you for innocence and repose. Ah, God! But for you, would she ever have
been reduced to so humiliating a request? I reproach you with nothing;
I feel too strongly, myself, how difficult it is to resist an imperious
sentiment. A complaint is not a reproach. Do, out of generosity, what I
do from duty; and to all the sentiments which you have inspired in me,
I will add that of eternal gratitude. Adieu, Monsieur, adieu.
At the Château de ..., 27th September, 17**.
END OF VOLUME THE FIRST
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A pupil at the same convent.
[2] The portress of the convent.
[3] The words _roué_ and _rouerie_, which are now happily falling into
disuse in good society, were much in vogue at the time when these
Letters were written.
[4] To understand this passage, it must be mentioned that the Comte
de Gercourt had deserted the Marquise de Merteuil for the Intendante
de ***, who had sacrificed for him the Vicomte de Valmont, and it was
then that the Marquise and the Vicomte formed an attachment. As this
adventure is long anterior to the events which are in question in these
Letters, it seemed right to suppress all that correspondence.
[5] La Fontaine.
[6] One sees here the deplorable taste for puns, which was becoming the
fashion, and which has since made so much progress.
[7] Not to abuse the Reader’s patience, many of the letters in this
correspondence, from day to day, have been suppressed; only those have
been given which have been found necessary for the elucidation of
events. For the same reason all the replies of Sophie Carnay and many
letters of the other actors in these adventures have been omitted.
[8] The error, into which Madame de Volanges falls, shows us that, like
other criminals, Valmont did not betray his accomplices.
[9] An ingenious but very gallant romance by Monsieur de Crébillon
_fils_. _Translator’s Note._
[10] This is the same gentleman who is mentioned in the letters of
Madame de Merteuil.
[11] The letter in which this _soirée_ is spoken of has not been found.
There seems reason to believe it is that suggested in the note of
Madame de Merteuil, which is also mentioned in the preceding letter of
Cécile Volanges.
[12] Madame de Tourvel then does not dare to say that it was by her
order!
[13] We continue to omit the letters of Cécile Volanges and of the
Chevalier Danceny, these being of little interest and containing no
incidents.
[14] See Letter the Thirty-Fifth.
[15] Piron, _Métromanie_.
[16] Those who have not had occasion sometimes to feel the value of a
word, an expression, consecrated by love will find no meaning in this
sentence.
[17] This letter has not been recovered.
[18] The reader must have guessed already, by the conduct of Madame de
Merteuil, how little respect she had for religion. This passage would
have been suppressed, only it was thought that, whilst showing results,
one ought not to neglect to make the causes known.
[19] We believe it was Rousseau in _Émile_: but the quotation is not
exact, and the application which Valmont makes of it entirely false;
and then, had Madame de Tourvel read _Émile_?
[20] We have suppressed the letter of Cécile Volanges to the Marquise,
as it contained merely the same facts as the preceding letter, but with
less detail. That to the Chevalier Danceny has not been recovered: the
reason of this will appear in letter the sixty-third, from Madame de
Merteuil to the Vicomte.
[21] Gresset: _Le Méchant._
[22] M. Danceny does not confess the truth. He had already given
his confidence to M. de Valmont before this event. See letter the
fifty-seventh.
[23] This expression refers to a passage in a poem by M. de Voltaire.
[24] Racine: _Britannicus_.
“In just such plain array,
As beauty wears when fresh from slumber’s sway.”
[25] Mademoiselle de Volanges having shortly afterwards changed her
confidant, as will appear in the subsequent letters, this collection
will include no more of those which she continued to write to her
friend at the convent: they would teach the Reader nothing that he did
not know.
[26] This letter has not been recovered.
[27] We are unaware whether this line, “_These tyrants dragged from
off their thrones and made my slaves_,” as well as that which occurs
above, “_Her arms are open still; her heart is shut_,” are quotations
from little-known works, or part of the prose of Madame de Merteuil.
What would lead us to believe the latter is the number of faults of
this nature which are found in all the letters of this correspondence.
Those of the Chevalier Danceny form the only exception: perhaps, as he
sometimes occupied himself with poetry, his more practised ear rendered
it easier for him to avoid this fault.
[28] It will appear, in letter the hundred and fifty-second, not what
M. de Valmont’s secret was, but more or less of what nature it was; and
the Reader will see that we have not been able to enlighten him further
on the subject.
[29] See letter the seventieth.
[30] Some persons may not, perhaps, be aware that a medley
(_macédoine_) is a succession of sundry different games of chance,
amongst which each player has a right to choose when it is his turn to
deal. It is one of the inventions of the century.
[31] The commanding-officer of the regiment to which Prévan belonged.
Corrections
The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.
p. 71
At the Château of ..., 22nd August, 17**.
At the Château de ..., 22nd August, 17**.
p. 298
interest will suceed to these violent agitations:
interest will succeed to these violent agitations: