THE ROCKS, Sunday, December 1, 1675.
Well, my dear, it seems now settled that I am to receive two of your
packets together, and miss one post; you should see the faces I make,
and how I receive it in comparison with those that come regularly. I
am of your opinion, my child, and would give a great deal to be as
easy about answering letters as the coadjutor is, and keep them in my
pocket for a month or two without troubling my head about them. Well,
it is a gift from heaven certainly, this happy indifference! Madame de
Langeron used to say of visits, and I apply it to every thing: “What I
do fatigues me, and what I omit to do vexes me.” I think this is very
well said, and I feel it sensibly. I am always exact, however, in my
answers. It is with pleasure I give you the top of the basket; that
is, you have the very flower of my mind, my head, my eyes, my pen, my
desk--the rest fare as they can. I have as much amusement in chatting
to you, as labor and fatigue in writing to others. I am perfectly
stunned with the great news that abounds in Europe.
I suppose the coadjutor has shown Madame de Fontevraud the letter he
received from you. You are ignorant of its value. You write like an
angel; I read your letters with admiration. You no sooner set out
than you reach the goal. Do you remember the minuet which you danced
so well, and closed in such excellent time, when the other creatures
were not at the end of theirs till the next day? The late madame and
yourself were famous for this; we used to call it _gaining ground_.
Your letters are just the same.
As for your poor little _frater_, I know not where he has hid himself;
it is three weeks now since I had a line from him. He made no mention
of the pretty airing upon the Meuse, though every body believes it
here; his fortune is really very hard, poor lad. I do not see how he
can manage the affair of his promotion, unless Lauzun will take the
guidonage in part of payment, with some other little additions we
will endeavor to raise; but to buy the ensign’s place, and have the
guidonage left upon our hands, will never do. Your reasoning upon the
matter is very just; we all acquiesce in it, and shall be very well
contented to mount after the other two,[131] provided the guidon serves
as the first step.
[131] The Marquis de la Trousse, and the Marquis de la Fare; the
one captain-lieutenant, and the other sub-lieutenant, in the
dauphin’s gens-d’armes.
I shall finish the year here very peaceably. There are times when all
places are indifferent, and a solitude like this not unpleasant. Madame
de la Fayette returns you all your civilities; she has very bad health,
and poor M. de Limoges still worse; he has resigned all his benefices
to the king; I fancy his son, the Abbé de la Fayette, will have one of
his abbeys. Poor Gascony has been as roughly handled as we have been.
We have six thousand troops sent down to pass the winter among us: if
it were not for the misconduct of the provinces, I do not know how
they would be able to dispose of their troops. I can not think peace
is so near: do you remember all our reasoning upon the subject of war,
and how many there must be killed? This is always a certain prophecy,
and so is that, that your letters can never tire me, long as they may
be: ah! you will find no chimera in this hope, they are my choicest
reading. Ripert brings you a third volume of the Moral Essays, which
are worth your perusal. I never met with greater energy than there
is in the style of these writers: they make use of no words but what
are in common use, and yet they appear perfectly new, by the elegant
manner in which they dispose them. In the morning I read the history
of France; in the afternoon, some serious subjects in my woods; such
as the Essays, the Life of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, which I think
delightful, or the Iconoclastes; and in the evening, things of a
lighter nature: this is my constant rule. I hope you continue to read
Josephus; take courage, my dear, and go on boldly to the end. If you
read the history of the Crusades, you will meet with two illustrious
men who were your ancestors, but not a word about the great family of
V***, that holds its head so high at present: but I am persuaded there
are some passages which will make you throw aside the book, and curse
the Jesuit;[132] and yet upon the whole it is an admirable history.
[132] Father Maimbourg, author of the History of the Crusades.
The physician, in the Lettres Persanes, gives as a recipe for the
asthma, to read all the works of this father, stopping only at
each period.