As an evidence of Saint-Evremond’s unimpaired faculties at a great age, the charms of his person attracted the attention of the Duchess of Sandwich, one of the beauties of the English Court, and she became so enamored of him, that a liaison was the result, which lasted until the time of Saint-Evremond’s death.  They were like two young lovers just beginning their career, instead of a youth over eighty years of age, and a maiden who had passed forty.  Such attachments were not uncommon among persons who lived calm, philosophical lives, their very manner of living inspiring tender regard, as was the case of the great affection of the Marquis de Sevigne, who although quite young, and his rank an attraction to the great beauties of the Court, nevertheless aspired to capture the heart of Mademoiselle de l’Enclos, who was over sixty years of age.  What Ninon thought about the matter, appears in her letters on the preceding pages.

Correspondence Between Lord Saint-Evremond and Ninon de L’Enclos When Over Eighty Years of Age

I

Saint-Evremond to Ninon de l’Enclos

Lovers and Gamblers have Something in Common

I have been trying for more than a year to obtain news of you from everybody, but nobody can give me any.  M. de la Bastille tells me that you are in good health, but adds, that if you have no more lovers, you are satisfied to have a greater number of friends.

The falsity of the latter piece of news casts a doubt upon the verity of the former, because you are born to love as long as you live.  Lovers and gamblers have something in common:  Who has loved will love.  If I had been told that you had become devout, I might have believed it, for that would be to pass from a human passion to the love of God, and give occupation to the soul.  But not to love, is a species of void, which can not be consistent with your heart.

Ce repos languissant ne fut jamais un bien;
C’est trouver sans mouvoir l’etat ou l’on n’est rien.

(’Twas never a good this languishing rest;
’Tis to find without search a state far from blest.)

I want to know about your health, your occupations, your inclinations, and let it be in a long enough letter, with moralizing and plenty of affection for your old friend.

The news here is that the Count de Grammont is dead, and it fills me with acute sorrow.

If you know Barbin, ask him why he prints so many things that are not mine, over my name?  I have been guilty of enough folly without assuming the burden of others.  They have made me the author of a diatribe against Pere Bouhours, which I never even imagined.  There is no writer whom I hold in higher esteem.  Our language owes more to him than to any other author.

God grant that the rumor of Count de Grammont’s death be false, and that of your health true.  The Gazette de Hollande says the Count de Lauzun is to be married.  If this were true he would have been summoned to Paris, besides, de Lauzun is a Duke, and the name “Count” does not fit him.