Chapter CLXXIII: Letter VIII: GRIGNAN, July 26, 1691

I am so astonished at the news of the sudden death of M. de Louvois,[317] that I know not how or where to begin the subject to you. This great minister then, this man of consequence, who held so exalted a situation, whose _le moi_ (_I_), as M. Nicole says, was so extensive; who was the center of so many things, is dead: how many affairs, designs, projects, secrets, interests to unravel, wars begun, intrigues, and noble moves at chess, had he not to make and to conduct! “O God, grant me a little time; I want to give check to the Duke of Savoy, check-mate to the Prince of Orange.” No, no, not a moment, a single moment. Can we reason upon this strange event? indeed we can not; it is in our closet we must reflect upon it. This is the second minister[318] you have seen expire since you have been at Rome: nothing is more different than the manner of their death; but nothing more similar than their fortunes, and the hundred thousand chains which attached them both to the world.

[317] The death of Louvois, as it is well known, has been the
subject of many discussions. It has been said that he was
poisoned. Saint Simon affirms it; and his account charges the
king with this crime. Voltaire says, with reason, that this is
repugnant to every idea that has been formed of the character
of Louis XIV. Of those who felt like him, some said that it was
a revenge of the Duke de Savoy’s; others, that Louvois poisoned
himself. The last opinion deserves to be inquired into. It is
agreed on all sides that he was on the eve of disgrace, that he
expected harsh treatment, that he spoke of death as preferable
to this fall, and that he was a violent and passionate man, whom
no scruple restrained. Under all these circumstances, there is
nothing very improbable in his suicide. But it appears that this
fact was never cleared up; and it is an inconvenience to which
we are easily resigned. It is certain, however, that the king
made no concealment that the event of his death happened very
opportunely to draw him out of difficulties; it is also certain
that the death of this man, who had done so much harm, was a
great loss. The epitaph of Louvois, which appeared at that time,
gave a good idea of the public opinion respecting him:

Ici gît, sous qui tout pliait,
Et qui de tout avait connaissance parfaite;
Louvois que personne n’aimait,
Et que tout le monde regrette.

Here lies one to whom all yielded;
And who knew of all the bent;
Louvois, who sense with power wielded,
Whom no one loved, and all lament.

[318] With M. de Seignelai.

With regard to the great objects which ought to lead you to God, you say you find your religious sentiments shaken by what is passing at Rome and in the conclave. My poor cousin, you are deceived; I have heard that a man of very excellent understanding drew quite a contrary inference from what he saw in that great city; he concluded that the Christian religion must necessarily be all holy and all miraculous to subsist thus, of itself, in the midst of so many disorders and so much profanation. Do then as he did, draw the same inferences, and believe that this very city was formerly washed with the blood of an infinite number of martyrs; that in the first centuries, all the intrigues of the conclave ended in choosing from among the priests him who appeared to have the greatest zeal and strength to endure martyrdom; that there were thirty-seven popes who suffered, one after the other; and that the certainty of their fate had no influence over them to make them fly from or refuse a situation to which death was attached, and a death of the most horrible nature. You have only to read this history to be convinced that a religion, subsisting by a continual miracle, both in its establishment and its duration, can not be an invention of men. Men do not think thus: read St. Augustin in his _Vérité de la Religion_ (Truth of Religion); read Abbadie,[319] very different indeed from that great saint, but not unworthy of being compared with him when he speaks of the Christian religion. Ask the Abbé de Polignac what he thinks of this book. Collect all these ideas and do not judge so hastily: believe that whatever intrigues may take place in the conclave, it is the Holy Ghost that always makes the pope. God works all, he is the sovereign of all, and this is what we ought to think: I have read this sentiment in a good book: “What evil can happen to a man who knows that God does all things, and who loves whatever God does?” And with this, my dear cousin, I take my leave.

[319] Author of a book on the Truth of the Christian Religion. He
was a Protestant.