But none of the seductions and
agitations she met there disturbed the limpidity of her pure soul.
Malignity, itself at bay, was forced to recognize and avow that in
the Duchess of Reggio no other stain could be found than the ink-
stains she sometimes allowed her pen to make upon her finger. In
her greatness, this noble woman saw, before all, the side of
duty."
In 1832, when the Duchess of Berry was imprisoned in the citadel
of Blaye, her former lady of honor asked, without being able to
obtain that favor, the privilege of sharing her captivity. The
Duchess of Reggio to the last set an example of devotion and of
all the virtues. She was so gracious and affable that one day some
one remarked: "When the Duchess gives you advice, it seems as if
she were asking a service of you." When the noble lady died, April
18th, 1868, at Bar-le-Duc, where her good works and her
intelligent charity had made her beloved, they wished to give her
name to one of the streets of the city, and as they already had
the Rue Oudinot and the Place Reggio, one of the streets was
called the Rue de La Marechale.
The lady of the bedchamber of the Duchess of Berry and her lady
companions all belonged to the old aristocracy. The Countess of
Noailles, lady of the bedchamber, a woman full of intelligence,
and very beautiful, a mother worthy of all praise, was the
daughter of the Duke de Talleyrand, the niece of the Prince de
Talleyrand, the wife of Count Just de Noailles, second son of the
Prince of Poix.
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