Produced by David WidgerMEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV AND OF THE REGENCYBeing the Secret Memoirs of the Mother of the RegentMADAME ELIZABETHCHARLOTTE OF BAVARIA DUCHESSE DORLEANSBOOK 4Victor Amadeus IIThe Grand Duchess Consort of Cosimo II of FlorenceThe Duchesse de Lorraine ElizabethCharlotte dOrleansThe Duc du MaineThe Duchesse du MaineLouvoisLouis XVAnecdotes and Historical Particulars of Various PersonsExplanatory NotesSECTION XXXVVICTOR AMADEUS KING OF SICILYIt is said that the King of Sicily is always in ill humour and that heis always quarrelling with his mistresses  He and Madame de Verrue havequarrelled they say for whole days together  I wonder how the goodQueen can love him with such constancy but she is a most virtuous personand patience itself  Since the King had no mistresses he lives uponbetter terms with her  Devotion has softened his heart and his temperMadame de Verrue is I dare say fortyeight years of age 1718  Ishared some of the profits of her theft by buying of her 160 medals ofgold the half of those which she stole from the King of Sicily  She hadalso boxes filled with silver medals but they were all sold in England     The Comtesse de Verrue was married at the age of thirteen years     Victor Amadeus then King of Sardinia fell in love with her  She     would have resisted and wrote to her mother and her husband who     were both absent  They only joked her about it  She then took that     step which all the world knows  At the age of eighteen being at a     dinner with a relation of her husbands she was poisoned  The     person she suspected was the same that was dining with her he did     not quit her and wanted to have her blooded  Just at this time the     Spanish Ambassador at Piedmont sent her a counterpoison which had a     happy effect she recovered but never would mention whom she     suspected  She got tired of the King and persuaded her brother     the Chevalier de Lugner to come and carry her off the King being     then upon a journey  The rendezvous was in a chapel about four     leagues distant from Turin  She had a little parrot with her  Her     brother arrived they set out together and after having proceeded     four leagues on her journey she remembered that she had forgotten     her parrot in the chapel  Without regarding the danger to which she     exposed her brother she insisted upon returning to look for her     parrot and did so  She died in Paris in the beginning of the reign     of Louis XV  She was fond of literary persons and collected about     her some of the best company of that day among whom her wit and     grace enabled her to cut a brilliant figure  She was the intimate     friend of the poet La Faye whom she advised in his compositions     and whose life she made delightful  Her fondness for the arts and     pleasure procured for her the appellation of Dame de Volupte and     she wrote this epitaph upon herself                   Ci git dans un pais profonde                    Cette Dame de Volupte                    Qui pour plus grande surete                    Fit son Paradis dans ce mondeSECTION XXXVITHE GRAND DUCHESS WIFE OF COSMO II OF FLORENCEThe Grand Duchess has declared to me that from the day on which she setout for Florence she thought of nothing but her return and the means ofexecuting this design as soon as she should be ableNo one could approve of her deserting her husband and the moreparticularly as she speaks very well of him and describes the manner ofliving at Florence as like a terrestrial paradiseShe does not think herself unfortunate for having travelled and looksupon all the grandeur she enjoyed at Florence as not to be compared withthe unrestrained way of living in which she indulges here  She is veryamusing when she relates her own history in the course of which she byno means flatters herselfIndeed cousin I say to her often you do not flatter yourself butyou really tell things which make against youAh no matter she replies I care not provided I never see the GrandDuke againShe cannot be accused of any amorous intrigueHer husband furnishes her with very little money and at this momentApril 1718 he owes her fifteen months of her pension  She is nowreally in want of money to enable her to take the waters of BourbonThe Grand Duke who is very avaricious thinks she will die soon andtherefore holds back the payments that he may take advantage of thatevent when it shall happenSECTION XXXVIITHE DUCHESSE DE LORRAINE ELIZABETHCHARLOTTEPHILIPPINE DORLEANS CONSORT OF LEOPOLD JOSEPHCHARLES DE LORRAINEMy daughter is ugly even more so than she was for the fine complexionwhich she once had has become sunburnt  This makes a great differencein the appearance and causes a person to look old  She has an uglyround nose and her