I feel a bitter grief whenever I think of all M. Louvois burned in the
Palatinate, and I believe he is burning terribly in the other world,
for he died so suddenly he had no time to repent. He was poisoned by
his doctor, who was afterwards poisoned himself, but confessed his
crime before he died, with all details and circumstances, so that
there could be no doubt about it. As he was a friend of the old woman,
it was given out that he died in a spasm of hot fever. Thus we see,
if we examine things well, the justice of God; people are usually
punished in this world by their own sins.
The longer I live the more reason I have to regret my aunt, the
Electress, and to respect her memory. You are very right in saying
that in many centuries we shall not see her like again. Unhappily, I
lack a great deal of having her judgment and her energy. What may be
praised in me is frankness and good-will; and, thank God, I am not
licentious, as is now the fashion among the princely people of the
royal house of France.
[Illustration: René Descartes]
Rhine wine was _never_ put into the great tun at Heidelberg; only
Neckar wine. The present Elector is said not to hate it. As for me,
Rhine wine is what I prefer. I cannot endure Burgundy; the taste seems
to me disagreeable, and besides, it gives me a stomach-ache. I am
delighted that Heidelberg is being rebuilt, and that they are working
on the château; but what vexes me is that they are putting up a
Jesuit convent instead of the commissariat. Jesuits are out of place
at Heidelberg, and so are the Franciscans. I am told they live now
near to the upper gate; my God! how often I have eaten cherries on
that mountain, with a good bit of bread, at five in the morning! I was
gayer then than I am now.
You know how the pope had Lord Peterborough arrested at Bologna,
nobody knows why. He went about disguised as a woman; with great
talents he behaves like a madman. He says he will not come out of
prison till he obtains reparation for the affront put upon him. For my
part, if I were in prison and they gave me leave to get out, I should
depart as fast as possible and say what I had to say later,--first of
all, I should recover my liberty. This lord is the queerest eccentric.
I think he would rather die than deprive himself of saying what comes
into his head and of doing malicious things to the persons he dislikes.