THE BEGINNINGS OF THE COUNTESS DU BARRY

On the 9th of January, 1829, a curious suit was tried before the civil tribunal of first instance. It was a contest between two families, each of which claimed to be the sole heir of the Countess Du Barry, and demanded the carrying into execution of a legacy bequeathed to the Countess by the Duke de Cossé-Brissac, massacred by the revolutionists in 1792. The Duke, while naming his daughter, Madame de Mortemart, as universal legatee, had burdened her succession by a legacy which, at first, could not be paid. But under the Restoration the Mortemart family, having received a considerable portion of the indemnity of a milliard, granted to the _Émigrés_, found itself in a position to accomplish the last wishes of the Duke de Brissac. The Gomard heirs presented themselves, appealing, as the certificate of Madame Du Barry’s birth to the following extract, drawn, they said, from the baptismal registers of the parish of Vaucouleurs, diocese of Toul: “Jeanne, daughter of Jean-Jacquard Gomard de Vaubernier and Anne Bécu, called Quantigny, was born August 19, 1746, and was baptized the same day, had Joseph de Mange for godfather and Jeanne de Birabin for godmother, who have signed with me: L. Galon, vicar of Vaucouleurs, Joseph de Mange and Jeanne de Birabin.”

The heirs on the maternal side, the Bécus, also presented themselves. They came not merely to share, but to contest with the Gomards all rights of succession to Madame Du Barry. They maintained that the certificate of birth furnished by the latter was false, having been fabricated in 1768 to flatter the Countess, and they opposed to it another act, taken from the civil registers of the town of Vaucouleurs, September 25, 1827, and which was expressed in these terms: “Jeanne, natural daughter of Anne Bécu, called Quantigny, was born August 19, 1743, and baptized the same day. For godfather she had Joseph Demange, and for godmother Jeanne Birabin.”

By judgment of January 9, 1829,—a judgment confirmed by a decree of the royal court of Paris, February 22, 1830,—the Seine tribunal of first instance decided in favor of the Bécu heirs. The certificate of birth produced by the Gomards was declared apocryphal. The tribunals thus established that in 1768 a genealogy of complaisance had been invented in favor of the mistress of Louis XV. Of a natural daughter they had made a legitimate daughter. The Bécu girl had been transformed into a Demoiselle Gomard de Vaubernier. The “particle” was attributed to the godfather, M. Demange, and to the godmother, Jeanne Birabin, “la Birabine,” as they said in the country, who became Madame de Birabin. The fawning spirit went to even further lengths. The favorite was made younger and made to come into the world, not on August 19, 1743, the real day of her birth, but three years later, August 19, 1746. In his interesting work, _Les Curiosités historiques_, M. Le Roi, the learned curator of the Versailles library, has told the truth about the origin of the Countess Du Barry. He has given her back her true name: Jeanne Bécu. He has refuted the numberless falsehoods which tended to create an absolutely false legend on the subject of the royal mistress.

The child who was one day to call herself the Countess Du Barry had for mother a simple peasant. She had to struggle against poverty from her cradle. A commissary of provisions, M. Dumonceau, gave her the first elements of instruction through charity. He placed her in the convent of Saint Anne, with two pairs of sheets and six napkins by way of trousseau. It is said that she afterwards peddled haberdashery through the streets, and later on, under the name of Mademoiselle Rançon, the name of the husband recently taken by her mother, entered the millinery shop of one M. Mabille, rue Saint Honoré. It seems the little shop girl was not a model of virtue. Alas! the snares of every kind with which pretty girls are surrounded make goodness and beauty what may almost be called incompatible things in the poorer classes. The milliner encountered one of those men who are met in every capital,—Count Jean Du Barry. He said to himself that so charming a person ought to make her way, and in his enthusiasm he gave her a seraphic title: he called her Mademoiselle l’Ange. This angel, of an inferior order, presided at the gambling-parties given by the Count. It was there Dumouriez saw her in 1764. In 1764 the Duke de Lauzun followed her from the opera ball, and found her truly ravishing. Lebel, valet-de-chambre to Louis XV., who, in consequence of his special functions was on the track of all dainties for the King, thought he would do well to place Mademoiselle l’Ange on the list of his clients. He fancied she would be only the favorite of a day and night and would then disappear, after having had her place in the Deer Park but an instant. He was mistaken. The former milliner was destined to a succession that had been vacant four years,—that of the Marquise de Pompadour.

Instead of imitating the great ladies who fatigued the King, she showed herself just as she was, under the aspect of a veritable courtesan, with all the cynicism, animation, and refinements of her trade. Louis XV. found his jaded senses revive as if by miracle. He was delighted by it. The new favorite seemed to him an exceptional being. He determined to cover her with a rain of gold and jewels, and make her the first _femme entretenue_ in France, in all Europe.

Thinking that a demoiselle could not decently fulfil the functions of royal mistress, he decided that he would at once make the new favorite a married woman and a woman of title. Nothing easier than to find her a nominal husband who, having received a goodly sum, would quietly retire behind the scenes and not appear again on the stage. Count Jean Du Barry could not play this lucrative part himself, seeing that he was already married. But he had a bachelor brother who seemed made expressly for the circumstance. This complaisant brother was called Count William Du Barry. He was a poor officer of marines, who lived at Toulouse, with his mother. To summon him to Paris, to marry him to the mistress of Louis XV., to give him a large sum and send him back at once to Toulouse, was but the affair of a few days. Queen Marie Leczinska had died June 24, 1768. Her husband did not lament her long, for he was smitten the next month with this so-called Jeanne Gomard de Vaubernier, this Jeanne Bécu, called l’Ange, who was about to become Madame the Countess Du Barry. The contract was signed, July 23, in presence of the notaries Du Châtelet of Paris, and this comedy marriage was celebrated, September 1, at the church of Saint Laurent, Auteuil. The nuptial benediction once given, the husband departed for Toulouse, and the wife went to take up her quarters at Versailles.

Louis XV. congratulated himself on his choice. Madame Du Barry was neither learned nor witty; she had no relatives well placed at court, and to the monarch these seemed very great advantages. He did not want either a great lady, like the Duchess de Châteauroux, who would have arrived with a cortège of relations and favorites, nor a female politician, like Madame de Pompadour, who would constantly busy herself with parliaments and the clergy. What he desired was not a female adviser, but an amusement.