SECTION IX.—­PHILIPPE II., DUC D’ ORLEANS, REGENT OF FRANCE.

From the age of fourteen to that of fifteen years, my son was not ugly; but after that time he became very much sun-burnt in Italy and Spain.  Now, however, he is too ruddy; he is fat, but not tall, and yet he does not seem disagreeable to me.  The weakness of his eyes causes him sometimes to squint.  When he dances or is on horseback he looks very well, but he walks horridly ill.  In his childhood he was so delicate that he could not even kneel without falling, through weakness; by degrees, however, his strength improved.  He loads his stomach too much at table; he has a notion that it is good to make only one meal; instead of dinner, he takes only one cup of chocolate, so that by supper he is extremely hungry and thirsty.  In answer to whatever objections are made to this regimen, he says he cannot do business after eating.  When he gets tipsy, it is not with strong potations, but with Champagne or Tokay.  He is not very fond of the chase.  The weakness of his sight arose from an accident which befell him at the age of four years, and which was something like an apoplexy.  He sees well enough near, and can read the smallest writing; but at the distance of half the room he cannot distinguish persons without a glass.  He had an application of a powder to that eye which is worst, and, although it had caused intolerable pain to every other person who had used it, it seemed to have no effect upon him, for he laughed and chatted as usual.  He found some benefit from this; but W. Gendron was too severe for him.  That physician forbade the petits-soupers and the amusements which usually followed them; this was not agreeable to my son, and those who used to frequent them to their own advantage; they therefore persuaded him to adopt some other remedies which almost deprived him of sight.  For the last forty years (1719), that is to say since the accident happened, the month of October has never elapsed without his health and eyesight being affected towards the 21st in some way or other.

He was only seventeen years old when he was married.  If he had not been threatened with imprisonment in the old castle of Villers-Cotterets, and if hopes had not been given him of seeing the Duchesse de Bourbon as he wished, they could not have induced him to form this accursed marriage.  It is my son’s unlucky destiny to have for a wife a woman who is desirous of ruling everything with her brothers.  It is commonly said, that where one sins there one suffers; and thus it has happened to my son with respect to his wife and his brothers-in-law.  If he had not inflicted upon me the deepest vexation by uniting himself with this low race, he might now speak to them boldly.  I never quarrelled with my son; but he was angry with me about this marriage, which he had contracted against my inclination.