MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XV. AND XVI.

Being Secret Memoirs of Madame du Hausset,
Lady's Maid to Madame de Pompadour,
and of an unknown English Girl
and the Princess Lamballe




BOOK 6.



SECTION IV.


"The dismissal of M. Necker irritated the people beyond description. They
looked upon themselves as insulted in their favourite. Mob succeeded
mob, each more mischievous and daring than the former. The Duc d'Orleans
continued busy in his work of secret destruction. In one of the popular
risings, a sabre struck his bust, and its head fell, severed from its
body. Many of the rioters (for the ignorant are always superstitious)
shrunk back at this omen of evil to their idol. His real friends
endeavoured to deduce a salutary warning to him from the circumstance. I
was by when the Duc de Penthievre told him, in the presence of his
daughter, that he might look upon this accident as prophetic of the fate
of his own head, as well as the ruin of his family, if he persisted. He
made no answer, but left the room.