Excerpt from Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry: With Minute Details of Her Entire Career as Favorite of Louis XV

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 Parc 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?

Jeanne Vaubernier - known in the bagnios by the name of Mademoiselle Lange - was born at Vaucouleurs, as was Jeanne d'Arc. Better still, this later Jeanne said openly at Versailles - dared she say otherwise? - that she was descended in a straight line from the illustrious, the venerated, the august, sacred, national maid, Jeanne.

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