“They ought not to have put me in prison; but they ought to have stripped me and put me into petticoats for having been thus led by my wife;” and he wrote to Madame de Langeron that he enjoyed perfect repose, for which he thanked God; that he was glad to be no longer exposed to the contempt of his family; and that his sons ought to be happy to be no longer with him.

The King of Spain and Alberoni have a personal hatred against my son, which is the work of the Princesse des Ursins.

My son is naturally brave, and fears nothing:  death is not at all terrible to him.

On the 29th of March the young Duc de Richelieu was taken to the Bastille:  this caused a great number of tears to be shed, for he is universally loved.  He had kept up a correspondence with Alberoni, and had got his regiment placed at Bayonne, together with that of his friend, M. de Saillant, for the purpose of delivering the town to the Spaniards.  He went on Wednesday last to the Marquis de Biron, and urged him to despatch him as promptly as possible to join his regiment at Bayonne, and so prove the zeal which attached him to my son.  His comrade, who passes for a coward and a sharper at play, has also been shut up in the Bastille.

     [On the day that they were arrested, the Regent said he had that in
     his pocket which would cut off four heads, if the Duke had so many. 
     —­Memoires de Duclos.]

The Duc de Richelieu had the portraits of his mistresses painted in all sorts of monastic habits:  Mademoiselle de Charolais as a Recollette nun, and it is said to be very like her.  The Marechales de Villars and d’Estrees are, it is said, painted as Capuchin nuns.

When the Duc de Richelieu was shown his letter to Alberoni, he confessed all that concerned himself, but would not disclose his accomplices.

Nothing but billets-doux were found in his writing-case.  Alberoni in this affair trusted a man who had formerly been in his service, but who is now a spy of my son’s.  He brought Alberoni’s letter to the Regent; who opened it, read it, had a copy made, resealed it, and sent it on to its destination.  The young Duc de Richelieu answered it, but my son can make no use of this reply because the words in which it is written have a concealed sense.

The Princess has strongly urged my son to permit the Duchesse du Maine to quit Dijon, under the pretext that the air was unwholesome for her.  My son consented upon condition that she should be conducted in her own carriage, but under the escort of the King’s Guard, from Dijon to Chalons-sur-Saone.

Here she thought she should enjoy comparative liberty, and that the town would be her prison:  she was much astonished to find that she was as closely confined at Chalons as at Dijon.  When she asked the reason for this rigour she was told that all was discovered, and that the prisoners had disclosed the particulars of the conspiracy.  She was immediately struck with this; but recovering her self-possession, she said, “The Duc de Orleans thinks that I hate him; but if he would take my advice, I would counsel him better than any other person.”  My son’s wife remains very tranquil.