For the last few days the King hardly left her room. She could not breathe lying down, and sat in a chair, wearing a dressing-gown over a white taffeta petticoat; she had a little rouge and always smiled at everybody. Not one word of complaint passed her lips. When the doctors said that she was dying, she asked the King whether she ought to confess; she was not very anxious to do so, as it meant that she would not be able to see him again. However, he said that she must. He bade her a last farewell, and went upstairs to his own room.
A priest came. He told her she must send for d’Etioles; obediently she did so, but her husband begged to be excused, saying that he was not well. Then she confessed and communicated. The next day was Palm Sunday, the King was in church all day. Faithful Gontaut, Soubise and Choiseul stayed with her, until she said: ‘It is coming now, my friends; I think you had better leave me to my soul, my women and the priest.’ She told her women not to change her clothes, as it tired her and was no longer worth while. The priest made a movement as if to leave the room; she said: ‘One moment, M. le Curé, we’ll go together’, and died.
It was getting dark. The Duchesse de Praslin, who happened to be looking out of her window, saw two men carrying a stretcher, on which was the body of a woman lightly covered with a sheet. She clearly saw the shape of the head, the breasts, the stomach and the legs. Horrified, she sent her servant to find out what this could mean. When she heard that she had seen the last of the Marquise she burst into tears. There was an iron rule that no dead body could stay in the palace; the servants had not dared to wait for her coach, and in any case it was only a step down the hill to the Hôtel des Réservoirs. Here she lay, in a Chapelle Ardente, until her funeral two days later.
Her old enemy the Dauphin wrote to the Bishop of Verdun: ‘She is dying with a courage rare for either sex. Her lungs are full of water, or pus, and the heart congested or dilated, it is an unbelievably cruel and painful death. What can I tell you of her soul? At Choisy she wanted to go and die in Paris and I hear that she still asks to be taken there. The King has not seen her since yesterday; she had communion last night; the Curé of the Magdalen of Ville Evêque is with her all the time – here are reasons for hoping that she will receive mercy.’
The Dauphine wrote by the same post: ‘We have lost the poor Marquise. Infinite is the mercy of God, and we must hope that it will reach her, since He gave her time to communicate, receive extreme unction and to profit by her last hours. They say that she admitted all the evil she had done, and detested it. Now we can only pray for her … The King is in great affliction, though he controls himself with us and with everybody. Our greatest wish is that he could turn to his children, love them more than anybody, that God should touch his heart, draw him closer and sanctify him. Farewell, my dear Bishop, be good, burn my letter and don’t answer it. Never write to me of the Marquise unless by some perfectly safe emissary.’
Madame de la Tour Franqueville wrote to Jean-Jacques Rousseau: ‘The weather has been so frightful all the month that Madame de Pompadour must have been less sad at leaving this life. During her last moments she let it be seen that her soul was a mixture of strength and weakness, never surprising in a woman. Nor does it surprise me to see that she is now as much mourned as she used to be despised or hated. The French, who win all the prizes, win that for inconsequence too.’
Voltaire wrote: ‘I am very sad at the death of Madame de Pompadour. I was indebted to her and I mourn her out of gratitude. It seems absurd that while an ancient penpusher, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty. Perhaps if she had been able to live quietly, as I do, she would be alive today.’ ‘Born sincere, she loved the King for himself; elle avait de la justesse dans l’esprit et de la justice dans le cœur; all this is not to be met with every day.’ ‘We shall miss her as long as we live.’ ‘It is the end of a dream.’
The Queen wrote to President Hénault: ‘Nobody talks here of what is no more, it is as if she had never existed. There’s the world for you, worthy indeed of love!’
Diderot: ‘Madame de Pompadour is dead. So what remains of this woman who cost us so much in men and in money, left us without honour and without energy, and who overthrew the whole political system of Europe? The Treaty of Versailles which will last as long as it lasts; Bouchardon’s Amour, which will be admired for ever; a few stones engraved by Guay which will amaze the antiquaries of the future; a nice little picture by van Loo which people will look at sometimes, and a handful of dust.’
Lord Hertford, the English Ambassador: ‘Madame de Pompadour expired on Sunday evening about seven o’clock after a tedious illness. She saw the approaches of death with great courage; bid adieu to her friends with tenderness; and, I think, is generally regretted. She has died poor which wipes off the imputations of rapacity that popular clamour had thrown upon her.’
Like her houses, the very church where she was buried, with Alexandrine, has vanished. It was in the Place Vendôme, where the rue de la Paix now enters it.
The day after her funeral Marigny went to see the King, and resigned all his charges and appointments; the King gave them back to him and furthermore said he would like him to have the Elysée, but later he exchanged it with him for another house in Paris.
And what of the King? So good at concealing all emotion, he was seen, by those who knew him well, to be very unhappy. Champlost, who had a bed in his room, said that for nights he hardly slept. He wrote to the Infante Philip: ‘My anxiety is over, in the cruellest way. You can guess what I mean.’ The day of the funeral arrived; a freezing storm howled round the palace. ‘The Marquise has bad weather for her journey,’ he remarked. At 6 p.m. the cortège was to leave for Paris; his servants shut the shutters, hoping to spare him the sight. But the King, by whose orders everything had been done, took Champlost by the arm and went out with him on to the balcony of his corner room. He watched the Marquise as she went back up the long Avenue de Paris; in the bitter wind he stood there without coat or hat until she was out of sight. Then he turned away, tears pouring down his cheeks. ‘That is the only tribute I can pay her.’
After this a great dullness fell upon the Château of Versailles.
Acknowledgements
I SHOULD LIKE to thank, for kindness, interest and help, the late Dr Alfred Cobban, M. van der Kemp, Conservateur du Musée de Versailles, Mr Francis Watson, Director of the Wallace Collection, M. Gaston Palewski, M. Jean Féray, Baroness Elie de Rothschild, Mme Chantal Coural and above all Mrs Joy Law, whose name really ought to appear with mine on the title page, since she is responsible for the illustrations.1
N.M.
1 The original illustrations have been omitted from the Vintage classics edition.
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Index
The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.
Académie française, 42, 52, 176
Acis et Galatée (Lully, 1686), 84
Adam, Lambert Sigisbert (1700–59), sculptor, 127
Adélaïde, Princess of France (1732–1800), 3rd daughter of Louis XV, 58, 95, 141, 146, 150, 211, 228
Aiguillon, Emmanuel Armand Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu, Duc d’ (1720–88), 209
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 1748, 84, 100, 107, 170
Albemarle, William Anne Keppel, 2nd Earl of (1702–54), 153–4, 171–2, 223
Alcide and Lys naval incident, 1755, 171
Alembert, Jean le Rond d’ (1717–83), 52, 121
Alexandrine: see Etoiles, Alexandrine d’
Amblimont, Mme d’, 115, 150, 230
America, 171, 195
Angerville de Saint-Sylvestre, d’ (1706–80), 87
Aquitaine, Louis de France, Duc d’ (1753–4), grandson of Louis XV, 93, 94
Argenson, Marc Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, Comte d’ (1696–1764), 75, 102, 105, 127, 145–50, 168, 169, 173, 174–5, 184, 185, 187, 188, 205, 213
Argenson, Mme d’, 174–5
Argenson, René Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, Marquis d’ (1694–1757), 19, 102
Artois, Comte d’: see Charles X of France
Aubusson factory, 157
Augustus II (1670–1733), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, 89
Augustus III (1696–1763), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland from 1733, 38, 88, 198
Aumont, Louis Marie Augustin, Duc d’ (1700–82), 65, 85
Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), 175
Austrian Succession, War of the, 1740–8, 38, 170
Auteroches, Comte d’, 45
Avare, L’ (Molière), 215
Ayen, Louis, Comte et Duc d’: see Noailles, Louis, Comte et Duc d’Ayen, Duc de (1713–93)
Bacchus et Erigone (opera), 82
Barbier, Edmond Jean François (1689–1771), 162, 187
Barry, Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du (1743–93), 68, 99, 138, 168
Baschi, François, Comte de, 197
Baschi, Comtesse de (née Le Normant d’Etoiles), 37, 57, 58, 99
Bastille, the, Paris, 32, 55–6, 86, 126
Bavaria, Charles Albert, Elector of, 38
Bayonne [Basses-Pyrénées], 55
Beaumont, Christophe de (1703–81), Archbishop of Paris from 1746, 119, 161, 162;
exiled from Paris, 161, 178, 207
Bedford, John Russell, 4th Duke of (1710–71 N.S.), 222–4
Belle-Isle, Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, Comte de (1684–1761), Maréchal de France, 38, 77, 188, 196, 199, 200, 208
Belle-Isle, Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de (1615–80), 38, 77
Bellevue, Château de [District of Paris], 54, 69, 101, 126–9, 132, 135, 144, 146, 174, 216
Benedict XIV (Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, 1675–1758), Pope from 1740, 163, 180, 210
Benoït, Monsieur, Mme de P.’s cook, 55, 65–6
Berg-op-Zoom, Brabant, 111, 170
Bernis, François Joachim Pierre de (1715–94), Cardinal 1758, Archbishop of Albi 1764, 23, 42, 44, 56, 109, 165, 172–7, 182, 185, 188, 189, 192, 199, 201–2, 205, 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, 219, 228
Berry, Duc de, 93, 211
Berryer, Nicolas René (1703–62), 101, 108, 167
Bibliothèque Nationale, 133, 230
Bien-Aimé : see Well Beloved
Binet, Sieur, body servant to the Dauphin, cousin of Mme de P., 26, 29, 35
Biron, Louis Antoine de Gontaut, Duc de (1790–88), Maréchal de France 1757, 42, 43, 46, 47, 109, 142, 147, 148, 150, 213, 214
Boileau, Nicolas (1636–1711), 47
Boscawen, Edward (1711–61), 130
Bouchardon, Edmé (1698–1762), sculptor, 132, 227, 232
Boucher, François (1703–70), 22, 80, 127, 133, 138–9, 165, 197
Boufflers, Marie François Catherine de Beauvau-Craon, Marquise de (1706–72), 122
Bouillon, Charles Godefroid de la Tour d’Auvergne, Duc de (1706–72), 1, 48, 107
Boulogne, Bois de [Paris], 15, 226
Bourbon, Louis Aimé, Abbé de (1762–87), son of Louis XV and Anne Couppier, called Mlle Romains, 227
Bourbon et d’Enghien, Louis Henri de Bourbon-Condé, Duc de (1692–1740), Monsieur le Duc, 7–8, 42, 207
Bourgogne, Louis de France, Duc de (1682–1712), grandson of Louis XIV, 6, 119
Bourgogne, Louis-Joseph de France, Duc de (1751–61), grandson of Louis XV, 6; birth, 93, 211; death, 225
Bourgogne, Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, Duchesse de (1685–1712), Louis XV’s mother, 63, 119
Boyer, Jean François (1675–1755), Bishop of Mirepoix, 35, 211
Brancas, Louise Françoise de Clermont Gallerand, widow of Louis Antoine, Duc de Villars Brancas, 70–1, 80, 84, 89, 107, 185, 186
Brancas, Marie Angélique de Maras, Duchesse de, 89
Brandebourg, Marq
uis de: see Frederick II of Prussia
Bretagne, Louis, 2nd Duc de (1707–12), brother of Louis XV, 1, 94
Brimborion, Château de [District of Paris], 69, 128, 174
Broglie, Victor François, 2nd Duc de (1718–1804), 75, 139
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de (1708–78), 119, 230
Buonaparte, Napoleone (Napoleon I), 144
Byng, Admiral John (1704–57), 178–9
Caffieri, Charles Philippe (1695–1766), porcelain maker, 133
Calas, John (1698–1762), 218–20
Canada, 107; Anglo-French strife in, 171, 195, 196, 224
Carlyle, Thomas (1795–1851), 139
Catalina (Crébillon, 1748), 112
Cavanac, Anne Couppier, Marquise de (1737–1808), called Mlle Romains, 226
Cavendish, Lord Frederick (1729–1803), Field Marshal 1796, 209
Caylus, Anne Claude Philippe de Pestels de Lévis de Turières-Grimsard, Comte de (1692–1765), 132
Celle, La, house near St. Cloud [District of Paris], 115, 123, 125
Chambord, Château de [Loir-et-Cher], 80, 198
Champcenetz, Louis Quentin, Marquis de, valet to Louis XV, 80, 186
Champcenetz, Jean Louis Quentin de Richebourg, Marquis de (son of Louis Quentin), 80
Champlost, the King’s servant, 229, 233
Champs, Château de [District de Paris], 129
Champs Elysées, Paris 126, 227
Chanteloup, Château de [Manche], 80, 213
Chantilly [Oise], Château de, 8, 10, 126, 132; factory at, 132
Chardin, Jean Baptiste Siméon (1699–1779), 132
Charles VI (1685–1740), Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary, elected Holy Roman Emperor 1711, father of Maria Theresa, 38
Charles VIII (1470–98), King of France from 1483, 98
Charles X (1757–1836), King of France from 1814–30, 6, 94, 194, 211
Charles Edward Stuart, Prince (1720–88) called the Young Pretender and ‘Charles III’, 84
Charolais, Charles de Bourbon-Condé, Comte de (1700–60), 41, 58
Chartres, Duc and Duchesse: see Orléans, Duc and Duchesse d’