THE ROCKS, Wednesday, November 6, 1675.
What a delightful letter have you written to me, my dear child! What
thanks do I not owe you for employing your hand, your eyes, your head,
your time, in composing so agreeable a volume! I have read it over and
over, and shall read it again with pleasure and attention. I can read
nothing that is more interesting; you satisfy my curiosity in every
thing I wish. I admire your care in giving me such punctual answers.
This makes a conversation perfect, regular, and extremely entertaining.
But I must beg you not to destroy yourself; this fear makes me renounce
the pleasure of having frequently such entertainments. You can not
doubt my generosity in sparing you the fatigue of immoderate writing.
I comprehend with pleasure the high esteem that is paid to M. de
Grignan in Provence, after what I have seen of it. This is a pleasure
you are scarcely sensible of; you are too much accustomed to be loved
and honored in a province where you command. If you saw the horror, the
detestation, the hatred, that the people have here for their governor,
you would feel more than you do the pleasure of being adored every
where. What affronts! what injuries! what menaces! what reproaches! the
very stones fly round him. I do not believe M. de Grignan would accept
this post upon such conditions.
You mention to me the paper you have signed so heroically in favor of
M. de Grignan.[129] You say you had no doubt which way the honorable
sentiments of Cardinal de Retz[130] inclined. I do not say any thing of
mine; it was enough that you could discern what his counsels tended to.
In certain delicate affairs, we do not presume directly to advise, but
we represent the case; the common friends of both do what is proper,
that there may be no jarring opposition in the interest of those they
love. But with a soul so perfectly generous and good as yours, we
consult only ourselves, and act precisely as you have done. Have you
not seen how much you have been admired? Are you not pleased that you
owe to none but yourself so noble a resolution? You would have done
nothing blamable, if you had refused to sign--you would only have
acted like the rest of the world; but by consenting to it, you have
exceeded all the world. In a word, my child, enjoy the beauty of your
own action, and do not think meanly of us for not having prompted you
to it. On a similar occasion, we should perhaps have acted as you have
done, and you would have advised as we did; it is all well, I am very
much pleased that M. de Grignan is so good as to recompense this mark
of your friendship and affection by a greater attention to his affairs.
The prudence you commend him for, is the truest mark of his gratitude
you could have wished.
[129] It appears that Madame de Grignan had entered into a bond
for her husband.
[130] Cardinal de Retz advised her not to sign.