Excerpt:

Méry: quote<"-Il était donc bien faible. -Mais en revanche, dit le Chevalier, il avait un amour propre colossal, et le plus affreux caractère de joueur d'échecs qui ait existé. Comme il avait la manière de se croire grand mathématicien et de faire de la musique avec des chiffres, il voulait appliquer les calculs algébriques à l'échiquier. Nous plaisantions fort là dessus et alors il brouillait les pièces du jeu avec une certaine rage peu philosophique, et on ne le voyait plus au café pendant quinze jours."> ... The French Revolution : <" Et 1789 ne vous a pas dérangé de votre habitude ? -89 ! J'ai laissé passer 89 comme une année ordinaire. Le 14 juillet à midi moins le quart, je remontais sur le quai des Célestins des hommes qui allaient prendre la bastille, moi je me rendais au café de la Régence pour faire ma partie avec M Louvet de Couvray. <...>

"Jean Jacques Rousseau was so very weak. "But on the other hand", said Barneville, "he had an enormous pride, and most frightful character for a chess player that ever existed. Thus, he had the manner of a great mathematician making music with numbers, he wished to apply calculus to the board".

"We joked to extremes, and it scrambled a certain and not very philosophical fury into our play , and one did not see him any more in the cafe fopr two weeks".

The French Revolution:"And in 1789 was not your usual mode of life disturbed?

-89! "I passed 89 as an ordinary year. On July 14 at 11.45am, I was on the Celestine quay with the men who would storm the Bastille, I myself went to Cafe de la Regence to play my game with M Louvet de Couvray". <...>

"And in '93, were you tied to the chessboard?"

"TO CHESS PLAYERS. -- M. de la Bourdonnais, the celebrated French player, is at the moment in London, and suffering from illness of a grave and complicated character, which prevents his fulfilling the professional engagement for which he left Paris, and leaves him entirely destitute of support. Under these circumstances, a Committee has been formed to raise a SUBSCRIPTION, and chess amateurs will doubtless readily contribute to this fund, in testimony of their respect for de la Bourdonnais, the acknowledged Philidor of the past 10 years."

"Prince John Bryant Digby de Mahé is the son of Prince Charles Digby Mahé de Chenal de la Bourbonnais. He married Rachel Ursula Isolde Guinness, daughter of Henry Seymour Guinness and Mary Middleton Bainbridge, on 26 November 1931. He had two daughters."

From http://www.thepeerage.com/p30162.htm

I believe very few people are aware of this head cast of La Bourdonnais (on which his portrait is based) since most material out there about him depict his infamous portrait. Don't get me wrong. I find the picture very funny, but something has obviously gone wrong since its purpose was to fill in the void left by there being no image of the late master in life. Nobody could possibly buy that's what he looked like unless he was a troll come out of a fairy tale!

<“We must, however, protest against the insertion of such lugubrious twaddle as ‘The last moments of Labourdonnais’, from – Bell’s Life in London! and the lithographic enormity, from the same classic source we presume, presented as the portrait of that distinguished chessplayer.”’>

<The following is the last game of chess ever played by M. de la Bourdonnais. It was played on Wednesday, Dec. 9, at his lodgings, No. 4, Braufort-buildings, against an amateur a very promising player as to talent. De la Bourdonnais gave Queen's Rook. He began a second game, but could only play a few moves, severe indisposition coming on. He died the Sunday following as we have stated :- The chess board on which this game was played, and on which De la Bourdonnais played exclusively during the last days of his life belongs to Mr. George Walker, the chess men being the property of Mr. Ries. It would seem that poor De la Bourdonnais had an internal conviction that he played on Wednesday for the last time. His words in the evening to Madame de la Bourdonnais were "Put away that chess board carefully, I shall never need it again." The two games played on the 8th with Mr. George Walker will appear in our columns in due season. In the specimen before us, De la Bourdonnais has white, and gives Queen's Rook. «source: Bell's Life in London, 1840.12.27»>

[Event "Offhand Game: Odds of Queen's Rook"]
[Site "GBR London"]
[Date "1840.12.09"]
[White "de la Bourdonnais, L.C.M."]
[Black "NN"]
[Result "1-0"]

A stroke is not an illness but an event. I suppose he had a stroke and it left him somehow disabled...? Does anyone know?

<To The Editor of Bell's Life in London.

Dear Sir—When one of note is taken from among us, all are interested in the minutest particulars of the translation. I have just returned from following the remains of De La Bourdonnais to the grave, and the feelings of the moment compel me to trace my thoughts on paper. A star has fallen, a great light has gone out. The first chess player of the age has been reverentially laid in his last narrow house some two or three hours since. France sent this great man here, but a fortnight back, to die. France demands an account of her son's last moments at our hands.

To give a memoir of De La Bourdonnais' life is not here my aim, I write of death alone—on a day devoted exclusively to the grave.

De La Bourdonnais came here towards the close of November to fulfil a chess engagement, to play in a public room, for which he was to receive a weekly payment. I had made him an offer last spring to visit us and play a few months in the Saint George's Club, tendering him my personal guarantee that he should clear his expenses and return to Paris with £50. The foolish interference of certain Parisian meddlers led to this proffer being declined, unless backed by a twenty pound note sent in advance; to this I could not accede, and so the matter dropped, to the hearty regret, subsequently, of De La Bourdonnais. We were here quite aware of his declining state of health, but medical men were of opinion he might yet live years, and certain it was that his chess faculty shone undiminished, as proved by his daily play at the Cafe de la Regence. De La Bourdonnais bore the journey tolerably well, supported by the untiring devotion of his attached wife. He played in public the first two days, but then broke down, and was carried to his lodging in a pitiable state of suffering. His disease was ascites, accompanied by scrotal hernia. He had been tapped 21 times in Paris during the last year and a half. His words now were, "I cannot play in public, death seems there to stare me in the face—I want to have my wife ever with me. Come three or four of you to me in private, and let us see if I have my wonted force, if I find my genius flagging I abandon chess forever and return to Paris." I played my first game with him, I believe the next day, receiving a pawn, and lost; the game appearing in Bell's Life a fortnight back. He made one splendid dash, sacrificing a rook for a knight, and we all agreed his play could not be finer. With two or three of our best players he subsequently played a few games. "The old lion," quoth he, "hath yet his claws and teeth."

The pecuniary circumstances of De La Bourdonnais now began to excite our attention, though his sensitiveness on the subject precluded us yet all positive interference. He removed from the parlour to the garret of No. 1, Salisbury street, and the reason was unexplained to our satisfaction. Alas when alone with his wife in this miserable attic, his first remark was "well, nothing is above us now but heaven. I have come to a garret at last;" and he burst into tears, and wept like a child. Madame vie La Bourdonnais, pressed home upon the point, was brought with difficulty to confess that they had not half-a-crown in the world—that they were utterly destitute of the commonest wearing apparel and necessaries of life—and were without the means of paying the week's rent of their humble abode. Half an hour after this distressing avowal our committee was formed to raise a public subscription. The first medical attendance (honour to the noble in heart!) proffered its services gratuitously; good rooms were taken at No. 4, Beaufort-buildings, where the invalid, after a necessary delay, occasioned by the necessity of surgical operation, found himself on Saturday, the 5th instant, surrounded with every comfort money could purchase. Thanks to British feeling, we got up a hundred pounds immediately!>

On the evening of the 5th I played a second game with De La Bourdonnais, receiving pawn, and drew it; a long dull game, not worthy of much note. On Tuesday the 8th, I played two interesting games with him, winning one and drawing the other; and there were the last games our friend played on earth, except a solitary game on the 9th, giving the rook, to a stranger, a gentleman, who wished to try his force.>

On Saturday, the 12th, an extraordinary impulse came over poor De La Bourdonnais; he insisted upon having a cabriolet procured by seven o'clock in the morning, and going out with his wife for a ride. With difficulty he got into the carriage, and he chose to be driven in the direction of Hackney. Jammed in opposite Shoreditch Church, with a crowd of conflicting vehicles, Madame de la Bourdonnais called his attention to the edifice: "That is the church we were married in," said the poor lady; such being the fact. La B. wrung her hands in silence; he presently desired to be conveyed home. It was his last day with her on earth. A remark made several times during these, his latter days, struck forcibly upon our attention. Said La Bourdonnais to M. Barthes and myself more than once, "Dimanche je saurai mon sort"—Sunday was at hand.>

17, Soho-square, London; Thursday, Dec. 17, 1800 [sic]. >