Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry; with intimate details of her entire career as favorite of Louis XV by baron de Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon
page 23 of 611 (03%)
page 23 of 611 (03%)
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"Ah! has she gone? Then I must go!" So he departed. His end drew forth some maledictions. There were insults even at his funeral services. "Nevertheless," said one old soldier, "he was at the battle of Fontenoy." That was the most eloquent funeral oration of Louis XV. "The King is dead, long live the King!" But before the death of Louis XVI they cried: "The king is dead, long live the Republic!" Rose-colored mourning was worn in the good city of Paris. The funeral oration of the King and a lament for his mistress were pronounced by Sophie Arnould, of which masterpiece of sacred eloquence the last words only are preserved: "Behold us orphaned both of father and mother." If Madame du Barry was one of the seven plagues of royalty, she died faithful to royalty. After her exile to Pont aux Dames she returned to Lucienne, where the duc de Cosse Brissac consoled her for the death of Louis XV. But what she loved in Louis was that he was a king; her true country was Versailles; her true light was the sun of court life. Like Montespan, also a courtesan of high order, she often went in these dark days to cast a loving look upon the solitary park in the maze of the Trianon. Yet she was particularly happy at Lucienne. I have compared her to Manon Lescaut, and I believe her to have been also a sister to Ganesin. All three were destroyed by passion. |
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