long before his coming he gave David to be king over the people of Israel and that since our Redemption he hath sent from heaven the holy Viall with which he would have our kings sacred By a supernaturall Character to distinguish them from all those that were to be born to obey them The Church militant that is the Image of the Triumphant is govern'd Monarchically by the Popes and we see that the very particular houses must be govern'd by a kind of king too that is the father of the family 'T is as the first spring in society that moves our actions to order and 't is the secret instinct that compells the whole world to submit themselves to kings In vaine the people endeavour to extinguish that light in their souls that guide them to submission it is at last carried in spight of them by this first mover and they are inforced to render their due obedience But neverthelesse those of Paris have had the boldnesse to lift up their hands against the Lord 's Anointed alleaging for a pretence that 't is not the King they aime at but his Favorite as if as a king is the image of God a Favorite was not the image of the Prince But 't is not enough to say an image he is his sonne When he ingenders according to the flesh he begets a Prince when he ingenders according to his dignity he begets a Favorite As man a successor as a king a Creature and if it be true that to Create is more noble then to Generate because Creation is Miraculous we ought to adore a favorite as he is the Miracle of a king were it only then against his Eminence that they take up armes do they think they are Christians when they attempt against the life of a Prince of the Church no Sir they are Apostates they offend the holy Ghost that presides at the promotion of all Cardinals and you need not doubt but that hee I punish their sacriledge with as much rigour as he punish't the murther of the Cardinal of Lorraine whose death however just bled twenty yeares through the throats of foure hundred thousand French But what can they promise themselves by a rebellion that can never succeed and if it should so prosper as to overthrow Monarchy what advantage would they have by it he that now possesses onely a Cloake would not then be master of it They would be authors of a Lamentable desolation which their nephew's sonnes would never see the end of besides t' were very strange if they should think or perswade themselves that Christendome could see the destruction of the Eldest sonne of the Church without interessing her selfe for him All the Monarches of Christendome are they not concern'd for their conservation of that king that can settle them againe in their Thrones if their rebellious subjects should one day throw them down And suppose that this revolution could be brought about without a greater destruction then that which Holland yet bleeds for I 'le maintaine that a popular Government is the worst scourge that God afflicts a State withall when he would punish it Is it not contrary to the order of Nature that a Boatman or a Porter should have power to condemne the generall of an Army and that the life of the greatest person should be at the disposall of the meanest fool that in all haste will put him to death But God be thanked we are farre enough off from such a Confusion Those that name the Cardinall without adding his Title my Lord already hide themselves and every one begins to believe that'tis a hard matter to speak like a rascall and not to be one And if the whole Kingdome were in league against him I should be confident of his victory for 't is the fate of the Julies to overcome the Gaules I hope then that we shall suddenly see a generall reconcilement in the minds of men a perfect harmony amongst the divers members of the body of this State Monsieur de Beaufort being animated but with French blood 't is not credible but that blood will stay him from dying his sword in the breast of his mother like little Rivers after having straied some time reunite themselves to the Ocean whence they first came I doe not doubt but that this illustruous Blood will incorporate again suddainly with his spring-head that is the King for the other Commanders I cannot have so ill a thought of them as to believe that they 'l refuse to follow the steps of so heroick an example me-thinks I see them already bow with respect before the Image of the Prince Reflecting what favour the chief of their Families have received from precedent Kings they are too just to be against it That the fortune of another Family should likewise in his turn have a favourable aspect Monsieur the Coadjutor knowes well that the Duke of Rets his grand-father was Favourit to Henry the third Monsieur de Brissac may have read that his grandfather was raised to great offices and dignities by Henry the fourth Monsieur de Luynes hath seen his father have the greatest power over the heart and fortune of King Lewis the thirteenth And Monsieur de la Houdancourt yet remembers the time perhaps that he was in favour under the same favourit of the King deceased They have no cause then to complain that my Lord the Cardinall should now sway 't is no more then their Ancestors or themselves at another time have done But if all these considerations should prove too weak to bring them to their dutyes they are noble and the apprehension of appearing ungratefull for the benefits they have received from his Majesty will make them desire to forget these discontents rather then to appear unthankfull And the example of a thousand traitors that have returned injuries to the Court for her favours will have no power over them that know too well that ingratitude is the vice of a rascall of which the Nobles are uncapable It onely belongs to the Poets of the Pont-neuf such as Scarron to vomit foam upon the purple of Kings and Cardinalls and to lay out the liberalities that he continually receives from the Court in paper that he fills with Libels against him After having brag'd that he had received a thousand Francs of his Pension from the Queen he had the impudence to say that if a thousand more were not sent him 't was not in his power to forbear another Satyre that strove with him to come to light and conjured his friends to give speedy notice of it because he could not possibly keep it any longer Well was ever such an example of impudent ingratitude fees in any age Ah! Sir this was without doubt the reason that God who foresaw the number and the greatnesse of his sins to punish him sufficiently was fain to be twenty years before-hand with him and by a continuall death chastize those crimes that were not yet committed but
But besides all this when we find sometimes the cloak upon his shoulders he adopts it his own and protests that he never lodged in his memory any fancy but his own but that may well enough be his writings being the Hospitall where he receives mine Now if you should ask me the definition of this man I would answer you That he is an Eccho that hath purged himself of a short breath and that would have been dumb if I had never spoke I for my part am an unfortunate father that lament the losse of my children 'T is true he is very generous of his wealth for 't is more mine then his own and 't is true too that if they were on fire I should in throwing water on them save nothing but mine own Therefore I retract all that I have reproch'd him with And indeed of what fault can I accuse an innocent that hath done nothing and although he hath err'd he hath done it but after me I no longer accuse him then we are two good friends and I have alwaies been so concern'd for him that he never yet was imployed in any thing but that I did it to his hand his works were my onely thoughts and when I was a studying I thought of what he was to write Rest assured then I beseech you that all that I before seemed to upbraid him with was onely to perswade him to spare his ridiculous comparisons of our fathers for that is not the way to arrive to what he aspires to be an incomparable Author seeing that 't is a signe his Bias is strong to theeving to filch for raggs and to have no better flowers of eloquence then some even as's so that 's or such like How now is not the thunder in the middle region of the aire far enough from his reach nor the torrents of Thrace rapid enough to hinder his diverting them into this Kingdom by force to marry them to his comparisons I cannot find the drift of this filcher unlesse it be that this Flegmatique endeavours to make of his aquatique fancies torrents for feare they should become corrupt or that he would warme his cold conceits with the fire of lightning and thunder but since in spight of what I can say to him hee 'l not be able to overcome the Tyrannicall malignity of his Planet and since this theevish inclination hath so great an Empire over him let him gleane at least on the good Autors for what booty doth he pretend to find in so miserable a one as I am hee 'l loade himselfe with triflles neverthelesse he consumes whole nights and dayes in stripping me from head to foot and this is so true that I will show you in all his Letters the beginnings and endings of Mine I am SIR Your servant 25. Against a great man AT last I have seen thee mighty man My eyes have perform'd great journeyes upon you and that day that you corporally rouled to me I had the leasure to run through your hemisphear or to speak more truly to discover some parts and Cantons of it But my eyes being not the universall ones of the world permit me to give your picture to Posterity who will one day be glad to know how you were fashion'd They must know then in the first place that nature who placed you a head upon your breast would give you no neck purposely thereby to take it from the malignity of your Horoscope That your soul is so big that it would very well serve one a little slender for a body that you have that which in men they call Face so much below your shoulders and those that are called shoulders so high above your face that you resemble a St. Dennis carrying his head in his hands yet I tell but halfe of what I see for if I carry my eyes a little lower to your gorbelly I imagine I see in Timbo the faithfull in Abrahams bosome Saint Ursula that Carries the 11 Thousand virgins in her apron or the Trojan Nag stuffe with forty thousand men but I am deceived you are something that is bigger I have more reason to believe that you are a wenne in the intrails of Nature and twin to the earth why you never open your mouth but you put us in mind of the fable of Phaeton where the globe of the earth speaks the globe of the earth I say and if the earth be an animal you being as round and as big as she I 'le maintaine that you are her Male and that she safely was delivered of America which you made her big withall well what think you Is the Picture like for the first touch By the description of your sphere of flesh all whose members are so round that each of them make a Circle and by the universall roundnesse of your thick Masse have I not toldour Nepheus that you were not a Chouse since you go roundly to worke Could I better convince of falsehood those that threats you with Poverty then by making it appeare to them that you 'l rowle continually And in fine was it possible more intelligibly to demonstrate that you are a Miracle since the good case you are in makes your spectator take you for a lumpe of Veale that struts about upon its lardons I believe you 'l object that a bowle a Globe nor a peece of flesh are no writers and that your faire Sydon hath made you Triumph upon the Theaters of Venice but between you and I you know where the businesse lies every body in Italy knowes that this tragedy is Aesopes Crow that you knew it by heart before you invented it for 't is taken from Guarini's Aminte et Pastor fide from Cavalier Marin and a hundred others one may call it the Piece of Pieces and you not onely a Bowle a Globe and a lumpe of flesh but likewise a looking glasse that takes all that is set before it but that you represent the Language but ill Confesse then and I 'le not speak on 't but I 'le excuse you and tell the world that your Queen of Carthage must needs be a body composed of all natures being of Africa whence comes all the Monsters I 'le add besides that that piece took so well with all the Nobles of that republique that they like the actors play'd with it some Block head perhaps by reason of the barrennesse of wit in it will conclude that you thought of nothing when you made it But all the learned know that to avoid obscurity you have placed the good things in it very thin to make them the more clear and what if they had proved that from the nettle to the fire tree that is from Tasso to Corneille all the Poets have brought forth your Child they could inferre nothing from it but that an ordinary soul being not big enough to quicken your great Masse from one end to another you were animated with that of the world and that is now the cause that you imagine
with the braine of all men but they are farre enough from granting that you imagine They maintaine that 't is not possible that you can so much as speake or if you do 't is as did heretofore the Sibill's grot that spoke without knowing it but although the fumes that come from your Mouth your bung I would say are as capable to intoxicate as were those that were exhaled from that grot I see nothing in it that is Propheticall that makes me think that you are at most but the seaven sleepers den that snore through your mouth But good gods what i' st that I see you seeme more swel'd now then ordinary Is it anger then that doth it Already your legs and your head is so united by their extention to the Circumference of your Globe that you are now but a bundle you fancy perhaps that I jeast in truth you guesse right and the miracle is not great that a bowle should hit the Mark. I can besides assure you that if a basting could be sent in writing you would read my letter with your shoulders and do not wonder at my proceeding for your vast Extent makes me so really believe you the earth that I would willingly plant some timber upon you to see how it could beare Do you think then because a man can fully beate you in 24 houres and that he cannot in a day Chine but one of your Omoplates I will trust to the Hangman for your death No no I my self will be your Parque and there had already been an end of you if I were well delivered from the splene to cure which the Physitians have ordered me four or five takings of your Impertinencies But as soon as I am become banquerout of pleasure and that I am weary of laughing rest assured that I will make you no longer count your self amongst those things that live Adieu 't is done I would have ended my Letter as I use to do but you would not for all that have believed that I was your thrice humble obedient and affectionate therefore great bursten-gut Servant to the Bedstraw 24. Against Scarron SIR YOu demand of me my judgment of this Fox to whom those grapes seem too green that he cannot reach I am of opinion that as one arives to the knowledge of a cause by its effects so to know the strength of this mans wit or his weaknesses we need onely cast an eye on his productions But I am out to say productions for he never could do otherwise then destroy witnesse the god of the Roman Poets whom at this time he makes rave I 'le confesse to you then concerning that in which you demand my opinion that I never saw a ridiculous thing more serious nor a serious more ridiculous then his The people approve of him by that you may conclude 'T is not but that I esteem his judgment however in having chose to write a mock-style for to write as he doth is to mock the world his companions may if they please to heighten his glory say That he treads in a path wherein none hath gone before him that he hath had no guide I grant it But let them lay their hands upon their consciences say true is it not easier to make Virgiis Aeneids like Scarron then to make Scarrots Aeneids like Virgil For my part when I see him to prophane Apollo's holy art me-thinks I hear an angry frog croak at the foot of Parnassus You 'l say perhaps that I use this Author something ill to reduce him to the Insects but since you oblige me to draw his picture to do it I cannot proceed otherwise having never seen him then to follow that Idea which I have received of him from all his friends There is not one but confesses that he hath left off being man without dying and is nothing else but form But by what shall we know him he goes contrary to the common opinion and he is arrived to this point of bestiality to banish points of wit and fancy from compositions when reading he unfortunately lights upon one to see the horrour he is surprised with one would think that his eyes are lighted upon a Basilisk or that he hath trode upon an Aspe If the earth had never known other points then the pricks of Thistles Nature hath so form'd him that he would not have dislik'd them for between you and I when he seems to be sensible that a point pricks him I cannot but believe that he doth it to perswade us that he is not insensible But whether he be so or no I 'de let him alone if he did not erect Trophies to stupidity support them by his example How this good Gentleman would have one write nothing but what one hath made as if we now spoke French onely because heretofore they spoke Latine or were not reasonable till we are moulded We are then much obliged to Nature for not making him the first man for without doubt he would never have spoke if he had heard braying first 'T is true to make his conceits understood he makes use of a kind of Idiotisme that makes the world wonder how the twenty four Letters of the Alphabet can meet in so many fashions and say nothing After this you 'l ask me what judgment I make of this man that saying nothing speaks continually Alas Sir none at all unlesse it be that his disease must needs be well rooted in him that 't is not yet cured although he hath fluxed at the mouth above fifteen years But concerning his infirmity 't is believed as a miracle of this holy man that he had no wit till he was brain-sick that had she not troubled the oeconomy of his temperature he was cut out for a great fool and that nothing can blot out his name which he hath plaister'd on the front of memory since Mercury and Larchet could not do it Those that jeer him add that he lives by dying because that the Neapolitan drogme which hath cost him dear and raised him to preferment in the number of Authors he sells every day to the Stationers But let them say what they will he 'l never dye with hunger for provided his chair be not defective I am very confident he 'l rub out well enough till death if he had as well secured his Poems against the fury of oblivion they would not be in danger as they are to be inhumed in blew paper nor is there any likelyhood that that paltry-style and those tales of Robin Hocd will eternize Scarron so many daies as the history of Aeneas hath done Virgil Me-thinks he 'd do a great deal better to get an Order from the Court commanding all fish-wives to speak the same Gibberish lest introducing new â—rebus's instead of the old ones before four months be at an end one be doubtfull in what language he hath write But alas in this earthly habitation who can promise himself eternity in mens good opinions when it
have been thought the most perfidious of Nations and not comprehend him in the Treaty since he attempted onely upon our word and promise to set the Crown upon his Families head But this is the last and greatest shock by which they pretend to obscure the brightnesse of his glory He is say they author of the Siege of Paris I answer them in the first place That it was his duty to give such advice the Queen Regent having had notice of many plots that were contriving against the person of the King Neverthelesse the very common report is satisfied that he was not the first that gave his voice for this enterprise and contrariwise he hath been ever blamed to have been too much inclined to clemency Besides why must it needs be that he alone gave order for the carrying away of our young Prince Those that understand any thing know that he is not alone in the Councill and that he doth but give his opinion like others He is far then from being the onely author of this designe he would not suffer things to be put in execution that without doubt would have hastened the reduction of this City because they appeared to his nature a little too cruell And if the Parisians ask me what those things were I 'le make them understand that with a great deal of justice he might have punished with death the prisoners of war as traitors and rebells to their King He could besides in one night if he had pleased by the intelligence that he had from within have caused the Suburbs that were but poorly guarded to have been plunder'd and burnt have drove those that fled into the City to starve it or put them all to the sword after the example of Henry the fourth that made half the women of Paris widowes in one day and by taking this blood have abated the feavour of the Inhabitants But instead of these acts of hostility he forbids the beating down of those Mills that were about the City although he knew that by their means they continually received great quantity of corn And although he had notice of all the marches of their Souldiers he often made the royal Troops steer another course then that of our Convoyes that they might not be obliged to famish and beat us at the same time He hath besieged Paris then but in what manner like one that was afraid to take it like a good father to his children He was content to show them the rods and threatned them a great while that they might have leasure to repent And to speak freely their disease being an effect of their debauches it was the duty of a good Physitian to make them observe a dyet In truth if I might dispense with a little sport in a matter of this importance I would say that our King seeing so many Kings on Twelfth Eve come by night into his Capitoll he went out against them and would adventure to conquer fifty thousand Monarchs These I think are all the aspersions by which this rascality have endeavoured to render odious the person of his Eminence without ever having had any one lawfull cause to complain of him Neverthelesse they forbear not to cry down his most eminent vertues to blame his administration and prefer to him his Predecessor but by what reason I know not if it be not perhaps that Cardinall Mazarin sends none out of the world privately and without cause because he hath not a Court fat with the blood of people because he takes not off the heads of Counts Mareschalls and of Dukes and Peers of France because he keeps not the Prince from the knowledge of businesses because he is not a vindicative man infine because they see him so mild that the very attempters against him foresee their pardon this is the reason why these factious Persons do not esteem him a great Polititian O! stupid vulgar a Benigne Minister displeases thee take heed the Misfortune of the Birds in the fable befalls you not who having demanded a king was not content to be govern'd by the Dove that Jupiter gave them that ruled mildly but so importund him for an another that he sent them an Eagle that devour'd them all The Cardinall deceased was a great man as well as his successor but having not the boldnesse to decide betwixt the merit of these two eminent persons I 'le be contented to put the world in mind that Cardidall Richelieu had the honour to be Chosen by king Lewis the Thirteenth the most just Monarcle of Europe to be his Minister and Cardinall Mazarin by the Cardinall Richelieu himselfe the greatest head peece of that age They are to blame likewise to alleage that we are under a government where Armes Letters and Piety are contemned I 'le maintaine to the contrary that they never were so well esteem'd of For Armes witnesse Monsieur Gastion and de Ranthau who by their Credit and counsell were made Marshalls of France without speaking of Monsieur the Prince who by the Queens rewards possessest he alone more wealth then some Kings of Europ for Piety father Vincent shall answer to whom she hath committed the charge of judgeing of the consciences abilityes and life of those that pretend to benefices for Letters witnesse the wise choice she hath made of one of the most judicious Philosophers of our time for to instruct Monsieur the kings brother witnesse the learned Naude whom he honours with his Esteeme admitting him to his table and by presents In briefe witnesse that great and Magnificent Bibliotheque built for the publique to which by his meanes and care all the learned of Europe contribute What can we add more Sirs nothing after this unlesse that the Glory of this kingdome cannot rise higher since she is in the hands of his Eminence Do you not think it necessary at last that the People should leave off vexing the patience of their Prince by the wrong they do to his Favorites that they should accept with thankfullnesse the pardon that is offered them which they are not worthy of no Sir they deserve it not for is 't a fault pardonable to rebell against ones King the lively image of God to take armes against him that he hath given us to exercise over our Lives and fortunes the functions of his Almighty power I' st not to accuse his divine majesty of Error to controle the will of the Master he hath chosen us I know it may be objected that the particulars of a Republique are not out of the way of salvation But 't is very true neverthelesse that as God is but one governing all the universe and that as the government of the heavenly kingdome is Monarchicall that on earth ought to be so likewise The holy Scriptures witnesse that God never appointed so much as one popular State and some Rabbins assure us that the sinne of the Angels was to have attempted to put themselves under a Common-wealth Do we not find that
the embraces of a Cook 'T is I that for fear the Lovers should brag of their good fortunes take care to close their eyes before they get to the bed-side 'T is by my art likewise that they fly without feathers that they go without stirring their feet And in fine 't is by me onely that they die without losing their life I spend half the time to repair the lean bodies I give colour to the cheeks and make the Roses and Lillies bud in the face I am two things together very unlike the gods Truchman and the fools Interpreter When I am seen neer hand they know not who I am and they do not begin to know me till they have lost sight of me The Eagle that looks fixedly upon the Sun winks at my presence I know not if any amongst my Ancestours have been counted Lions but in the fields the Cock crowing makes me fly and to speak freely I my self have much a do to explicate what I am Unlesse you 'l fancy what a boy makes his Top do when he whips it I make all the world do so Well Sir this is speaking plain enough and yet I dare lay a wager that you have not found it out But in troth I 'le not expound it to you unlesse you command me for then I 'le ingenuously confesse to you that the word you look after is Sleep and I cannot forbear for I am and will be all my life-time SIR Your very humble Servant 1. Amorous Letters To Madam ******* Madam BEing a person as beautifull as Alcidiane t' was without doubt fit you should have an inaccessible habitation as had that most worthy Lady for since none could approach that Roman's without danger and without the like hazard none can come neere yours I believe that by the magick of your Charmes you have removed since my departure the Province where I have had the honour to see you I mean Madam that she is become a floating Island that the furious wind of my sighs drives backwards and forwards before me when I endeavour to come neere it My very Letters full of submissions and respects for all the Art of the best instructed messengers cannot arrive 't is to no purpose that your praises that they publish makes them fly into all parts they cannot meete with you and I verily believe that if by the Capricio of fortune or of fame that often times take the charge of that which addresses it self to you one of them should fall from heaven down your Chimney ' t would be capable to make your Castle vanish For my part Madam after adventures so surprizing I doubt not any longer but your County hath changed climate with the Country that was its antipode and I am afraid that looking for it in the Map I shall find in its place as we find in the extreamities of the North This is a land that the Ice keeps from approaches Ah! Madam the Sun whom you resemble to whom the order of the universe allowes no rest was pleased to stand still in the heavens to give light to a victory which little concern'd him Stay Madam and be witnesse to one of the greatest of yours for I protest provided you cause not any more to vanish the inchanted Palace where I every day speak to you in Imagination that my converse dumb and discreet will never offer any thing to your Eares but vowes homages and adorations you know well that my Letters containe nothing that can be suspect why then do you hinder the conversation of a thing that never spoke if I may have leave to declare my doubts I believe you deny me the sight of you that you may not communicate a Miracle above once to a prophane person yet you know that to convert an unbeliever as I am that 's a quality you have formerly tax'd me with requires that I should see it more then once Give accesse then to testimonies of veneration that I intend to pay to you You know that the Gods receive favourably the incense we burne to them heere below and that their glory would be imperfect if they were not adorad do not then refuse to be so for if all their attributes be adorable since you eminently possesse the two principall ones the Wisdome and the Beauty you 'd make me commit a crime if you should hinder me from worshipping the divine Character that the Gods have imprinted in your person I especially that am and will be all my life Madam Your most humble and passionate servant 2. Letter Madam THe fire that you consume me with hath so little smoak that I defie the severest Capuchin to black his conscience and his humour with it that Celestiall heat for which St. Xavier was so often like to burst his doublet was not more pure then mine since I love you as he loved God without having seen you 't is true indeed that the person that named you to me made so perfect a draft of your Charmes that whilst he was about his Master-peece I could not believe that he drew you but that he brought you forth t' was upon his security that I articled to surrender My Letter is the hostage use it courteously I pray you and give it some quarter for if the lawes of warre did not oblige you to it the Prize is not so inconsiderable that the Conquerour need blush to owne it I do not deny but that the powerfull darts of your eyes made me lay down my armes compell'd me to beg my life of you but in truth I think I have much contributed to your victory I fought as one that had a mind to be overcome I turned alwayes the weakest places to your assaults and whilst I incouraged my reason to the victory in my soul I vowed its overthrow I against my selfe I assisted you strongly and if the repentance of so temerare a designe made me weepe I perswade my selfe that you drew those teares from my heart to make it more combustible having taken away the water from a house you had a designe to fire and I was confirmed in this opinion when I considered that the heart was a place contrary to others that one could not keep without burning it You do not believe perhaps that I am serious I am intruth and I protest to you if I do not see you quickly that the Bille and Love will roast me in such a manner that I shall leave the grave-wormes the hopes but of a leane Breakfast what you laugh at it No no I do not jeast and I fore-see by so many sonnets Madrigalls and Elegies that you have received from me that knowes not what belongs to Poetry that Love designes me a voyage to the kindome of the gods since he hath taught me the language of the Country however if some pitty moves you to deferre my death send me word that you permit me to come and offer to you my servitude for if you do not and that quickly you 'l
much ashamed to have a Salamander for your lover and be troubled to see burn in this world Madam Your Servant 6. Letter Madam I Have received your magnificent Bracelets that seemed to me very proud to wear your characters You need not fear after this that a prisoner held by the arms and by the heart can make an escape from you I confesse I should have suspected your present because that there alwaies goes hair and characters into the making up of charms But you having so many more noble waies of killing 't is not likely I should suspect you of witchcraft besides I should be to blame to withdraw my self from the secrets of your Magick it being not possible for me to escape my Horoscope that is agreed with you of my sad dysaster Add to these considerations that 't will be much more for her advantage if it comes by some supernaturall means and if it be caused by a miracle I believe Madam you think all this is jeasting well then let us be serious tell me in your conscience do you not think that you have gained a heart at a cheap rate since it cost you but half a dozen blowes By my faith if you find any more at that price I would advise you to take them for haires will sooner grow again in the head then hearts in the breasts But did you not cunningly choose to make me a present of hair to explain to me in Hierogliphick the insensibility of your heart No I esteem you more generous But how ill soever you intend I so confound in my joy every thing that comes from you that the hands that strike me or stroak me are alike welcom provided they be yours and the Letter that I send to you is a proof of it since it is onely to give you thanks for tying my arms for drawing me by the hair and by all this violence for having made me Madam Your Servant 7. Another Letter Madam I Do not onely complain of the mischief that your fair eyes have been pleased to do me but likewise of a more cruell torment that I suffer by their absence You lest in my heart when I took my leave of you a tyrant that under pretence of being your Idea takes upon her a power over me of life and death nay she enhaunses tyrannically upon your authority and goes to this excesse of inhumanity to tear open those wounds that you had closed up and to make new ones in those old ones that she knowes cannot heal Let me know I beseech you when that Astre that was eclipsed onely for my sake will come and dissipate the clouds of my afflictions Have you not enough to exercise that constancy to which you promised victory Did you not swear to me when you took your last journey that all my faults were wiped out that you would forget them for ever but me never O sweet hopes that are vanished with the aire that framed them Hardly had you ended these deceitfull words shed some perfidious tears and sent forth artificiall sighs with which your mouth and your eyes belyed your heart but fortifying some cruelty that yet lay hid in you you doubled your kindnesses that you might eternize in my memory the cruell remembrance of your favours which I had lost But you went further you fled from those places where the sight of me would perhaps have been capable to have moved your pitty and absented your selfe from me in my sufferings as the Kings that abandon those places where criminalls are punished for fear of being importuned for a pardon But to what purpose so many precautions Madam you know too well the power of your wounds to be afraid of their cure The Physick that hath spoke of all maladies hath said nothing of that which destroyes me because she spoke of them as being able to deal with them but that which the love of you hath begot in me is incurable for how is it possible to live when one hath given away ones heart which is the cause of life Return it me then or send me yours in the place of my own otherwise in the condition I now am to end my life by a bloody and cruell death you 'l add to the conquest of your eyes too sad a destiny if the Victim that I immolate to you be found without a heart I conjure you then once more since you need not have two hearts to live to send me yours that offering to you a compleat sacrifice she may make both your love and your fortune propitious to you and hinder me from making an ill end although I should tell you improperly at the bottom of my Letter that I am and ever will be even in the other world Madam Your faithfull Slave 8. Letter Madam YOu complain that you discovered my passion from the very first moment that fortune obliged me with the sight of you But you to whom your glasse when he shewes you your image tells that the Sun hath all his light and ardour the very first instant that he appears What reason have you to complain of a thing that neither you nor I could hinder 'T is as essentiall to the splendour of the rayes of your beauty to illuminate bodies as 't is naturall to mine to reflect towards you that light which you bestow upon me And as it is in the power of your consuming looks to kindle a disposed matter so is it in that of my heart to be consumed by it Do not complain then Madam unjustly of this admirable concatenation by which Nature hath joyned by a common society the effects to their causes This unexpected foresight is a continuance of the order that composes the harmony of the Universe and 't was a necessity known at the birth day of the creation of the world that I should see you know you and love you But there being no cause but tends to some end the very time that we are to unite our selves is now come 'T were in vain for you and I to attempt against our destinies But admire the course of this predestination 't was a fishing that I met you the lines that you looking upon me cast did they not declare to you my being taken And although I had scap'd your lines could I have saved my self from the baits hung at the lines of that fair Letter that you did me the honour to send me some daies after every obliging word of which was composed of divers characters onely to charm me and I received it with such respects as I would expresse by saying that I adored it if I were capable of adoring any thing besides your self At leastwise I gave it many tender kisses and laying my lips to your dear Letter I fancyed that I kissed your excellent wit that framed it My eyes took a pleasure in often passing over those characters that your pen had made and grown insolent by their good fortune they attracted my whole soul to them and by fixed looks stuck there to unite it self with those draughts of yours Could you have thought Madam that with one sheet of paper I could have made so great a fire 't will never go out though till my dayes are extinguish'd for if my soul and my passion parts themselves in two sighs at my death that of my love will go out last I 'le conjure la Gonie the faithfullest of my friends to repeat to me that beloved Letter and when he shall be come to the end of it where you humble your self so much as to say that you are my servant I 'le cry out till death Ah! that cannot possibly be for I my self have alwaies been Madam Your most faithfull most humble and most obedient Slave De Bergerac FINIS The Errors of the Presse HIr her for him his in the 23 line of the 8 page Had for have in the 25 line of the 9 page Little for brittle and in the 3 line of the 12 page Hir for him in the 17 line of the 14 page Roch for Poch in the 5 line of the 16 page He for she in the 10 line of the 16 page He for she in the 12 line of the 16 page He for she in the 19 line of the 16 page Bottom for fadom in the 2 line of the 17 page For for to in the 11 line of the 18 page Walls for valleyes in the last line of the 18 page Hostesse for Hospitall in the 26 line of the 23 page Mosse for Messe in the 13 line of the 24 page Matter for Muster in the 17 line of the 26 page Set for sat in the 4 line of the 29 page Seemes for Lances in the 4 line of the 29 page To shew his innocency in line 21. page 30. O gods for O good in the 13 line of the 36 page Leave out with in the 5 line of the 39 page They for he in the 8 line of the 47 page Leave out of in the 11 line of the 52 page Tambocineux's for Jambonomeux's in the last line of the 82 page Doe for die in the 6 line of the 84 page Makes for spakes in the 25 line of the 84 page After for often in the 15 line of the 85 page There for them in the 16 line of the 88 page Cushonet for Cushomet in the 28 line of the 88 page Lately for safely in the 27 line of the 91 page Cannot for Can in the 32 line of the 93 page Read for made in the 3 line of the 96 page Truths for troubles in the 27 line of the 98 page No for that the in the 27 line of the 105 page Roost for roof in the 3 line of the 111 page She for he in the 23 line of the 111 page Others for other in the 20 line of the 139 page That a Republick for the particulars of a Republick in the 23 line of the 145 page Read for head in the 17 line of the 157 page