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.

One day she found herself still young at Lucienne, although her
sun was setting. She loved the duc de Brissac, and how many
pages of her past romance would she that day have liked to
erase and forget!

"Why do you weep, Countess?" asked her lover.