Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A35783
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The amours of the Count de Dunois made English.; Comte de Dunois. English
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Villedieu, Madame de, d. 1683.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing D1187; ESTC R13980
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64,626
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168
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reflexion of her Age or of that decency which would become her I resolved to my self to lay Siege to the Countess her heart and try if I could make her be in Love with me I hoped much from my odd kind of extravagant way with me I easily thought that that would be more proper to get me into her good favours than to go after a formal and starched manner The next day I went again to her House I found her alone I cast some languishing eyes upon her and sometimes I sigh'd A la Francois which pleas'd her infinitely and that day she told me that she was mad that she had any ingagement upon her of obligation to Mounsieur Hippolite and that next to Mounsieur de Bronzoly I was the man in the World for whom she had the greatest inclination Not to leave me any room to question it she gave me her Picture in a Case beset with very rich Diamonds Mounsieur Hippolite just then came into the Room I was not very much pleas'd at it and the Countess was yet less she sadly fell out with him for being come so early but he went no more out all that day The conversation began to grow a little flat and groveling when there came a Page to her from Madam de Raviary to give her service to the Countess She received the civility with a Complement of the like nature but when the Page was gone she told me that although she dwelt in a quarter of Turin where there were the chiefest of the Ladies of Quality yet she was so unhappy as to have them unsociable being persons that had Imaginary Visions that made them forbear either making any Visits themselves or receiving any from others I was a little surprized to hear the Countess begin to talk of the Chimera's and Visions of others having her self of them such extravagant ones but not reckoning upon her own as any thing she told me that the Lady whose Page I had seen would not see any person because it was a very hard matter to have any discourse from them but the word Love would be jugled in at some part or other of the conversation and that word was insupportable to her and if any one desir'd of her the reason she could give no other but that it did not come close enough to the Fancy There is another among us continued the Countess in whose presence it is not permitted to speak of Death She has had heretofore some Friends who have been dead above these twenty years to whom she sends constantly every day to hear how they do because that no body has presum'd to tell her that they are dead But the greatest Rarity of them all went the Countess on is one that lives close by me who sees the Light but two or three times in a year She complains that the Light makes her troubled with the Rheum and she is so afraid of that Distemper that she will not look upon a Book to read in it because she says that in turning over the Leafs of it it causes so sharp a wind that it makes her Eyes fore again with it Few persons can get a sight of her for except some Abbots and two or three of the sowr lookt Fryars all persons are forbid the least access to her I found that these Ladies were very great Fools and withal that they were miserable in having such whimsical and troublesome Imaginations She that could not indure to hear the word Love seem'd to me more unreasonable than any of the rest and I had a great suspition upon me that she had had some slippery trick plaid her but the Countess assur'd me that she never had made any tryal either of the sweetness or bitterness of it but she had always liv'd so severely with her self and with her acquaintance that few Women courted her Friendship because she still did subject them to so great a constraint I pittied much the Lady that was so exceeding fearful of Death because there is nothing so common and sure I pittied her so much the more because only admitting her this frailty she was look'd upon as one that had a strange deal of Wit and Merit As for the dark and obscure Lady I found her so singular that she pleas'd me wonderfully I was extreamly glad Sir of finding any persons in the world of whom I might say without vanity that they were less reasonable than my self and at that time I made Lectures of Wisdom over the folly of others When Night came I would have been going but the Countess desir'd me to tarry a little longer and sup with her I received a thousand assurances of her good will and Mounsieur Hippolite many signs of her aversion which sensibly touched him I was the Innocent cause of it but I did not perceive that he design'd me any mischief for it But on the contrary he went that Evening along with me to the Count de Santiniany's As we walk'd along he made me great protestations of friendship and kindness which yet I did not give much credit to but only so far as duty obliged me to receive them civilly and as I did value my self much upon the honour that I received from Madam the Countess de Bevilaqua he was crastily designing in his head to ruine me by his mischievous Politicks I would fain have waited on him home to his house and had done it but that I perceived the Ceremony would never have been ended We parted both of us being well satisfied Mounsieur de Santiniany commanded me to give an accompt of my Journey but considering that it is dangerous and but little honest to make a Confident of a Person of that Quality I only acquainted him with what I might tell him without a forfeiture of my discretion The History of the three Visionary Ladies was of great succour to me to make him believe that it was the greatest part of our Entertainment He told me a great many more circumstances which I did not give much heed to For although I was not deeply in Love with the Countess yet I did glory much in being beloved by a Woman of that Quality But yet when I began to think how she was in Love with a Dead Man and had Married another even through pity I judg'd and I thought I had a great deal of reason so to do that my good Fortune would not be of a long continuance I received a Letter from her the next Morning by break of day in which she invited me to go and spend a day in the Country with her I was to wait upon her pretty early and was afraid that she had staid for me but I found her so taken up as if she had never thought of her design for the Country I was never so surprized as I was then when I came into her Chamber for I saw there a Woman who was cutting off the Countesses hair with the greatest inhumanity in the world
Princess with he answered him that he was telling of her a very pleasant story which happen'd to him not long since The Duke and the Dutchess desir'd him to begin it again which he did without any kind of Hesitation as Humming and Haughing wringing of the Nose and Spitting and God knows what of that nature which is the usual Ceremony that Ushers in such an Entertainment but with a brisk and confident assurance he thus fram'd his discourse THE HISTORY OF THE Visionary Ladies THe Adventure whereof I will take upon me to be the Heroe will appear to you without doubt very fantastical and so I may assure you that this most infinitely is I parted from Amboise together with the King when he set out for Italy not so much with a design to fight as to make a pleasant Journey of it I remained sick at Turin where I was a long time without ever stirring out of my Chamber The Count de Santiniany was so kind as to visit me in my sickness I had the Honour to be known to him in France where I made it my business to acquaint him with a thousand things that a Person of Quality is glad to hear of in a strange Court When I was perfectly well he would not give me leave to go so soon from Turin and that the stay should not be incommodious to me there he gave me a Lodging in his own House and made me acquainted with all the Court of Savoy where 't is certain that in a short time I was as knowing as in this I accompanied him to a great many Ladies houses of High Quality and Merit where there happen'd to me nothing remarkable but being gone to visit the Countess de Bevilaqua I was surprized to see in her so many extraordinary rare and transcendent Qualities for she had not only a Natural brisk Wit but it was improv'd beyond all things that ever was seen in her Sex and she made a Judgment of all fine things that was the most exquisite in the World all that ever she spake came freely from her and had an admirable Grace with it that pleased infinitely She was extreamly neat and exact in her House and her Cloaths and as for her person though it was a little superannuated yet it had not left off being very agreeable and taking I observed also in her one Beauty that is very rarely seen with so many years it was her Hair whereof she had a most prodigious quantity of the purest Flaxen colour that ever was beheld I look'd upon this Lady with admiration and never thought I had seen any in my life whose Merit was more accomplished I did continue almost two hours in this Opinion and in all probability had done so still if the Count de Santiniany who knew her weakness and had a desire to mind her of the time of the death of one of her Brothers had not said to her that it was a few days either before or after the death of Mounsieur de Bronzoly Ah! Mounsieur cryed the Countess up aloud do you live too in such a grand ignorance to believe that Mounsieur de Bronzoly is dead No no Sir do not you injure the most accomplished of all men to subject him to that rigorous term of life When the Gods to punish Mortals had a mind to deprive the World of that Adorable Person that was the second half of me they placed him in the number of the Demi-gods and as he was all Spirit they did Emancipate him from those severe and binding Laws that Nature laid as a Fine upon all men in general He was taken up to Heaven where he remains ever since that he inhabited no more amongst us This Opinion said she in turning her self towards me may appear to you a little Chymerical Yes thought I to my self and so I may very well and you too for conceiving it but I am convinced of this Truth by Experiences that are not to be contested For the short time that you tarry here I will make you to come over on my side in it To that end said she it is requisite that I send to know if he has not writ to me in a place where sometimes he conveys his Letters for me To conclude she sent one of her Footmen to look for a Letter from her Imaginary Gallant after which she began the conversation without any digression I only perceived a little constraint upon her but she quickly relieved her self from it in dismissing a Gentleman we found with her Mounsieur Hippolite said she to him I pray leave me a moment in liberty cannot you imagine that it is a torment to a body to be continually pester'd with one and the same thing Hippolite went his way and the Countess de Bevilaqua resumed her temper She told us a story of a certain Lady of her Country and promised me to inform me still of divers other things which I ought not to be ignorant of in returning to France desiring me very earnestly to come and see her again I went away with the Count de Santiniany and assured the Countess that I would give my self the Honour of seeing her as often as I thought I should not be troublesome to her When I was in a place where I could be over heard by none but the Count I inquired who this deceased Mounsieur de Branzoly was He told me it was a Man whose Merit and Wit had been so considerable that for all that he was but of an obsure and mean Extraction yet he was extreamly beloved by most of the Ladies of Quality and Condition He was always received with a great deal of satisfaction by all in general but to speak the truth of it said he the Countess had still a more fervent esteem for him than the others She imagined that this man who had a greater share of Wit than of Body ought not to die and submit to that cruel necessity But said I to him is it possible Has she no Friends that are capable to disabuse her of an Errour that is at such a distance from any reason in the World There is none living replied the Count is able to work out of her Imagination that foolish and idle fancy of Bronzoly's Immortality Not long after I desir'd the Count to tell me who and what that Mounsieur Hippolite was He is replied he a man whom the Countess has Espoused by Compassion because his Fortune has been niggardly and done nothing for him This tender pity said I to him methinks is a little diminished for it appears to me that she neither treats him like a Husband nor like a Friend and much less like a man for whom she has the least esteem She loves him never the less replied the Count but she does not forbear chearing up her heart sometimes from this necessary ingagement by some slight kindnesses it being certain that she has an inclination for Love which she cannot overcome either by the