First proceedings of the council--The dauphin receives the prelates with great coolness--Situation of the archbishop of Paris--Richelieu evades the project for confessing the king--The friends of madame du Barry come forward--The English physician--The abbé Terray--Interview with the prince de Soubise--The prince and the courtiers--La Martinière informs the king of France the true nature of his complaint--Consequences of this disclosure XLIII Terror of the king--A complication--Filial piety of the princesses-- Last interview between madame du Barry and Louis XV--Conversation with the maréchale de Mirepoix--The chancellor Maupeou--The fragment--Comte Jean XLIV The duc d'Aiguillon brings an order for the immediate departure of madame du Barry--The king's remarks recapitulated--The countess holds a privy council--Letter to madame de Mirepoix and the ducs de Cossé and d'Aiguillon--Night of departure--Ruel--Visit from madame de Forcalquier XLV The duc d'Aiguillon's first letter--The maréchale de Mirepoix--A second letter from the duc d'Aiguillon--Numerous visitors XLVI A third letter from the duke--The king receives extreme unction--Letter from madame Victoire to the dauphin--M. de Machault--A promenade with the duc de Cossé--Kind attention from the prince des Deux Pouts--A fourth letter from the duc d'Aiguillon--Comte Jean bids me farewell--M. d'Aiguillon's fifth letter, containing an account of the death of Louis XV--The duc de la Vrillière--The _Lettre de cachet_--Letter to the queen--Departure for the abbey of _Pont aux Dames_ SPECIAL INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT ARNOT Up to the time of the Du Barry the court of France had been the stage where the whole political and human drama of that country was enacted. Under Louis XV the drama had been transformed into parades--parades which were of as much importance to the people as to those who took part in them. The spectators, hitherto silent, now began to hiss and be moved. The scene of the comedy was changed, and the play was continued among the spectators. The old theatre became an ante-chamber or a dressing-room, and was no longer important except in connection with the Cardinal de Bernis and the Duc de Richelieu, or Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry. The monarchy had still a step to take towards its downfall. It had already created the _Pare aux Cerfs_ (Louis XV's seraglio), but had not yet descended to the Parisian house of prostitution. It made this descent leaning on the arm of Madame du Barry. Madame du Barry was a moral sister to Manon Lescaut, but instead of taking herself off to Louisiana to repent, she plunged into the golden whirlpool at Versailles as a finish to her career. Could the coaches of a King mean more than the ordinary carriage of an abandoned girl?