the Princes of the blood and the legitimated Princes.  Thirty of them have signed this memorial, of whom my son has had six arrested; three of them have been sent to the Bastille, and the other three to Vincennes; they are mm. de Chatillon, de Rieux, de Beaufremont, de Polignac, de Clermont, and d’O.  The last was the Governor of the Comte de Toulouse, and remains with him.  Clermont’s wife is one of the Duchesse de Berri’s ladies.  She is not the most discreet person in the world, and has been long in the habit of saying to any one who would listen to her, “Whatever may come of it, my husband and I are willing to risk our lives for the Comte de Toulouse.”  It is therefore evident that all this proceeds from the bastards.  But I must expose still further the ingratitude of these people.  Chatillon is a poor gentleman, whose father held a small employment under M. Gaston, one of those offices which confer the privilege of the entree to the antechambers, and the holders of which do not sit in the carriage with their masters.  The two descendants, as they call themselves, of the house of Chatillon, insist that this Chatillon, who married an attorney’s daughter, is descended from the illegitimate branches of that family.  His son was a subaltern in the Body Guard.  In the summer time, when the young officers went to bathe, they used to take young Chatillon with them to guard their clothes, and for this office they gave him a crown for his supper.  Monsieur having taken this poor person into his service, gave him a cordon bleu, and furnished him with money to commence a suit which he subsequently gained against the House of Chatillon, and they were compelled to recognize him.  He then made him a Captain in the Guards; gave him a considerable pension, which my son continued, and permitted him also to have apartments in the Palais Royal.  In these very apartments did this ungrateful man hold those secret meetings, the end of which was proposed to be my son’s ruin.  Rieux’s grandfather had neglected to uphold the honour to which he was entitled, of being called the King’s cousin.  My son restored him to this honour, gave his brother a place in the gendarmerie, and rendered him many other services.  Chatillon tried particularly to excite the nobility against my son; and this is the recompense for all his kindness.  My son’s wife is gay and content, in the hope that all will go well with her brothers.

That old Maintenon has continued pretty tranquil until the termination of the process relating to the legitimation of the bastards.  No one has heard her utter a single expression on the subject.  This makes me believe that she has some project in her head, but I cannot tell what it is.