Chapter CXXVII: Letter CXVI: THE ROCKS, Sunday, November 13, 1689

Your letter is not yet arrived; this is always a grief to me; though I have in some degree got the better of the apprehensions I formerly suffered from the delay; it is the whim of the post, and we must endure it; but as I am constantly with you at Grignan, I lose the thread of the conversation; this it is that vexes me. I know not whether you go to the assembly with M. de Grignan, or remain at your château. I am very uneasy about the chevalier’s health, and the effects of the bark, repeated in its usual dose; its heat operating upon that of the chevalier’s blood, brings to my mind an old saying, _When the brave meets the brave, they remain brave_. We hope, therefore, that this brave bark will make the blood remain brave; God grant it may; it is very difficult to subdue.

I have received a long letter from my new friend, the _man-wolf_ Guébriac; I would have sent it to you, as his style, which is very easy, would be agreeable enough, if he did not praise me so extravagantly; in fact, my modesty will not suffer it; he is so astonished to find a woman with a few good qualities and good principles, who in her youth had some charms, that he seems to have passed his life in a whirlwind of passions, among a banditti equally devoid of faith and law, where love reigned alone, despoiled of every kind of virtue; this has given rise to some very pleasant things.

We are reading the History of the Church by M. de Godeau;[255] it is really a very fine work; in what a respectable light does it place religion! we are ready to suffer martyrdom with Abbadie. Every thing has its turn; Corisca is very pretty and very roguish; _altri tempi, altre cure_. Love me always, my dear child, but never weigh other love in the same scale with yours; your heart is of the first order, and no one resembles it.

[255] Antony Godeau, Bishop of Grasse and Vence.