[1668]     Day be fore yesterday we went to the celebrations at Versailles…. Your Royal Highness will read accounts of this pompous festival elsewhere, and I will limit myself to matters concerning the foreign ministers. There has never been such an influx of people or such great disorder….The foreign ministers were pushed, repulsed, beaten, and badly placed. They were able to see the play and the fireworks, but not the meal served in the alleys nor the superb machinery at the spot where the king entertained the ladies for supper and a ball…. A rumor from a reliable source claimed that the king was dissatisfied with his ministers and had listened to their enemies…. It is true thatthe children of M. Le Tellier do not have a cooperative attitude, but they have a hold over the whole court through self-interest: Louvois distributes military posts, and his brother the abbot controls the nomination of a quantity of ecclesiastical benefices….

[1669]     There is nothing new at court. They are following their usual pattern. The ladies are pretty, proper, and in good humor because they are well entertained and rich. They are the only ones. Everyone else grovels, and there is neither joy nor contentment at Saint Germain, where their majesties will spend the winter. This decision annoys me greatly because to get to Saint Germain in time to see the king or his ministers, you have to leave [Paris] an hour before dawn in this weather. It is also very expensive to stay in inns there. But one must be resigned and not mention it because the king makes love there…. The court passed the week at Versailles, where no one thought of anything but pleasure and hunting. The ladies rode horseback every day, including the “beautiful one”, who has turned out not to be pregnant, which will be a reason for the court not to come to Paris…. Since I have been here, all the posts in the king’s household have changed except master of the hunt. The king promotes all those who serve near his person, with the result that he is very well served. All the great lords rush to purchase posts; therefore the court is impressive and filled with distinguished men.

[1671]     The room is superb, specially built; the stage is spacious, marvelously well decorated; the magnificent machines and changes of scene were all well performed. Vigarani [the designer] outdid hiumself this time. The last scene was easily the most astonishing thing imaginable, for suddenly you see more than three hundred persons suspended either in clouds or in an aureole, making the most beautiful symphony in the world with violins, lutes, harpsichords, oboes, flutes, trumpets and cymbals.