Mademoiselle Servant one of the Ladies of Honour to her Royal Highness LETTER CXVII Madam I Am so well acquainted with your Eloquence that I humbly beg your assistance to render the acknowledgements I ought to the most excellent and most generous Princess in the World I am certainly even orewhelm'd with her favours and must confess there 's not any thing below Heaven so full of charme or so amiable as the Mistress you I thought to have said we serve and iudeed there is not any thing I would not contemne that I might use that expression The first time I ever heard her I was presently of opinion that of all the understandings in the World there was not a greater then hers but the tenderness shee is pleas'd to have for me I am astonished at above all things and cannot sufficiently admire that at the same time when shee is burthened with highest thoughts shee can also entertain those that are so low and that a mind which ordinarily is soaring about the loftiest things can be guilty of so great condescensions As to the balls have been given me this morning they have wrought a wonderful effect in me and were it not that they had touch'd the hand of her Royal Highness I see not whence the miracle should proceed I did but kisse the Paper wherein they were and I find my self very much better I shall henceforth look on it as an antidote against all kinds of mis-fortunes and unless it be one I know not any which so pleasant a remedy cannot cure me of That you may not put your self to too nice a scrutiny to find out my meaning I were better explain it and tell you that it is the grief I take that I cannot see her enough and am destin'd to live at a great distance from the only person that deserves to be waited on If you consider it strictly this mis-fortune is greater then all the rest and it is very hard for a man to be tender of his honour and not to take it so much to heart as to dye of it To the Count de Guiche LETTER CXVIII My Lord THough it must be thought an ordinary thing to see you do glorious actions and that it is fifteen years that you have been talk'd of at this rate yet can I not avoid being extreamly surpriz'd when I hear of any new performances of your Valour and your Reputation being so precious to me as it is I am extreamly pleas'd that from time to time it is renew'd and multiply'd daily Those who are guilty of the greatest ambitions of honour would be satisfy'd with what you have acquir'd within these late years and would sit still with the esteem you are in with all the World But for ought I can see My Lord you set no limits to your self as to this point and as if you were jealous of the glory you have already acquir'd and what you have done heretofore you seem every year to exceed your self and to do something beyond your former atchievements For my part what passion soever I may have for your past actions I shall not besorry they should be Eclips'd by those you are yet to effect and that your exploits in Flanders should darken all you have perform'd in France Germany and Italy All my fear is that these great aspirations at Glory should carry you beyond your due bounds as to matter of hazard and accordingly what you did in the last Battel wherein the Marshal de la Meilleray defeated the Enemy as it affords me much cause of rejoycing so does it at the same time put me into some fear The expressions you there made of your conduct and your courage find matter if general admiration here and indeed my Lord if we consult Romances we shall hardly find any thing more noble or more worthy celebration But yet give me leave to tell you that since the invention of inchanted Armes is lost and the custome that Hero's should be invulnerable absolutely abolish'd a man is not allowed to do such actions as these often in his life and Fortune who hath deliver'd you for this time is but bad security for the future Be pleas'd therefore to consider that Fortitude hath it's extreams as well as all the other Vertues and that as they are so it also ought to admit the attendance of Prudence This if seriously consulted will not permit a Maâ—shal of the Field and a Master de Camp of the Guard should become a Voluntier and a Forlorne so as to expose to all hazards a person of your concernment and to venture so cheap a commodity of so great Value I know not my Lord whether you will take this freedome of mine in good part but I am certain you cannot say I interpose in a businesse wherein I am nothing concern'd and will find there is not any more then I am if you make any râ—flection on the passion wherewith I have ever been My Lord Your c. Paris Oct. 6. 1640. To my Lord Marquess de Pisany LETTER CXIX My Lord WEre it possible I could be so ingrateful as to forget you yet the noise you make at the present is so great that it were a very hard matter I should not call you to mind and use all the endeavours I could to preserve my self in the esteem of a person of whom I hear all the World speak with so much advantage I have been extreamly glad to hear what honour you have gain'd in the last engagement before Arras and though I am long since acquainted with the qualifications of your heart and mind and have ever had that opinion of you which all others have now yet must I confess my weakness me thinks the general esteem wherein you now are adds something to the inclinations I have to honour you and I feel in my self a certain vanity of passion for a man burthen'd with the applause and acclamations of all the World The satisfaction it is to me would certainly be absolute were it not disturb'd by the fear I am in to lose you But I know how dangerous a vertue Fortitude is and it is the common report that you are as ill a Husband of your person as you are of all things else This my Lord puts me into perpetual alarms and the fate which hangs on me to lose the best and most valuable of my friends puts me into so much the greater apprehension for you To allay this all I have is a secret confidence in your good Fortune my heart tells me that you have a great journey yet to go and a many things to do and that the friendship you are pleas'd to honour me with will be more Fortunate to me then that of some others I wish it both for your sake and my own and that with all my Soul as also that I may be happy enough one day to demonstrate to you how much and how passionately I am Your c. To Monsieur de Serisantes Resident for
LETTER I. SIR THough one half of France lye between us yet are you as present to my Thoughts as the Objects I see and you are concern'd in all my imaginations Rivers Plains and Cities may well oppose my content but cannot take off my memory from the entertainment of and a frequent reflection on those excellent Discourses you have honored me with till I recover the happiness of hearing them again Should you grow proud of any thing I must confess it should be only of those seeds you have scattered in my soul and your company which at first was extreamly pleasing is now become absolutely necessary to me You may therefore well think it is much against my will that I leave you so long in the Embraces of your Mistress or suffer her to enjoy what is mine and not be accountable to me for it Every moment she allows you of entertainment are so many usurpations made upon me your whisperings are secrets conceal'd from me and to enjoy your conversation in my absence is for her to inrich her self to my disadvantage But there is no reason I should envy so fair a Rival were it only because you are both equally happy or build my affection upon your mutual enjoyments provided at my coming I find my self after four Moneths absence fairly character'd in your memory and that Love hath there assign'd some place for Friendship and thence hope your condoleances for the miseries of the times and injustice of mankind In the interim as my joys where I now am are but slender so are my afflictions inconsiderable I am at an equal distance from good and bad Fortune that fickle Goddess who is employed in the depopulations and subversions of States and Cities is not at leisure to do mischief in mean places I converse with Shepherdesses who can say I and no and are too dul to be deceaved by understanding persons and though they are equally strangers to Painting and Eloquence yet because I am master of them they would suffer me to shew how small a distance there is between Power and Tyranny Instead of the fine words and quaint discourses wherein your Ladies abound there issues from their mouths a pure and innocent breath which incorporating it self with their Kisses affords a taste which ordinarily the Court does not If therefore you prove not happier in your choice there then I shall here I make over-particular profession to rely on your judgment and be SIR Your most humble Servant BALZAC To Monsieur de Balzac LETTER II. SIR IF it be true that I have ever had that place in your esteem you tell me you have not been in my opinion as careful of my satisfaction as you should since that in not affording me the knowledge of so great a piece of News you have continu'd me in the ignorance of my being the happiest man in the world But it may be you conceiv'd that happiness to be so far beyond any thing I could hope that you thought your self oblig'd to take time to bethink you of expressions such as might represent it to me as credible and were to master all the forces of your Rhetorick to perswade me that I still live in your memory This indeed I must confess very much speaks your justice since that being to make me no other return of the affection I might claim of you but Words you have made choice of those so Rich and Noble that to be free with you I am in some doubt whether the Effects would signifie much more and am absolutely of belief that any Friendship besides my own might take it for good satisfaction But what I quarrel at is that so much Artifice and Eloquence cannot shadow the truth from me and that I therein am like your Shepherdesses who through an over-great simplicity cannot be caâ—oll'd by too much wit You 'l however excuse me if I am a little distrustful as to that Science which can finde Elogies for Quartan Agues and Nero's and wherein I know you have stronger charms then ever any man had All those Gentillesses which I admire in your Letter I take to be expressions of your greatest wit rather then of your good affection and of so many excellent things as you have said in my commendation all that I can flatter my self to beleeve is that Fortune hath been pleas'd to make me some part of your Dreams and yet I am to learn whether the resueries of a soul so Elevated as yours is are not too serious and too rational to descend to any reflection on me and I shall accordingly acknowledg you deal too favourably with me if you have afforded me your Love but in a Dream I dare not imagine that amidst those high designations whose present employment is to make distributions of glory and to proportion rewards to all Vertues you may have reserv'd any place for me no I have a greater opinion of your worth then to be drawn into such a disesteem of it nor should I wish your enemies had so much to reproach you with I am satisfied that that measure of affection which you may with justice have for me is that which you should have That precept of knowing ones self which all others should look on as a memorial of humility should have on you a contrary effect that is oblige you to a contempt of whatever is without you For my part I must profess to you that disdaining all pretence to your Friendship I should have been content if you had only preserv'd with some little tenderness that which I had vow'd to you and had dispos'd it if not among those things for which you have any esteem yet at â—east among those you would be unwilling to lose 〈◊〉 that you have left me here so neer this fair Rival whom you mention not to disguise my thoughts to you signifies that your jealousie is not very strong and you give her so much advantage that I have some reason to beleeve you hold a correspondence with her to my prejudice If so I conceive I have much greater cause of complaint then you since she hath enriched her self by your losses and that you have suffer'd her to gain that whereof I thought to hav eluded her Tyranny by disposing it into your hands Had you made the least opposition in the world the better part of my self were yet at our disposal but your negligence put it into her power and enabled her so to improve her conquests over me that when I have posses'd you of all that remains you shall not finde the one half of what you have lost Yet I dare assure you on the other side that you have recover'd in my esteem the same place that had been taken from you in my affection and that my love no sooner began to decrease towards you but I thought my self oblig'd to honour you the more I have not met with any thing of yours since your departure which seems not to me above whatever you had done
all persons of that quality cannot love ought to admit of some exceptions as to him and as I have heard you often affirm that he had more generosity then others you may also conclude he hath also more Friendship But grant it were not so and that he had absolutely forgot me yet is it certain I could not possibly abate any thing of the passion I have for him I can no more oppose this inclination then that I have for you and you should not think it strange I should love an ungrateful man when you know I have so long lov'd a woman that is such Nay to be free with you even at that time that I thought he had quite forgotten me I have not passed a fair evening in the Prade but I have wished him there The Gros-d'â—au were as acceptable at Madrid as at Paris and if I had been here I would carry him to sing before gates which should open more easily then yours and where we should be better entertained then we were at your house There are in this place certain Creatures which those of the Country call Morenites which as to their shape are very handsom having a very smoth skin being mild active and gamesome very easily tam'd and naturally compliant to mankind The coolnesse of the night which they are much taken with causes that about that time they are ordinarily found in the steeets and if I mistake not his curiosity for things of this nature I am confident he would be extreamly glad to see some of them I humbly beseech you Madam since I am endebted to you for all things to employ all the interest you have in him to oblige him to honour me with his remembrances and if you can engage him to love me I will bear with you six months longer for what you owe me I know not whether your Servant hath done me the honour to write any thing to me I am ever his most-humbly with as much passion as ever and it 's not three days since I lock'd my self into a chamber and in memory of him sung Pere Chambaut half an hour together There are at the bottom of your Letter three several hands which I know not whose they are and if I mistake not never knew I had once resolv'd to have got them answer'd by three of my Friends Spaniards but I have not had the time being on the eve of my departure I hope to be gone hence within three or four days in order to the progresse I writ to you of as also to see Portugal and Andaluzia Some endeavour'd to disswade me from it by reason of the great heats of this season but to improve my experience I am resolv'd to see the world a little and to recover my self of a Winter I have pass'd over here without so much as warming my self I am going to find out the Dog-days in Africa and to spend the Summer in a Country where the Swallows spend the Winter The danger I am like to meet with in this Voyage frighten me not at all it may be I should meet with greater near you All I am troubled at is that if I chance to dy in it Mademoiselle de Rambouillet will be much pleas'd to say that three years since she foretold I should dye within four But Madam a preson concern'd in your prayers ought to hope for better fortune I know not whether I have yet a long time to live but me thinks I have a great many years to love you in and therefore my affection being so great and so perfect I conceive it impossible I should so soon quit the relation of Madam Yours c. To the Same LETTER XXXI MADAM THere is nothing awanting to your fortunes save that you have never been guilty of High-Treason and now see I furnish you with a fair occasion for it Fortune who hath not neglected any to bring you on the Stage will not haply fail to make use of this I easily perceive that I put you into some danger by writing to you and yet that very consideration cannot oblige me to forbear Hence you may also inferre that I would set any thing at stake to put you in mind of me since I bring your self into danger on whom I set a higher value then on all this world affords This I tell you Madam in a time when I would not dissemble no not in a Complement For that you may know how the case stands I have made an extraordinary advantage of the sickness which you have been told I have had It hath engag'd me to take such good resolutions that if I had them not I should gladly purchase them with all the health I have I do not doubt but you will laugh at this as knowing my weakness and will think it unlikely for me to execute simple resolutions who have broken so many vowes And yet it is certain that I have look'd on all the Spanish women as if they were no other then the Flemish of Brussels and I hope to prove a vertuous man instead of a man of this world where there are so great temptations and where Satan shelters himself under the handsomest shapes In all this reformation I am troubled but with one scruple which is that I think too much on you and that I desire with much impatience the honour to see you again Though I have moderated all my affections I cannot reduce that I bear you to that point wherein it is permitted we should love our neighbour that is to say as our selves and I fear me you have a greater part of my Soul then should be bestow'd on a Creature Be you pleas'd to consider Madam what remedy there is for it or rather what may be said to maintain it for as to remedy I cannot believe there is any and withall that it is impossible I should not with all manner of passion ever be Madam Yours c. To the same LETTER XXXII MADAM THe consolation I have received from you was but proportionable to the greatnesse of my misfortune and I have receiv'd your Letter as a reprief that Heaven sent me after my condemnation I cannot call by any other name the newes that engaged my return hither and I assure you there are many sentences of death that are not so cruell But amidst all my disasters I should do ill to complain when you honour me with a place in your memory and it were not hard me thinks to scorn the favours of fortune when one is so happy as to enjoy yours Upon this consideration I shall be content to stay here and not upon that you mention viz that it is better be an exile in a strange Country then to be a captive in ones own You see but one half of my unhappinesse if you consider not that I am both together and if you observe well you will find that two things seemingly incompatible conspire in me to be banished and a Prisoner at the same time
Bellegarde LETTER LXV My Lord MR de Chaudebonne is guilty of the boldnesse I take to write to you as being the only comfort he could give me in the affliction he sees me almost orewhelmed with T' is true my my Lord the trouble I take not to have found you here I number among the greatest I have met with in this Country I prepared my self for this banishment the more out of some hopes I might spend it in your Company and doubted not to find France where-ever you were But this would have been too great a comfort for a man destined to unhappiness nor is Fortune ever so favourable to those shee persecutes In the interim my Lord I look on it as a good presage that shee is pleased we should be at some reasonable distance from you and have some faith shee will be reconciled with us if shee once afford us the happiness of your presence For to be ingenuous My Lord I cannot imagine shee hath absolutely forsaken you and there needs no more then her sex to argue shee cannot have you and that shee will shortly see you again But though you want her you are not without that extraordinary prudence and height of courage which attends you every where and which you have not long since so nobly expressed that I question whether those unfortunate years have not been more advantagious to you then others I could easily My Lord spin out this discourse to a great length but I would not be thought indiscreet in the management of the freedome is allow'd me To my Lord Cardinal de la Valette LETTER LXVI My Lord I would gladly know how long it is since you questioned whether the four last Books of the Aeneids were written by Virgil or not and whether Terence be the true Author of Phormio I should not ask so confidently but you know that in Triumphs Soldiers are wont to jest with their Commanders and that the joy of a Victory permits that freedome which without it might not be assum'd Confesse therefore freely how long it is since you have thought on little Erminia in the Verses of Catullus or those of Monsieur Godeau But My Lord though you had forgotten all the rest you should ever be mindful of his Benedicite for no man had ever so much cause to say it as you or was so highly oblig'd to render thanks to the Lord of Hoasts To do you right the Conduct and Fortune whereby you have secur'd us is one of the greatest Miracles ever were seen in War and all the circumstances so extravagant that I should put them into the Chapter of Apparent falsities were there not so many witnesses and that I am satisfied nothing of Miracle can happen to you which ought not to be believ'd The joy wherewith all you love here are fill'd at this news is a thing beyond all representation But can you imagine My Lord that those Persons who were heretofore ravish'd at your singing and Poetry must needs be now infinitely satisfied when they hear it said that you raise sieges take Cities and defeat Armies and that the greatest hope of good successe in our Affairs lyes in you I assure you this is entertain'd here with the greatest resentment you could wish and which is more then you think your Armes gain Victories more desireable then all those you can have beyond the Rhine How amibitious soever you may be that consideration should engage you to return for assure your self My Lord a Battle is not now the noblest thing that may be gain'd and you will acknowledge your self that there may be a Rose or a Shoe-String fit to be preferr'd before nine Imperial Ensigns I am My Lord Your c. Paris Oct. 23. 1635. To the same LETTER LXVII My Lord I Have shewn Monsr de St. H Monsr de St. R and Monsr de St. Q that passage of your Letter where you speak of my Lord 's menial Servants I am to acquaint you that they have taken it very ill and am consident that Mr des Ousches to whom I have not yet communicated it will be of the same opinion So that were I to arme my self against your menaces you may easily judge I shall not want Friends and that my writing to you now proceeds not so much from fear as from a sincere Affection and a natural inclination I have to obey you Besides those I have named this place affords a many other gallant Persons such as it were a little more dangerous to quarrel with who take it not well I should take paines for your diversion and think it unreasonable you should take any wanting their presence And truly my Lord since your absence smothers all their enjoyments it were but just you should with no other then that of seeing them again and that in the mean time you would not admit any divertisement I can assure you that whatever is taken here at this time hinders them not from thinking on you and making continual wishes for your return The cold and snows of the Mountains of Alsatia benumb them and make them tremble even in the greatest Assemblies and the fear of the ambushes of the Cravates perpetually Alarms them in the midst of Paris But what is most remarkable and which will haply seem incredible to you is that I have observ'd M. de B M. de R melancholy in the midst of the Bal and that upon your account and sighing in the height of the Musick What judgment My Lord or what advantage you will make of it I know not but for my part let them do what they can hereafter I am confident they shall never be able to give you a higher expression of their affection Taking out the other day the last Letter you honour'd me with and reading that passage where you tell me that you were upon your departure instead of saying into Alsatia I read Thracia Iron-armes who you know is not wont to be easily mov'd at any thing grew as pale as a clout and said full of amazement into Thracia Sr. and another who stood by and is a little better acquainted with the Globe then the other could not but be a little disturb'd I would gladly entertain your Lordship with somthing concerning your Spouse but I know not what to say of her for whatever shall be said of her will be incredible and there is not any thing in her exceeds not the limits of description Whatever you have observ'd in her that might raise love or admiration is augmented hourly and there are daily discover'd in her new Treasures of beauty wit and generosity But with all I dare assure you shee hath in your absence behav'd herself with all the circumspection you could wish I know there is a certain report which questionless hath raised in you some jealousy for I am not ignorant of the humours of your Africans and it is true there is a young gallant of a good family and who may one day come to
so I might go to Ruel and wait on you two and I assure your self you should have the better half The advice you give me will make me grow weary of Mademoiselle Madam and Mademoiselle be pleas'd to present my most humble Services to the Ladies on whom you have bestow'd me I wish Madam were one for I was infinitely taken with her the other day But consider I pâ—ay how much I am at your devotion Though I know them not yet am I not without some inclination for them and though I have never lov'd two persons at the same time yet I see I shall do any thing you shall impose on me To Monsieur Arnaud under the name of the sage Icas LETTER LXXX SIR THough I were ignorant of your being a great Magician and having the science of commanding Spirits yet the power you have over mine and the Charmes I find in what you have written to me would have convinc'd me there might be somewhat supernatural in you With the assistance of your Characters I have seen in a little piece of paper Temples and Goddesses and you have shewn me in your Letter as in an enchanted Glasse all the persons I love Above all I have observ'd with much delight the Piece wherein you represent amidst the shades the brightest light of our agâ— and let me know the affection is born me by a Person who can not at this day be equall'd no not by any that you know though you are acquainted with what is past and to come But Sir let me entreat you who can discover what is most hidden and need only say speak Spirits erect a figure to know what 's become of that Creature and do me the favour to let me have what you shall learn of him It is certainly a curiosity fit to be satisfy'd and I promise you not to reveal the Secret for I shall in that as in all other things obey your commands so to express my self Your c To my Lady Marchioness de Rambouillet LETTER LXXXI Madam WIthout citing either sacred or prophane History whatever you write is excellent I lay up the least Notes that fall from your hands as I would the leaves of a Sybil and I study therein that height of Eloquence which all the World seeks after and would be but necessary to speak worthily of you And if it be true as you say that I have done it and it be possible ehat I have given you your due praise I may presume to have perform'd the hardest thing in the World and which as much as lay in my power was most in my wishes For I assure you Madam I have not endeavour'd any thing more possionately then to acquaint the World with two the greatest examples that ever were of an accomplish'd vertue and a perfect affection by letting it know how much you are esteem'd and how much I am Madam Your c To my Lord Cardinal de la Valette LETTER LXXXII MY LORD I Saw divers reasons not to expect any Letters from you so soon and easily inferr'd that a person who had so many things to do could not write much I was content to hear your name and Victories cry'd up here every week and to buy all the news I could learn of you But certainly it was time you did me the honour I have receiv'd the insolence of some people beginning to grow insupportable to me who presumptuously gave out that the time of their Prophesies was come and that I should shortly be rank'd among them as a private person Nay there wanted not those who took this occasion to tempt my fidelity You cannot easily believe my Lord what advantages I have been proffered to induce me to quit your party this winter and to let out my clawes against you twice a week And yet though these offers have been made by the most enchanting mouth in the world yet have I slighted them with that constancy I am obliged to have for a man of whom I have received all things and whom I find otherwise so much to my humour that though hee had ever hated me yet could I not but respect and serve him So that though I have at Paris those engagements which they never want who aspire not to the conduct of Armies and are not capable of those high passions which at this present take up the better part of your soul yet am I ready to take my leave of all here when ever you shall command me and shall quit to wayt on you a person that is young sprightly and black To do this I only want a handsome pretence and if your enemies as I believe will needs have their walls between you and them and oblige you to a siege I shall not fail to be with you besides that not to flatter you I had rather be besieger then besieged and the Spaniards are gotten so neer Paris that though I did not leave it for your sake I should for my own All the Bridges neer it are broken down they are ready every hour to draw up the chains and at the same time when we are terrible on the bankes of the Rhine we are not our selves safe on those of the Seine Amidst the trouble this disorder causes in me I must confesse my Lord it is some comfort to me to see that at a time when our affaires are declining on every side they prosper on yours and while our Army in Picardy shrinks into its Garrisons that we have in Burgundy moulders away in its Trenches and that we are not much more fortunate in Italy you have seized Galas in his Trenches you take places while he lookes on and may be only called the Conquerour and the Victorious In a word not to represent things otherwise then they are all the progress we have made this year is due to your conduct Te copias te consilium tuos Praebente Divos Be pleas'd therefore my Lord to command me to come and share in your prosperity and to wayt on our good Fortune in that place only where itâ—now is Besides that without any great pretence to valour the exploits of Monsieur de Simpleferre suffer me not to sleep and I have fasten'd to the hilt of my sword three of the little Flemmish Lady's Letters which I entend to thrust into the body of some Germane Sed quid agâ— Cum mihi fit incertum tranquillo ne fis animo an ut in bello in aliquâ majusculâ curâ negotione versere labor longiùs Cum igitur mihi erit exploratum te libenter esse visurum scribam ad te pluribus I have not much stuck to put in this because it is Cicero's and shall thrust as much Latine as I can into my Letters since you tell mee you read nothing else in them for truly it were great pitty you should lose yours But if you are so unfortunate as to forget it I promise you my endeavours to recover it this winter I will acquaint you
to me then ever more cruel then shee was in her Letters and what is lamentable and shameful both this resistance enflames me and I am fallen more deeply in love with her then ever you knew me O indignum facinus nunc ego Illam Scelestam esse me miserum sentio Et taedet amore ardeo prudens sciens Vivus vidensque pereo nec quid agam scio It is one of the reasons mov'd me to undertake this journey ut defatiger but I fear me I shall have the same Fortune with that other Do you who are more discreet and better acquainted with her give me some advice in this case and let me know whether you conceive shee will persist in the resolution which shee seems to have taken But deal freely with me and in such an adventure as this use not your ordinary compliance It will haply prove a kind of remedy to me to be perswaded that there is not any You are oblig'd above all others to deliver me out of this disturbance for besides that your affection to me ought to be greater then any man's you are in some sort the cause of all the afflictions I groan under at the present as who first brought me to the sight of her Te cum tuâ Monstratione magnum perdat Jupiter I speak it not in good earnest but me thought it came very pat to my purpose As to the word wherein you desire my judgement I can say as little to it as you though I reflected on it by the way as we came That 't is true does not signify much for my thoughts were wholly taken up with her Farewel get my heart from her as soon as you can that you may have it wholly to your self or if shee must keep it that it may be with some justice I am Sir Your c To the same LETTER CXXXVI Domine NOt to dissemble with you all your Latine cannot exempt you from simplicity and it is easily discover'd in you that the greatest Clarks are not alwayes the most polite I was strangely reconcil'd with M within one quarter of an hour after our meeting we had hardly exchang'd two or three reproaches but we embrac'd one another more heartily then ever Love sneez'd above two hundred several times that day sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left which brought him into a cold he hath been troubled with these thre weeks She gave me mille deinde centum deinde mille altera deinde secunda centum See now what you get by citing so unseasonably those two Epigrams for to tell you truth I conceive her very handsome about the nose and am of the judgment of her neighbours Sic meos amores There ought not such strict notice be taken of what falls from Lovers in their passion and though Phaedria coming upon the Stage speaks of Meretricum contumelias yet in the next scene he would soon quarrel with his ears that should affirm Thais was not a very honest woman Had you forgot your Publius Mimus Amantium irae that other who putting things in their order says injuriae suspectiones inimicitiae induciae bellum and then at last pax rursum According to the knowledge we have of your simplicity and the opinion which I know you have of that fierce and impersuasible Nature we concluded you would be cajoli'd thereby and that you would write a Letter that should find us abundance of good sport but to the end that you might oblige her and pretend a regret for having endeavour'd to get away the heart from her I assure you I had much adoe to perswade her to be guilty of that treachery towards you This is the reason that you have not receiv'd oftener from her and shee hath purposely forborn because you should not take her in a ly twice But we must do you that right as to acknowledge that if you are defective as to judgement you have to ballance it a great wit I am infinitely taken with your Letter There are some applications the most fortunate in the World or to say the better the most ingenious particularly that di boni and that fundi calamitas but quod me capere oportuerat haec intercipit how do you understand it by your explication of hem alterum I approve it not for Gnatho being in all probability elder then Thraso or at least coaetaneous what likelihood is there he would say that it should seem that Thraso had made the other haud ita jussi 't is an equivocation upon rectè jocularium in malum visu dignum I shall see Monsieur de since you command me to do it for that makes me more considerable then if I were a Bishop I admire the expression of Monsieur Pauquet I have often told you that his wit went beyond yours To deal freely with you I believe he dictates your Letters I wish he would also my answers But tell me whence came that Hemistick I never read it and cannot imagine it was ever apply'd on any occasion but the wheat that grew on the Bastions of Rochel I am Sir Your c. Paris Aug. 4. To my Lord Marquess de Roquelaure LETTER CXXXVII My Lord I know not what advantage I shall make of the honour of your friendship but it hath cost me already very dear there passes not a Campagne wherein for your sake I endure not many sad dayes and that the hazards you are engag'd in cause me not abundance of affliction when in the mean time I have a great joy to see that by a strange extravagance of Fortune you find a way to purchase glory in the worsted side and that in those engagements which are in a manner unfortunate to all others you make your self famous Things well consider'd you cannot in my judgement with any justice quarrel with Fortune for if shee be not on your side shee takes you into that whereof shee is and at the end of all fights I find you among the Victorious For my part I am more jealous of your liberty then your glory and must confess my self not at all troubled for your imprisonment and reflecting on what hath happened I have a greater affection for you when you are among the Spaniards then if you were of our side I wish my Lord you may receive from them all the good entertainment that your merits may claim and I do not in the least doubt but you shall for besides what is due to your condition there are those excellencies in your person which in three dayes gain the hearts of all that come near you and I make no difficulty but the enemies who have taken you are by this time your friends I would gladly were I permitted come and bear you Company with them for assure your self my Lord there is not any thing I would not heartily do to demonstrate to you how sensible I am of the honour you do me every where by the publick acknowledgements you make
have entertained it more willinglie I have employed one to speak to your Counsell and he hath promised that your business shall not be moved this Parliament I conceive Sir that I have in this given you the greatest assurance of my obedience that I possibly can for being extreamlie desirous to see you again and withall infinitelie-jealous of the Ladie that detaines you you could not have desired any thing of me which I should have been more more unwilling to satisfie you in then that I should my self order things so that you might be longer hence and have two moneths time to stay with her Having obeyed you in this you cannot doubt but that I shall ever be upon all occasions SIR Your c. July 6. To the same LETTER CLXXII SIR THat I have delaied an answer so song I have a better excuse then I wish I had the â—ever and the gowt have had to do with this great whâ—le each in its turn nor am I yet quite rid of them Hence you may inferre that you put me upon the emploiments are necessarie for me â—etter then I should my self for being now absolutely decaied I am yet better to sollicite a Cause then court a Mistresse I wish you may soon obtain the one and never be overthrowne in the other I am sincerely SIR Your c. Paris Aug. 21. To the same LETTER CLXXIII SIR YOu need net doubt but that I who can afford you my life would easily lend you my name that I should not gladly make Monsieur believe me a landed man But Monsieur tells me you acquainted him not with your resolution till it was too late and that the house you would have bought was disposed of before Sir I am sorrie your affaires detain you there longer then you expected for assure your self we cannot be without you One of the handsomest of our neighbours lies sick nor have I my health as I should Methinks you should for her sake hasten your return as also for that of SIR Your c. Paris Octob. 15. 1645. To my Lord Marshal de Schomberg LETTER CLXXIV My LORD YOu have been pleased to honour me with I etters so excellentlie well penn'd and so full of obligation that I have not yet been able to answer them least I might appear unworthie your praises or return you such as were not suitable to your worth All I can tell you of your last Letter is that had I ever so little lesse esteem for you then I have I should have the greatest quarrel with you of any man in the World but I concern my self so much in any thing relates to you that the vanitie you take from my Letters I re-assume from yours and am as proud of the things you write as if I were the true author thereof In a word my Lord when you doubt whether I shall remember cricore or approve of your wheeles you are too distrustful of my memorie and my judgement The common Proverbe certainlie that all comparisons are odious holds not at all in you there 's nothing more ingenious nothing more pleasant then those you imagine and you who are so fortunate in them upon all occasions cannot meet with any thing that may be compar'd to your own But as excellent things stand you not in much so can you not esteem them to their worth We who are forced to travel far for them and finde them not without great trouble set a higher value on them and think our selves verie rich of what you regard not at all nay what you are readie to disclaime It hath happen'd indeed verie fortunatelie for such wits as we are that yours hath been hitherto employ'd in the commanding of Armies and government of Provinces and that your birth hath designed you for a greater glorie then that of writing well We had been in a strange perplexitie who can do nothing else and dare not pretend to any thing above it I have heard not without astonishment fear and joy what you have done at Montpelier methought I saw Rodomont in the midst of Paris for your Lordship remembers that he alone opposed so manie people Non fasso merlo trave areo O balestra Nè câ—â— che sopra'il Sarracin percote Ponno alentar la valorosa destra To tell you trulie unlesse it be that his feet are not so handsome as yours I take you to be verie like him and when you have your sword in your hand I think you much more But haplie while you read this your Lordship hath some other affairs of as great importance to do and I divert you from it by an over-tedious Letter Be pleased to let me know whether the businesse of Pont Saint Esprit be at length concluded as also what my Nephew must do when he shall depart whither he shall go to whom he is to applie himself Doralice hunts me up and down and sends for me everie day to acquaint me with something concerning you I call him Doralice not of any ill omen or thinking of any Mandricard I am My LORD Your c. Paris Aug. 5. 1645. To my Lord Duke d' Anguien LETTER CLXXV My LORD VVHen I thought my self in the very depth of affliction and burden'd with as much as any mind could possiblie bear the fear I was in for your highnesse convinces me that I might be more unhappie then I am and that though my losses were extraordinarie I had yet abundance to lose I cannot my Lord expresse the disturbance my soul struggl'd with to think of the hazard you were in nor what darknesse and disorder I imagin'd likelie to happen in the World Some slender hope I had indeed that Heaven who seems to mind the prosperirie of this State would not deprive France of you so soon that it must preserve a person by whom it had decreed to do yet a many miracles But my Lord that malice of Fate which envies those who raise themselves above their nature and the necessitie which there is that humane affairs should decline when they are at the highest point gave me much reason to fear The short and precâ—pitate successes of Gaston de Foix the death of the Duke of Weymar in the midst of his Triumphs and that of the King of Sweden who was kill'd as it were between the arms of Glory and Fortune were the perpetual entertainment of my minde and presented my imaginationâ— with none but fatal presages In fine God is onely pleas'd to threaten men and seems to have given them this alarme that they might the better consider what a present he hath made them of you and how much the Earth is concern'd in you The noblest of your Victories hath not afforded you so great joy as it were to you to know what astonishment all took here at the newes of the danger you were in and with what eyes and teares you have been bemâ—anâ—d I should be verie glad your Lordship knew it that if you fear nothing as to your self you may
she shall have no cause to complain that I speak to her onelie by heart for I finde mine at such a distance from whatever I have to say to her that if I have not your immediate assistance you will finde I shall be as far to seek as you both as to words and time But were it Heavens pleasure you knew not that of your departure and that you were not able to give me any account of it at least for this day For to deal truelie with you I have not courage enough to endure the verie imagination of it nay that verie thought stâ—fles in me all other When I consider that to morrow you will not be to be found here I think it strange I should be in the World to day nay I am almost in an humour to acknowledge with you that there is some fiction in the love I pretend to when it comes into my mind that I am still alive and that this affliction does not absolutelie make an end of me Others have become speechlesse and confined themselves to the deserts of Thebais upon lesse discontents then mine But if I tell you that I cannot go so far from you to bemoane my misfortune I am methinks the more to be excused that I go not to endure an hermitage in the wildernesses of Aegypt since I hope to finde a place in that you are going to build This hope is all that flaies me in this World my life hangs altogether on this consideration I know not whether all I have said here be within the limits of a passionate friendship and yet you cannot affirm that I speak to you too clearlie since you have ever had a priviledge to give my words several interpretations nor complain that I write not to you in such termes as you desire since I could never yet meet with the man that should teach me how to do it While my failings are connived at and the discoverie of my resentments allowed I professe to you with the same affection as I did yesterdaie that the onelie extravagance the World shall know me guiltie of shall be ever to be enamoured of what was ever amiable and encurre your displeasure from the hour that you are assured of my friendship To the same LETTER V. I Am fullie satisfied that my daies are neer an end and that I am at the Vigills of the greatest misfortune will ever happen to me In the mean time I finde my self more free and undisturbed then I durst have hoped and amidst thousands of reflections that adde to my torment there are some few that alleviate it The astonishment I am in permits me not to examine the cause of so extraordinarie an accident but I am not to be taught that you produce in my soul I know not by what means certain effects whereof I cannot finde out the cause and that you kindle a certain joy in my heart though I know no reason for it Be it as it will I finde my selfe so resolved for death as if there were something for me to expect after it and how insupportable soever that separation may be which brings with it your absence I am prepared to endure it as if it were onelie a passage to a better life All I am troubled at is that that person to whom you lend me sometimes suffers me not to end my daies quâ—etlie but I must be forced to spend between you and her the last hours of my life By this I am absoluttlie convinced though I could not hitherto be perswaded to believe it that at the hour of death we all see our good and bad angels and that we have at that moment happie and unhappie visions But I humblie beseech you in case you hate me not yet not to forsake me in this extreamitie and to be careful and tender of a Soul which cannot be saved but by your meanes and must be tormented eternallie if you denie it your protection To the Same LETTER VI. IT was high time for me to think of my Conscience and it was a happie turne for me that I made yesterdaie some part of my confession for I had not been yet so sick as I am this day and my sicknesse encreases so that had I delaied it any longer I think I had died in a verie sad condition At least to measure things by the fits I am troubled with and the distractions that torment me I see my selfe falling into extravagances and enthusiasmes and have no great hope to be though but for one hour longer absolute Master of my senses and intellectualls What perswades me the more it will be so is that amidst the sufferings afflictions which I expected should have swallowed me up I cannot put on much sadnesse and find my self lesse troubled then ordinarie though I am in the worst condition I ever was in in my life I lost not manie daies since a deare friend whom the excesse of his paine made insensible thereof His dreames made him laugh amidst the pangs of death and his imaginations found him some ease whilest he was on the rack of a Feaver I beseech you envie me not such a dissolution as that and since I have not eight daies to live give me leave to spend them after that manner This granted I shall acknowledge you merciful beyond my faith and my selfe happie beyond my hope For an attempt so extravagant as mine should not meet with so good successe and after the commission of so high an effence I did not expect to die so soon nor so quietlie I crave your pardon I thought not to have written any thing to you but what concerned your friend and now I first perceive that I have not said a word of her I humblie beseech you to dispose of both her and me as you please onelie let me know when you would have me to come and hear the sentence I should humblie begge it may be given this evening but I am afraid to be too importunate and I know not where to finde you in the afternoone To the same LETTER VII IF this be the day that I am to entertain the person you recommended to me yesterday I beseech you send me what you would have me to do it withall or take it not ill that I should make no presents to others of a good wherein the poorest are richer then my self I never had so many painfull houres as the twelve I spent last and since I had the honour of your presence I have had so little rest that I dare assure you there are few Feuillants but were better lodged then I. That man in whose heart you yesterday left the dagger hath had a better night Fear regret despaire and all the poisons of love that are of a cold nature were my perpetuall Tormentors and sleep which for some time would needs give me some ease hath been properlie to me the image of Death since it continuallie represented to me that of your absence The condition I am
me a demonstration that you have not left all your shrewishnesse at Rouën and that you have not parted with all your humours since you take so much pleasure to persecute me This considered Madam I must needs tell you I should have been glad to have been at your interview with the Sea to see what face you put on it what you thought one of the other ' and what happned on the day that the two most unruly things in World met together If conformitie beget affection there should have passed a great friendshp between you for when I consider its calmes tempests and roughnesse it banks shelves and rocks the losses and advantages it brings the world how admirable and incomprehensible it is faire to those that look on it and dreadful to those that are at the mercie of it that it is irresistible untameable bitter unmerciful and insolent methinks you are as like one another as two drops of water and all the good and ill that may be said of that may be also affirmed of you There is onelie this difference Madam that that though it be vast and great hath its limits and you have none and all those that know your disposition hold that it hath neither bottome nor channel And I pray what Abysse hath furnished you with that deluge of Letters you have sent hither which are all so excellent and so admirable and such as any one of them would aske as much time to write as that of your absence amounts to What other imagination would not be drained to afford so much as should gain so manie people sollicit so manie Judges and write to so manie persons The Sea indeed hath done you a courtesie and it is an argument of your good intelligence that Madam de Guise was directed so opportunelie to Rouen and to make the Romance a little more famous Fortune hath done well to bring thither also a person so considerable as you are Do you not think that all the adventures of a Countrie would be delayed till you were there There is some thing extraordinarie in it El dia que tu nancistè Grandes Sennales avia And I question not when you die but I shall finde your death in the Gazette As for the Gargouille I must confesse Madam I know not what it means I have read the Relations of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto and those of the Spaniards and the Portughezes of the East and West-Indies but do not remember I ever met with that word in any of them I humblie beg your better information T is certainlie a great pitie you wandred not up and down the World you would inform us otherwise then all other Travellers do I wish I had as pleasant things to entertaine you with as those we have received from you But since your departure hence Paris affords not so much newes as Rouën This also confirms that the place is better for the Person Your Ladie Mother is in health Monsieur A. plaies the Devil with his hinder feet now that he hath his elbowes at libertie with Monsieur de St Megrin ever since the death of my Lord Duke He is become so handsome so bright that it is almost a miracle I saw your noble Brother yesterday Monsieur de Chastenay came hither two daies since This if I am not mistaken is all I have to say to you I humblie kisse your hands and am much more passionatelie then you can believe Madam Yours c Paris May 30. 1644. To Monsieur de Chantelou LETTER CLXII Sir I Could not send this Lacquaie to Paris without taking occasion to return you my most humble thankes for the honour you have been pleased to do me though I have neither leasure nor invention enough to answer a letter so excellent as that of yours which is such as it had raised in me no small jealousie if it had been writ by another But loving you as I do my self or to go a little higher as I do Mademoiselle and as much as Mademoiselle does you I must needs be glad to finde your writing proportionable to your speaking singing dancing vaulting and indeed your excellencie in all things All I have to object to you is that you give me no account of Mademoiselle de Chantelou nor of Mademoiselle de Mommor In a person of so much judgement as you pretend to it is certainlie a horrid default you 'l pardon my freedom and allow it in a person who admires you in all things else and most passionatelie is Yours c To my Lord de'Avaux LETTER CLXIII My LORD THough I received no letters from you yet the receipt of your kindnesses were enough to engage me to write to you and methinks the least I can do is to give you words for your monie Were it at my own choice I know the value of things so well that I had rather give you monie so it might but procure words from you but since it is your pleasure it should be oâ—herwise I think it better for both it should be so Permittóque ipsis expendere Numinibus quid Conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris When I have rendered you the most humble acknowledgements I owe you I think my Lord I shall have verie little else to trouble you with Neque enim te credo in stomacho ridere posse and amidst the disturbances and melancholie you struggle with I conceive there is no entertainment for such letters as I am wont to write to you Now to speak to you of your division methinks is not verie seasonable Quid enim aut me ostentem qui si vitam pro tuâ dignitate profundam nullam partem videar meritorum tuorum assecutus aut de aliorum injuriis querar quod sine summo dolore facere non possum When I shall understand that you have put on more cheerfulnesse assured me that the Tempest is over that it 〈◊〉 fair weather and that it raines not then shall I re-assume that kinde of writing Cicero calls genus literarum jocosum In the mean time I must acquaint you with one thing whence you may derive no small comfort It is that in the differences there are between you and unlesse it be some persons that have a dependance on him all the World is of your side and that that benevolent aspect which hath raised the general love of all to you doth in this occurrence incline the whole Court and the Citie to favour you I hope the presence of Monsieur de Longueville will produce a better face of things at Munster At least the Scene is like to be changed and new Actors will come upon the Stage and those excellent Alter ab integro Seclorum nascitur ordo Jam venit Virgo Were it not that you have assur'd me of my ignorance in Astrologie and my unaquaintance with the Stars I should give you some Predictions for I see a blazing-Star which promises many things and must cause great alterations At least
my Lord you shall have no cause to complain any more of West-phalia as of a barbarous Countrie and where the Graces and Muses can finde no entertainment Is it not now that it may be said Quoquo vestigia figis Componit furtim subsequiturque Venus How excellent is that furtim if you consider it well But what intrigues are there between you and Father Chauaroche is he not a good honest fellow that minds his Religion well commendable as to Manners a good Wit and a great judgement He writes miracles here of you with a certain extravagance of passion and hath as great an affection for you as the Parson of St. Nicholas In the mean time I owe heaven thanks that amidst so many occasions of afflictions your health and your cheerful humour have constantlie kept you companie I wish you the continuance of both and my self in a capacitie to let the World know how much I am My LORD Your c. Paris Apr. 1. 1645. To my Lord Marshall de Schomberg LETTER CLXIV MY LORD IS â—t that you were afraid what you were to write to me should smell of the oyle that you had sent me your letter without doing me the honour of writing particularly to me And yet that which I have received since from you I look on as the better part of your present Without that operam oleum perdideras and you might have sent me all the Olives of Languedoc and yet not have made your peace with me If you think my Lord that I concern my self too much you will find that it is not for things of small consequence and if you consider well what value I set on the things you write you will not think it strange that I so passionately desire your letters as what I cannot be without The last I received brought me rest joy and health All these had shaken hands with me ever since your departure hence I hope your return will put me into a perfect good constitution and restore me to my Wits and strength which I must not expect without you Till this good fortune happens my only diversion is to discourse of you in all places at all times and upon all occasions Upon what terms my Lord I leave you to imagine but it is ever among persons who are over-joyed to hear me and who will be able to acquaint you in case you doubt of it that among the many who take a pleasure to speak well of you there 's not any does it more heartily then my self or is more passionately MY LORD Your c. Paris Aprill 7. 1645. To the same LETTER CLXV MY LORD HAd you been here you had dashed out one part of these verses and would have made me correct the other nor do I send them you but to let you see how destitute I am of all good advice nay of all wit when I have not the honour to be near you Be pleased to imagine by that My Lord what wishes I make for your return as being one that takes not much pleasure in being a fool nor yet in seeming such and if it concern me not much to desire you should stay no longer in Languedoc Those whose hearts you have carried away with you are not at such a losse as I am for your absence nor expect you with more impatience then I po Yet I meet one person who iâ— all places and on all occasions gives wonderfull expressions of an extraordinarie affection for you But my Lord you have made me such a courtier and so confident that notwithstanding all these fair appearances I think my affection towards you exceeds that of any other and to reform somewhat that freedome of speaking that I am with most respect and zeal My LORD Yours c Paris April 27. 1645. To Monsieur Costart LETTER CLXVI QVuid igitur faciam eámne infectâ pace ultrò ad eam veniens Would you give me this advice an potiùs ita me comparem I shall forbear the rest for your sake Without jesting Sir I stand in great need of your assistance at this present and wish you here to mind me from time to time of hei noster but you have not courage enough to give such bold advice I must take it of my self To be free with you this Ladie is too angry Non est sana puella nee rogare qualis sit solet haec imago nasum It may be she will not be so cruell at Paris as at she is more considerable there then here if I may trust your information Hanc provincia narrat esse bellam But your writing to me at the time you did was the best thing you ever did for if you had delayed it but two daies longer I should have been as angrie with you as I am with her and was resolved to have written to you in the stile you know And to deale plainlie with you I am not well satisfied with those you have written there cannot be any more abrubt or indifferent Unlesse it be that you have assured me of your health what do they contain that is pleasant Quâ solatus es allocutione All I am pleased with is that I conceive you spend your time verie merrilie since you can afford me so little of it but are you not the happiest man in the world that when you least expected it Fortune hath forced three weekes or a moneth on you Adeóne hominem venustum esse aut felicem quam tu ut scies What do you think of that venustum I think he there means him qui habet Venerem propitiam for the other signification is not verie pertinent Farwell Sir be assured I am assolutelie yours and as much as you can desire Yours c Paris Aprili 30. To my Lord d'Avaux LETTER CLXVII MY LORD YOu cannot imagine what a troublesome thing it is to be ever writing to a man that returns no answer I should as willingly talk to deaf man or a wall and yet they say walls have eares but when I am not answered I think I am not heard I have been above these six weeks a writing a Letter to you cannot do it But he who knowes not what to say His silence cannot well betray It may well be applied to me what Vibbius Crispus vir ingenii jucundi elegantis said to a young man who was troubled for an Exordium for an Oration he had made Nunquid inquit adolescens meliùs dicere vis quà m potes for to be ingenuous I would not write any thing to you nisi perfectum ingenio elaboratum industriâ nihil nisi ex intimo artificio depromptum Yet Cicero who was a great Master of words and of whom I have borrowed the lâ—st recited was troubled as well as I in such occasions me scripto aliquo lacesses saith he to one of his friends Ego enim meliùs respondere scio quâm provocare However my Lord according to the common saying he that is bound paies and I