In this letter, Voltaire responds to a missive from the Marquise Du Deffand and begins by mentioning one of her friends, the captain of dragoons Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas de Lisle (1735-1783) whom Voltaire regrets is convinced that he is the author of an Épître à Ninon. Voltaire praises Russian men and women of letters and claims that French is spoken more purely at the court of Catherine the Great than at Versailles because French ladies do not pride themselves on knowing the grammar. He then turns to Catherine the Great, who he notes does not write verse, but knows her stuff very well, and makes very good jokes about Emilian Pugachev.