[Versailles, 22 Aug 1675]     I have here two wild characters [her children] who all day long make such noise with their drums that one can neither hear nor see; however, in the last two weeks the oldest has become a little more quiet….This autumn he is to be weaned, for he already can happily devour a big chunk of bread from his fist like a peasant. The littest one is even stronger; he is already beginning to walk on his leash and wants to jump like his brother….

[Saint Cloud, 20 April 1676]     I have been quite unable to answer you before now, for I was too stricken by the unexpected disaster God Almighty has visited upon me [her son had died in March]; I simply cannot get over it. Now you see that it was not for nothing that I wished my children in your hands, for I saw my misfortune come from afar. They have strange ways here with children….My misfortune i sthat I have no idea how one must handle children, having no experience in this matter, and therefore I must believe all the drivell they tell me here….

[Saint Cloud, 1 Oct 1687]     I am bound to tell your Grace that court life is becoming so dull that one can hardly stand it any longer. For the king imagines that he is pious when he sees to it that everyone is properly bored and bothered…. It is a wretched thing when a man does not want to follow his own reason and lets himself beguided by calculating priests and old courtesans: this makes life quite miserable for honest and sincere people.

[Saint Cloud, 14 April 1688]     I have been made privy to the reason why the king treats the Chevalier of Lorraine and the Marquis of Effiat so well; it is because they have promised him that they would persuade Monsieur to ask the king most humbly to marry the Montespan’s children to mine, that is, the limping Duke of Maine to my daughter and Mademoiselle of Blois to my son. In this case the Maintenon [Louis XIV’s second wife] is all for the Montespan, since she has brought up these bastards and loves the limping boy like her own child…. Now your Grace can imagine how I would feel to see my daughter so badly established, considering that her sisters are so well married. Even if the Duke of Maine were not the child of a double adultery but a true prince, I would nott like his for a son-in-law nor his sister for a daughter-in-law, for he is dreadfully ugly and lame and has other bad qualities, stingy as a devil and without kindness…. I leave it to your Grace to think whether I would wish for this to happen. And the worst part of it is that I cannot properly discuss the matter with Monsieur [her husband], for whenever I say a word to him, he has the delightful habit of passing it right on to the king, to add to it, and makes all kind of trouble for me with the king. So I am in terrible straits [and] cannot help fretting inside myself, and whenever I see these bastards my blood boils….

[Versialles, 20 march 1689]     Your Grace says that they can take away everything but a happy heart. As long as i was in Germany, I would have thought so, too, but since I have come to France I have learned, alas, that they can take that too. As long as those by whom on eis chagrined are below oneself and if one is not dependent on them, one can save oneself by despising them, but when they are one’s lord and master and when one cannot ever take one step without their permission, this is rather more difficult that you’d imagine. If my children were in my power, they would give me great pleasure