On Monday, the 24th, he went out early to the Tuileries, before the King was up.  He entered the rooms of the Marechal de Villeroy, who showed him the crown jewels.  They were more beautiful and more numerous than he suspected, but he said he was not much of a judge of such things.  He stated that he cared but little for the beauties purely of wealth and imagination, above all for those he could not attain.  Thence he wished to go and see the King, who spared him the trouble by coming.  It had been expressly arranged thus, so that his visit should appear one of chance.  They met each other in a cabinet, and remained there.  The King, who held a roll of paper in his hand, gave it to him, and said it was the map of his territories.  This compliment much pleased the Czar, whose politeness and friendly affectionate bearing were the same as before, with much grace and majesty.

In the afternoon he went to Versailles, where the Marechal de Tesse left him to the Duc d’Antin.  The apartment of Madame la Dauphine was prepared for him, and he slept in the room of Monseigneur le Dauphin (the King’s father), now made into a cabinet for the Queen.

On Tuesday, the 25th, he had traversed the gardens, and had been upon the canal early in the morning, before the hour of his appointment with D’Antin.  He saw all Versailles, Trianon, and the menagerie.  His principal suite was lodged at the chateau.  They took ladies with them, and slept in the apartments Madame de Maintenon had occupied, quite close to that in which the Czar slept.  Bloin, governor of Versailles, was extremely scandalised to see this temple of prudery thus profaned.  Its goddess and he formerly would have been less shocked.  The Czar and his people were not accustomed to restraint.

The expenses of this Prince amounted to six hundred crowns a day, though he had much diminished his table since the commencement.

On Sunday, the 30th of May, he set out with Bellegarde, and many relays, to dine at Petit Bourg, with D’Antin, who received him there, and took him in the afternoon to see Fontainebleau, where he slept, and the morrow there was a stag-hunt, at which the Comte de Toulouse did the honours.  Fontainebleau did not much please the Czar, and the hunt did not please him at all; for he nearly fell off his horse, not being accustomed to this exercise, and finding it too violent.  When he returned to Petit Bourg, the appearance of his carriage showed that he had eaten and drunk a good deal in it.

On Friday, the 11th of June, he went from Versailles to Saint-Cyr, where he saw all the household, and the girls in their classes.  He was received there like the King.  He wished to see Madame de Maintenon, who, expecting his curiosity, had buried herself in her bed, all the curtains closed, except one, which was half-open.  The Czar entered her chamber, pulled back the window-curtains upon arriving, then the bed-curtains, took a good long stare at her, said not a word to her,—­nor did she open her lips,—­and, without making her any kind of reverence, went his way.  I knew afterwards that she was much astonished, and still more mortified at this; but the King was no more.  The Czar returned on Saturday, the 12th of June, to Paris.