Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/315

Rh 1685, she received a pension from the court. Two years preceding this, she had married M. Dacier, one of the scholars of her father, and son of a protestant gentleman of Languedoc. He had made so great a progress in his studies, and in the esteem of his tutor, that he permitted him to remain with him some years after he dismissed his other pupils, from which time the young Dacier and Mademoiselle le Fevre were inseparable, both in their studies and amusements, and at length conceived the tenderest affection for each other, which forty years living together did not abate.

Whether the large offers and recompences bestowed on converts of rank made any impression on them; whether they accounted the differences not weighty enough to justify a separation; or were led by a sincere regard to truth; they both at the same time declared, that their attachment to literature had diverted their attention from religion, that they were about to sequester themselves from company and books, and would retire for a time into the country, and there sedulously employ themselves in canvassing the arguments of the catholics and reformed. The result of their retired disquisitions, which lasted several weeks, was, a declaration for catholicism; the public profession of which, however, they deferred, till their return to Paris, out of tenderness to their relations, whose concern at their defection they judged would embitter that ceremony.

On their return to Paris in 1686, they began their usual exercises. Terence's Comedies were now began by Madam Dacier. Her critical eye could discover defects in translations which had till then satisfied the public. For four months she applied herself to the work, rising at four in the morning, and then, dissatisfied with her success,