Page:Sévigné - Letters to her Daughter and Friends, 1869.djvu/23



Rh are. Madame de Fiemies would have retained her there yesterday, but it was understood by the queen's answer that her presence would be dispensed with.

Adieu, my dear cousin ; believe me to be the most faithful friend you have in the world.

May 20, 1667.

I received a letter from you, my dear cousin, when I was in Brittany, in which you talked of our ancestors, the Rabutins, and of the beauty of Bourbilly. But as I had heard from Paris that you were expected there, and as I had hoped myself to arrive much sooner, I deferred writing to you ; and now I find you are not coming at all. You know that nothing is now talked of but war. The whole court is at camp, and the whole camp is at court ; and every place being a desert, I prefer the desert of Livri forest, where I shall pass the summer,

En attendant que nos guerriers Reviennent couverts de lauriers.

There are two lines for you, but I do not know whether I have heard them before, or have just made them. As it is a matter of no great importance, I shall resume the thread of my prose. My heart has been very favorably inclined toward you, since I have seen so many people eager to begin, or rather to revive, a business in which you acquired so much honor during the time you were able to engage in it. It is a sad thing for a man of courage to be confined at home when there are such great doings in Flanders As you feel, no doubt, all that a man of spirit and valor can feel, it is imprudent in me to revive so painful a subject. I hope you