After her exile to Pont aux Dames she
returned to Lucienne, where the duc de Cosse Brissac consoled
her for the death of Louis XV. But what she loved in Louis was
that he was a king; her true country was Versailles; her true
light was the sun of court life. Like Montespan, also a courtesan
of high order, she often went in these dark days to cast a loving
look upon the solitary park in the maze of the Trianon. Yet she
was particularly happy at Lucienne.
I have compared her to Manon Lescaut, and I believe her to have
been also a sister to Ganesin. All three were destroyed by passion.
One day she found herself still young at Lucienne, although her
sun was setting. She loved the duc de Brissac, and how many
pages of her past romance would she that day have liked to
erase and forget!
"Why do you weep, Countess?" asked her lover.
"My friend," she responded, "I weep because I love you, shall I
say it? I weep because I am happy."
She was right; happiness is a festival that should know no
to-morrow. But on the morrow of her happiness, the Revolution
knocked at the castle gate of Lucienne.
"Who goes there?"
"I am justice; prepare for destiny."
The Queen, the true queen, had been good to her as to everybody.
Marie Antoinette remembered that the favorite had not been wicked.
The debts of Du Barry were paid and money enough was given to her
so that she could still give with both hands.
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