In the spring of this year (1718) her brothers and relations said that but for the antidotes which had been administered to Madame d’Orleans, without the knowledge of me or my son, she must have perished.

I had resolved not to interfere with anything respecting this affair; but had the satisfaction of speaking my mind a little to Madame du Maine.  I said to her:  “Niece” (by which appellation I always addressed her), “I beg you will let me know who told you that Madame d’Orleans had taken a counterpoison unknown to us.  It is the greatest falsehood that ever was uttered, and you may say so from me to whoever told it you.”

She looked red, and said, “I never said it was so.”

“I am very glad of it, niece,” I replied; “for it would be very disgraceful to you to have said so, and you ought not to allow people to bring you such tales.”  When she heard this she went off very quickly.

Madame d’Orleans is a little inconstant in her friendship.  She is very fond of jewels, and once wept for four-and-twenty hours because my son gave a pair of beautiful pendants to Madame de Berri.

My son has this year (1719) increased his wife’s income by 160,000 livres, the arrears of which have been paid to her from 1716, so that she received at once the sum of 480,000 livres.  I do not envy her this money, but I cannot bear the idea that she is thus paid for her infidelity.  One must, however, be silent.

SECTION XII.—­MARIE-ANNE CHRISTINE VICTOIRE OF BAVARIA, THE FIRST DAUPHINE.

She was ugly, but her extreme politeness made her very agreeable.  She loved the Dauphin more like a son than a husband.  Although he loved her very well, he wished to live with her in an unceremonious manner, and she agreed to it to please him.  I used often to laugh at her superstitious devotion, and undeceived her upon many of her strange opinions.  She spoke Italian very well, but her German was that of the peasants of the country.  At first, when she and Bessola were talking together, I could not understand a word.

She always manifested the greatest friendship and confidence in me to the end of her days.  She was not haughty, but as it had become the custom to blame everything she did, she was somewhat disdainful.  She had a favourite called Bessola—­a false creature, who had sold her to Maintenon.  But for the infatuated liking she had for this woman, the Dauphine would have been much happier.  Through her, however, she was made one of the most wretched women in the world.

This Bessola could not bear that the Dauphine should speak to any person but herself:  she was mercenary and jealous, and feared that the friendship of the Dauphine for any one else would discredit her with Maintenon, and that her mistress’s liberality to others would diminish that which she hoped to experience herself.  I told this person the truth once, as she deserved to be told, in the presence of the Dauphine; from which period she has neither done nor said anything troublesome to me.  I told the Dauphine in plain German that it was a shame that she should submit to be governed by Bessola to such a degree that she could not speak to whom she chose.  I said this was not friendship, but a slavery, which was the derision of the Court.