“Women have the privilege of being weak,” says Madame de Sevigne, “and they make use of that privilege without scruple.”

Women had never, before the time of Ninon, exercised their rights of weakness to such an unlimited extent.  There was neither honor nor honesty to be found among them.  They were common to every man who attracted their fancy without regard to fidelity to any one in particular.  The seed sown by the infamous Catherine de Medici, the utter depravity of the court of Charles IX, and the profligacy of Henry IV, bore an astonishing supply of bitter fruit.  The love of pleasure had, so to speak, carried every woman off her feet, and there was no limit to their abuses.  Mademoiselle de l’Enclos, while devoting herself to a life of pleasure, followed certain philosophical rules and regulations which removed from the unrestrained freedom of the times the stigma of commonness and conferred something of respectability upon practices that nowadays would be considered horribly immoral, but which then were regarded as nothing uncommon, nay, were legitimate and proper.  The cavaliers cut one another’s throats for the love of God and in the cause of religion, and the women encouraged the arts, sciences, literature, and the drama, by conferring upon talent, wit, genius and merit favors which were deemed conducive as encouragements to the growth of intellect and spirituality.

Ninon was affected by the spirit of the times, and being a woman, it was impossible for her to resist desire when aided by philosophy and force of example.  Her intimacy with de Sevigne grew out of her attempt to teach a young, vigorous, passionate man how to gain the love of a cold-blooded, vain and conceited woman.  Her letters will show the various stages of her desires as she went along vainly struggling to beat something like comprehension into the dull brain of a clod, who could not understand the simplest principle of love, or the smallest point in the female character.  At last she resolved to use an argument that was convincing with the brightest minds with whom she had ever dealt, that is, the power of her own love, and if the Marquis had lived, perhaps he might have become an ornament to society and an honor to his family.

To do this, however, she violated her compact with de Vasse, betrayed his confidence and opened the way for the animadversions of Madame de Sevigne.  At that time de Sevigne was in love with an actress, Mademoiselle Champmele, but desired to withdraw his affections, or rather transfer them to a higher object, a countess, or a princess, as the reader may infer from his mother’s hints in one of her letters to be given hereafter.  To Ninon, therefore, he went for instruction and advice as to the best course to pursue to get rid of one love and on with a new.  Madame de Sevigne and Madame de La Fayette vainly implored him to avoid Ninon as he would the pest.  The more they prayed and entreated, the closer he came to Ninon