This manuscript is an autograph letter in Claude de Loynes d’Autroche’s hand. The MS1 (ii.31–33) is accompanied by the writer’s fable ‘Le Berger, le chien et les loups’. The MS features the 8-stanza epistle ‘De Gex’ that expresses a sullen discontent over the hurdles of indirect taxation afflicting the country. The body of the letter reflects on the recent unsavoury political events unfolding in France, speculatively having something to do with Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Comte de Maurepas.