ret contre
les poules d'Inde." Upon looking at it, however, it seems to be a decree
against the Jesuits, who had lost a cause respecting a priory, of which
they had taken possession. Everybody bought it except the partisans of
the Constitution and of the Spanish faction.

My son is more fond of his daughters, legitimate and illegitimate, than
his son.

The Duc and Duchesse du Maine rely upon nothing having been found in
their writing; but Mademoiselle de Montauban and Malezieux have written.
in their name; and is not what Pompadour has acknowledged voluntarily
quite as satisfactory a proof as even their own writing?

They have got the pieces of all the mischievous Spanish letters written
by the same hand, and corrected by that of the Cardinal de Polignac, so
that there can be no doubt of his having composed them.

A manifesto, too, has been found in Malezieux's papers. It is well
written, but not improved by the translation. Malezieux pretends that he
only translated it before it was sent hence to Spain.

Mademoiselle de Montauban and Mademoiselle de Launay, a person of some
wit, who has kept up a correspondence with Fontenelle, and who was 'femme
de chambre' to the Duchesse du Maine, have both been sent to the
Bastille.

The Duc du Maine now repents that he followed his wife's advice; but it
seems that he only followed the worst part of it.

The Duchesse d'Orleans has been for some days past persuading my son to
go masked to a ball. She says that his daughter, the Duchesse de Berri,
and I, make him pass for a coward by preventing him from going to balls
and running about the town by night as he used to do before; and that he
ought not to manifest the least symptom of fear. He replied that he knew
he should give me great pain by doing so, and that the least he could do
was to tranquillize my mind by living prudently. She then said that the
Duchesse de Berri filled me with unfounded fears in order that she might
have more frequent opportunities of being with him, and of governing him
entirely. Can the Devil himself be worse than this bastard? It teaches
me, however, that my son is not secure with her. I must do violence to
myself that my suspicions may not be apparent.

My son has not kept his word; he went to this ball, although he denies
it.

Although it is well known that Maintenon has had a hand in all these
affairs, nothing can be said to her, for her name does not appear in any
way.

When my