A PIOUS THJ El- 1 . 215 



The subject had reached its climax, and I relented. Years have 

 now rolled over my head, and I am at the head of the establishment. 

 B. is dead his widow ran away with a lubberly young lord, aged 

 eighteen, who was just on the brink of being qualified for college, 

 and I have been three years married to her beautiful and accom- 

 plished niece, whom she generously educated and brought up ; but 

 with such secrecy, not wishing to have any cause of disagreement 

 with Sir Peter or Mr. B., that neither of them were ever aware of 

 her existence,, although she watched over her with truly parental 

 solicitude. 



A PIOUS THIEF. 



FROM UNPUBLISHED RECOLLECTIONS OF LA MARQUISE DE CREQUY. 



" Madame de Marsan, with whom ' je faisais toujoursde petites devotions 

 en parties fines/ came one day to take me to drink the waters of the well of 

 Sainte Genevieve at Nanterre>, during ' la neuvaine' of her fete. There is in 

 my opinion in the devotion of the inhabitants of Paris for Sainte Genevieve 

 something particularly affecting. One would say that she died only yester- 

 day ; and then she was a simple peasant, and was therefore unflattered during 

 her lifetime, or unjustly exalted after her death. There is so much sim- 

 plicity, veracity, and ingenuousness in this chronicle we perceive that there 

 is something so authentic and incontestible hidden beneath this legend! And 

 then that tomb before which the long-haired kings have knelt, and those ve- 

 nerated bones upon which the magistrates, the princes, and people of France 

 have fixed their eyes for fourteen centuries ! in short, all those traditions of 

 our ancient Paris, all those acts of memorable charity, and those miraculous 

 deeds which are registered in prophane history, have this in particular, that 

 they have never been controverted or contested by any sectarian ; and one 

 would say that the humility of St. Genevieve would have disarmed even the 

 enemies of our faith. ' Do not attack me on the subject of the prodigies 

 performed by that bonne fille,' said Voltaire to me in one of his letters, which' 

 I preserve ; ' that of Ardens, for instance, is as clearly demonstrated to me 

 as the death of Tiberius and the brutality of Calvin. I experience a childish 

 emotion whenever St. Genevieve is mentioned. She is my shepherdess my 

 good virgin. Let us say no more on the subject, madame, unless you have 

 sworn to persecute me.' 



" We found the church of Nanterre so crammed that we sent for the sa- 

 cristans to inquire if they could not admit us into the ' enceinte' beside the 

 shrine for the relics. ' Ah, mesdames ! no one is any longer allowed to 

 enter the sanctuary. M. Le Doyen has forbidden us to allow the ladies of 

 the court to approach the relics, and you are of course aware that Mme. de 

 Crequy stole from us last year a bit of the true cross' ' Mme. de Crequy, 

 did you say?' ' Ah, mon Dieu, oui, mesdames. She stole it from the very 

 altar.' I burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, while Mme. de Marsan 

 asked them how they could suppose that the pious thief was Mme. de Crequy. 

 ' It was certainly she, mesdames. She came in a carriage and six, with a red 

 cover ; f her liveries were yellow with red lace, and her tailie was equal to 



* See Monthly Mag. No. XCI., p. 69. 



j- An imperial of crimson velvet, and external mark of the " honneurs dit 

 Louvre." 



