640 Retrospect of French Literature—History and Biography. 
know, after they have occurred, that they 
are the effects of his immutable will, re- 
solved upon from all eternity, so that being 
thus obliged to submit, they may not 
murmur against Divine Providence. 
““ T was exactly in the situation just 
described, without being prevented how- 
ever, from diverting myself in appearance, 
with my wife, my friends, and more espe- 
cially with my daughter, when on return- 
img one day after “dining abroad with a 
neighbour, my mind still occupied with 
sinister prognostications respecting my 
dear little favourite, I found her in the 
crisis of a virulent fever! Soon after this, 
the small-pox broke out, for which dis- 
ease a physician to whom I had sent ad- 
ministered the proper remedies; but on 
the morning of the fifth day the pustules 
disappeared, and my dear and beloved 
child died on the 10th of May, 1633. 
“In the course of the next forenoon, 
I ordered the last duties to be performed, 
in the choir of my parish-church of 
Thuitsignol, and caused a tombstone to 
be cut, on which I described my. grief: 
it was so great, that from this moment I 
never have enjoyed a single hour of hap- 
iness. I had conceived an idea that my 
child would form the consolation of my 
declining years, and I had begun to as- 
sociate her so completely in “all things 
with myself, that I thought it was bereav- 
ing my daughter of her due, to take plea- 
sure in any event of which she could not 
partake.” 
After this, M. de Campion repaired to 
the army, and proposed in vain to the 
Duke de Longueville, to disband his re- 
ximent; he then served in Picardy, under 
the orders of Marshal de Turenne, and“ 
was taken ill; notwithstanding this, he 
found means to be present at the siege of 
Mouson, where he distinguished himself. 
He also assisted during an engagement 
when the Marechal d’Aumont, having 
obtained the advantage over a Spanish 
general, caned him after he had become 
this prisoner, under pretence that he him- 
self had been “eit in the same manner 
by the enemy! 
Soon after this, the regiment of Lon- 
cueville was sent into winter quarters at 
Rheims, and twenty companies "of it were 
disbanded. In 1654-5, our author re- 
tired from the service to his estate at 
‘Boscferei, at the age of forty-one, having 
been born in 1613. 
We shall finish this article with a quo- 
tation from the conclusion of the valet 
now before us: 
“ After this period, I attended to no- 
@ 
thing except my own affairs, and those ‘of 
my friends, when they were pieased to 
crave my assistance. Notwithstanding 
my efforts to live on good terms with my 
neighbours, I have had some differences 
with them, relative to the quartering of 
troops, and hunting, but without ever 
overstepping the bounds of reason or of 
justice, at the same time conducting my- 
self with firmness in regard to those who 
pretended by their estates, their places, 
or other intrinsic advantages, to affect a 
superiority over me, having always taken 
precedence of such, whether counts or 
burgesses, and insisted that my wife 
should follow my example. In respect 
to gentlemen in general, I have’ ever 
treated them with every imaginable de- 
gree of politeness; for, as I have con- 
sidered none of that rank my superior, so 
I myself would never treat any such as 
my inferiors. 
“The only uneasiness experienced by 
me during my retirement, proceeded 
from the ill health of my wife, and the 
disproportion of my fortune to the num- 
ber of my children. I conld not find in 
my heart, however, to diminish the num- 
ber of our domestics, or to change the 
manner in which we lived ; and the bare 
possibility of being one day reduced in 
point of circumstances, although that 
never has occurred, makes: me pass 
many uneasy hours. 
“On the 2d of November, 1658, I 
was exposed to great danger, by the 
rashness of a servant, who wounded the 
commandant of a troop of cavalry, while 
pillaging the cottage of aneighbour. In 
1659, my wife being once more preg- 
nant, was seized with a pleurisy, and 
was soon after delivered of a daughter: 
both mother and child died upon the 
occasion, and I was so afficted with my 
loss, that my situation became truly pi- 
tiable. Being unable to remain in a 
house that recalled so many losses to my 
memory, I repaired to Conches where f 
resided until the summer of 1660, when 
perceiving that my afflictions were every 
where equally great, I returned to Bose- 
ferei with my children. [I lived there, 
sad and mournful, without any other eon- 
solation than the annual celebration of 
the death of my dearly. beloved spouse, 
at Thuitsignel, and in my chapel of Bosc- 
ferei. Ihave caused two tombs to be 
erected, close to each other, in the choir 
of the parish-church of Thuitsigno], near 
to my own pew, one over the spot where 
reposes the remains of the best, most 
cherished, and most regretted of ee : 
tac. 
