"During my pregancy I had painted the Duchesse de Mazarin, who though no longer young, was still very beautiful.... They used to say of this lady that she had been blessed by three fairies at her birth: the fairies of wealth, beauty and bad luck. It is true indeed that the poor woman could do absolutely nothing, not even throw a party, without it being ruined by some catastrophe. There were a number of well known stories concerning her various misfortunes; here is one of the lesser known incidents. One evening she held a supper party for sixty people and had the idea of placing an enormous pie in the middle of the table, inside of which there were a hundred small live birds. At a sign from the Duchess the pie was broken open and a mad flurry of wild birds flew into the faces of the guests, burying themselves in the ladies' carefully coiffed hair. You can imagine the screams, the frayed tempers!  It was almost impossible to get rid of the infernal creatures.  Finally, everyone rose from the table, swearing and cursing the stupidity of the idea.

"The Duchesse de Mazarin eventually developed into a very plump lady and it took a very long time indeed to lace up her corsets.  A visitor turned up one day while they were in the middle of this lengthy process, and one of her maids had to rush to the door saying, 'Please don't come in until we have rearranged the flesh.'  I also remember her Junoesque figure exciting the admiration of the Turkish ambassadors.  When they were asked at the Opéra which woman of those present they found the most attractive, they replied without hesitation that the Duchesse de Mazarin was the prettiest because she was also the fattest." - Letter IV