A Childhood at Versailles: Chapter 3, Part 2
A New Translation From the Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne
Mme de Boigne, née Adèle d’Osmond, was a French salon hostess and writer. She was born in Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled France during the Revolution. Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a salon in Paris, and became the confidante of King Louis-Philippe’s consort Marie-Amélie. Childless, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her nephew. They languished in manuscript for decades after her death. Finally, in 1907, they were published in French under the title Récits d’une tante and in English as The Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne. My translation of the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, will be serialized here on Saturdays from early March to the beginning of October, 2024. I have included no notes except those given in the original French edition. If you have questions about anything, please ask in the comments. To read the earlier parts, please visit the archive on my Substack page
Pictured: Adélaïde d’Osmond, called Adèle, Comtesse de Boigne, by Isabey.
In this part, for thematic reasons much briefer than the other parts, the author boasts about her relations with the royal family, including with Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette’s eldest son, who died of tuberculosis during the early sessions of the Estates-General. He spent his final months at the château of Meudon because the air there was thought to be good for him. We have now arrived on the very eve of the Revolution. The subsequent parts of Chapter 3 will be much more sombre.
I often used to encounter the King in the gardens of Versailles, and no matter how far away he was when I spotted him, I always ran to him. When one day I failed to do so, he had me called. I arrived all in tears.
“What’s the matter, my little Adèle?”
“It’s your beastly guards, Sire, who want to kill my dog because he runs after your chickens.”
“I promise you that will never happen again.”
And indeed an order was issued to allow Mlle d’Osmond’s dog to chase the fowl.
My successes were no less great with the young generation. The Dauphin,20 who died at Meudon, loved me extremely, and incessantly asked for me to come play with him, and the Duc de Berry21 got himself in trouble because at a ball he only wanted to dance with me. Madame22 and the Duc d’Angoulême23 favoured me less.
The misfortunes of the Revolution put an end to my successes at Court. I do not know if they acted on me in the way of a homeopathic remedy, but it is certain that despite these beginnings of my life, I have never had the instincts of a courtier, nor a taste for the society of princes. Events had become too serious for anyone to be able to be amused by the antics of a child; 1789 had arrived.
Notes:
20. The first son of Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette; born in October, 1781, died in June, 1789.
21. Charles-Ferdinand, second son of the Comte d’Artois, born in 1778.
22. Marie-Thérèse, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, born in 1778.
23. Louis-Antoine, eldest son of the Comte d’Artois, born in 1775.