>>48627111French diplomatic agent De Neuville on the then regent of Russia, Sophia Alekseveyna, 1689:
"Her mind and her great ability bear no relation to the deformity of her person, as she is immensely fat, with a head as large as a bushel, hairs on her face, and tumors on her legs, and at least forty years old. But in the same degree that her stature is broad, short, and coarse, her mind is shrewd, subtle, unprejudiced and full of policy, and though she has never read Machiavelli, nor learned anything of him, all his maxims come naturally to her."
