[Born at Vaucouleurs, in France, 1746. Guillotined, 1793. Aged 47.]
Of humble parentage. Quitting a convent in Paris into which she had
entered at an early age, she worked as a milliner when fifteen years
old. Shortly afterwards she became the mistress of the Count du Barry, a
dissolute man of fashion, and by him was introduced to Louis XV., who
captivated by her beauty and unrestrained manners, induced the brother
of the Count to make Mademoiselle Vaubernier his lawful wife. La
Comtesse du Barry, received at Versailles, soon acquired an ascendancy
over the licentious monarch and his court. She exercised supreme sway,
and held in her hands the power of life and death--promotion and
disgrace. Her extravagance was boundless. At the death of Louis in 1774,
she was shut up in a convent, where she became religious. Released from
her imprisonment by Louis XVI., she conducted herself with decorum, but
too late for any earthly happiness she might derive from repentance. In
1793, the revolutionists took her life because she had devoted it to the
service of the Royal family, for whom, it would appear, she had sold her
diamonds. She was much pitied at the scaffold, where she betrayed great
want of courage.
[From the marble in the Louvre, by Pajou. A very beautiful work
delicately chiselled, and full of life and softness. It is signed and
dated 1772. The bust at Versailles is a repetition, dated 1773.]
SCIENTIFIC MEN AND WRITERS.