The affair of the Duc du Maine is not one of those things that can be
forgotten, at least not so long as those two old hussies are living
[Mme. de Maintenon and the Princesse des Ursins]; for they stir him
up, together with his little devil of a wife, to all sorts of secret
plotting against my son. Mme. des Ursins has one good thing about her,
however: she does not call upon the good God to assist her intrigues.
My son is not in safety, and that troubles me extremely. I do my best
to be resigned to the divine will and to accept whatever it provides;
but the heart of a mother is too tender about an only son.
You may move lions and tigers and all sorts of wild beasts sooner
than wicked people when ambition and cupidity are the cause of their
enmity. All arguers on the condition of the country do not know the
deplorable state in which my son found the kingdom. When the change in
the government occurred each person imagined he would grow rich; they
praised my son and expected marvels of him; as these marvels have not
been realized, because they were impossible, blame is now substituted
for praise. There would be little harm if such complaints exhaled
in words, but the discontented are forming intrigues and plots. The
French will not stop at anything, and they do not know what gratitude
is.