awakened the immediate interest of the buzzards of both sexes, who were more in evidence then in Paris than ever before or since, and forever on the lookout for some attractive bit of femininity which could be added to the stock and trade of their hideous traffic. The peculiar clientele of the Labille shop must be borne in mind if we are to judge this young milliner’s girl fairly, and we must also take into consideration her daily sur- roundings and the mode of life of her companions and shopmates. And _ these young women, had they been taken to task by any of the professional reformers of their day, would undoubtedly have justified their conduct on the ground that they were merely following the example set by the very highest women of the no- A LOWLY BEGINNING 35 bility, and winked at by the princes of the church. Nor can we in fairness regard the excuse as a lame one, for at that time the post of Favorite at the king’s court’ was one that was openly coveted, and shamelessly sought by women who bore the proudest names in the kingdom. As for the men with whom Jeanette was now brought in contact, they were worthy members of a society of such exalted - ideas that it could conceive of no finer or more to be desired post than that of Favorite to a king who had long since grown weary of all womankind and was as difficult to please as a man might well — be who had followed pleasure through youth, manhood, and up to the begin- nings of old age and to the very point of satiety. Hurdy-gurdy player. 36 THE STORY OF DU BARRY No man or woman would have been deemed worthy of a place in the corrupt court of this blasé monarch who did not stand ready at a moment’s notice to sac- rifice to his pleasure a wife, sister or daughter, as his taste might dictate. It was this spirit of loyalty to the person of their sovereign that had much to do with the development of the race of “ grands seigneurs,’ — courtly gentlemen _ bearing splendid historic names, wearing exquis- itely ruffled clothes, and carrying at their sides slender, jewel-hilted swords which they were always ready to draw in defence of their king, or of what they were pleased to term their honor. ‘These were the men who deemed it an honor to sacrifice a wife or sister to the king’s whim, and it is pleasant to learn from the pages of history that His Majesty was always willing to pay handsomely for such proofs of loyalty on the part of husband or brother. There were, however, in the ranks of the nobility, men who could be singled out as notable exceptions to the rule of dishonor and licentiousness that prevailed at the The Beginning of a Great Love. A LOWLY BEGINNING 37 court of King Louis, and one of these was that distinguished and gallant gentleman, the Duc de Cossé-Brissac, Governor of Paris and Colonel of the Cent Gardes du Roi, whose after life was so curiously bound up with that of the humble little milliner’s girl, Jeanette Lancon. It was this nobleman whom the king bade to take courage, and not grieve over so small a disaster as a scandal that affected the fair name of one of his female rela- tives. And to this he made answer: “Sire, I trust that I have courage to bear resignedly any disaster, though none to support dishonor.” All historians unite in singling out this nobleman from the others of his day as a man worthy of the highest praise for the lofty purity of his character. “His romantic devotion to Jeanette Du Barry,” says one of these chroniclers, “ is indeed singular. For many years, until he fell a victim to the Revolution, he paid her a sort of passionate worship ; such as, in the old romances of chivalry, gallant knights were supposed to render to the 88 THE STORY OF DU BARRY ladies to whom they had sworn fealty. Before his death he made a will providing handsomely for her, and recommending her to the care of his nearest of kin as one ‘who has been very dear’ to him.” But it was not every young milliner’s girl who had the good fortune to win the chivalrous devotion of such a man as the Due de Cossé-Brissac. ‘They were men of a very different sort who came crowding into Labille’s shop, ostensibly to look at sword-knots or the latest design in shoe- buckles, but in reality to flirt with the young girls, to invite them to theatre and supper parties, and to arrange with them for meetings on Sundays and _ holidays. The esteem in which they held these young apprentices may easily be imagined. And if they could traffic openly in the honor of wife or sister without loss of caste, who can blame these girls for regard- ing their attentions as a distinction to be proud of ¢ The modern biped whose mission in life is to follow and insult young women who work for a living is a despicable creature, A LOWLY BEGINNING 39 but he is a high-minded gentleman in comparison with some of the “ grand sei- gneurs” who used to haunt the milliner’s shop of Madame Labille, and we cannot fairly estimate her character without taking theirs into account as well. CHAPTER III ENTERING UPON HER CAREER ADAME LABILLE was the real owner of the shop which was con- ducted, for form’s sake, in her husband’s name. It was situated in the an rue St. Honoré at the corner of the rue Neuf-des-Petits-Champs, since made world-famous in ‘Thackeray’s “ Ballad of Bouillabaisse.” It is in this shop that the dramatist first reveals his heroine as a light-hearted, roguish girl, ready to flirt with any one who comes along, no matter whether he be soldier or prelate, perfectly willing to borrow for her own use the new hat which has just been made for a princess, and obviously a girl who is on the best of terms with herself 2) ON: IAG ‘dogg s.aqvT fo 7q 74h ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 43 and every one about her. The same quali- ties of character and disposition which made her popular with her shopmates, which won the love of her employer and held it, too, to the very day of her execu- tion, are the qualities which enchained the fancy of Louis XV the first time that he saw her, and enabled her to hold her place as Favorite until the end of his reign. In the play the shop in which Jeanette Vaubernier actually worked is reproduced as nearly as possible, and the back of the scene is so constructed that, reversed, it is used to reveal the exterior in the final act of the drama. In all respects this scene is a perfect study of a milliner’s shop of that period. The affiche, or sign, which hangs on the wall, is an exact copy of the one which was actually displayed in Labille’s shop. And if we read it with the aid of opera-glasses, we learn precisely what sort of goods were sold there. These very goods are displayed in the mimic scene, and are of great variety, for the milliner of Louis XV’s time not only made hats and bonnets, but also kept a large stock of 44 THE STORY OF DU BARRY silks, muslins, and other dress fabrics, to- gether with buckles, high-heeled slippers, sword-knots, and other articles of wear and adornment. The benches scattered about the room for the convenience of the customers are copied from those in use at that time, and the bandboxes are specially designed for hats that were larger and much more elab- orate than those that are worn at the pres- ent day. The sedan chair that stops for a single moment before the door is well worth the attention of the serious student of the Louis XV period. It is an exact copy of the one used by the Polish princess who became the wife of Louis and the Queen of France, and it opens in such a way as to admit the elaborately large head- dresses which were in fashion during her time. It was during her apprenticeship in this shop that Madame Du Barry, according to her own confession, had her first love affair. Her sweetheart was a young pastry-cook named Nicolas Mothon, and his lowly sta- tion in life excited the contempt of the ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 465 other young women in the shop, whose adorers were either notaries or barrister’s clerks, students or soldiers. That her attachment for her humble lover was genuine cannot be doubted, for years afterward when, at the close of her remarkable career she had retired to pri- vate life, this woman who had basked in the supreme favor of her king wrote as follows: ‘“ When I call to remembrance all those who have adored me, shall I say that it is not poor Nicolas, perhaps, who pleased me least! I, too, have known what first love is.” In the drama there is no Nicolas the pastry-cook. Wisely enough, Mr. Belasco has disregarded whatever claims to priority he may have possessed, and plunged at once into the one true, enduring, and credi- . table love affair that runs through the life of his heroine. Young Cossé-Brissac appears in the very first act, an ideal French lover, ardent, chivalrous and handsome. As a matter of fact, although history does not speak defi- nitely on the subject, the young noble did 46 THE STORY OF DU BARRY not make known his love for her until some years later; but, in deference to dramatic exigencies, this affair of the heart is made to date from the very beginning of the drama. He comes to see her in the shop, and she flirts with him across the counter, while pretending to wait on one of the customers. He brings her flowers, too, — a bunch of violets, — and their fra- grance permeates the whole play. In as- suming that this love affair was a pure and honorable one throughout, Mr. Belasco does not violate historical truth, — though he would be perfectly justified in so doing, — but simply avails himself of the fact that history tells us nothing positively to the contrary. Moreover, he has made this love affair, with its consequent hates and jealousies, the chief motive of his drama, quite prop- erly giving it precedence over her more mercenary relations with the king. After the affair with the pastry-cook came one with a hair-dresser named Lamat, which lasted no longer than that unfortu- nate gentleman’s very short purse. This ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 47 young man, however, may be said to have left his mark on history by virtue of a cer- tain style of hair-dressing which he designed expressly for his young Seen and which is still known — ei when known at all — by her name. After Lamat had impover- ished himself through ‘belles ey d te ; the extravagance of a of, s L ABILLE,, his young mistress he ‘ | lube ire oe Gu hin henial . fled to England to es- ea ta place Jes ‘Divtvired 2 cape his ne while ff alenene foncerne les she entered a gam-: |@ oil pes Kerra fes, Sriles Binks bling house kept by a JWR es ge 9 Pe certain Madame Du- quesnoy in the rue de eis Bourbon. In_ those Copy of affiche actually used d ays the fashionable in the shop of Labille. Parisian gambling houses were much fre- quented by women, and were generally looked upon as convenient places of rendez- vous for the light-minded and dissolute. Madame Duquesnoy’s gambling house serves as the setting for the second act of the play, and a very notable scene it is too, 48 THE STORY OF DU BARRY done entirely in a peculiar shade of red. It is a shade that cannot be found else- where in this country, for it is made ex- pressly for this scene in France, and the silk brocade which is employed for walls, curtains and furniture is dyed with it. It is the only shade of red that could be used as a background for a woman with such extraordinary red hair as that of Mrs. Carter. It was while frequenting this gaming house that Jeanette Vaubernier (or Lancon, as she called herself now) first met, in the person of the Count Jean Du Barry, a man who was destined to play a most im- portant part in the shaping of her strange destiny, and whom Horace Walpole, in his memoirs of that period, aptly characterized as “a most consummate blackguard.” The count came from the neighborhood of Tou- louse, and always claimed connection with the Barry family who have resided for years in the south of Ireland, as well as with their kinfolk the Barrymores. He had come up to Paris from Toulouse, leaving behind him a wife who in after *Jaspunory AVN KF ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 51 years contemptuously refused to accept any benefit whatever from the hands of either her husband or the Favorite. In Paris the count succeeded in obtaining a government contract for supplying provi- sions to the Island of Corsica, and with the money which this yielded him he in- dulged his tastes for gambling and other debaucheries to a degree which soon gained for him the name of Roué. As time went on and his acquaintance among men of wealth and fashion increased, the count found other ways of earning money beside his Corsican contract. One source of revenue was the gambling table, where at this time fortune always smiled upon him, and another was the traffic in young and pretty women, in which, like many another nobleman and grande dame of that corrupt age, he took part without any evidence of shame. This man is known to have carried on his infamous trade as far back as the time of Madame de Pompadour, whom he had sought to supplant with a certain Mademoiselle Dorothée, the daugh- ter of a Strasburg water-carrier. That there 52 THE STORY OF DU BARRY was “money in the business” may be inferred from the fact that the Count Du Barry had the effrontery to ask for him- self the post of Minister to Cologne on the ground that it was he who had introduced her to the king, and that, too, without waiting to learn if she had found favor in the royal eyes. Under the protection of this gallant gen- tleman Jeanette was extremely happy for she was allowed to plunge heart and soul into the gayest life that the French capital had to offer. It was in the very midst of all this gayety that something happened which she records at considerable length, and which is presented, in a somewhat al- tered form, in the drama. One day while walking in the street she was followed by a young man of distinguished appearance, richly clad, and with something peculiarly sombre and mysterious in his face which excited her curiosity. This young man dogged her footsteps for two or three days, until at last she turned upon him and asked him what he meant by following her. “« Mademoiselle,” he said in most respect- ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 53 ful accents, “ promise to grant me the first reasonable favor I shall ask of you when you come to be Queen of France.” Smilingly she gave the required promise, and then the unknown continued: “ You think me mad, I know; but I pray you have a better opinion of me. Adieu, mademoiselle. There will be nothing more extraordinary after your elevation than your end.” Returning home she related the inci- dent to Count Jean, who was profoundly impressed. “Tt is strange,” he said, “ but that proph- ecy fits in with what has already come into my own head. Why should you not be queen, — not the real queen, of course, but as Madame de Pompadour was ?” From this moment the scheme suggested by the words of the mysterious stranger took complete possession of Count Du Barry’s breast, and for weeks he thought of it night and day, and planned a hundred projects for its accomplishment. In the drama this incident receives due attention, although for pictorial purposes 54 THE STORY OF DU BARRY the prophecy is not made by the young man in the street but by a picturesque old witch who comes into the gaming house to tell fortunes. In this act, too, we see the change that has taken place in the character of the young girl whose roguish follies were but yesterday the delight of her companions in the millinery shop, and a constant source of attraction to the young men of fashion who came flocking about there. She is a woman now, and has set her feet, lightly it is true, but none the less surely, in the path that she is to follow to the end, and which leads direct to the palace of Versailles. Under the tutelage of the unprincipled Du Barry she has entered upon a life of dis- sipation and excitement which is already beginning to tell on her, and from which she recoils now and then at the thought of Cossé-Brissac. Compressed into this scene are two of the crucial events of her mimic life. One, his- torical, her meeting with the king, and the other, invented, her quarrel with her lover which definitely determines her future course of life. ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 55 Concerning this gambling house period of her career Madame Du Barry herself says: “ My entrance into the world was bad; the progress of it was like the com- mencement, and I led a dissipated life.” It is during one of the moments of re- flection that come now and then to such as she—no matter how fast the pace or how deep the cup — that she goes back in fancy and with infinite yearning to the days when she wandered through country lanes and hedge-rows, selling her little trinkets to whomever would buy. The sky was blue then, the grass green, and the violets, which she loved, and which Cossé gave her, were lifting their shy heads in the quiet places in the woods. The stranger's prophecy made a profound impression on Jean Du Barry. And, in- deed, the prospect of supplying an incum- bent for the place that had been vacant since the death of Madame de Pompadour was in itself enough to completely enlist the sympathy and interest of a man of his nature. For to be the Favorite of the King of 56 THE STORY OF DU BARRY France meant not merely a life of indolent pleasure, but power far exceeding that of any queen or minister. The post car- ried with it the appointment of cabinets, the dismissal of statesmen and generals, the disposal of the highest honors within the gift of the sovereign, and unlimited drafts on the public treasury. It is not easy for people of the present day, who have grown up under such institutions as ours, to un- derstand how the French nation could sub- mit year after year to such government as this. But if the sufferings of the people were great, so was their vengeance, and the Reign of Terror was simply a natural and inevitable outcome of it all,—the mad _ bloodthirsti- ness of a wild beast which, hunted and tor- mented beyond all endurance, turns upon its pursuers and rends them. The blood of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette was shed in atonement for the crimes of the two reigns that preceded theirs. Since the days of the elegant Pompadour there had been no Favorite in the royal pal- aces, though it would have been hard to “SANIUGIIG SPUDAL) ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 59 find among all the high-born dames of France a single one with any pretensions whatever to youth and beauty who did not aspire to the post. Many there were, in- deed, whose claims were artfully pressed by near relatives or mercenary intermedi- aries ; but the king, who was by this time nearly threescore years of age, and had run the whole gamut of pleasure and dissipation, would have none of them. By nature morose and “unamusable,” as 'Talleyrand said of the first Napoleon, as years went by he grew more and more difficult to enter- tain. Madame de Pompadour had been a woman of wit, beauty, and talent. A con- summate actress behind as well as before the footlights, she had not only made her way skilfully among the grand ladies of the court, but had also organized the theatre of the Petits Cabinets, in which she was wont to entertain the king, taking the leading part herself and choosing her supporting company from among the ranks of the higher nobility. These performances were usually given to an audience of not more than twoscore, 60 THE STORY OF DU BARRY and so great was the fame that attached itself to them, that ambassadors and cabinet ministers considered it an honor to be in- vited to take even the smallest part in the representation. Madame de Pompadour, moreover, was a woman of genuine artistic temperament, and one thoroughly in touch with the spirit of her luxurious, richly decorative age. With her own hands she engraved nu- merous portraits of her royal lover and did much to develop the manufacture of Sévres porcelain, which was begun during her reign. Jeanette Vaubernier, on the other hand, was merely an unlettered Parisian grisette who had been transplanted from behind the counter of the milliner shop, where she had bloomed like a fragrant, healthy carnation, to the hot-house atmosphere of a gambling house, where, among the painted and wrinkled and world-worn habi- tués, she seemed like an exotic of rare beauty and exquisitely fresh charm. In the ways of court life she had had abso- lutely no experience, and she herself laughed ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 61 in unaffected merriment at the mere idea of filling the place of the gifted and beau- tiful Pompadour. Nevertheless the day came when Count Du Barry entered her apartment radiant with delight, and informed her 4 that their dinner-table that night was to be graced by no less a person than that widely known and infamous creature of Louis XV called Lebel. Now Lebel’s nominal posi- % tion at court was merely that of valet de chambre to the king ; but there was no man in the royal service who was more diligently courted by men and women of position than this same Lebel, and for no other reason save that it was generally known that he commanded all the approaches through which a woman might hope to reach the much coveted place of Favorite. As it was necessary that the place should be filled by a married woman, it was agreed that Jeanette should be presented to Lebel as the wife of Jean’s brother Guillaume, The corset of the period. 62 THE STORY OF DU BARRY who still had his home in the country. So much excited was the count over their good fortune in securing a guest of such distinction that he assumed personal charge of Jeanette’s toilette, as well as of the din- ner, and for two hours he divided his time between her dressing-room and the kitchen, to the despair of both cook and hair-dresser. He had his reward, however, for Lebel was conquered by the first smiling glance of his hostess, and to the count’s question, ““ What think you of our new beauty?” he made answer, as he raised her hand to his lips: “She is worthy of the throne.” The company sat down to dinner, and the king’s valet de chambre was so warm in his praise that the count began to fear that he had fallen in love with Jeanette himself, and would refuse to resign her to any one else. Two days after the dinner the king’s valet de chambre called again and, finding Jeanette alone, talked to her quite seriously of her personal charms and of the part which a woman like herself might assume under the conditions then existing in France. ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 63 “ Fearing to compromise myself,” relates Madame Du Barry, “ I made no reply, but maintained the reserve which my character imposed upon me. I saw that he really thought me the sister-in-law of Count Jean, and I left him in all his error, which was ma- terial to my interests. I am not clever, my friends ; I never could conduct an intrigue. I feared to speak or do wrong; and, whilst I kept a tranquil appearance, I was internally agitated at the absence of Count Jean. “Fortune sent him to me. He was crossing the street when he saw at our door a carriage with the royal livery, which Lebel always used when his affairs did not demand a positive incognito. This equi- page made him suspect a visit from Lebel and he came in opportunely to extricate me from my embarrassment. «<< Sir, said Lebel to him, when he en- tered, ‘here is the lady whose extreme modesty refuses to listen to what I dare not. thus explain to her.’ «Ts it anything I may hear for her?’ said the count, with a smiling air. «« Yes, I am the ambassador of a mighty 64 THE STORY OF DU BARRY power ; you are the minister plenipoten- tiary of the lady, and with your leave we will go into your private room to discuss the articles of the secret treaty which I have been charged to propose to you. What says madame ?’ «*T consent to anything that can come from such an ambassador,’ was my answer, and thereupon Count Jean led him into another room.” - In this private interview the ambassador, informed the plenipotentiary that the king had become deeply interested in the de- scription he had given to him of the charms of the ravishing Madame Du Barry, and that he desired an interview with her in order that he might himself be the judge of her beauty. The count, naturally enough, was agree- able to this proposal, and Lebel continued, saying that he intended to entertain the king and several of his court, including the famous Due de Richelieu, at supper the following evening. He had promised His Majesty that Madame Du Barry should be one of the party. An Ominous Visit. ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 67 The count eagerly accepted, in the name of his supposed sister-in-law, the valet’s invitation, and no sooner had the car- riage with the royal liveries rolled away than he hastened to the room where the one-time sweetheart of Nicolas the pastry- cook sat waiting to learn the results of the interview, her brain dazzled at the mere thought of becoming the mistress of His Most Christian Majesty, Louis XV. “Victory!” cried the count, delightedly as he entered the chamber. ‘ Victory, my dear Jeanette! ‘To-morrow you sup with the king!” And on receipt of this information, we learn that dear Jeanette turned pale, lost her strength completely and was compelled to sit, or rather to fall into a convenient chair. When she had recovered a little, Count Jean told her of his interview with Lebel, and advised her as to the course that she should follow should she become the Favorite of the king. “To-morrow you will be everything !” he cried with energy ; “ but we must think about this morrow. Make haste, noble 68 THE STORY OF DU BARRY countess. Go to all the milliners— seek what is elegant, rather than what is rich. Be as lovely, pleasing, and gay as possible , this is the main point —and God will do all the rest.” Late on the following day, the Du Barrys presented themselves at Versailles, and were eagerly received by Lebel, who came for- ward, saying: “Ah, madame, I began to fear you might not come. You have been looked for with an impatience —” “ Which can hardly equal mine,” inter- rupted Madame Du Barry ; “for you were prepared for your visitor, whilst I am yet to learn who is the friend that so kindly desires to see me.” “Tt is better that it should be so,” added Lebel. “Do not seek either to guess or discover more than that you will here meet with some cheerful society, — friends of mine who will sup at my house, but with whom circumstances prevent my sitting down at table.” “How!” she exclaimed with affected surprise. ‘“ Not sup with us?” “* Even so,” replied Lebel, and then added, ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 69 with a laugh, “he and I sit down to sup- per together! What an idea! No, you will find that just as the guests are about to sit down at table I shall be suddenly called out of the room, and shall only return at the close of the repast.” Had Jeanette Du Barry been a woman of greater experience in the ways of the polite world, it is not at all unlikely that her history would never have been written, and that her acquaintance with royalty would have begun and ended at the little supper in which Louis XV bore the title of the Baron de Gonesse, and at which no cover was laid for the plebeian host. If there was one moment in her life in which she de- serves praise, — and, to do her justice, there were many, — it was this one of such great importance to her. Instead of endeavor- ing to charm the man whom she knew to be her king by imitating the airs, graces, and affectations of a society with which he had long been surfeited, instead of simulat- ing the embarrassment to which every woman resorted as a sort of tribute of homage to royalty, she had the good sense 10 THE STORY OF DU BARRY to remain her own simple, natural self. Not for years had the worn-out monarch met a woman with such hoydenish exuber- ance of spirit, such beauty of face and form, such bright, lively chatter. With him it proved a case of love at first sight. On her return to Paris the next day Jeanette received from him a magnificent diamond aigrette, worth at least sixty thousand frances, and the sum of two hun- dred thousand francs in bank-notes. Both she and Count Jean were well-nigh struck dumb with astonishment at the sight of these treasures, which, so the record runs, he divided into two equal parts, putting one into his own pocket, and the other into the escritoire of his sot-disant sister-in-law. And she in her turn bestowed a large dou- ceur upon Henriette, her faithful maid, and before nightfall contrived to squander at least one-quarter of her share on all sorts of beautiful but unnecessary trifles. It is recorded also that that evening she and the Count Jean sat late in grave coun- cil. The different ministers and generals passed in review before them, to be retained ENTERING UPON HER CAREER 11 or dismissed as they thought best; new schemes of taxation — Heaven knows the people were taxed beyond all endurance then! —were seriously discussed, — in short, they began in idea to act as if sovereign power in France had already been bestowed upon the-new Favorite. “After all,” said Jeanette Du Barry, “the world is but an amusing theatre, and I see no reason why a pretty woman should not play a pretty part in it.” 5 PCA CK -Qos Ne OS NI Ua Ye RIGA SA CHAPTER IV A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON OF VERSAILLES AN HE next day Madame Y 4 Du Barry repaired again GS pak I Loo oig tf ° : Al a to Versailles, where the 4 king was awaiting her with such impatience that he hastened to AOS greet her while she was still at her dressing table completing her toilet. She was installed at once in a splendid apartment, attended by obsequious serving women, and from that moment had a regular establishment of attendants appointed for her special use. That night, as the two sat in conver- sation over the supper-table, the king informed his new mistress, with a degree of fervor that left no shadow of doubt in 4 *haaqdotgy 5 4akvsqy00y aq], A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 75 her mind, that she was now no longer an obscure, friendless woman, but a personage very, very dear to the heart of the sovereign of France. ‘To use the exact expression of Lebel, she was “the new sun which had arisen to illumine the horizon of Versailles.” The Duc de Richelieu lost no time in doing homage to her, and brought with him the Duc d’Aiguillon, at that time one of the most powerful nobles in France. Moreover, women of fashion solicited places about her person, among them a certain Madame Saint Benoit, who became first lady of the bed-chamber, and remained with her during the whole period of her reign, her former maid, the faithful and beloved Henriette, contenting herself with the second place of honor. A few days after the installation of the new Favorite, Lebel died in such a sudden manner that many believed him to have been poisoned. This was probably not the case, but it is certain that he became alarmed at the king’s infatuation for his new mistress, and took it upon himself to explain to the monarch that she was not 76 THE STORY OF DU BARRY worthy of his regard ; that she was not of noble or even of decent birth, and that she had lied in representing herself to be a married woman, whereas she was merely the latest sweetheart of Count Du Barry. So incensed did King Louis become at this frankness on the part of his faithful ser- vitor that he actually threatened him with a pair of tongs and drove him from his presence, bidding him see that the lady was supplied with a husband without de- lay. It is not improbable that the excite- ment of this interview had much to do with Lebel’s sudden death, but he lived long enough to transmit his sovereign’s last command to Count Du Barry, and he, in his turn, hastened to write to his brother Guillaume, a young officer who was living at the family home in Toulouse, and ap- prised him of the brilliant marriage which he had arranged for him. Guillaume, who seems to have shared his elder brother’s willingness to do anything that was likely to augment his revenues, hastened to Paris, bringing with him the power of attorney by which his mother A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 177 authorized him, in accordance with French law, to contract marriage with such person as he might think fitting. The contract of marriage was immediately £7; prepared, but it was deemed ie politic to delay the cere- mony for a short time in order that a new certificate of birth, less shameful than the real one quoted on a previous page, could be forged and substituted. In this document, which, with the conni- vance of persons high in power, was actually en- tered in the baptismal register of the parish of Vaucouleurs, Jeanette is described as the daughter of Jean Jacques Gomard de Vaubernier and Anne Bécu, called Quantigny, and three Weer are taken from her age. These arrangements fenvitig been made, the contract was duly drawn up and signed, Orange woman. 78 THE STORY OF DU BARRY and on the first of September the marriage was celebrated. Immediately after the ceremony, the husband returned to Tou- louse, and there is every reason to believe that he went with well-filled pockets. Per- sons of his class did not do business merely for the sake of their health in those days. As for the bride, she returned to Versailles and took possession. of Lebel’s quarters, moving from them a short time later to the apartment that had just been vacated by the Princess Adelaide. These rooms were situated in the second story, conveniently near the apartments of the king, who could pass from one to the other without being seen. During the remainder of the year 1768 the liaison was conducted in strict privacy, as the king was in deep mourning for the queen, who had recently died, and French etiquette forbade any public dem- onstration of affection until the end of a fitting period of grief. That Louis XV was from the very first thoroughly infatuated with Jeanette Du Barry there can be no doubt. He loaded her with presents, allowed her to make un- A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 79 limited drafts on his treasury, and cham- pioned her cause in the many vexatious quarrels which the jealousy of the other courtiers forced upon her. ‘““How you all must have hated me in those days,” she said, years after the king’s death, while speaking to one of the great princesses of the realm. “Not at all, my dear,” was the amiable reply. “It was not that we hated you, but that we all wanted your place.” Jeanette Du Barry must have been a consummate actress, for while she was simulating an ardor for her lover that seemed fully as great as his own for her, she kept her senses about her to a degree that enabled her to make an estimate of his character that is well worth recording here. Nor does it read at all like the rhapsody of a love-sick young woman. “Louis XV, King of France, was one of those sentimental egotists who believed he loved the whole world, his subjects, and his family ; whilst in reality the sole en- grossing object was self. Gifted with many personal and intellectual endowments which 80 THE STORY OF DU BARRY might have disputed the palm with the most notable personages of the court, he was nevertheless devoured by ennui, which, by the way, he regarded as one of the necessary accompaniments of royalty. De- void of taste in literary matters, he despised all connected with belles-lettres and es- teemed men only in proportion to the number and richness of their armorial bear- ings. With him, M. de Voltaire ranked beneath the lowest country squire, and the very mention of a man of letters was terri- fying to his imagination, because it dis- turbed the current of his own ideas. ‘He revelled in the plenitude of power, yet felt dissatisfied with the mere title of king. He ardently desired to win renown as the first general of the age, and enter- tained the utmost jealousy of Frederick II of Prussia of whose exploits he spoke with undisguised spleen and ill-humor. The habit of commanding, and the prompt obedience he had always met with had long since palled upon his mind, and he cared nothing for what was so easily ob- tained. This satiety and listlessness were In Comedy Vein. A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 83 by many attributed to a melancholy dis- position. He disliked any appearance of opposition to his will, not that he particu- larly resented the opposition, but that he knew his own weakness, and feared lest he should be compelled to make a show of a firmness which he knew he did not possess. “ For the clergy he entertained the most superstitious veneration, and he feared God because he had a greater dread of the devil. In the hands of his confessor he believed was lodged absolute power to confer upon him the unlimited license to commit any and every sin. He greatly dreaded pam- phlets, satires, epigrams, and the opinion of posterity, and yet his conduct was that of a man who scoffs at the world’s judgment.” There is much truth in this intimate por- trait of the man who, for nearly sixty years, was the constitutional ruler of France. No woman could have found a more powerful protector than he was ; but his very power made the recipient of his favor a person to be hated, envied, and intrigued against by the other factions in the court. 84 THE STORY OF DU BARRY So it happened that while there were many who, like the Duc de Richelieu, sought to ingratiate themselves with the Favorite, and to warm themselves in the rays of the new sun that had arisen on the horizon of Versailles, there were others who ranged themselves against her in open or secret hostility. Chief among these were the then prime minister, the Duc de Choiseul, and his sister, the Duchesse de Grammont. Between this powerful couple and the Favorite there was carried on a war which eventually brought about the dismissal of the prime minister from office, and ceased only with the death of the king and the downfall of his mistress. The real cause of this enmity may be traced to the endeavors of the duchess, aided by her powerful brother, to obtain a mastery over the king, and secure for her- self the post which had been vacant since the days of La Pompadour. In further- ance of this excellent project, the Duc de Choiseul had exercised eternal vigilance in regard to the moral welfare of the king, and had taken pains to nip in the bud any A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 85 indication of a passion that seemed likely to be lasting or serious. On one occasion, about a year after Madame de Pompadour's death, an attempt was made by a court faction hostile to his own to install in the vacant place a young woman named Mademoiselle d’Esparbes, who had the most beautiful hands in Ver- sailles, and who had charmed the esthetic fancy of the sovereign by the dainty grace with which she employed her slender, beau- tiful fingers in picking cherries. She had already been honored with a suite of apart- ments at Marly, and all seemed to be going well, when Monsieur de Choiseul, who had been patiently biding his time, stopped her one day on the grand staircase, and, in the presence of the whole court, chucked her under the chin and said brutally : “ How is your business going on, my girl?” These words literally killed the whole scheme, for after this open affront the king, whose interest in the woman was very slight, did not deem it prudent to go any further, and a few days later her apart- ment was taken away from her, and she 86 THE STORY OF DU BARRY herself received a letter under the royal seal, exempting her from paying court to the king, and commanding her to retire to the home of her father, the Marquis de Lussan, at Montauban. After this episode the Duc de Choiseul felt tolerably sure that his own place was secure, and that it might be possible for him to install his sister in the place that she coveted. But Louis XV was tired of the government of political women. He had had enough of that sort of thing during the Pompadour reign, and had long since declared that no earthly power would induce him to take a mistress from the ranks of the nobility. But in spite of his increasing coldness toward her, the duchess continued in her efforts to charm him in a manner so open as to excite the raillery of the entire court circle. The intrigue with Du Barry, she and her brother at first regarded with contempt. They thought that they saw in it the cun- ning handiwork of their natural enemy, Richelieu. And so both of them held aloof from the newcomer. Very soon, A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 87 however, the prime minister realized that a new power had arisen that might, in the end, prove a formidable rival to his own. He saw that he had no longer to deal with a passing caprice on the part of the king, but with a passion that had taken a strong hold on the royal heart and was growing stronger, instead of weaker, every day. It was a serious discovery for him, but to his proud sister, who saw the place that she had coveted for herself filled by a mere waif from a milliner shop, it was maddening beyond her powers of endurance. In a rage, she stirred her brother on to open hostilities, and made war herself by means of pamphlets, street ballads, vulgar verses and satirical newspaper articles. She raked up the past life of the Favorite, spiced it liberally with her own imagina- tion, — which appears to have been not over clean, — and had it set to music under the name of “La Bourbonnaise.” She even imbued Voltaire, who had always been an ally of her brother, with the idea for the pamphlet, “The King of Bedlam,” in which 88 THE STORY OF DU BARRY his wit passed over Madame Du Barry and found a target in the king himself. Fully as bitter in their hostilities as the Duchesse de Grammont, although they did not deign to show it as she did, were the royal princesses, the daughters of the king. This is scarcely to be wondered at, espe- cially when we consider the recent death of their mother. Nor is it surprising to learn that these ladies united in vigorous remonstrance when their father appro- priated for the use of his new love the apartments which belonged to his daughter, the Princess Adelaide. That Madame Du Barry was able to stem the tide of opposition that was raised against her during the early part of her reign, seems little short of marvellous when we consider her low origin, previous man- ner of life, and utter mexperience in the ways of aroyal court. Her success, though due largely to her own good sense and good nature, probably owed a good deal to the constant care with which her brother- in-law, Count Jean, watched over her from his home in Paris, and gave her counsel “Buly agi gum Suyaayy IAL AFT A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 91 that helped her over every difficulty she encountered. Although thoroughly de- based, he was nevertheless a man of talent and energy, and he knew too, that the services which he could render his former mis- tress, who in her new life could not distinguish friend from enemy, were of such value that she could well afford to pay him handsomely for them. Between Versailles and Paris a corpsof mes- sengers was — in continual service, car- rying from MadameDu | Barry letters of inquiry regarding even the Objects seen in the milliner’s shop. 92 THE STORY OF DU BARRY smallest details and bringing in return the most explicit and minute instructions from her crafty and experienced brother-in-law. It is doubtful if the actress ever studied the great part in which she has won such signal triumphs on the mimic scene any more conscientiously and carefully than this young shop-girl did that of the extraor- dinary one that she was called upon to play at such short notice and with so little experience. Certainly both women were supremely fortunate in the matter of a stage director. So well did the king’s Favorite follow the instructions of her director, so much native aptitude did she display for her call- ing, that during the critical year which elapsed between her first meeting with the king and her formal presentation at court she did not once gratify her enemies by making herself ridiculous. Moreover, she had found time and oppor- tunity to strengthen her claims to a like recognition by means of a none too accu- rate genealogy of the Du Barry family, which had been prepared in England, under * A NEW SUN ON THE HORIZON 93 the inspiration of the same brain that had conceived the idea of the false baptismal entry, and claiming for the Du Barry’s blood-kinship with the famous Irish family of Barrymore. She had also obtained from the hand of her former lover some pam- phlets reflecting on the character of her arch enemies, the Duchesse de Grammont and her brother the Duc de Choiseul. CHAPTER V PRESENTED AT COURT Y RR ER position in the per- IR sonal regard of the king le3a)/ having become secure, the Favorite’s next step © was to secure the much- coveted and _ all-impor- tant honor of a formal presentation at his court. And in this, as in all other matters affecting her inter- ests, she received the support and counsel of her brother-in-law. To a woman in her anomalous position, this formal presentation at court was a matter of vital importance. Without it she was merely the king’s mistress, the fancy of a passing moment, and, like others who hang on princes’ favor, liable to be set aside the very instant that a fresh face found favor in the royal eyes. PRESENTED AT COURT 95 Once presented at court, however, she had the right to live openly in the palace of her sovereign, to take her place in the world as a woman whose position in soci- ety was assured, to entertain ambassadors, statesmen and generals, give orders to the ministers, — in short, to have a voice in all matters of state. From the very first Jean Du Barry had urged her not to cease in her efforts to secure for herself this distinction. He knew far better than she did how much it meant to a woman playing such a fascinat- ing and hazardous game as the one in which she had taken a hand. When she seemed content with liberal presents of money and jewelry, when she expressed perfect confi- dence in the continuance of royal favor, simply because she found herself lodged in apartments that communicated easily with those of the king, it was Jean Du Barry who spurred her on to fresh exertions by showing her that all this meant no more than the capricious love of a man who had been lavishing money and diamonds on women all his life. 96 THE STORY OF DU BARRY Of course this presentation was opposed by a very strong court faction. The pow- erful Duc de Choiseul sought in every possible way to prevent it, as did his sister, the Duchesse de Grammont. The daugh- ters of the king, who had been inexpressi- bly mortified by their father’s open lack of respect for the memory of his dead queen, were no less bitter in their opposition, and in their efforts they found many powerful allies in the most exalted court circles. These and other persons of the highest importance formed what seemed like an impenetrable wall about the throne of France. So great indeed was the opposi- tion from within the ranks of his own fam- ily, as well as from those of his advisers, that the king, who seems to have had rare skill in the difficult art of keeping out of family rows, summoned his grand almoner, Monsieur de Vauguyon, and addressed him as follows: “ La Vauguyon, you are a man of a thousand. Listen attentively to me. I wish much that the Countess Du Barry should be presented ; I wish it, and that too in defiance of all that can be said and Wooed by a Royal Lover. PRESENTED AT COURT 99 done. My indignation is excited before- hand against all those who shall raise any obstacle to it. Do not fail to let my daughters know that if they do not comply with my wishes, I will let my anger fall heavily on all persons by whose counsels they may be persuaded; for I only am master and I will prove it to the last. These are your credentials, my dear duke, add to them what you may think fitting. I will bear you out in anything.” The prelate undertook this delicate com- mission, having first obtained from Madame Du Barry her promise that the weight of her influence would at all times be thrown in favor of the clerical party, to which he of course belonged, and not with their natural enemies, the philosophers or free-thinkers. Armed with this assurance, he soon ob- tained from Madame Louise, the most pious and obedient of the king’s daughters, her promise that she would yield to her father’s wishes. The princesses Sophie, Adelaide, and Victoire he found less complacent, and it was only by the exercise on his part of the most adroit diplomacy and the most 100 THE STORY OF DU BARRY convincing and pious eloquence that he succeeded in persuading them that it was their duty, as daughters of the king, to set an example in obedience. Finally the four sisters met at the house of Madame Adelaide and decided that as the king had expressed himself so positively on the sub- ject of the presentation they would receive his mistress with every mark of courtesy. The almoner hastened to Madame Du Barry and informed her of his success. Her joy was so great that she embraced him with the greatest warmth and a few days later sent him a Chinese mandarin, fashioned in porcelain, on whose finger was placed a jewelled ring worth nearly forty thousand francs. The opposition of the royal princesses having been silenced, the next difficulty that lay in the path that led towards the throne was that of obtaining a sponsor. The etiquette of the French court, very strict in this as in all other respects, de- manded that every woman presented should have as a sponsor some other woman of title who was herself a member of the PRESENTED AT COURT 101 king’s court. Ordinarily, it was not diffi- cult for a candidate to obtain, from among her own friends, a noblewoman qualified for the post of sponsor and willing to assume it. In the case of Madame Du Barry, however, the opposition was so strong and her notoriety so great that every woman who was approached on the subject either refused on one pretence or another, or else demanded for her services a sum so exorbitant as to stagger even such an extravagant woman as the Favorite. One lady who was applied to demanded a large sum of money for herself, the com- mand of a regiment for her son, and for her husband, a government and the Order of the Holy Ghost. Another, the Mar- quise de Castellane of that day, stipulated that she should receive a gift of half a million francs and be created a duchess. A présenteuse was found at last, thanks to the indefatigable energy of the Duc de Richelieu, in the person of a certain Madame de Bearn, who was a woman of great avarice and a chronic litigant as well. This lady was at this time one of the par- 102 THE STORY OF DU BARRY ties in a law-suit involving several hundred thousand francs, and Madame Du Barry’s influence with the chancellor of the king- dom was a consideration that had great weight with her. In addition to this in- fluence, she demanded for herself a hundred thousand francs and a station in the royal household, and for her son, the command of a regiment. Even when her demands had been ac- ceded to, this avaricious countess had the effrontery to require the king’s written promise, and it was only by an artful strat- egy on the part of Madame Du Barry that the matter was finally adjusted. But although a sponsor had been found, the opposition of the Choiseul party was not silenced, and it was not until the mis- tress made a personal and tearful appeal to the king, aided by the influence of her friend the Due de Richelieu, that that weak and vacillating monarch consented to the ceremony which should give her once and for all the status that she desired. The presentation took place on the 22d of April, 1769, and on that day vast num- PRESENTED AT COURT 103 bers of people went out from Paris to Versailles to witness the passage of the Favorite’s carriage to the court. The ex- citement and interest manifested in this purely ceremonial act is not difficult to understand when we remember that to the clerical party, against which the Choi- seul ministry had always arraigned itself, Madame Du Barry was not a mere courte- san, the toy of an indolent, pleasure-loving prince, but a veritable Moses sent for the salvation of the chosen people of the Church. In her, strange as it may seem to us of a different civilization, were centred to a large extent the hopes of the Jesuits, for had she not already given assurance through the grand almoner, who pleaded her cause with the royal princesses, that her influence would be thrown with that party ? Therefore thousands of people gathered at the gates of the park in Versailles and waited patiently for the appearance of the carriage with her well-known livery. Within the palace the king, nervous and ill at ease, stood waiting her coming, won- dering at the delay, for the hour had long 104 THE STORY OF DU BARRY since passed, and annoyed by the clamor that was borne to his ears from the throngs about the gates. Choiseul, standing beside him, grew more and more exultant as each passing minute diminished the chance of the presentation taking place that day. On the other side of the royal person stood Richelieu in his capacity of first gentle- man, watching through the window with the corner of his eye and hoping, almost against hope, that the familiar equipage would come within his range of vision. “What means all this uproar? Why are all those people gathered about the gates ?” demanded the king of his minister. “ Sire,” replied Choiseul, in sarcastic tones that were almost jubilant, “the people have learned that Madame Du Barry is to be presented to-day, and they have hurried here from every point of the compass in order that they may at least witness her arrival, as they are not able to be at the re- ception which your Majesty will give her.” A moment later Louis XV glanced at the clock, and then opened his lips for the purpose of countermanding or postponing PRESENTED AT COURT 105 the presentation, but at this instant Riche- lieu caught sight of the Favorite’s carriage crossing the great court and exclaimed, “Sire, here is Madame Du Barry.” Sedan chair. Woman-like, and knowing, too, the vast importance of looking her best that day, she had lingered too long at her dressing- table. But, if the chronicles of that period are to be believed, the results were well worth the sacrifice of time. For neither canvas nor marble has ever fitly repro- 106 THE STORY OF DU BARRY duced those charming seductions of form and that exquisite beauty of face in which were realized the ideal of eighteenth cen- tury beauty. ‘There was one portrait of her, however, which, though it but faintly pictured her charms, nevertheless moved Voltaire to exclaim, ‘The original was made for the gods!” Her hair was long, silky, curling like the hair of a child, and blonde with an exquisite auburn tint. Her eyebrows and eyelashes were dark and curly, and beneath them the blue eyes, which one seldom saw quite open, looked out with coquettish sidelong glances. The nose was small and finely cut, and the mouth a perfect Cupid’s bow. The neck, the arms, her feet and her hands reminded one of ancient Greek statuary, while her complexion was that of a rose- leaf steeped in milk. She carried with her a delicious atmosphere of intoxicating, vic- torious, amorous youth. Her costume was a triumph of the dress- maker’s art and was of the kind called by the women of her century “a fighting cos- tume.” Diamonds worth 150,000 francs, ‘ayauval puv kang ng uvaf, PRESENTED AT COURT 109 the king’s gift ‘of the day before, still fur- ther adorned her and contributed to a beauty that was so radiant and dazzling that even her bitterest enemies were able to comprehend the power that she exercised over the king. The Countess de Bearn, also gorgeously attired, appeared with her, delighted to have a share in the pomp and splendor of the occasion. The royal prin- cesses, true to the promise given their father, received her with a degree of amia- bility and courtesy which carried conster- nation to the hearts of the Choiseul faction. They would not suffer her to kneel before them, but hastened to raise her in the most gracious manner when she began to perform that act of homage. The king himself was even more gracious in his manner towards her. She had made a bet with him the day before, that he would not permit her to bend the knee to him, for he had threatened to permit her to fall at his feet without making the least effort to prevent it. Now, as he took her hand when she began to stoop before him, she exclaimed, “ You have lost, sire.” 110 THE STORY OF DU BARRY “ How is it possible to preserve my dig- nity in the presence of so many graces /” he exclaimed in a voice loud enough to be heard by those who stood near by. That evening Jeanette Du Barry enter- tained at her house a score of the highest dignitaries in the land, in the presence of whom the king embraced her warmly, say- ing: “ You are a charming creature,” a compliment which was quickly echoed on all sides, and the next day all Paris knew that her place by the king’s left hand was permanent and secure. In the mere act of this presentation, in the cabals which favored or opposed it, in the great significance with which it was invested, and in the splendor of the function itself, there is material for a great drama. In the play of Du Barry, however, it is not touched upon. Net Py ar AEA M3 RD CHAPTER VI THE PETIT LEVEE AY N the third act of his play the dramatist teaches the present generation, in a manner so vivid that no one can see it without carrying away bone id a lasting recollection of it, eG it meant to be the favorite of a Bourbon king a century and a half ago. In this act Madame Du Barry is shown in the bedroom of her apartments at Ver- sailles, holding one of the petits levées which were of such ordinary occurrence in those days. By this time the presentation has taken place, her power is acknowledged by all, and there is no prince or princess of the blood royal, no woman of the haute noblesse, no dignitary of the church, state, 112 THE STORY OF DU BARRY or army who is above coming there to do her homage. To the student of history, this gathering in the bedchamber of the most talked-of Frenchwoman of her day is a scene of the deepest interest. She is still in the heart of her quarrel with Choiseul, and her visi- tors this morning are many of them from the ranks of her own personal supporters. The most distinguished of these guests, next to the king himself, is the polished and sin-worn old diplomat, the Due de Richelieu, who comes tripping in to pay his court to the Favorite with all the smirks and graces of a nobleman of the old régime. Accomplished as he is in the arts of the courtier, familiar by long experience and practice in the school of diplomacy, with the consummate and subtle art of mask- ing his feelings and intentions behind a face that smiles and gives no sign, he has not been clever enough to deceive the woman whose knowledge of court customs has been gained within a single twelvemonth. In the vernacular of to-day, she has “ sized him up” long ago, and her impressions of his THE PETIT LEVEE 113 character have been handed down to us in the following words : “This nobleman,” she says, “when in his seventy-second year, had preserved ali his former pretensions to notice. His suc- cess in so many love affairs—a success which he never could have merited —— had rendered him celebrated. He was now a superannuated coxcomb, a wearisome and clumsy butterfly. When, however, he could be brought to exercise his sense by remembering that he was no longer young, he became fascinating beyond description, from the finished ease and grace of his manner and the polished and piquant style of his discourse. Still I speak of him as a mere man of outward show, for his attain- ments were superficial, and he possessed more of the jargon of a man of letters than the sound reality. He possessed a most ignoble turn of mind. All feelings of an elevated nature were wanting with him. A bad son, an unkind husband, and a worse father, he could scarcely be expected to become a steady friend. All whom he feared, he hesitated not to trample under- 8 114. THE STORY OF DU BARRY foot, and his favorite maxim was, ‘ We should never hesitate to set our foot upon the necks of all those who might in any way interfere with our progress.’ ‘ Dead men tell no tales,’ he would always add. Between himself and Voltaire, who called him the * tyrant of the tennis court,’ a strong personal enmity always existed.” Another important visitor is Monsieur de Maupeou, at that time the Lord Chancellor of the king, and of whom Madame Du Barry says: “Monsieur de Maupeou possessed one of those firm and superior minds, which, in spite of all obstacles, changes the face of Empires. Ardent, yet cool; bold, but re- flective; neither did the clamors of the populace astonish, nor obstacles arrest him. He went on in the direct path which his will chalked out. Quitting the magistracy, he became its most implacable enemy, and, after a deadly combat, he came off con- queror. He felt that the moment had arrived for freeing royalty from the chains which it had imposed upon itself. It was necessary, he has said to me a hundred The Flute Player. THE PETIT LEVEE 117 times, for the kings of France in past ages to have a popular power on which they could rely for the overturning of the feudal power. ‘Before fifty years, he said to me once, ‘kings will be nothing in France, and parliaments will be everything. As brave, personally, as a marshal of France, his enemies, and he had many, called him a coarse and quarrelsome man. Hated by all, he despised men in a body, and jeered at them individually. Insensible to the charms of our sex, he only thought of us casually and as a means of relaxation.” Another notable figure at the petit levée is the Abbé Ferray, the Minister of Fi- nance. ‘This astute and utterly unprin- cipled politician was not slow in allying himself with the faction that gathered about the Favorite, and she, on her part, could not have found a more docile or use- ful supporter. As Controller-General of the Finances of the Kingdom, he literally held the purse-strings, and he was politic enough to loosen them whenever the king’s mistress commanded. That he was fre- quently called upon to do so, may be 118 THE STORY OF DU BARRY inferred from the richness of the bedcham- ber and its furnishings, as well as from the fact that during the five years of her reign, Madame Du Barry’s personal expenditures amounted to over twelve million livres, a sum of money whose purchasing capacity about equalled that of the same number of dollars at the present day. Her dress- maker’s bill alone amounted to a quarter of a million livres a year, and she had already found that silver, even when it was the work of the very best craftsmen in France, was not good enough for her, and must be replaced by solid gold. There was a toilet service ordered in the same precious metal, and the government paid to Roettiers, the greatest carver of plate in France, the sum of fifteen hundred gold marks as an advance payment, before he would undertake the work. But scandal, caused by this piece of useless extrava- gance, put a stop to the work, and the gold toilet service was never finished. It is not unlikely that an understanding existed between Madame Du Barry and the Abbé Terray, through which the Minister THE PETIT LEVEE 119 of Finance secured for himself a percentage of what he permitted her to squander. It is a matter of history that his mistress, known in fashionable Parisian circles by the name of La Sultane, received money, presumably in collusion with the Abbé, for every act of favor or justice solicited from the department which he controlled. Indeed, this degraded creature and Madame Sabatin, the mistress of the Duc de la Vrilliére, kept open shop for the sale of preferments of all kinds. The Count Jean Du Barry is also a visi- tor at the petit levée, nor is it surprising to see him in quest of money. The class of men to which he belongs is one that in all ages has found jon its chief support in the earn- a ings of frail women. It is a class, by the way, which has not yet passed from off the face of the earth, and has its representatives in the good society of the present day as well as in the slums. Jean Du Punch bowl. 120 THE STORY OF DU BARRY Barry, who has always been known as a man of extravagant tastes, is now rapacious in his demand, and, from what we know of his character, we do not feel that the dramatist has strayed far from historical accuracy when he reveals him in the light of a blackmailer. His Eminence, the Papal Nuncio, is here too in the mimic scene, as he frequently was in the flesh when the real Madame Du Barry held her petits levées in the great palace of Versailles. Moreover he seems to be a trusted adviser, as well as a friend who lends the weight of his influence in her behalf in her quarrel with the king. Another guest is the young girl of six- teen, the Princess Marie Antoinette, to whose memory clings the tragic pathos of a queen’s martyrdom. “She appeared to me less beautiful and fair than pleasant and _ladylike,” says Madame Du Barry, in describing the im- pression made on her by this young prin- cess on her first arrival from Austria. “Her hair was of a reddish auburn, but her skin was of a dazzling white. She had THE PETIT LEVEE 121 a beautiful forehead, a delicious set of teeth, a well-formed nose, and eyes full of vivac- ity and expression. Her air was majestic and dignified. She walked well; her figure was well shaped, and her gestures were more free and unstudied than those of the princesses of the blood royal of France.” This princess, however, did not have agood opinion of the Favorite, toward whom her conduct at first was so frigid that the king summoned the Austrian ambassador, Mercy-Argenteau, explained to him his wishes, and bade him use whatever influence he possessed to induce her to conform to them. The ambassador, alarmed at the prospect of anything like coolness between the two royal houses, and knowing how much trouble can be brought about by the obstinacy of one young woman, instantly despatched letters to his sovereign, the Empress Maria Theresa, in which he ex- plained to her the precise state of affairs at the French court. He described the in- fatuation of the king for the new Favorite, and took pains to relate the manner in which His Majesty showed his displeasure 122 THE STORY OF DU BARRY when the least slight was put upon her. In view of these conditions, he begged the empress to use her influence with her daughter, and persuade her to address a few civil words to a woman whom the king had honored by his regard. The empress saw the force of his argument, and wrote at once to her daughter, urging her to remem- ber what was due the king at whose court she was living. At last, in obedience to her mother, Marie Antoinette consented to receive the Favorite; and statesmen, who had foreseen, as an outcome of her obstinacy possible trouble with Austria, breathed freely again. Whether or no the dauphiness ever overcame her feeling of repugnance toward Madame Du Barry to such an extent as to attend one of her petits levées, is a fact on which history throws but little light, so we may accept the picture as the dramatist has painted it for us. Certainly her presence in this scene lends a new interest to it. Denys, the faithful servant who follows Madame Du Barry’s changing fortunes to their bitter end, is a character who really ‘Aypoy 04 ksatanoy THE PETIT LEVEE 125 existed, and who was deeply attached to his mistress. . Another type of servitor was Zamore, the black dwarf, whom we see squatting on arug beside the Favorite’s bed. Creatures of this sort were frequently maintained in luxurious houses in those days, in Paris and in London as well. We encounter them, more than once, in the pictures which Hogarth painted of dissolute London life of exactly that time. Zamore received innumerable favors at the hands of Madame Du Barry and her royal lover, but, in the end, turned against her, and at her trial gave testimony which contributed mate- rially to her conviction. Madame Du Barry had received Zamore at the hands of the usually penurious Duc de Richelieu, who turned him over to her, clad in his native garb of pleated grass and adorned with bracelets, earrings and neck- lace of solid gold, fashioned in barbaric style. He was a hideously ugly little savage with no more respect for persons than one would have looked for ina monkey. He was funny, however, in a rude simian way, 126 THE STORY OF DU BARRY and could make grimaces and distort his puny body in such a way as to set his mistress off into roars of laughter. He -had scant respect for her visitors, and was wont to amuse himself and the company by snatching the wig from the head of some aged courtier, leaving his victim a bald target for the laughter of the rest. Pleasantries of this order seem to have been rather to the taste of his Most Chris- tian Majesty, Louis XV, for history tells us that once, in appreciation of some par- ticularly entrancing exhibition of this subtle and engrossing form of humor, he rewarded the young African with the post of gov- ernor of the Chateau of Louveciennes, an office carrying with it a salary of one thou- sand crowns. The Jeanette Du Barry who figures in this act has made distinct progress along her chosen path since we last saw her in the gambling house. It is true that she is, at heart, the same wanton, good-hearted, good-tempered young woman whose chief concern is for the pleasures of this life ; but now her destiny is assured, whereas her life THE PETIT LEVEE 127 at the gaming house was merely a prelimi- nary glance into the brilliant, dissolute and luxurious world that lay before her. Now she has realized the very highest dream that any woman of her class ever dared to indulge in. The all-powerful king of France is madly in love with her, and there is nothing, from the dismissal of a minister to the price of a jewelled bauble, that she may not ask and receive at his hands. I declare that I can think of no more in- structive spectacle, nor of one better worth the consideration of a philosopher, than that of this pampered mistress reclining in her splendid bed, with the gorgeously capari- soned ape, Zamore, by her side, and minis- ters, prelates and royalty gathering to do her honor. The chief interest in this act is one of love, and here the inventive genius of the dramatist comes into play. Having taken the love between Jeanette Du Barry and Cossé-Brissac as the chief motive of his drama, Mr. Belasco avails himself of his dramatic license to assume that there was 128 THE STORY OF DU BARRY jealousy on the part of the king, and, logi- cally enough, that that jealousy resulted in a bitter quarrel between himself and_ his mistress. He shows us, too, how the heart of woman, even though that woman be the Favorite of a king, must break all artificial bonds imposed by high station and self- interest and rule her whole life. It is reasonable enough to assume that Jeanette Du Barry had more than one love affair beside that supreme one with the king, during the period of herreign. Hos- tile historians, who pander to that horror of immorality and taste for reading about it which characterizes Anglo Saxon virtue, ascribe to her a legion of sweethearts, and her own memoirs indicate that she was not altogether true to the king. Certainly she must have had plenty of idle time on her hands; for, although she had succeeded Madame de Pompadour in the royal esteem, she was wise enough not to challenge comparison between herself and her predecessor by mixing too much in affairs of state. The Pompadour had been a woman of THE PETIT LEVEE 129 distinct influence in the affairs of the world. Not only had she amused the king with her theatre, her conversation, her supper parties, and the brilliant men and women whom she gathered together for his enter- tainment, but she had also sought to relieve him of many of the serious duties of his exalted position. Her life had been one of constant intrigue; of intimacy with cabinet ministers, statesmen and men of business ; of interest in politics, — in short, her role was one of actual power openly exercised. Madame Du Barry, on the other hand, was content with her position as Favorite, and, apart from her struggle with the Choiseuls and the various squabbles with the ladies of the court into which she was drawn, she did not figure prominently in the affairs of her time. Her chief delight was in spending money, and nowhere is the real history of the reign more accurately summed up than in the four volumes of her expense accounts purchased some years ago by the National Library. “Like every woman of her class, she was 9 130 THE STORY OF DU BARRY passionately fond of the luxuries of life, and utterly heedless of their cost so long as there was some one to pay the bills for her. In these accounts we read of dresses cost- ing from one to ten thousand livres, of a watch costing nearly six thousand francs, of the same sum spent for the gildings on her bed, of lace that cost three or four thousand livres for each dress, of superb furniture, of bronzes, of everything, in short, that the richly decorative age of Louis XV could supply. The morning receptions in her bedcham- ber were not given over altogether to the visits of personages of distinction. It was at this time that tradesmen came to her with their newest and choicest wares, and workmen received instructions and sub- mitted to her the half-completed articles of beauty and utility which she had ordered, and which she loved to inspect from time to time. That her taste was good, is evident from such of her posses- sions as are still in existence. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we remember the great influence that the demi-monde has “IDSSTAG] -OSS0T) fo 49qIDT 742 THE PETIT LEVEE 133 always exerted on the dress, jewelry and other ornaments of the polite world. The de Goncour Memoirs have this to say about Moreau’s picture of a féte given by the Favorite in honor of her royal lover at her Chateau of Louveciennes, December 27, 1771: “Throughout the apartment, all white and gold, a vapor of light seems to rise from the lustres hanging in front of the mirror between the columns, shedding on them flashes to which other flashes respond in other mirrors, handfuls of flame which fling into the air four figures of women carved in marble by Pajou, Le Count, and Moineau, and standing on mar- ble socles with golden wreaths. Around the table, surrounded by curious lookers-on, behind the round backs of the armchairs and the clubs of the chattering guests’ perukes, the ‘4 attendants, the servants, the ‘\%> @ persons carry- ing dishes, oe “4 keep coming and going rapidly, some in yellow straw liveries, others Slippers. 134 THE STORY OF DU BARRY in crimson velvet coats with facings, with blue collars and wristbands, with white boot-tops and white gaiters, three-cornered hats on their heads, and swords by their sides. You see even little Zamore in a turban with feathers, a rose-colored vest and breeches, gliding towards a lady who has doubtless left some bonbons on her plate. The crystal, the silver, the struc- ture representing an opera scene, which rises above the tablecloth, the cordons bleus, the diamonds, the smiles on the faces of the guests, all keep the table in a glow; and in the brilliant light shed around them is seen, by the side of Madame Du Barry’s pretty countenance, the handsome, noble face of Louis XV.” There is more than a suggestion of all this in the superb scene which constitutes the fourth act of Mr. Belasco’s play, — the act in which the highest point of dramatic interest is attained. It is in this act, too, that the dramatist touches the deepest and most significant note in his entire work. It is not easy to convey, in mere words, an adequate idea of the splendid picture of THE PETIT LEVEE 135 luxury that is set before us here under the rays of a smiling harvest moon. Up and down the marble steps and across the stage, ambassadors, noblemen, and court ladies come and go, laughing gayly and with no thought save for the caprice or intrigue or ambition of the moment. Opera-dancers whirl and pirouette on tiptoe for the en- tertainment of the guests; clowns, all in white, come somersaulting across the floor ; tables are spread in sumptuous fashion; a huge bowl of flaming brandy punch is served, and the guests amuse themselves by throwing about illuminated balls. At a signal from the mistress, servants, bearing a score of rich candelabra, come upon the scene, and the stage is lit up with that real candlelight which electricity cannot coun- terfeit. Never, perhaps, has our stage presented such a luxurious and gorgeous spectacle as this. But beneath it all there is an omi- nous note that we, whose vision has been made clear with the light of after-knowl- edge, cannot help seeing. The writing is on the wall, but there is no Daniel to 136 THE STORY OF DU BARRY interpret it. The keen, glittering knife that the actress sees in fancy from the moment when she first comes on the stage, is hanging over a score of those bewigged and bepowdered heads. Valois, the young revolutionary, has already been brought in by the guards, and, before he can be taken away to execu- tion, has contrived to fling in the faces of his captors, a word of defiant warning ; but they give him no heed. Now, however, from without the gates, comes the noise of angry mutterings and discontent, for the people, starved and over-taxed to support all this riotous waste, are clamoring for bread. ‘Their murmurings reach the ears of Louis the Well Beloved, and he comes striding out of his palace to demand its cause. “Am I king or not, that this rabble should disturb my pleasure?” he cries haughtily. And which one of us is there so dull and devoid of imagination as not to catch a glimpse of the gleaming knife conjured up by his words ? The soldiers go out to disperse the mob, THE PETIT LEVEE 137 and their clamor ceases; the distant roll of the drums tells us that the name of Valois has been written in his own blood upon the long roll of those who have died for principle ; the king and his bejewelled mistress again lead the court in the mad hunt after pleasure, but that clamor at the outer gates is one that will not down. A powdered head will fall for every drop of Valois blood that has been shed to-night. CHAPTER VII A PRIME MINISTER'S DOWNFALL ZU YOSKACES\N the month of July of yy Nae) the year 1769, Sir Hor- eT \ ace Walpole writes as / follows: “Well! I am going to a quiet little Ri town where they have ts) had nothing but one or this twelvemonth, — I mean Paris. Madame Du Barry gains ground, and yet Monsieur de Choiseul car- ries all his points. He has taken Corsica, bought Sweden, made a pope, got the Czarina drubbed by the Turks, and has restored the Parliament of Bretagne, in spite of the Duc D’Aiguillon, — for revenge can make so despotic and ambitious a man as Choiseul even turn patriot,—and yet at this moment I believe he dreads my The Petit Levee. A PRIME MINISTER'S DOWNFALL 141 Lord Chatham more than Madame Du Barry.” Time has shown, however, that the great minister who was at one time the virtual master of France had more to fear from the French courtesan than from the Eng- lish statesman. The struggle between him- self, egged on by his sister, the Duchesse de Grammont, on the one side, and the Favo- rite, aided by her own faction, on the other, resulted at last in the dismissal of the min- ister. Before this final catastrophe, how- ever, occurred a contretemps between the two women that may be said to have served as a prelude to his downfall. As may be easily believed, the duchess was one of the first to pay court to the dauphiness, Marie Antoinette, on her ar- rival at Versailles, and so skilful was she in the art of making herself agreeable, that the princess conceived a strong liking for her, and consulted-her on innumerable sub- jects relating to her life at court. Now it is related that this young princess was so innocent in regard to worldly wicked- ness, that she once artlessly asked who Mad- 1442 THE STORY OF DU BARRY ame Du Barry was, and what her precise status was in the entourage of Louis XV. It is not likely that the Duchesse de Gram- mont, who had perhaps been waiting for a convenient opportunity to express herself, permitted the future Queen of France to remain longer in the dark concerning the character and antecedents of her grand- father’s mistress. Possibly she was one of those raconteurs who, as the Irish say, “ never let a story go out without a cocked hat and a cane.” Certain it is that noth- ing could equal the abhorrence with which Marie Antoinette regarded the Favorite, and the latter was not slow to attribute this feeling to the efforts of her arch enemy, the duchess. She complained to the king again and again, but her lover did not like to be drawn into quarrels not his own, and it was not until the duchess affronted the woman whom she detested in his presence, and in such a manner that he felt himself aggrieved, that he exerted his authority. It was at a moment when both ladies were on their way to a levée held by the dauphin, and the duchess, while trying to A PRIME MINISTER’S DOWNFALL 143 pass the other, set her foot upon her train in such a way as to tear it to tatters, after which, without a word of apology, she went on her way laughing loudly. It is difficult to imagine what Madame Du Barry would not have done to the duchess if she had not chanced to read in the face of the king, who had been a witness of the affair, an expression of rage and offended dignity which told her that she could safely leave the task of avenging her outraged feelings in his hands. That very day the king summoned the Duchesse de Grammont to his presence, sternly rebuked her for what she had done, and then banished her from his court for a period of two years. Even the remon- strances and entreaties of her brother failed to have any effect, and the next day the duchess departed, and the polite world realized that Madame Du Barry’s influ- ence with the king was even greater than had been believed. If it had not been for the persistence of Monsieur D’Aiguillon and others who, like himself, were influenced by their own per- 144 THE STORY OF DU BARRY sonal ambition, it is doubtful if Madame Du Barry would have persisted in working to obtain the overthrow of the Duc de Choiseul. The triumph over his sister was enough to satisfy a woman of her light, easy-going nature who had no desire to be dragged from her toilet-table and the mat- ters which were of serious moment to her, to take part in political cabals which she imperfectly understood and for which she cared but little. At the very outset of her career at Ver- sailles she had diligently paid court to the great minister, to whom she wrote amiably and in the humble tone of one who seeks the friendship and regard of a superior. She interested herself on behalf of his brother, the Comte de Stainville, whom she permitted to secure the reversion of the Governorship of Strasburg, and she even went so far as to ignore the contemptuous attitude of the Duchesse de Grammont and the fierce war of insulting ballads, pam- phlets, and epigrams which the Choiseuls, both brother and sister, waged against her. Moreover, she did her best to make the A PRIME MINISTER'S DOWNFALL 145 minister understand that her influence with the king was such as to make her a person- Screen and toilet table. age of far greater influence than himself, and she warned him that if he continued 10 146 THE STORY OF DU BARRY to struggle against her, he must inevitably get the worst of it. Meanwhile the exiled duchess was trav- elling through France under pretence of health-seeking, and busying herself with the various parliamentary leaders whom she met on the way. Naturally enough the D’Aiguillon faction took it upon them- selves to see that the king was informed in regard to everything that the roving duchess did and said, and although this knowledge made him cool towards the adviser in whose talents he firmly believed, nevertheless he continued to consult him, to work with him, and to invite him to eat and drink with him. All this having been made known to D’Aiguillon by his faithful pensioner, he redoubled his efforts with the Favorite, and besought her, as she valued her own power at court, to use every art that she possessed to extort from the king the lettre de cachet which should send the Duc de Choiseul into ignominious exile. Never before, perhaps, did the mistress of a Bourbon king work with less zest pene YaT aga fo uses y A PRIME MINISTER’S DOWNFALL 149 and malevolence for the banishment of a prime minister than did Madame Du Barry for that of Choiseul. She was kept at her work entirely by the persistency of D'Aiguillon, who teased her night and day, trying to interest her in his own ambitions and hates, and seeking by every means in his power to instil into her soft heart and easy-going disposition some of the poison of his own vindictiveness. Roused at last by the ceaseless prompt- ings of the ambitious D'Aiguillon, and the strong pressure brought to bear on her by everybody who had anything whatever to gain by Choiseul’s fall, she began to harass her royal lover, and more than once used her blandishments with such effect that the lettre de cachet was actually written at night, only to be torn up in the morning when sober sense banished the fumes of wine from the royal brain. It was not, however, until the arts of political intrigue had been nearly exhausted that the party of the opposition found a mode of attack which compelled the king to the belief’ that it was necessary for him to take speedy 150 THE STORY OF DU BARRY and definite action. Choiseul had always sought to impress the king with the idea that his highest ambition for France was to keep her at peace with all the rest of the world. Against this impression the opposition skilfully directed their forces of attack by circulating the rumor that the prime minister was really endeavoring to restore his waning prestige by involving his country in war. In proof of this, they declared that he was trifling with the con- fidence of Spain, and at the same time intriguing against England. ‘The king well knew that a very few weeks before his prime minister had actually placed on the council table the scheme for a descent on England which had been prepared under the direction of Monsieur de Broglie in the year 1766, and had himself brought forward witnesses to assure the king of its practicability. The confidence of Louis XV _ in his minister having thus been shaken, Madame Du Barry’s turn arrived, and she, availing herself of a favorable moment, told him that if he wished to know the truth in A PRIME MINISTER’S DOWNFALL 151 regard to the negotiations with Spain, he had only to send for the Abbé de la Ville, M. de Choiseul’s clerk, who was thoroughly familiar with the whole matter. . Now this Abbé de la Ville had begun life asa Jesuit, and had left that order to be- come a secular priest. When the great Fénelon went to Holland as ambassador, he accompanied him as the instructor of his children ; but in a very short time his taste for intrigue and diplomacy made him a person of consequence in the eyes of the ambassador, and he became secretary to the embassy, from which post he was subsequently recalled to take the posi- tion of chief clerk in the office of Foreign Affairs. Accustomed as he was to having a voice in all matters, great and small, the Abbé de la Ville had been much chagrined through the Due de Choiseul’s habit of keeping his own counsel, and of writing even the most trivial of despatches in his own hand. The D’Aiguillon faction knew therefore that he could be depended on to support 152 THE STORY OF DU BARRY any measure aimed at the downfall of a minister who despised his counsel and _ his experience, and actually stood in the way of his advancement. On the 21st of December, 1770, the abbé was summoned with much secrecy to the king’s cabinet, and asked, in the pres- ence of Madame Du Barry, what the Duc de Choiseul’s intentions were in regard to Spain. ‘To this he made answer that the de- spatches of the prime minister had not been shown to him, but that if His Majesty desired to learn for himself what they con- tained, he had only to order his minister to write a letter to the King of Spain, as- suring him of King Louis’s desire for peace and determination to avoid war at all costs. “If Monsieur de Choiseul really. desires peace, he will do this at once,” said the Abbé de la Ville; “but if he refuses on one pre- text or another, it may be taken as evidence that he desires war.” King Louis repaired at once to the Coun- cil Chamber, and ordered Monsieur de “aBOULOET [2I1SDISAJIID: A PRIME MINISTER’S DOWNFALL 155 Choiseul to write a letter to the King of Spain assuring him of the peaceful inten- tions of his royal brother of France. Now the prime minister had, as the D’ Aiguillon party well knew, just sent a courier to Spain with a conciliatory letter, and there- fore he replied to the king, saying that before writing again it would be best to await an answer to the letter which he had just sent. Thereupon the king arose and left the chamber without another word and in a manner that showed that his anger had been aroused. Two days later, after signing a state paper, the king threw the pen angrily on the table, instead of giving it back to the Duc de Choiseul, who had handed it to him. This sign of displeasure towards his prime minister was noticed by those present, so that the court was by no means surprised to learn, two days later, of the minister's downfall. 5 The lettre de cachet in the king’s hand- writing which was delivered by the Duc de la Vrilliere to the minister was couched in the following words : 156 THE STORY OF DU BARRY I order my cousin, the Duc de Choiseul, to place his resignation of the post of Secretary of State in the hands of the Duc de la Vrilliere and to withdraw to Chantellout until there is a fresh order from me. Louts. Av Vensaities this 24th of December, 1770. The victory won, the Favorite showed not the least particle of malice toward the statesman whom she had helped to depose. On the contrary, when the malevolent D’Aiguillon sought to deprive him of his post of Colonel-General of the Swiss Guards without any indemnity, Madame Du Barry used her influence with the king against this scheme, and never rested in her personal solicitations until she had induced her lover to bestow upon the fallen min- ister a hundred thousand crowns in money and a pension of sixty thousand livres. CHAPTER VIII THE WAGES OF SIN )) HE wages of sin is death,” and no man we ever received payment WA for a long life of self- W ishness, cruelty and sensuality in such _hid- 20 cous coin as that meted out to His Most Christian Majesty, Louis XV of France. Death came to him in its most terrible form in the spring of 1774, after a series of warnings that had begun more than a year before in a sermon preached in the chapel in Versailles during Holy Week by the Abbé de Beauvais in which he flagellated the iniquities practised at court, and even dared to hint at the turpitudes of the king himself in a Biblical allusion concerning 158 THE STORY OF DU BARRY the sensual indulgence of Solomon. Some weeks later the same young priest, who had now gained the protection of the re- ligeuse daughter of the king, Madame Louise, preached a sermon on death which made a profound impression on the worn- out monarch in whose breast remorse was already beginning to assert itself. In this sermon the courageous and truth- tellng young abbé recalled to the king’s memory the death of the Duke of Bur- gundy, of the dauphin and dauphiness, of the queen, of his mistresses — whom he had the grace not to name—in short, of all those who had been nearest and dearest to him; and he gave him to understand that his turn had long since come, and that the Reaper stood waiting, sickle in hand, for his harvest. And the king, listening to these ghastly warnings, reflected with a keen sense of dread that he was at that time in his sixty-third year — a period re- garded as one of unusual fatality to men of his mode of life. The year 1774 came round, bringing with it several happenings that served to "JOUIpIDT) 244 pun apiauval THE WAGES OF SIN 161 upset the equanimity of the sovereign and of the courtesan to whom he clung closer and closer as the months rolled on. Early in the year the Genoese ambassador, whom the king was accustomed to see every day of his life, died suddenly. D’Aimentieres followed him to the grave within a very brief time, and shortly afterwards the Abbé de la Ville, Choiseul’s old enemy, on coming to Versailles to thank King Louis for a political appointment which he had given him, was stricken with apoplexy and died under his very eyes. Lastly, his old friend and associate, the Marquis de Chouvlain, fell dead at his feet during a game of picquet. It was, therefore, with his always super- stitious mind filled with all manner of sinister forebodings that the king took his seat in the midst of a brilliant throng of courtiers to hear the last of the Lenten ul Zamore. 162 THE STORY OF DU BARRY sermons preached by the same young abbé whose warning voice had awakened in his heart the terrors of death and of the life to come scarcely a year before. From his place in the pulpit this brave young apostle of truth looked down into the royal pew, and, fixing his eyes upon his sovereign, addressed him directly, as was the custom at that time: “Yet forty days, sire, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The king turned pale, and slowly and solemnly the preacher again enunciated the awful menace of the Prophet. Then, growing fervidly eloquent as he developed his subject, he compared Paris to Nineveh, denounced the infidelity of the age, the luxury and wan- tonness in high places, and urged on all the need of immediate repentance and purer, higher living. Finally, speaking himself with the voice of the real Prophet, he solemnly warned the king and all his wanton court that without repentance on their part “the evil otherwise too surely coming on France could never be averted.” And the king listened with increasing pallor, sick with a nameless terror, as one THE WAGES OF SIN 163 who saw in a vision the reign of blood and terror and the gleam of the executioner’s knife under which his successors were to pay the penalty for the sins of generations of Bourbons. It was, therefore, with minds full of dis- mal forebodings that the king and his mis- tress entered upon the month of April, 1774, the month in which the Almanac de Liege for that year had already announced that “a great lady who played a réle at a foreign court would cease to do so.” The king was moody and melancholy in the extreme, and spoke frequently about his sickly state of health, the possibility of death, and — what seemed to disturb him more than all the rest—the frightful account he would have to render to the Supreme Being for the employment of the life which had been given him in this world. The Favorite, who, like all women of her class, was intensely superstitious, said again and again: “I shall be glad when this nasty month of April has passed,” and the king declared that he should not know 164 THE STORY OF DU BARRY an easy moment until after the forty days predicted by the Abbé de Beauvais. As the days went on, the king’s melan- choly increased, and his mistress, realizing that it behooved her to drag him from the depths of his despair, lest religious melan- cholia should take possession of his mind, organized a little pleasure trip to Trianon for the closing days of the month. They reached that charming retreat on the 26th, and on the following day His Majesty complained of headache and severe pains, and was unable to follow the chase on horseback. He returned from the hunt in a carriage, and at once sought repose in the Favorite’s apartments, believing that he was suffering from an attack of acute indigestion. Historians differ as to the origin of the king’s malady. The Abbé Badeau relates that on the day of his arrival at Trianon the king noticed a very pretty little girl who was gathering grass for her cow. Coming over to her he lifted up her head- dress and hair, and found that she had very fine eyes, and it occurred to him that she THE WAGES OF SIN 165 would look very odd if dressed in the garb of a fine lady. The young girl was accord- ingly dressed like a lady in court apparel, and her face covered with rouge and patches. In this garb she supped and drank with the king, and the next day fell ill of smallpox and died. Other historians speak of the daughter of the gardener at Trianon and of a young girl who had been brought to the Parc aux Cerfs at the king’s desire. The truth is that at that time there was an epidemic of smallpox in the neighborhood, andthe king very naturally fell a victim to it. During the day the king’s malady grew worse, and in the night he sent for his prin- cipal physician, Lemonier, who found him feverish, but showing no symptoms of a nature to cause uneasiness. ‘The Favorite, dreading more than anything else the awful fear of death which came crowding into the heart of her lover with every attack of ill- ness, urged him to remain at Trianon and allow her to nurse him, without sending word to the royal family. The king con- sented to this, but, in the mean time, news 166 THE STORY OF DU BARRY of his indisposition reached Versailles, and the dauphin hastened to despatch to his grandfather's aid the surgeon La Martiniere, who he knew exercised a strong influence over the king and who was also an enemy of Du Barry’s. La Martiniere reached Trianon on the 28th of April, and, being a man of strong mind and imperative habits of speech, had no difficulty in prevailing upon the vacil- lating king to set out at once for Versailles. He himself supervised the preparations for the journey, and under his direction the king was lifted from his couch to a carriage and driven to Versailles, where he was immediately put to bed. The members of his family, including his daughters and the dauphin, came at once to see him ; but after a very brief conversation with each he sent them away for the night, and spent the rest of the evening with Madame Du Barry. The next day the doctors, who were still ignorant of the nature of his malady, prescribed three bleedings, which left the patient in an enfeebled condition, and un- doubtedly did much to hasten his death. Ayvhoy fo suossaaig 2g I, THE WAGES OF SIN 169 The next day, the 30th, one of the doctors, drawing near to the king with a wax candle, discovered on his cheeks and forehead red spots in which pimples were already begin- ning to form, and knew at once that the disease with which he was afflicted was smallpox. Very much relieved at having actually learned the nature of his complaint, the physicians announced their discovery in tones that were so re-assuring that it was generally believed at court that the king’s illness meant only a ten days’ confinement to his room. Bourdeau, however, Madame Du Barry’s physician, shook his head doubt- ingly when the news was brought to him, and exclaimed: “Smallpox at sixty-four with a constitution like the king’s is a terrible disease !” And now outside the door of the sick room began a fierce struggle between the two rival parties of the court. The party that rallied about Madame Du Barry made every effort to push into the sick room the woman whom the king loved, in order that the impression might prevail that her influ- ence with him was still paramount. 170 THE STORY OF DU BARRY The anti-Barryites, on the contrary, cried out against the continuance of the scandal, demanded that the sacrament should be administered, and called upon the pious Monsieur de Beaumont to follow the ex- ample of the Bishop of Soisons who, thirty years before, when the king was thought to be mortally ill at Metz, drove from his side his then mistress, the Duchesse de Chateauroux. “ Politics makes strange bedfellows,” and so it happened that in “ this jobbing and this trafficking in the conscience of the king,” as the Cardinal de Luymes called it, we find the devotees and the Jesuits banding together to prevent the king from receiving communion, while the Choiseul party of philosophers and sceptics are in league to compel the Archbishop of Paris to admin- ister it. On the 2d of May, the archbishop arrived from Paris, bringing with him the sacrament, and hesitating between his conscience, which demanded of him the expulsion of the Favorite, and a sense of gratitude for the services which that Favor- THE WAGES OF SIN 171 ite had rendered to his party by the over- throw of Choiseul and the elevation of D’Aiguillon. Before the- arrival of the archbishop, Richelieu, D’Aiguillon, and Madame Du Barry held a conference in which it was decided to do their best to prevent the administration of the sacra- ment. The king’s daughter, Madame Adelaide, was easily won over to their side by the doctors of the Du Barry party who warned her that to even propose the sacra- ment might easily give the patient his death blow. Therefore the Duc de Rich- elieu met the archbishop as he was about to enter the king’s ante-chamber, and im- plored him not to cause the death of their sovereign by what he termed, with charac- teristic flippancy, a “theological: proposi- tion.” Then, with the graceful cynicism which so well became him, he offered to make his own confession to the prelate, promising to regale him with such a collec- tion of sins as he had not listened to in many a year. Becoming serious again, he represented to the archbishop that to send away the Favorite was to insure the 172 THE STORY OF DU BARRY triumph of Choiseul, and that to injure the woman who was a friend was also to serve the faction that had always been out- spoken in its enmity to the ecclesiastics. As a final argument, he repeated to him what Madame Du Barry had said to him the night before: “Let the archbishop leave us alone, and he shall have a cardi- nal’s hat. I will take care of that, and will answer for it.” The result of the Duc de Richelieu’s logical and convincing eloquence was that the archbishop entered the sick room, remained there for about a quarter of an hour, and then went away without speak- ing about the sacrament. The king was greatly reassured by his silence on the sub- ject of the Eucharist, and demanded that Madame Du Barry should be summoned at once to his presence. When she arrived, he kissed her beautiful arms and hands with a greater degree of pleasure than he had shown toward her since the beginning of his illness. Disappointed but still undaunted, the Choiseul, faction turned to the Cardinal de THE WAGES OF SIN 173 la Roche-Aymon, and urged him to pro- pose the sacrament. By this time they had rallied to their support many of the more devout of the clergy, among them the Bishop of Car- cassonne, who appealed to the cardi- nal, in the name of the holy cross, not to allow King Louis to pass out of the world without being anointed, and called upon him to so deport himself in the sick chamber that the king should, before he died, show an example of repentance to his country which he had scandalized. As a result of the great influence thus brought to bear on him, the Archbishop of Paris visited the king on the 3d of May, and there held a long conversation with Louis XV table. 174 THE STORY OF DU BARRY him, the result of which was that in the evening when Jeanette Du Barry, whom he had sent for a few hours before, entered his chamber, radiant in the belief that her hold on him was as strong as ever, he beckoned her to his side and whispered : “ Madame, I am very sick; I know what I have to do; I do not want to begin over again the scene at Metz, and there- fore we must part. Go to Ruel, to Monsieur D’Aiguillon’s; and be sure that I shall always feel for you the tenderest- friendship.” A moment after she had gone weeping from his presence, he called for her in a voice that showed he was beginning to become delirious. “ Ah! she is gone,” he said sadly, when he realized that she was no longer in the room. “Then we must go, too—at least we must pray to Saint Genevieve.” The reign of Jeanette Du Barry had ended. And with it had ended, too, the dynasty of left-handed queens of France, which began with Diane de Poictiers, and perished from off the face of the earth Alone with the King. THE WAGES OF SIN 177 when the last of the line was thrust from the royal bedchamber. But if the end of the Du Barry reign had been commonplace, in what terms shall we characterize the final passing of Louis XV, known to his subjects of half a century before as Louis the Well Beloved, and now stretched upon his gorgeous bed with the hand of death upon him and his mind a prey to the most awful terrors ? Just one week has passed since he turned his back upon his mistress and cried in his extremity for the consolations of the Church. In 1744, when he was ill at Metz, six thou- sand prayers for his recovery were ordered at Notre Dame by devout subjects. In 1757, at the time of the assault upon his life by Damiens, only six hundred were called for, and now as he lies here at Ver- sailles, with the death agony upon him, only three pious souls have asked that the prayers of the Church be said for him in the great cathedral in Paris. Torn by the terrors of a reproaching conscience, he has summoned the priests to his bedside, and they have performed their 12 178 THE STORY OF DU BARRY holy office. But even at the moment of receiving absolution at their hands, he clings to the idea of ruling by divine right, and though the cardinal announces that His Majesty repents of any scandals that his conduct may have occasioned in his king- dom, he qualifies it by adding that the king considers himself responsible for his conduct to God alone. By nature intensely superstitious, he de- mands that the clergy shall remain with him in the pestilential sick room from which all save his daughters and a few other devoted souls have long since fled in terror. During the few hours of life that remain to him, he would rather listen to the prayers of the religious faith to which he has turned in his hour of anguish, than permit his mind to dwell on the ignoble life of vice and selfishness, of sins committed, and good undone, that is fast drawing to its pitiful close. Little as we may envy this Bourbon king the physical sufferings which mark his end, we cannot help feeling that they must be light indeed compared with the agony of THE WAGES OF SIN 179 remorse bred by the thoughts that come crowding upon him, despite his efforts to fix his mind on the consolations that reli- gion extends to him. He must remember that “the well-beloved” .of fifty years ago has not of late dared to show his face in his own capital for fear of mockery and insult. He must remember what France was in the days of his predecessor, and what she is now, with her peasantry ground down under the heel of the most atrocious politi- cal system ever known, her soldiers sent to far-off climes to be butchered in useless warfare, her colonies gone, her prestige van- ished, and want, shame, and rebellion stalk- ing her streets. He has often wondered cynically how his uncouth, stupid grandson will contrive to bear up under the kingly crown for which he is predestined. Can he think of him now without a prophetic glimpse of the axe flashing across _his troubled vision? Above all else that is pass- ing through his mind, sharper than the stings of conscience, more solemn than the pray- ers of the Church, ring the awful words of the Prophet as they fell from the lips of the 180 THE STORY OF DU BARRY Abbé Beauvais in the court chapel : “ Forty days yet, sire, and Nineveh shall be over- thrown.” The fortieth day has come and is drawing to a close. Already the shad- ows are deepening in the chamber whose splendors are a mockery to the foul disease that has laid this mighty sovereign low. A candle has been lighted and placed in the embrasure of one of the tall, sumptuously curtained windows that looks out upon a marble courtyard. Hundreds of eyes are watching that candle from without, for it is known throughout the palace that so long as the king lives it will burn. It is late in the afternoon, and the fortieth day is almost passed, when of a sudden the light in the window of the death chamber is extinguished, and the courtiers come pouring out of the rooms where they have been waiting, and, with a noise that is abso- lutely like thunder, rush through the corri- dors and down the great staircases to the chamber in which the new king, Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette stand waiting for their reign to begin. At the feet of the new sovereign the courtiers make their first THE WAGES OF SIN 181 obeisance, then rise and hurry away from the house of death in which the loathsome body of him who was once the hope of France, Louis the Well Beloved, lies unat- tended, save by a few of the minor clergy and some menial attendants who must pay with their lives for their fidelity. Late at night the body, attended by a scanty escort, is borne at a quick trot through crowds of contemptuous Parisians who line both sides of the road all the way to the Abbey of St. Denis, where it is hastily thrown into a vault. It is a dark and awful picture, this final passing of the French king. There is one gleam of tenderness, however, bright with the reflection of past glory, that falls across his bier as it is carried with irreverent haste through the gates of Versailles. A grizzled veteran of the old wars shoulders his mus- ket and brings his hand to salute, as the last honor that he can pay to his dead king. “After all,” murmurs the viewx moustache, sympathetically, “ he was at Fontenoy.” CHAPTER IX MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN say LE king isdead! Long live the king!” “God help and pro- tect us! We are too A = young to reign!” CRS Such, we are told, was 33 the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. That the young queen lost no time in carrying out her oft-repeated threat to dis- miss the Favorite from court the very moment it should be in her power to do so, is evidenced from the following letter, placed in Madame Du Barry’s hands by a messenger the day after the body of Louis XV had been borne at a rapid pace from Versailles to St. Denis, and there thrust, with scant ceremony, into the tomb. “aE johoT MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 185 Venrsaities, May 12th, 1774. I hope, madame, that you will not have any doubts as to all the pain I feel at being obliged to announce to you that you are forbidden to appear at court ; but I am obliged to carry out the orders of the king, who wishes me to impress on you that his intention is, not to allow you to come there till there is a fresh order made by him. His Majesty, at the same time, is kind enough to permit you to go and see your aunt in the Abbey of Pont-aux- Dames, and I am going, for that reason, to write to the abbess in order that you may not -experience any difficulty in the matter. You will be good enough to acknowledge the receipt of this letter through the person who brings it to you, so that I may be able to assure His Majesty of the fact that T have carried out his orders. I have the honor to be, with respect, madame, Your very humble and very obedient servant, De La VRILLIERE. Marie Antoinette’s defenders claim that she had nothing to do with the expulsion of Du Barry, and lay great stress on the fact that within comparatively recent years there has been found, in the archives of the Prefecture of Police, an entry which shows that this order was entered there on the 186 THE STORY OF DU BARRY 9th of May, 1774, the day before the king’s death, and the inference is, supported by certain corroborative testimony, that the king desired to have her put away for a time, because she knew too many state secrets. This is not unlikely, when we consider the absolute indifference of Louis XV to the feelings of every one about him, even of those whom he believed that he loved. His grandson, on the other hand, was of an easy-going disposition, and it is scarcely probably that he would have adopted such harsh measures in regard to a woman who had enjoyed the love and confidence of his grandfather and prede- cessor. The matter is touched upon, how- ever, in a manner that should dispose of all doubt, in a letter sent by the young queen to her empress mother to announce the death of Louis XV, and in which she says : “The public expected great changes in a moment! The king has limited himself to sending the creature away to a convent, and to driving from the court everything which is connected with that scandal.” There is something almost like a note of MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 187 warning in the words uttered by Du Barry herself on receipt of the message which sent her into exile: “A nice reign indeed, that starts with a lettre de cachet !” she exclaimed, with a few choice blasphemies, to the messenger who has brought her the duke’s letter. She herself, to do her justice, had never, so far as authentic his- tory asserts, asked for a single lettre de cachet during the whole five years of her reign, and this in itself is a circumstance 74, py parry coffee ae that redounds to the credit of this “ unmalignant, not wholly unpitiable thing,” as Carlisle has called her, especially when we consider the fact that during the whole period of her reign she was the tar- get for every sort of attack that feminine jealousy, court intrigue, or the political am- bition of her enemies could devise. Her predecessor, the Marquise de Pompadour, left a very different record behind her. 188 THE STORY OF DU BARRY Jean Du Barry, although included in the same order, was too smart to be caught. The instant that he learned of the king’s death, he consulted a friend, named Goy, as to what he should do, and this gentle- man, who appears to have possessed a high degree of common sense, replied that there was nothing left for him but the jewel case and the post-horses. “ What!” demanded the Roué, with an assumption of dignity, “do you advise me to fly?” “Well,” replied his friend, “you can alter it to the post-horses and the jewel case, if it sounds better.” The Roué took this advice, and in a few hours was well on his way to Germany, which country he reached in safety, thanks to the fact that the period ante-dated that of the telegraph and telephone. Two years later, he returned to Toulouse, married again, and for some time led what must have seemed a very monotonous life to one accustomed to such high intrigues as those that had previously engrossed his attention. It was his boast that, during his sister-in- MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 189 law’s reign, he had “flung into the pave- ments of Paris” eighteen million of francs ; but that did not prevent him from harass- ing her constantly for money until the last days of her life. When Louis XV died, one of the cords —and there were not many of them left, — that had bound the French people to the monarchy snapped in twain. By a curious coincidence, on the same day, and almost at the very moment of his death, news of the passage of the Boston Port Act in the English Parliament was first received in this country. This bill was a measure of retaliation for the Boston Tea Party of the previous December 16th, and by its provi- sions the port of Boston was to remain closed to ships of all kinds until its inhabi- tants should reimburse the East Indian Company for the loss of the tea which had gone to flavor the waters of the harbor. The receipt of the news that the obsti- nate old English king was still determined to discipline the great lusty colony like a refractory child, was marked by an exhibi- tion of feeling that convinced statesmen 199 THE STORY OF DU BARRY like Adams, Hancock and their peers that a revolution of the thirteen colonies was one of the absolute certainties of the near future. So it happened that while Louis XVI, with his queen at his elbow, was beginning, with a spiteful lettre de cachet, a reign that was destined to end in blood and ignominy, the men who were dominant in the Ameri- can colonies were beginning to prepare for the great seven years struggle that destiny had marked out for them. As for Madame Du Barry, her reign hav- ing ended with that of the king, she pro- ceeded to the abbey designated in her /ettre de cachet, and Marie Antoinette began her reign as the lawful queen of France. If we marvel at the way in which Louis XV and his court went dancing, drinking on toward the deluge that the Pompadour had predicted, we marvel all the more at the way in which his grandson and his light- headed young queen bore the sceptre of government. Neither one of them seems to have had any sense whatever of impending disaster, “744d 54an0Ty YP MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 193 though even the old King Louis had often remarked, “‘ When I am gone, I should like very much to know how Berry [the family name for the dauphin, whom he thoroughly despised] will contrive to stand up under it all,” meaning the republican element which he himself had found it so difficult to cope with. It was not merely that they were “too young to reign,” they were too ignorant to be intrusted with such an awful responsi- bility as that of the government of the kingdom of France. Louis XVI was as much unlike his noble- looking, aristocratic grandfather as it was possible for a man to be. His manners were awkward, his voice harsh and uncul- tured, his clothing soiled and untidy, and his mind dull, and his will weak and vacil- lating. His appearance betrayed his habits of gluttony, for he was obese of figure and heavy of feature. When he dined in pub- lic, in deference to the ancient French cus- tom which decreed that the inviolable right of the people of France was to see their sov- ereign eat, he gorged himself to an extent 13 194 THE STORY OF DU BARRY that proved disgusting to those who had been used to the elegancies of Louis XV and his associates. He devoted himself chiefly to the chase, and to amateur lock- making and map-drawing, and kept a diary which is very interesting reading. The day in which he killed nothing was deemed worse than wasted, and left no record be- hind it save the single word “ Nothing” scrawled in the diary. So unfavorable was the impression that he created in the minds of his subjects that his advisers deemed it prudent to counter- act it by means of the suggestion, artfully circulated, that after all such a simple and frugal king was formed for his whole peo- ple rather than for his court alone. And yet some gleam of the impending axe may have crossed even his dull, uncom- prehending brain, for we are told that at his coronation, at the very moment when the crown was placed upon his brow, he raised his hand suddenly to relieve his head for the moment of the weight, and exclaimed petulantly : “It hurts me!” As to the real character of the young MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 195 queen, it is not an easy matter to get at the truth, so fierce has been the abuse of her detractors, so fulsome the panegyrics of her supporters. With the question of her morals, we need not meddle, nor should we lend a too ready ear to the stories that were circulated in regard to her— stories of the kind that always will be circulated so long as women of youth, beauty, and high spirits shall be exposed to the fierce white light of public fame. That Marie Antoinette proved a far greater calamity to the French people than had Madame Du Barry, is a fact that it would be difficult to gainsay, nor should the circumstance that she was the legiti- mate queen of France, and not the mere mistress of a dotard king, serve as an ex- cuse for her follies. Born in the purple, and having as a mother the wisest of sov- ereigns and the most prudent of counsel- lors, a great deal more might have been expected of her than of a young woman with no inheritance but beauty, a sort of bright native wit, and unfailing good temper, who, transplanted from the shop 196 THE STORY OF DU BARRY counter to a seat which, though unlawful, was none the less secure, on the steps of the throne of France, had plunged into luxuries and extravagances of the sort that have a stronger fascination than anything else in the world for women of her class. She spent millions of the public money, because it was given to her to spend, and she spent it, too, without asking herself whence it came. It was enough for her that she held the envied place of Favorite, and as she was not a lawful queen she could not take upon her own shoulders the responsibilities of the kingdom. Marie Antoinette, however, came of a class in which governing is as much of a trade as is the profession of cooking in the province of Ticino in Italian Switzerland, from which have come the greatest cooks and restaurateurs in the world. The French people had the same right to the services of their extravagantly paid queen that the hotel-keeper has to those of the high salaried chef, nurtured in an at- mosphere of sauces, as she had been in that of the Austrian court. MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 197 But although a brilliant and beautiful figure in her husband's court, carrying her- self with queenly dignity when occasion demanded, and encouraging, by her patron- age, the arts of music, painting, and statu- ary, she was absolutely selfish in her pursuit of her own enjoyment, reckless of the results of her folly, and cruelly vindictive in her treatment of those who, like Du Barry, had incurred her dislike. History has laid many evil things at the door of the fallen Favorite, and one story, which her enemies never tire of repeat- ing, is to the effect that on one occasion, when her royal lover was greatly exercised over the partition of Poland, she inquired innocently: ‘“ Where is Poland?” This anecdote does not do much credit to her education, but after all it was not her business, as the king’s mistress, to know anything about Poland. There is some- thing far worse than mere ignorance on the part of one who should have been well informed, in the query of Marie Antoinette, “Why do the people cry for bread, when they can get such nice cakes for a penny ?” 198 THE STORY OF DU BARRY Many and interesting are the stories related of the young queen during the early years of her reign, and with many of them we can sympathize ; while her impa- tience of the elaborate ceremonial of court- life, with its ponderous rules and etiquette, as burdensome to her as the enormous coiffure which she was compelled to wear on her head, cannot fail to commend her to us of a simpler, and, we hope, a more sensible age. It is pleasant to read of her mockery of Madame de Noailles, whose duty it was to follow her about and remind her, in low, respectful whispers, of neglected points of etiquette. What more entranc- ing picture is there than that of this beau- tiful young queen lying prone on a bed of forest leaves, and laughingly refusing to rise until Madame de Noailles should be summoned to tell her what particular form ef etiquette the rules of the French court prescribed for a dauphiness who had been thrown from her donkey. Moreover Marie Antoinette will be en- deared to Americans for all time because of the influence which she used in our “saayog qa fo nary 292 ILA MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 201 behalf during our struggle with the mother country. She helped to make Benjamin Franklin, then accredited to her husband’s court, the rage of Paris, and under the spell of his wit and diplomacy espoused the cause of the colonies with all her heart. This beautiful queen, the chivalrous Mar- quis de Lafayette, and the American com- missioner, who was none the less crafty and adroit because of his Quaker garb and unpowdered locks, did a vast deal to influ- ence public opinion in France, and that, in its turn, brought over the ministry to the American side. The king, however, was very averse to having anything to do with the American disturbance, and even at the moment of signing the treaty with the United States of America, in 1778, said: “You will remember that this is against my better judgment.” That the king viewed the matter rightly from his own point of view was amply proved by subsequent events. For not only did his contributions of men and treasure to the American cause add enor- mously to the great public debt under 202 THE STORY OF DU BARRY which France was then groaning, but the success of our arms— aided as We were at a most critical moment by the French — served to spread abroad through the king- dom the seeds of democracy. Soldiers re- turning from America told stories of the new land of liberty which served only to fan the flames of discontent, and it is not too much to say that one of the greatest mistakes of the reign of Louis XVI, so far as the stability of the monarchy was con- cerned, was his taking part in a costly war which gained for him the undying hatred of England and failed to secure for him the friendship of the new republic. During the first years of her reign, the young queen remained childless, and de- voted herself exclusively to the pursuit of pleasure. In the mornings she received visitors in her bedchamber, as Du Barry had done, and was scarcely less particular than the former Favorite in her manner of exposing her charms to the gaze of her admirers. In the afternoons she amused herself with high play at the card-tables or in the gardens of Little Trianon, and in MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 203 the evenings she went to masked balls and late suppers in company with the worst libertines of the 4 847A court, took part in private the- / y atricals in which the language was of the loosest sort, lost great sums of money _ at the gaming table, and, in O short, lived n\& such a man- ner as seriously to weaken her popular- ity with the French people and to alarm ‘| her prudent mother in “ Vienna. So long as the Empress Maria Theresa lived and Mercy- Argenteau_ re- tained the post of Austrian ambassador at the French court, Marie | Antoinette re- 4 Veritable night table actually used by Du Barry at Versailles. 204 THE STORY OF DU BARRY mained to a certain extent under the maternal control, and the correspondence between the sovereign and the diplomat, as well as that of the mother and daughter, afford a marvellously interesting insight into the history of that period. No less interesting is the picture of court life drawn by Mr. Thomas E. Watson in “The Story of France” : “As Frederick the Great loved Sans Souci, and Washington Mt. Vernon, as Mirabeau would slip away on Sunday to lounge in the rose gardens at Argenteuil, and Napoleon loved to saunter, hands crossed behind him, along the quietudes of Malmaison, — Marie Antoinette sought to create for herself an ideal retreat, an Eden of the fancy, where she was to find true friendship, true happiness, blissful repose. The Little Trianon was a delicious bit of marble architecture built by Louis XV in a retired portion of the park of Versailles. It was here that he had loved to lay aside the trappings and formalities of royalty and play the private gentleman, entertaining a few choice spirits in the little palace, and MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 205 amusing himself with amateur farming and flower culture in the lovely grounds. “Louis XVI gave Little Trianon to his wife, and with the eager delight of a child she set about making it a paradise. The world was ransacked for the finest trees, the choicest shrubs, the loveliest flowers. The rarest skill was employed in laying out gardens, lawns, shrubberies, walks, creating grottoes, hills, lakes and winding rivers. No expense was spared ; the queen demanded a fairy-land, and the gardener gave it; the taxpayers footed the bills, and the queen was in ecstasies. The Little Trianon became a gem, a marvel of beauty, which all travellers went to see. * Brilliant parterres, emerald stretches of velvet lawn, waving masses of luxuriant foliage, glimpses of marble statuary and silvery waters, — all were there to fascinate the eye and kindle enthusiasm. Fountains sprang up in the sun, sparkling and dancing and splashing; the rivulet wound in and out, round and round, through the garden, the lawn, the meadow; the nightingales sang in the shadow of the groves; the 206 THE STORY OF DU BARRY marble Belvidere crowned the steep; and upon the enchanted island which rose from the bosom of the lake rested the Temple of Love. A model rustic village lined the borders of the lake, and there was the mill, the grange, and the manor-house for the master, all complete. The dairy must not be overlooked, that El Dorado dairy where Blanchette, the cow, was milked by the ‘daughter of the Cesars.’ The milk ves- sels were of porcelain, rested upon marble slabs, and conveyed Blanchette’s milk to a churn of silver. “In this Eden the queen lived with a select few of the younger members of the nobility. The king himself was not to come unless invited. Only the few were welcome, — only the congenial, the young, the gallant, the gay. Dull care must not enter here, nor gloom, nor weariness, nor pain. “In the lexicon of the queen’s youth, there was no such word as duty. To frolic, to feast, to dress, to outshine the brightest, to dazzle the eye of the be- “opoyyy Ul AdjsOT MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 209 holder, to create a radiance in her own immediate circle, to laugh, jest, play and enjoy, was the whole of her gospel. Such was high life all around her. Why shouldn't she be gay? Let others talk of public distress, prate of economy and preach of woes to come. It was an old song that had been heard now since the good year 1700: ‘We must amuse our- selves.’ On with the dance; on with festi- vals and theatricals; on with the horse- races, sleigh-rides, and lawn-parties ; on to the opera, the opera-ball and the opera- supper. Let us lose royally at faro, the State pays; let us enrich our pets, the State pays; let us lavish millions upon Little Trianon, the State pays. Let us whisper over the latest scandal, and titter as we do so. Let us skate along the con- versational surface as close as we can go to the forbidden ground of the utterly obscene. Let us mock at all things seri- ous, decorous, and coldly prudent! Such was Marie Antoinette before trouble sobered her thoughts, silvered her tresses and struck the light out of her life. 14 210 THE STORY OF DU BARRY « At Paris, in the Bibliothéque Nationale, you may see a book which speaks but too convincingly of the true character of the unfortunate queen. ‘The cover is that of the Catholic missal, for Marie Antoinette was a devoted Catholic, and she was faith- ful in her attendance at chapel ; but within the sacred cover of this book of worship is enclosed the contents of an obscene novel. The priest could only see the cover, and he would glorify God for so devout a worship- per; but the bowed head of the queen was bent over a filthy love-story, and while the priest talked of God, the queen was reading the history of polite adultery. “Marie Antoinette should be judged by the standard of her own times, not by that of ours. She should be compared to those around her, not to those around us. En- vironment is the father of us all — environ- ment and heredity.” In due course of time a daughter was born to the queen, and afterwards, in October, 1781, a son, and the whole nation went wild with delight because their king had an heir. Sir Samuel Romilly, who MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 211 happened to be in Paris at’ this time, was saddened by the sight of the swarms of hungry, ragged, dirty people who danced in the public parks to the music of the royal band to show their delight at the advent of a child who was to be brought up as a common oppressor. The birth of this child served to restore for the moment the popularity of the young queen, which had waned materially during the half dozen years of her reign, because of her own conduct. Mr. Watson has given us the picture of the rejoicings with which the birth of the little dauphin was celebrated, which is well worth quot- ing as it shows us Louis XVI and his Austrian queen at the one moment during their reign when they really seemed to be beloved by their subjects. “People embraced each other in the street, as though the happiness of the event was personal to every citizen of France. Addresses of congratulation poured in from all the departments and public bodies. Illuminations lit up the towns and cities, processions thronged the streets, loyal songs 212 THE STORY OF DU BARRY were sung at the theatres amid deafening applause, Te Deums were chanted in cathe- drals, and melodious organs pealed forth their richest notes. All France was glad, deliriously glad. God had given the king a son, and the people would not be left without a royal staff to lean upon. The guilds and trades-unions of Paris were as exuberant in their manifestations of joy as any place-hunter of the court. They spent money freely to make a fitting display at Versailles. Arrayed in the new uniforms of their various organizations and accom- panied by bands of music, the mechanics, artificers, and tradesmen of Paris marched out to Versailles and paraded in the court of the palace. Chimney-sweepers, ele- gantly dressed, carried an ornamented chimney upon the top of which was perched a chimney-sweep of the smallest size. The butchers passed in review bear- ing a colossal beef. Smiths hammered away upon an anvil; shoemakers made a pretty pair of shoes for the son of the king, and the tailors presented a tiny uniform of the dauphin’s regiment. For a long time ‘qwary sBury 2q3 sof qrtveg 947, MARIE ANTOINETTE’S REIGN 215 Louis XVI, the happy father, who could not say ‘my son’ too often that blessed day, stood on the balcony viewing the parade, intoxicated by the enthusiasm which prevailed. No happier day was his. King, queen and people were united then, drawn together by the dimpled hand of a child. « Amid all these rejoicings what spectre pushes its way to the front, marring the universal pleasure? It is the procession of the worshipful coffin-makers, to whom it had not occurred that a hearse or a casket, borne in procession, would not add to the exhilaration of the hour. Old Princess Sophie, the king’s aunt, weak of nerves and querulous, thrilled with horror at the sight, and had the worshipful coffin-makers put out of the procession. “The market-women of Paris came in a body to see the queen, to congratulate. her. These women were dressed in black silk gowns, wore diamonds, and had their ad- dress inscribed upon the leaves of a fan. The queen received these Dames of the Hall most affably, and the king dined them in the palace. The fish-women also came, 216 THE STORY OF DU BARRY also gained access to the queen, and made three speeches of congratulation, — one to the king, one to the queen, and one to the child. A more fervent spirit of attachment than that which inspired these addresses of the working people of Paris never found expression. Gaze once more upon this scene —the king on the balcony at Ver- sailles, tears of joy in his eyes, his heart overflowing with happiness, and around him the splendid and spontaneous tribute of boundless affection laid at his feet by the laboring classes of Paris. This was October, 1781. “The outburst of loyalty and affection was not confined to Paris and Versailles. It prevailed throughout the provinces. It was universal and genuine. Songs, danc- ings, music, festivals, celebrations, did not cease till way into January, 1782.” CHAPTER X IN RETIREMENT AYP PE ATL Sa Ne RIN say authentic history, has very little to say of the fallen Favorite during the years that j \S | HE passed from the mo- nse NB) PI WZ -IG) ment when Louis XVI began his ill-fated reign with a lettre de cachet until that in which she fell a victim to the Reign of Terror. She remained in the abbey until early in 1775, when she was permitted to regain her liberty. Forbidden to live within ten leagues of Paris, or the court, she purchased the Chateau of Saint Vrain, situated a few miles from Artajon and consisting of a handsome house, provided with chapel, stables, forecourt, etc., and a domain of 218. THE STORY OF DU BARRY _about one hundred and forty acres. This “property, which still exists, had belonged to the second. son of Madame La Garde, with whom, early in her “career, when she was simply little Jeanette Bécu, she had found oat as lady’s companion. Here she remained for two years, giving balls and other entertainments, re- lieving the necessities of the , poor, and enjoying as best she could the pleasures of French country life. She Salso founded two scholar- ships in a school of art. for workmen, which her old friend, M. de Sartines, the ex-chief of Police, had estab- lished in Paris. The deed for these scholarships bears the date of September 21, oe 1775, and dn the same day Bodyguerd of _ she purchased, for fifty-three Louis XV. thousand francs, a house and thirty acres of land, which she presented to her mother and stepfather, thus enabling “amo 4aq fo 1qH1aFT aq iy IN RETIREMENT 221 them to live in comfort for the rest of their days. Having obtained permission to return to Louveciennes, Madame Du Barry repaired to that house with her great retinue of ser- vants, and there lived for years a life that was almost wholly devoid of exciting inci- dent and was devoted largely to charitable work among her poorer neighbors. One of her last appearances in the great world in which she had once played her part was on the occasion of the début of the beautiful Mademoiselle Contat, afterwards the Countess de Parny, at the Theatre Francais. It was a brilliant audience that gathered in honor of this lovely young de- butante. Marie Antionette was there in the royal box in company with her brother, the Emperor of Austria, then journeying under the incognito of Count von Falkenstein. With them, were the Princesse de Lamballe, the Countess de Polignac, the courtly and elegant Baron de Besenval and the Count de Vaudreuil, who shared with the tragedian Le Kain the distinction of possessing the most courtly and gracious manners toward 222 THE STORY OF DU BARRY the fair sex in all France. In boxes adjoin- ing that of the queen, were the Duc and Duchesse de Chartres, in company with the fascinating Mademoiselle de Genlis, whose name the gossips associated with that of the duke, Madame and Mademoiselle de Pro- vence and the Countess d’Artois—and a host of other Parisian exquisites, while the rest of the audience was made up of the leading critics, poets, dramatists and artists of Paris. By many in the throng that clustered about the royal box the Countess Du Barry was recognized, simply dressed and closely veiled, as she passed along the corridor on the arm of the Duc de Cossé-Brissac. Watchful eyes saw her afterwards, still veiled and hiding behind the thick silk cur- tains of her box, for she had come from her lovely chateau, not because she desired to be seen in the gay world, but because of her deep interest in the event of the evening. Escorted by the duke, Madame Du Barry left the theatre before the conclusion of the play, noticing, perhaps, that she had been recognized by the royal party, and being IN RETIREMENT 223 fully aware of the queen’s antipathy to her. Indeed Marie Antoinette that very evening replied to her brother's question as to the identity of the veiled beauty that she was “that creature,” a term which had _pre- viously shocked the good sense and taste of Maria Theresa, when she encountered it, as she frequently had, in her daughter's letters. Concerning this incident, Lady Jackson speaks her mind with her accustomed free- dom, and at the same time relates how the Austrian Emperor proceeded to gratify the curiosity which had been awakened in him at the sight of the famous Madame Du Barry, and the buzz of interest and conjec- ture that had gone round the theatre the moment she was recognized. “The retired life of ‘the creature’ at Louveciennes,” says Lady Jackson, “ natu- rally provoked comparison with that of ‘ the creatures’ of Versailles, and was not always in favor of the latter. With the Parisian public, the Favorite of the late king was far less unpopular than the new favorites of the queen, while at and around Louveciennes, she was greatly revered and beloved for her 224 THE STORY OF DU BARRY kindness of heart, the interest she took in the poor and her extreme benevolence. She could not, on this occasion, have heard the queen’s petulant exclamation or the whis- pered rebuke of the incognito Emperor. “On the morrow, however, she was in- formed that the Counts von Falkenstein and Cobenzel begged permission to pay their respects to the lady of Louveciennes, and to be allowed to walk through the pic- turesque grounds surrounding the chateau. Madame Du Barry took much pride in her park and grounds. She was accustomed to walk in them daily — often for hours to- gether. ‘They were charmingly laid out in the English style, and the fine range of green- houses was filled with the choicest and most beautiful flowers —a luxury then only at- tainable by the wealthy and great. The pavilion was a perfect museum of objects of art. Joseph and his friend seem to have been greatly interested in them, and gener- ally well pleased with all they saw — not omitting the fair chatelaine herself. “She was then in her thirty-second year, and still retained, without any tendency to IN RETIREMENT 225 embonpoint, the youthful grace of her tall, slight, elegant figure. Powder dimmed not the golden tinge of her wavy light brown hair, and no rouge disfigured her face. A strange contrast this must have presented to eyes accustomed to the painted faces of Versailles. She now dressed with great simplicity, but always in excellent taste. Leaning on the arm of her Imperial guest, she conducted him through those fine avenues of lofty forest trees for which her domain was famous, and to those sites whence the finest pros- pects were obtained. And when, after spending with her the greater part of the day in admiring the beauties of nature and art, in both of which Louveciennes was so rich, Joseph took his leave, he replied to her thanks for the honor of his visit to a poor recluse: ‘ Madame, beauty is every- where a queen ; and it is I who am honored by your receiving my visit.’ ** Cynical as he was, and sometimes very offensive, yet the Emperor Joseph, when he pleased, could make very gallant speeches and pay very flattering com- 15 226 THE STORY OF DU BARRY pliments. Nowhere does he seem to have shown to so much disadvantage as at Ver- sailles, for all he beheld there was out of harmony with his ideas of what ought to have been. He had a strong presentiment of evil looming in the future for France, and that the gloomy horizon was fraught with danger both to her inert sovereign and his thoughtless queen.” Another event which drew Madame Du Barry from her retirement was the return of Voltaire to France, and his apotheosis at the Theatre Francais. The ostensible ob- ject of the philosopher’s visit to Paris was to rehearse the actors who were to play his new tragedy, “Irene,” and for a time it seemed doubtful whether this great French- man would be allowed to return to Paris after his years of exile. The clergy were almost unanimous in urging the king to forbid his return. But on the other hand all Paris was aroused at the thought of welcoming once more the great dramatic poet, philosopher and enemy of shams, who was anxious to undertake this long and arduous winter journey in order that he A Kingly Revel. IN RETIREMENT 229 might see once more the city that he loved so well. Worn out by the fatigue of his long journey and the excitement and annoyance of constant rehearsals, the venerable dram- atist was unable to take part in the glories of the first representation, accounts of the progress of which were carried to his bed- side, from time to time, during the even- ing. It was for this performance, and with a view of meeting Voltaire once more, that Madame Du Barry came up to Paris from Louveciennes, and it was at this time that she met again, and for the last time, the Duc de Richelieu, and for the first time Benjamin Franklin, who had brought his grandson with him to obtain the philosopher’s benediction. “Kneel, my son,” said the famous American, “kneel before the great man!” The youth obeyed, and Voltaire, laying his hand on his head, said in English, “God and Liberty!” Voltaire was able to attend the sixth representation of his play, but only after having been nerved for the occasion by 230 THE STORY OF DU BARRY strong stimulants. He was carried from the theatre to his home in an almost sense- less condition, and a few days later was dead. The winter of 1783 did much to hasten the downfall of the monarchy. It was a period of unheard-of severity, memorable above all preceding winters for its seventy- six days of intense cold. In the splendid abodes of the rich, where there was but little provision for warmth, it was found necessary to hang carpets and tapestries over the huge doors and windows, and to keep the chimney-places filled, night and day, with blazing logs, whose heat, how- ever, was more seen than felt, as it disap- peared up the enormous chimneys. But in the squalid streets of old Paris, where the poor dwelt, the poverty was more bitter and the spirit of discontent fiercer than ever before. It was a difficult matter for the police to keep the people in check and prevent them from satisfying their own hunger from the abundance so freely dis- played by the wasteful and selfish nobility. In the public squares, small doles of black IN RETIREMENT 231 bread were distributed to the hungry, many of whom were also employed for a few sous a day in the work of removing the snow from the entrances to the great palaces and hotels of the nobility and modelling it into huge, uncouth statues, presumably of the king and queen. The object of this was to raise the cry of “ Vive le Roi!” and with it “Vive la Reine!” But as a general thing, the cry of “ A bas Tl Autrichienne” made itself heard high above the perfunc- tory clamor of the poor wretches who were trying to hold their jobs by a display of patriotism. So often, indeed, was this cry heard and so bitter was its tone, that when Marie Antoinette wished to enjoy herself again with her sledges, it was deemed ex- pedient to prevent it, for fear the sight of such luxury should prove an irritation to the suffering people. At this time, too, the French soldiers returning from their term of service in America, full of enthusiasm for the cause for which they had been fighting side by side with the Colonists, urged upon their countrymen the expediency of obtaining for 232 THE STORY OF DU BARRY themselves what the Americans, with their aid, had procured by their long war of revolution. These returned soldiers were justly proud of their achievements in our War of Independence, in whose benefits they could have no part. But they natu- rally expected that their valor in serving their king would stand them in good stead at home. They found, however, that Gen- eral Count Sagur, whom the queen had made minister of war, had issued orders making it impossible for any but noblemen to reach the grade of officer in the army. The war being over, a great many promo- tions were made, but not in the way of rewards to men who had rendered service to their country. The only question asked of a candidate was, “ Have you four quarterings ?” If he had not, nothing could enable him to rise from the ranks. It is worth remarking that in the mid- dle of this very winter, young Napoleon Bonaparte, then in his fifteenth year and a student at the military college of Brienne, divided his schoolmates into two armies, IN RETIREMENT 233 A corner of Du Barry's bedchamber in the palace at Versailles, directed them in the construction of a snow fortress, and himself led the attacking party. For ammunition, they had snow- 234 THE STORY OF DU BARRY balls hard as ice, and in some cases, weighted with stones. And history declares that not until the fortress was entirely demolished did its defenders surrender to the future Emperor of France. There were many in the court circle at this time who recalled with feelings of dire apprehension the extraordinary prediction once made in the salon of Madame de Coigny by that charming epigramist and poet, Cazotte, who, at that time, divided with Cagliostro and Mesmer the honors of clairvoyance. Cazotte was a man of dreamy religious sentiment, highly imagi- native and a mystic. He did not pretend to make diamonds and gold, to heal the sick, or give public exhibitions of science combined with quackery, as his rivals did, but occasionally he went into a trance, and it was then that he was supposed to be endowed with second sight. It was on one of these occasions that he simply heaved a deep sigh and gave no an- swer to the question of two or three ladies of the court circle who demanded eagerly the nature of his vision. Toqungy sum 24 f IN RETIREMENT 237 “Speak, Cazotte !” cried the ladies. “ Tell us what you see!” “Do not ask me. It is too sad !” “You must tell us what it is,” per- sisted the ladies, as they gathered about him. “ Fearful things are coming on France, coming upon you all — even upon you who speak to me,” he replied at last in tones of a half-conscious person. “But what is it that you see?’ they demanded. “Tseea prison,” said Cazotte, shuddering, “‘a cart, a large open place, a strange kind of machine resembling a scaffold, and the public executioner standing near it.” “And these things—the scaffold and the executioner are for me?” asked Madame de Montmorency. “For you, madame,” replied the seer. “Do you see me there, Cazotte ?” asked Madame de Chabot, laughingly. ‘I see you there,” he said. “You are mad to-night, Cazotte,” cried Madame de Chevreuse, “ or you are trying to frighten us.” 2388 THE STORY OF DU BARRY “Would to Heaven, for your sake, madame, that I were,” he exclaimed. “You say you see a cart; is it not a carriage, Cazotte?” inquired Madame de Montmorency. “Tt is a cart,” he answers. “To none, after the king, will the favor of a carriage be allowed.” “To the king!” exclaimed several of the company who had not hitherto joined in questioning the dreamer. “'Ilo the king ?” demanded Madame du Polignac, addressing herself directly to Cazotte. “To the king,” he muttered, despond- ingly. “ But the queen, — myself?” she asked eagerly. “The queen, too, is there. Madame de Polignac stands in the distance and a mist envelops her,” was his reply. « And yourself, Cazotte ?” “ As regards myself,” he answered sadly, “T am as the man who for three days went round the City of Jerusalem, crying aloud, ‘Woe! Woe!’ to the inhabitants thereof, but who on the fourth day cried ‘ Woe! IN RETIREMENT 239 Woe!’ unto himself—‘woe is me!’ A stone from a sling was aimed at him, struck him on his temple and he died.” Cazotte was guillotined in 1792. The rest of his predestined victims perished at about the same time, though Madame de Polignac lived until the following year and died in December, at Vienna, a place of safe distance, that was perhaps signified by the mist in which Cazotte saw her enveloped. Se ee ace pire CHAPTER XI THE STORM BREAKS 4) OR more than fifteen years Jeanette Du | Barry had lived quietly on her beautiful estate Louveciennes, keeping up a few of her old BS AM court intimacies, re- ceiving visits now and then from foreign princes and other distinguished travellers, and enjoying a calm, happy life in which there was neither intrigue nor agitation nor danger of dismissal and disgrace. Her affairs were prosperous, her debts settled, and she was able to live handsomely and have money to spare for her friends and for charity. She was greatly beloved by the poor and sick of the neighborhood whom she visited and aided, and there was THE STORM BREAKS 24) no one in the town who had not a kind word for the ex-Favorite of Louis XV. Undoubtedly these years of exile were the happiest in her whole life, and well they might have been, for through them all she was sustained and cheered by the devoted love of Cossé-Brissac. As years rolled on travellers ceased to visit her, her name dropped out of the public prints, and finally she came to be forgotten of all the world save the little one of her immediate vicinage. Her sym- pathies were still with the royal family, and she was outspoken in her denunciations of the revolutionary party, which was gaining in strength every hour, for the indignities which it sought to heap upon the heads of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The deluge long since predicted by the Marquise de Pompadour was underway at last, and the axe that may have disturbed the visions of Louis XV, that certainly gleamed through the prophetic warning of Damiens — “the shabby man with the penknife” who was so far ahead of his time —the axe that the actress sees in 16 242 THE STORY OF DU BARRY the very first act of the drama has become a stern reality now. The days are begin- ning to be busy ones for the executioner, and those who value their heads are hasten- ing to declare their friendship for the nation and their hatred of royalty and aristocracy. So completely forgotten was the woman who had played such a conspicuous part at the court of the king that up to the begin- ning of the year 1791 no attention was paid to her by the aggressive patriots of the revolutionary party nor had her name been dragged into the papers or political discussions for many years, save once when some demagogue declared that the National Assembly cost but a quarter of the sum that Louis XV squandered on the woman whom: he himself had seen covered with diamonds and giving away basketfuls of louis d’or to her relatives. In all probability the black storm which was now gathering over France might have broken and spent its terrific force without making itself felt in the little chateau where this still beautiful survivor of the A Woman's Intercession. THE STORM BREAKS 245 court of Louis XV _ was living out her days peacefully and secure in the good will of all around her, had it not been for a comparatively unimportant happening which served to alter the whole course of her life. On the night of January 10, 1791, dur- ing the absence of Madame Du Barry, who was visiting the family of Brissac in Paris, the chateau was opened by robbers and a vast number of diamonds and other precious stones were stolen. In her en- deavors to recover her property, she took into her confidence the jeweller Rouen, and he, in an ill-considered moment, caused the dead walls of Paris to be placarded with a long list of the precious stones, de- scribed in detail under the words “'T'wo Thousand Louis To Gain.” This happened at a moment when hunger, cold and misery, combined with the insidious oratory of demagogues and the inspiring words of patriots, were lead- ing the people at a rapid pace toward an- archy — Nature’s primitive remedy for all social ills. These placards were displayed 246 THE STORY OF DU BARRY before the eyes of men and women who were suffering for want of the bare neces- sities of life. Being without occupation they could find time to read and talk over among themselves the great list of dia- monds, sapphires, emeralds, rubies and pearls. And as they read, and wondered how one human being could be so fortu- nate as to possess all this wealth while they went naked and hungry, they remembered who and what this almost forgotten woman had been. ‘They had heard, perhaps, in an exaggerated form, of the way in which kings were wont to cover the bodies of their favorite women with diamonds while the peasantry perished of hunger and cold. They had heard vaguely of luxury in high places, of the wastefulness in Versailles, while the poor were clamoring for bread at the very palace gates. They had heard all these things from the lips of their ora- tors, half believing perhaps and wholly un- comprehending the significance of it all. Now, all at once, there was flashed into the wan faces of these desperate ones a list of the very jewels that had gone to deck THE STORM BREAKS 247 the body of their king’s courtesan at the time when they themselves perhaps had seen their loved ones sicken before their eyes and perish for lack of food. ‘The mere fact that a man of affairs like Rouen should placard { id the streets with such an incendiary docu- , “£ ment as this gag without ever thinking of what it might provoke, indi- cates how little even the intelligent part of the French peo- ple knew of Spinnet of the period. the dangers that threatened. This, too, at a time when the Revolution had actually begun. About the middle of February of the same year five men entered the shop of M. Simon, the rich London lapidary, and offered to sell him a quantity of precious 248 THE STORY OF DU BARRY stones for which they asked only about one-sixth of their actual value. The lapi- dary purchased them for fifteen hundred pounds, and on learning from the men that they had others of still greater value to dispose of, promised to take them also, and then quietly notified the authorities. The men were arrested that night, and although they contrived to destroy one or two of the larger gems by throwing them into the fire, the bulk of their booty was recovered and word sent to the Countess Du Barry. Overjoyed at the news, she left at once tor London, saw the jewels and identified them, declaring under oath that they be- longed to her. Unfortunately other legal proceedings were necessary before the gems could be turned over to her and she was obliged to return to France, after leaving them deposited with her bankers, sealed with her own and their seal. On the 4th of April she started again, taking with her this time the jeweller, Rouen, and remaining until the 21st of May, when she returned again without her property. A third journey followed THE STORM BREAKS 249 from which she returned late in August, feeling much cast down and disappointed over the tediousness of English law pro- cesses. After Madame Du Barry’s return to France the National High Court entered upon its functions at Orleans and the new method of beheading prisoners by the guillotine was adopted. It is said that a model of this machine fell under the eyes of Louis XVI at the time that it was under legislative consideration, and he, being an expert amateur machinist, suggested an improvement which was actually utilized by the inventor and is still in use in the machine that is used in France at the present day. Things were marching briskly now and the work of the executioner was growing heavier every day. Lafayette, who, since his return from America, had been a domi- nant figure in the changing fortunes of his country, was compelled to leave France and fell into the hands of the Austrians, who kept him in prison until years after- wards when Napoleon Bonaparte demanded his release. The king and royal family 250 THE STORY OF DU BARRY were made prisoners and, what was of far greater concern to Madame Du Barry, her devoted lover, Cossé-Brissac, who had been removed from his command of the king’s military establishment, was beheaded, together with hundreds of other prisoners in the September massacres. His head was carried to Louveciennes and thrown through the window of the room in which Madame Du Barry was seated. In October of the year following, Mad- ame Du Barry started once more for Lon- don from which she returned in March, 1793. During this, as well as other visits to England, she received attentions from the hands of many of the most noted men in the kingdom, and as it afterwards transpired, her movements were carefully watched and noted by spies in the employ of her ene- mies at home. During her last visit the Revolution had gained terrific headway, the king and queen had perished on the scaffold, and William Pitt, whom she saw a number of times and who gave her a medal that had been struck in his honor, urged her to remain in England, knowing With Breaking Heart. THE STORM BREAKS 253 perfectly well the risk that she ran in returning to a country that was inflamed against the old monarchy and everything connected with it. Madame Du Barry, however, had full con- fidence in the protection that would be af- forded her in Louveciennes, which she had left but a short time before a peaceful com- munity, undisturbed by the storms that were shaking the country to its founda- tions, and inhabited by people who were one and all grateful to her for what she had done for them. During her absence, however, a man named George Greive, who claimed citizen- ship in the United States of America, and described himself as “factionist and anar- chist of the first rank and disorganizer of despotism in both hemispheres,” had settled in the village and impregnated its inhabi- tants with the doctrines which he preached. This demagogue was a friend of Marat and was actually to have dined with him on the day that Charlotte Corday rid the world of his presence. Marat always hated Du Barry, and it is more than likely that he suggested 254 THE STORY OF DU BARRY her to Greive as one whom it would be easy to destroy and whose wealth was sufficient to yield something to the instrument of her destruction. Through the exertions of this patriot, who at Marat’s suggestion had lost no time in domiciling himself in Louveciennes, the villagers were persuaded that Madame Du Barry had really turned emigrée, and had settled in England without any intention of returning to her own country. Imbued with this belief, seals were set on the doors of her chateau as a preliminary step to con- fiscation. But the sudden appearance of the owner put a stop to this work, and the mayor of the town was easily induced to remove the seals. Undismayed by the fail- ure of this plot, and knowing Du Barry’s popularity among the villagers, Greive’s next attempt took the form of an address to the authorities of the Department of the Seine et Oise, in which, backed by the sig- natures of thirty-six citizens of the village, he complained of the presence there of many aristocrats and suspected persons. On the strength of this address, Madame Du Barry THE STORM BREAKS 255 was placed under arrest in her own house, and, after official inquiry, was set at liberty again, the authorities of the Seine et Oise showing no disposition to deal harshly with her. One of its members, indeed, Lavallery by name, is said to have shown a decided partiality for this still handsome and attrac- tive woman of fifty. Had Madame Du Barry procured her passports and repaired to England the mo- ment she was released, she would undoubt- edly have enjoyed a much longer life than she did. Unfortunately for herself, she chose to remain in her chateau, trusting to the integrity of her respectable neigh- bors, and fearing that if she did leave the country, her house, with all its exquisite furniture and works of art, would be confis- cated by the republicans. It may have been that another lover engrossed her at- tention at that time—jit seems that she was never at a loss for a sweetheart — but certain it is that she chose to remain and she paid dearly for the mistake. Early in September, 1793, Greive began again his denunciations of her, and on the 256 THE STORY OF DU BARRY 22d of that month she was arrested and lodged in the prison of Sainte Pelagie, while seals were placed upon the doors of her chateau. Madame Roland was incar- cerated there at this time, and it has been said that the widow of the recently guil- lotined General Beauharnais, afterwards Empress of France, was arrested on the same day. There is a story told of the ex-Favorite during her imprisonment which, although characteristic of her in many ways, can hardly be reconciled with her conduct a short time later, when brought face to face with death on the scaffold. An Irish priest, who had contrived to obtain access to her in her cell, offered to save her if she could supply him with a certain sum of money with which to bribe the jailers. She asked him if it would be possible to save two women, and on learning that it would not, she gave him an order on her bankers for the necessary sum, and bade him save the Duchesse de Mortemart, who was at that time lying concealed in a loft in Calais. The priest, having urged. her in vain to THE STORM BREAKS 257 permit him to save her instead of her friend, took the order, and with the money which he obtained on it, went to Calais and rescued the duchess from her attic retreat. Then taking her by the arm, he set out on foot, explaining to all who noticed his cleri- cal garb, that he was a good constitutional priest and as such had married the woman. In this way he managed to pass through the French lines to Ostend, where he em- barked for England, taking with him the duchess, who, in after years, related the whole story to Dutens, the author of “ Me- moirs of a Traveller taking a Rest,” in which entertaining volume it is chronicled. 17 CHAPTER XII DREYFUS-LIKE JUSTICE TREES HE methods employed Ao in the trial of Madame )] Du Barry would seem incomprehensible to » American readers, were it not for the fact that the Dreyfus trial, con- ducted on similar lines a very few years ago, served to familiarize us with the man- ner in which French tribunals administer the Gallic equivalent of justice. We all remember the important testimony offered by the different French officers, who knew that Dreyfus was guilty, “because it could not be otherwise,” and the weighty evidence of those who made a profound impression on the court by declaring that the prisoner was certainly guilty, “because if he was not, who was?” We can also recall the pub- A Fealous King. DREYFUS-LIKE JUSTICE 261 lished accounts of the execrations hurled by the populace at those who endeavored to stem the fierce tide of racial hatred evoked by the trial, and of the applause which greeted that “hero of the hour,” who was shown to have taken away the captive’s writing paper and ink. For the name Dreyfus, substitute that of Jeanette Du Barry, go back a little more than a century in time, and not a single degree in civilization or mercy, and we have the trial of the last of the race of queens of the left hand that France has ever known. She was accused of conspiring against the French Republic and favoring the suc- cess of English arms ; of wearing mourning for the late king; of having in her posses- sion a medal of Pitt, the English states- man ; of having buried at Louveciennes the letters of nobility of an emigré, and also the — busts of persons prominent at the court of her royal lover; and of having wasted the public money by her extravagance. The first witness against her was Greive, who testified that he had found near her 262 THE STORY OF DU BARRY house a quantity of precious stones, together with portraits of Louis XV, Anne of Aus- tria, and the Regent, and a medal bearing the likeness of Pitt. He also testified that an English spy named Forth made fre- quent journeys between Louveciennes and London, ostensibly on business connected with the diamond robbery, and that the general opinion of the villagers was that the robbery was nothing but a pretence. A man named Blache swore that Madame Du Barry wore mourning for Louis XVI when she was in London, and one of her discharged servants, Salanave, declared that his dismissal from the household was due to the fact that he was a patriot, whereas all the other servants sympathized with the aristocracy. Then Zamore, the black dwarf, who owed everything that he possessed to the favor of his mistress, swore that most of her guests were not patriots, and that he himself had heard them rejoice over the defeats of the armies of the Republic. He declared that he had frequently rebuked Madame Du Barry for associating with aristocrats and DREYFUS LIKE-JUSTICE 263 that he was positive that there had been no actual robbery of jewels. These were the most important wit- nesses for the prosecution. There were also a surgeon named Augustin Devrey, who testified that he had “once heard the Widow Collet say that some time after the arrest of Brissac, Du Barry spent the night in destroying papers;” and one Claude Reda, a fencing master, who gravely declared that he “had heard it said that when Du Barry was in London she saw the Colonnes.” Certainly there is a Dreyfus-like ring, as well as a suggestion of the mental capac- ity of the jury, in these passages taken from the speech of Fouquier-Tinville for the prosecution: “ You have judged the con- spiracy of the wife of the last tyrant of the French, and you have at this moment to judge the plots of the courtesan of his in- famous predecessor. You have to decide if this Messalina — born amongst the peo- ple, enriched by the spoils of the people and who, by the death of the tyrant, fell from the rank in which crime alone had 264 THE STORY OF DU BARRY placed her—has conspired against the liberty and sovereignty of the people; if, after being the accomplice and the instru- ment of the libertinage of kings, she has become the agent of the conspiracies of tyrants, nobles, and priests against the French Republic. You know what light the evidence of the witnesses and the documents have thrown upon this plot! It is for you, in your wisdom, to weigh the evidence. You see that royalists, federalists, all these factions, though di- vided amongst themselves in appearance, have the same centre, the same object, the same end. “The war, abroad or in La Vendee, the troubles in the South, the insurrections in Calvaldos — all march under the orders of Pitt, but now the veil which covered so much wickedness has been rent in twain and nothing remains of the conspirators but shame and the punishment of their infamous plots. Yes, Frenchmen, we swear that the traitors shall perish and liberty alone shall endure! In striking with the sword of the law a conspiratrice, DREYFUS-LIKE JUSTICE 265 A corner of the property room. a Messalina guilty of plotting against the country, you not only avenge the Re- public, but you uproot a public scandal, and you strengthen the rule of that mo- 266 THE STORY OF DU BARRY rality which is the chief base of the liberty of the people.” With Madame Du Barry were tried also the three Vandenyvers, members of the firm of Dutch bankers with whom she kept her account. The chief charge against these men was that they had fur- nished the accused woman with money in the shape of letters of credit to be used by her during her visit to London.