She has good sense, is accomplished, and can talk agreeably on most subjects.  This brings about her a host of learned men and wits.  She flatters the discontented very adroitly, and says all ill things of my son.  This is the secret by which she has made her party.  Her husband is fond of her, and she in turn piques herself upon her love for him; but I should be sorry to swear to her sincerity.  This at least is certain, that she rules the Duc du Maine absolutely.  As he holds several offices, he can provide for a great number of persons, either in the regiment of Guards, of which he is General; or in the Artillery, of which he is Grand Master; or in the Carabineers, where he appoints all the officers; without reckoning his regiments, by which he attracts a great number of persons.

Madame du Maine’s present lover is the Cardinal de Polignac; but she has, besides, the first Minister and some young men.  The Cardinal is accused of having assisted in the refutation of Fitz-Morris’s letters, although he has had this very year (1718) a long interview with my son, and has sworn never to engage in anything against his interests, notwithstanding his attachment to the Duchesse du Maine.

The Comte d’Albert, who was here last winter, took some pains to make himself agreeable to Madame du Maine, and succeeded so well as to make the Cardinal de Polignac very jealous.  He followed them masked to a ball; but upon seeing the Duchess and the Count tete-a-tete, he could not contain his anger this betrayed him; and when the people learned that a Cardinal had been seen at a masked ball it caused them great diversion.

Her being arrested threw Madame du Maine into such a transport of rage that she was near choking, and only recovered herself by slow degrees.

[The Marquis d’Ancenis, Captain of the Guards, who came early in the morning to arrest the Princess, had supped with her on the preceding evening, when he entered, the.  Duchess cried out to him, “Mon Dieu! what have I done to you, that you should wake me so early?” The chief domestics of the household were taken to the Bastille or to Vincennes; the Prince of Dombes and the Comte d’Eu were carried to Eu.]

She is now said to be quite calm, and, it is added, she plays at cards all day long.  When the play is over, she grows angry again, and falls upon her husband, his children, or her servants, who do not know how to appease her.  She is dreadfully violent, and, it is said, has often beaten her husband.

All the time of her residence at Dijon she was playing the Orlando Furioso:  sometimes she was not treated with the respect due to her rank; sometimes she complains of other things; she will not understand that she is a prisoner, and that she has deserved even a worse fate.  She had flattered herself that when she should reach Chalons-sur-Saone she would enjoy more liberty, and have the whole city for her prison; but when she learnt that she was to be locked up in the citadel, as at Dijon, she would not set out.  Far from repenting her treason, she fancies she has done something very praiseworthy.