xxu 



letter from Chan hies says ; " I was walking alone the 

 other day, in these beautiful alleys." And in a subse- 

 quent one she says : " It is a pity to be obliged to 

 quit so beautiful and so charming a place." Her fre- 

 quent mention in her letters of my pretty walks at the 

 Rocks, sufficiently paints her delight in her own gar- 

 den. In compliment to this lady, I cannot help ap- 

 plying to her the exact words which Petrarch applies 

 to Laura : une haute intelligence, un cceur pure, qui a 

 la sagesse de Vage avance, ait le brilliant de la belle 

 jeunesse. 



Few passed more happy hours in their garden at 

 Baville, than the illustrious Lamoignon, of whom it 

 was said, that " Son arae egaloit son genie ; simple 

 dans ses mceurs, austere dans sa conduite, il etoit le 

 plus doux des hommes, quand la veuve et l'orphein 

 etoient a ses pieds, Boileau, Racine, Bourdaloue, Ra- 

 pin, composoit sa petite cour,"— and whom Rapin in- 

 vokes, not only in his poem on gardens, 



My flowers aspiring round your brows shall (nine, 

 And in immortal ivrcaths, shall all their beauties join ; 



but in his letters, preserved with those of Rabutin de 

 Bussy, he paints in high terms the name of Lamoig- 

 non, and frequently dwells on his retreat at Baville. 

 Mons. Rab. de Bussy, in a letter to Rapin, says : 

 " Que Je vous trouve heureux d avoir deux mois a 

 passer a Baville, avec Mons. le presidant ! II est ad- 

 mirable a Paris ; mais il est aimable a sa maison de 

 campagne, et vous savez qu'on a plus de plaisir ;« 



