Voltaire recounts that a woman, eight months pregnant, turned up at the councillor’s address. She claimed that her husband had returned from a long absence and had not noticed her pregnancy but was violent enough that she chose to flee for the safety of herself and her unborn child. These notes were revised for the published edition which reads: ‘Ceux de Lainet ont une anecdote très remarquable. Une dame de qualité de Franch-Comté se trouvant à Paris grosse de huit mois en 1664, son mari absent depuis un an arrive; elle craint qu’il ne la tue; elle s’adresse à Lainet sans le connaître. Celui-ci consulte l’ambassadeur d’Espagne; tous deux imaginent de faire enfermer le mari par lettre de cachet à la Bastille jusqu’à ce que femme soit relevée de couche. Ils s’adressent à la reine. Le roi en riant fait et signe la lettre de cachet lui-même; il sauve la vie de la femme et de l’enfant; ensuite il demande pardon au mari et lui fait un présent.’

Katherine Southwell writes that Lord Leicester has died, as foreshadowed in her last letter. She then notes that Palgrave has been discussing the Clifford family with her and that he is strongly in favour of Edward securing the [De Clifford] barony. She sends news of Lord Straithmore, and mentions Lord Egmont, Lord Percival and Lady Guildford, adding that Jack Winn tells her that Lord Chedworth has quarrelled with Sir William Codrington and Berkeley about the militia. She mentions Mrs Le Grand, Lady Wentworth, books by Voltaire and Robertson, and alludes to a pregnancy.