Court and of
the town; all old stories, disputes, jokes, absurdities were raked up;
nobody was spared; M. le Duc d'Orleans had his say like the rest, but
very rarely did these discourses make the slightest impression upon him.
The company drank as much as they could, inflamed themselves, said the
filthiest things without stint, uttered impieties with emulation, and
when they had made a good deal of noise and were very drunk, they went to
bed to recommence the same game the next day. From the moment when
supper was ready, business, no matter of, what importance, no matter
whether private or national, was entirely banished from view. Until the
next morning everybody and everything were compelled to wait.

The Regent lost then an infinite amount of time in private, in
amusements, and debauchery. He lost much also in audiences too long, too
extended, too easily granted, and drowned himself in those same details
which during the lifetime of the late King we had both so often
reproached him with. Questions he might have decided in half an hour he
prolonged, sometimes from weakness, sometimes from that miserable desire
to set people at loggerheads, and that poisonous maxim which occasionally
escaped him or his favourite, 'divide et impera'; often from his general
mistrust of everybody and everything; nothings became hydras with which
he himself afterwards was much embarrassed. His familiarity and his
readiness of access extremely pleased people, but were much abused.
Folks sometimes were even wanting in respect to him, which at last was an
inconvenience all the more dangerous because he could not, when he
wished, reprimand those who embarrassed him; insomuch as they themselves
did not feel embarrassed.

What is extraordinary is, neither his mistress nor Madame la Duchesse de
Berry, nor his 'roues', could ever draw anything from him, even when
drunk, concerning the affairs of the government, however important. He
publicly lived with Madame de Parabere; he lived at the same time with
others; he amused himself with the jealousy and vexation of these women;
he was not the less on good terms with them all; and the scandal of this
public seraglio, and that of the daily filthiness and impiety at his
suppers, were extreme and spread everywhere.

Towards the end of the year (1715) the Chevalier de Bouillon, who since
the death of the son of the Comte d'Auvergne had taken the name of the
Prince d'Auvergne, proposed to the Regent