PRINTED FOR J. WALKER; W. OTRIDGE AND SON; 1811. S. 5.8, LETTERS OF MADAME DE SÉVIGNE, &c. [The Letters with an asterisk before the number LETTER DCXXV. FROM MADAME DE SÉVIGNE TO MADAME DE Grignan. Blois, Thursday, May 9, 1680. I AM determined to write to you every evening, my dear child; I find nothing so agreeable to me as that amusement. I turn, I walk, I take up my book; but let me turn the affair * as I will, I still want something, and I find that to be, pen, ink, and paper. In short, I must chat with my dear child; and though my letter can go neither to-day nor to-morrow, I will, every evening, give you an account of the day's journey. My son left Orleans to-day in the stage, which goes off every day at three o'clock in the morning, and gets into Paris the same night. Till I can get news from Denmark for you, I must return to my account of our journey. We got into the boat at six o'clock, in the finest weather imaginable; I contrived the body of my coach * An expression which M. de la Garde used on all occasions. VOL. VI. B to be placed in such a way, that the sun could not come in; we drew down the glasses, had a charming prospect in front, and the side-windows multiplied our points of view in the most pleasing manner possible. There was nobody but the abbé and myself in this pretty cabinet; we were seated upon soft cushions, quite cool, quite at our ease, and, for every thing else, as snug as a litter of pigs in a farm-yard. We eat warm soups, cooked over a little comfortable fire; in short, we dined in state, like a king and queen. See how the Loire is refined, since the vulgar days, when the heart was on the left side *; by the bye, mine, be it on which side it will, is wholly yours. If you should be curtous to know what I do in this triumphal car where Isail and ride at the same time, without the least fear, I will tell you: I think upon my dear child; I amuse myself with calling to mind the tender affection I have for her, and she has for me; the long tracts of land that separate us; my anxiety for her welfare; and the earnest desire I have to see and embrace her: I think of her affairs, I think of my own, and all this together makes a little of my daughter's humour, in spite of my mother's humour,† which gives new life to every thing about me. I am full of admiration at the goodness of the abbé, who, at the age of seventy years, ventures on a journey by land and water to serve me: after all this, I take a book that poor M. de la Rochefoucault made us purchase, entitled, The Recovery of Portugal (la Reunion du Portugal), which is a translation from the Italian, and admirable, both in point of history and style. It represents Sebastian, king of Portugal, as a young and brave prince, who rushes head * See Moliere's Medecin malgré Lui. + Expressions by which the mother and daughter designated particular walks and views at Livri, or at the Rocks, |