Here is one of several secrets of which I have just been informed. The long and frequent labours of the Prince de Conti with the King solely concern the project for making the Prince King of Poland. I had already seen that this project was being secretly elaborated and was known to the King only; but I could not believe he thought of it seriously. Meanwhile he has been persuaded it is a simple matter—for it is ever thus that great and ruinous projects are made to appear to superficial and unsystematic minds. That is the beginning of these assiduous and oft-repeated efforts of the Prince de Conti with the King, for the Prince sometimes receives despatches when out hunting, and forthwith scribbles a few lines which he sends to the King by his messengers. Only the other day he came to work with the King, and returned to the Isle-Adam immediately afterwards. This secret correspondence cannot be attributed to other matters of state for he has no influence in any other affairs. On this last point d’Argenson’s perspicacity was at fault, for the Prince de Conti’s influence, aided besides by the King’s partiality for this kind of conspiracy, had proved powerful enough to spread the network of secret diplomacy over nearly the whole of Europe. The chief object was still the throne of Poland; but the means of ensuring its conquest had increased and widened, which, as often happens, proved detrimental to the success of the enterprise.