XX11 



letter from Chaulnes 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 coeur pure, qui a 

 la sagesse de I'ctge avance, ait le brilliant de la belle 



Few passed more happy hours in their garden at 

 Baville, than the illustrious Lamoignon, of whom it 

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

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

 plus doux des hommes, quand la veuve et 1'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 twine. 

 And in immortal wreaths, 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 a 



