Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/82

 66 BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES hand, is it credible that the most joyous of men, a veteran of sixty-seven, after all his various experiences of life, would be broken-hearted because one par- ticular poem failed of success? and, on the other, is it credible that a man perishing in neglect and misery would have access to the king, and to such a king as Louis XIV. had become in 1661? This story is told by Brossette, and only one contempo- rary repeats the tale. The story of Brossette and the story of Boileau are to one another as the two cats of Kilkenny. According to the Chevraana, he passed his last days in a humble hotel of the Rue de Seine. He led there a tranquil and penitent life, far from the agita- tions of earlier times, endeavouring to redeem his old wicked poems by pious verses, which were unfortunately not so good as the others. That last touch is exceed- ingly characteristic. In fact, Saint-Amant was never irreligious. Born a Huguenot, he became a Catholic ; and one of his earliest poems, written in the Belle- Isle days — which is, perhaps, the finest of his serious pieces — "The Contemplator," was addressed to the Bishop of Nantes, Philippe Cospeau, a man of great talent and profound piety, who took extreme interest in the young poet and gave him much excellent advice. We are apt to sneer at the ease with which Continental Roman Catholics conciliate devout faith with im- morality ; yet I think I have heard of Calvinists and Methodists (not to speak of other sectarians amongst us) who managed to unite the loosest rascality in conduct with the strictest orthodoxy in doctrine. For there is a good deal of human nature in man (and certainly not less in woman), whether Catholic