Produced by David Widger
Being Secret Memoirs of Madame du Hausset,Lady's Maid to Madame de Pompadour,and of an unknown English Girland the Princess Lamballe
Louis the Fifteenth
"It Was an Indigestion
Madame du Hausset
Madame de Pompadour
Madame Adelaide
Madame Sophie
Madame Elizabeth
Mirabeau and the Queen
Princess de Lamballe
Marie Antoinette in the Temple
Interviewing Little Louis
Marie Antoinette to the Guillotine
We were obliged by circumstances, at one time, to read all the publishedmemoirs relative to the reign of Louis XV., and had the opportunity ofreading many others which may not see the light for a long time yet tocome, as their publication at present would materially militate againstthe interest of the descendants of the writers; and we have no hesitationin saying that the Memoirs of Madame du Hausset are the only perfectlysincere ones amongst all those we know. Sometimes, Madame du Haussetmistakes, through ignorance, but never does she wilfully mislead, likeMadame Campan, nor keep back a secret, like Madame Roland, and MM.Bezenval and Ferreires; nor is she ever betrayed by her vanity to invent,like the Due de Lauzun, MM. Talleyrand, Bertrand de Moleville, Marmontel,Madame d'Epinay, etc. When Madame du Hausset is found in contradictionwith other memoirs of the same period, we should never hesitate to giveher account the preference. Whoever is desirous of accurately knowingthe reign of Louis XV. should run over the very wretched history ofLacretelle, merely for the, dates, and afterwards read the two hundredpages of the naive du Hausset, who, in every half page, overturns half adozen misstatements of this hollow rhetorician. Madame du Hausset wasoften separated from the little and obscure chamber in the Palace ofVersailles, where resided the supreme power, only by a slight door orcurtain, which permitted her to hear all that was said there. She hadfor a 'cher ami' the greatest practical philosopher of that period, Dr.Quesnay, the founder of political economy. He was physician to Madame dePompadour, and one of the sincerest and most single-hearted of menprobably in Paris at the time. He explained to Madame du Hausset manythings that, but for his assistance, she would have witnessed withoutunderstanding.
A friend of M. de Marigny (the brother of Madame de Pompadour) called onhim one day and found him burning papers. Taking up a large packet whichhe was going to throw into the fire "This," said he, "is the journal of awaiting-woman of my sister's. She was a very estimable person, but it isall gossip; to the fire with it!" He stopped, and added, "Don't youthink I am a little like the curate and the barber burning Don Quixote'sromances?"—"I beg for mercy on this," said his friend. "I am fond ofanecdotes, and I shall be sure to find some here which will interest me.""Take it, then," said M. de Marigny, and gave it him.
The handwriting and the spelling of this journal are very bad. Itabounds in tautology and repetitions. Facts are sometimes inverted inthe order of time; but to remedy all these defects it would have beennecessary to recast the whole, which would have completely changed thecharacter o