Page:Sévigné - Letters to her Daughter and Friends, 1869.djvu/13



Rh "Letters." And now we will endeavor to sketch the life of this lovely and lovable woman, though the events are in no wise remarkable, and the truest portrait of her character and genius must be sought in her letters.

was born February 5th, 1627, in the ancestral chateau of Bourbilly, between Samur and Epoisses. Her father was Celse-Benigne de Rabutin, Baron of Chantal ; her mother, Marie de Coulanges, was daughter of a Secretary of State, and belonged to a family celebrated for wit, and, generally, remarkable for integrity. The baron was slain during the siege of Rochelle, fighting against the English in their descent on the island of Rhe; and it was thought he was killed by the hand of Cromwell. The little Marie was then but eighteen months old, and soon afterward was, by the death of her mother, left an orphan indeed. The Baroness de Chantal, her grandmother, seemed the person naturally destined to have the guardianship of the child, but that lady was occupied in religious duties (she was afterward a canonized saint, and known as the "Blessed Mother of Chantal," and seems to have deserved the distinction, according to the feeling of those days, as she founded eighty-seven religious houses), and, therefore, permitted her granddaughter to pass into the hands of her mother's relations. She was first taken by her grandfather, M. de Coulanges ; when he died, shortly afterward, the orphan, then about nine years of age, passed into the family of her uncle, Christophe de Coulanges, Abbé de Livry. This was a fortunate event for the young girl. She was brought up and educated with her cousin, Philippe Emanuel de Coulanges, enjoying the advantages of the most intellectual society of the age; her learned uncle was her companion, and encouraged her to cultivate her talents. This last advantage can hardly be estimated now, when feminine education is common and popular; but then the instruction of young ladies was usually limited to the accomplishments of reading, writing, dancing, and embroidery. Marie de Rabutin had the entrée to her uncle's