Thank God, my son is now in perfect health; he came here last night
and supped and slept, and returned this morning to Paris; he was very
gay indeed. He told us that in Spain they have enormous grapes that
intoxicate like wine, and that once after eating only one grape his
head swam; he went to a convent and said all sorts of foolish things
to the nuns, without knowing what he was talking about.
Mme. du Maine is not larger than a child of ten. When she shuts her
mouth she is not ugly, but she has villanous, irregular teeth. She
is not very plump, has pretty eyes, and is white and fair, but puts
on a horrible quantity of rouge. If she was as good as she is bad
there would be nothing to say against her; but her malignancy is
intolerable. She is easy during the day, which she spends playing
cards, but when evening comes the tempers and the follies begin; she
torments her husband, her children, and her servants till they do
not know how to bear it. She is no beauty, but she has a great deal
of intelligence; she is very well educated and can talk on all sorts
of subjects, and that attracts to her learned men; she knows how to
flatter the discontented and excite them against my son. She is lord
and master of her husband. He holds many offices and can give places
to a great many persons: in the regiment of the guards, of which he
is general; in the artillery, of which he is grand-master; in the
carbineers, to which he appoints all officers; he has also his own
regiment; and these favours rally to him a great many persons.
PARIS, December 18, 1718.
My son has found himself obliged to arrest Prince Cellamare, because
they found on his messenger, who was the Abbé Porto-Carrero, letters
from the ambassador which revealed a conspiracy against the king and
against my son. The ambassador was arrested by two of the Councillors
of State. In his secret despatches he warned Alberoni to be very
careful not to be on good terms with my son, because as soon as the
treaty was signed he meant to poison the little king; the ambassador
added that he would see that my son had his hands too full to think of
war, for he had brought a number of provinces to promise to revolt;
that their party was strong in Paris, and that Alberoni had only to
send money and not spare it. I believe the lamester, brother of my
daughter-in-law, will be found in this affair. The ambassador has
been interrogated by the two Councillors of State, and he admitted,
laughing, that he wrote the letters in order to avoid the evils of
war, and wanted simply to frighten my son. When they asked him why he
had said such infamies of the regent, he replied that he must admit
there had been a little poison in his remarks, but that poison was
necessary to compose an antidote. What is very strange is that the
Maréchal de Noailles, once my son's sub-governor, is implicated in
the plot; that is because he is related to that devil incarnate, the
Princesse des Ursins, who will pursue my son to the death,--her sole
motive being that he thought her too old to wish to be her lover.
Cellamare's letters have been printed, so that every one can see the
thread of the conspiracy.
If the Abbé Dubois were at his first lie he would be dead long ago;
he is passed master in the art of lying, above all when it is to his
personal advantage; if I wrote down all that I know about that, it
would make a long litany. It was he who clandestinely told the king at
the time of my son's marriage what he had better say and do to bring
it about; he also had conferences on that subject with the Maintenon.
He behaves now as if he thought that he and I were perfectly agreed,
and no matter what disagreeable things I say to him, he turns them
all into jest. I will do him justice and say he is a man of capacity;
he talks well and is good company; but he is false and selfish as
the devil; he looks like a fox, his deceitfulness can be read in his
eyes. His portrait might be made as a fox crouching on the ground to
pounce on a hen. But he can express himself so well as an honest man
that I regarded him as such till the marriage of my son; it was then I
discovered his trickery. If that abbé were as good a Christian as he
is an able man, he would be excellent; but he believes in nothing, and
it is that which makes him false and a scoundrel. He is well-informed,
no doubt of that, and he gave my son a good education; but I wish he
had never seen him, and then this miserable marriage, which I deplore,
would never have taken place. Except the Abbé Dubois, no priest has
any favour with my son.