[Note of the Princesse de Lamballe:—­The Prince de Conti never could speak of Beaumarchais but with the greatest contempt.  There was something personal in this exasperation.  Beaumarchais had satirized the Prince.  ‘The Spanish Barber’ was founded on a circumstance which happened at a country house between Conti and a young lady, during the reign of Louis XV., when intrigues of every kind were practised and almost sanctioned.  The poet has exposed the Prince by making him the Doctor Bartolo of his play.  The affair which supplied the story was hushed up at Court, and the Prince was punished only by the loss of his mistress, who became the wife of another.]

The play is a critique on the whole Royal Family, from the drawing up of the curtain to its fall.  It burlesques the ways and manners of every individual connected with the Court of Versailles.  Not a scene but touches some of their characters.  Are not the Queen herself and the Comte d’Artois lampooned and caricatured in the garden scenes, and the most slanderous ridicule cast upon their innocent evening walks on the terrace?  Does not Beaumarchais plainly show in it, to every impartial eye, the means which the Comtesse Diane has taken publicly to demonstrate her jealousy of the Queen’s ascendency over the Comte d’Artois?  Is it not from the same sentiment that she roused the jealousy of the Comtesse d’Artois against Her Majesty?’

“‘All these circumstances,’ observed I, ’the King prudently foresaw when he read the manuscript, and caused it to be read to the Queen, to convince her of the nature of its characters and the dangerous tendency likely to arise from its performance.  Of this Your Highness is aware.  It is not for me to apprise you that, to avert the excitement inevitable from its being brought upon the stage, and under a thorough conviction of the mischief it would produce in turning the minds of the people against the Queen, His Majesty solemnly declared that the comedy should not be performed in Paris; and that he would never sanction its being brought before the public on any stage in France.’

“‘Bah! bah! madame!’ exclaimed De Conti.  The Queen has acted like a child in this affair, as in many others.  In defiance of His Majesty’s determination, did not the Queen herself, through the fatal influence of her favourite, whose party wearied her out by continued importunities, cause the King to revoke his express mandate?  And what has been the consequence of Her Majesty’s ungovernable partiality for these De Polignacs?’

“‘You know, Prince,’ said I, ‘better than I do.’

“‘The proofs of its bad consequences,’ pursued His Highness, ’are more strongly verified than ever by your own withdrawing from the Queen’s parties since her unreserved acknowledgment of her partiality (fatal partiality!) for those who will be her ruin; for they are her worst enemies.’

“‘Pardon me, Prince,’ answered I, ’I have not withdrawn myself from the Queen, but from the new parties, with whose politics I cannot identify myself, besides some exceptions I have taken against those who frequent them.’