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
I should consider it great presumption to intrude upon the publicanything respecting myself, were there any other way of establishing theauthenticity of the facts and papers I am about to present. To thehistory of my own peculiar situation, amid the great events I record,which made me the depositary of information and documents so important, Iproceed, therefore, though reluctantly, without further preamble.
I was for many years in the confidential service of the Princesse deLamballe, and the most important materials which form my history havebeen derived not only from the conversations, but the private papers ofmy lamented patroness. It remains for me to show how I became acquaintedwith Her Highness, and by what means the papers I allude to came into mypossession.
Though, from my birth, and the rank of those who were the cause of it(had it not been from political motives kept from my knowledge), in pointof interest I ought to have been very independent, I was indebted for myresources in early life to His Grace the late Duke of Norfolk and LadyMary Duncan. By them I was placed for education in the Irish Convent,Rue du Bacq, Faubourg St. Germain, at Paris, where the immortal Sacchini,the instructor of the Queen, gave me lessons in music. Pleased with myprogress, the celebrated composer, when one day teaching MarieAntoinette, so highly overrated to that illustrious lady my infantnatural talents and acquired science in his art, in the presence of hervery shadow, the Princesse de Lamballe, as to excite in Her Majesty aneager desire for the opportunity of hearing me, which the Princessvolunteered to obtain by going herself to the convent next morning withSacchini. It was enjoined upon the composer, as I afterwards learned,that he was neither to apprise me who Her Highness was, nor to whatmotive I was indebted for her visit. To this Sacchini readily agreed,adding, after disclosing to them my connections and situation, "YourMajesty will be, perhaps, still more surprised, when I, as an Italian,and her German master, who is a German, declare that she speaks boththese languages like a native, though born in England; and is as welldisposed to the Catholic faith, and as well versed in it, as if she hadbeen a member of that Church all her life."
This last observation decided my future good fortune: there was nointerest in the minds of the Queen and Princess paramount to that ofmaking proselytes to their creed.
The Princess, faithful to her promise, accompanied Sacchini. Whether itwas chance, ability, or good fortune, let me not attempt to conjecture;but from that moment I became the protege of this ever-regretted angel.Political circumstances presently facilitated her introduction of me tothe Queen. My combining a readiness in the Italian and German languages,with my knowledge of English and French, greatly promoted my power ofbeing useful at that crisis, which, with some claims to their confidenceof a higher order, made this august, lamented, injured pair more likemothers to me than mistresses, till we were parted by their murder.
The circumstances I have just mentioned show that to mere curiosity, thecharacteristic passion of our sex and so often its ruin, I am to ascribethe introduction, which was only