"~* Of the Abhe de S A D E. 155 



" honneur." Mem. pour la Vie de Pet. Preface aux Francois ', &c. 

 And in the following paflages he defcribes this petit manege more 

 particularly : 



(i Laure, qui ne vouloit ni fe donner a lui, ni le perdre, n'eut 

 " pas plutot appergu les nouveaux efforts qu'il faifoit pour brifer 

 " fes fers, qu'elle mit en ufage pour l'y retenir les petites rufes 

 " qui lui avoient jufqu'alors fi bien reuffi : air moins fevere, 

 " regards plus doux, petits mots en pafTant," &c. Mem. vol. ii. 



p. 311. " Laure ne pouvoit fe refoudre a perdre un amant 



*' de cette trempe, qui l'aimoit depuis onze ans, et qui faifoit de 

 " fi beaux vers pour elle : le rencontrant un jour dans les rues 

 " d' Avignon, elle jetta fur lui un de ces regards qui favoient fi 



" bien le ramener." Ibid, p. 383. " Ces petites rufes d'une 



a coquet terie innocent e, que Laure favoit fi bien mettre en 

 " ceuvre, eurent bientot produit letir effet ordinairev' Ibid. 

 p. 386. 



From thefe pafTages we may judge, what idea this Reverend 

 Abbe has formed to himfelf of the character of a refpectable 

 married woman, and the mother of a family ; une fern me tendre 

 etfag£ mt who has the art to keep alive, by all the tricks of a co- 

 quette, the paflions of her gallant for no lefs than twenty-one 

 years ; and all this fans faire la moindre breche a [on honneur. Ob- 

 ferve too, that, for the better part of this period of fafcination, 

 the lady herfelf could owe little of her power to her perfonal 

 charms ; for, if our author's hypothefis be true, and Laura de 

 Noves, the wife of Hugh de Sa.de, was the miftrefs of Pe- 

 trarch, this lady muft have been a grown woman before her 

 marriage in the year 1325 ; fhe had been married three years be- 

 fore Petrarch firft faw her ; fhe bore eleven children in the pe- 

 riod of their acquaintance ; and fhe died when fhe was about 

 forty years of age, with all thefymptoms of an exhaujled conjlitution. 

 Yet all the while, this hackneyed and antiquated coquette, re- 

 gardlefs of the character of a wife and a mother, is praclifmg 



