Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry: With Minute Details of Her Entire Career as Favorite of Louis XV — John Shaqi
Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry: With Minute Details of Her Entire Career as Favorite of Louis XVLamothe-Langon, Etienne-Léon, baron de
History
Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry: With Minute Details of Her Entire Career as Favorite of Louis XV
Lamothe-Langon, Etienne-Léon, baron de
Du Barry, Jeanne Bécu, comtesse, 1743-1793
All my friends were not treacherous as the duc de Villeroi; and I may
gratefully assert I have possessed many true and sincere ones who
have ever faithfully adhered to my fortunes. One in particular I shall
mention here, that I may recommend him to your warmest esteem; for,
although of high and distinguished rank, he did not despise the good
opinion of the meanest citizen. I speak of the prince de Deux Ponts,
Charles Auguste Christian. This prince, who chanced to visit France
during the zenith of my court favour, was very desirous of seeing me,
and both he and his brother were presented to me by the comte de
la Marche, their friend, and they quickly requested the honor of my
friendship. Auguste Christian pleased me most by his gentle and amiable
manners, although most persons gave the preference to his brother,
Maximilian Joseph, better known by the name of prince Max. Auguste
Christian, in the fervour of his attachment, speaking openly to me of
the delicacy of the situation, proposed to me, in case of any reverse,
that I should seek an asylum in his dominions; and I must do him the
justice to say, that at the death of the king, far from forgetting his
proffer, he lost no time in reminding me of it. Fidelity and attachment
such as his, is sufficiently rare to merit a place in my journal. The
prince des Deux Pouts was presumptive heir to an immense inheritance,
that of the electorate of Bavaria, and the electorate Palatine, to the
latter of which he was direct heir after the decease of his cousin, the
present elector. I could almost wish that he had already succeeded to
these possessions: he can never reign too soon for the happiness of his
subjects.
Prince Max had served in France; he was extremely well looked upon
at court both by the king and the princesses. As for the dauphiness,
prejudiced against him as she was by her mother, she naturally regarded
him with an eye of cool mistrust, and manifested her open dislike by
never inviting him to any of her parties. Prince Max spoke of this
pointed neglect to the king, who immediately summoned the dauphin. "My
son," said he to him, "I see with regret that prince Max is never an
invited guest at any of your balls and fêtes. Remember, he belongs to
a family which has been our most ancient ally, and do not take up the
quarrels of a house which, until your marriage, has ever been disposed
in deadly hatred to us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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