THE ROCKS, Sunday, November 13, 1689.
Your letter is not yet arrived; this is always a grief to me; though
I have in some degree got the better of the apprehensions I formerly
suffered from the delay; it is the whim of the post, and we must endure
it; but as I am constantly with you at Grignan, I lose the thread of
the conversation; this it is that vexes me. I know not whether you
go to the assembly with M. de Grignan, or remain at your château. I
am very uneasy about the chevalier’s health, and the effects of the
bark, repeated in its usual dose; its heat operating upon that of the
chevalier’s blood, brings to my mind an old saying, _When the brave
meets the brave, they remain brave_. We hope, therefore, that this
brave bark will make the blood remain brave; God grant it may; it is
very difficult to subdue.
I have received a long letter from my new friend, the _man-wolf_
Guébriac; I would have sent it to you, as his style, which is
very easy, would be agreeable enough, if he did not praise me so
extravagantly; in fact, my modesty will not suffer it; he is so
astonished to find a woman with a few good qualities and good
principles, who in her youth had some charms, that he seems to have
passed his life in a whirlwind of passions, among a banditti equally
devoid of faith and law, where love reigned alone, despoiled of every
kind of virtue; this has given rise to some very pleasant things.
We are reading the History of the Church by M. de Godeau;[255] it is
really a very fine work; in what a respectable light does it place
religion! we are ready to suffer martyrdom with Abbadie. Every thing
has its turn; Corisca is very pretty and very roguish; _altri tempi,
altre cure_. Love me always, my dear child, but never weigh other love
in the same scale with yours; your heart is of the first order, and no
one resembles it.
[255] Antony Godeau, Bishop of Grasse and Vence.