Lamothe-Langon, Etienne Leon, baron de, 1786-1864
"Memoirs of the Comtesse Du Barry, with minute details of her entire career as favorite of Louis XV. Written by herself"
Since this word
has escaped my pen, I will tell
you something of it. Do you know, my friend, that but little is
known of this place, of which so much has been said. I can tell
you, better than any other person, what it really was, for I, like
the marquise de Pompadour, took upon myself the superintendence
of it, and busied myself with what they did there. It was, nous>, the black spot in the reign of Louis XV, and will cost me
much pain to describe.
The vices of Louis XV were the result of bad education. When an
infant, they gave him for governor the vainest, most coxcombical,
stupidest of men--the duc de Villeroi, who had so well served the
king (),*
* The countess alludes to the written, after his
famous defeat, "."
(Ed.) i.e., author
Never had courtier so much courtiership as he. He saw the
young prince from morning till night, and. from morning till
night he was incessantly repeating in his ears that his future
subjects were born for him, and that they were all dependent on
his good and gracious pleasure. Such lessons daily repeated,
necessarily destroyed the wise instructions of Massillon. When
grown up, Louis XV saw the libertinism of cardinal Dubois and
the orgies of the regency: madame de Maillis' shameless conduct
was before his eyes and Richelieu's also.
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