us with cordials, and where one of the ladies told me inoculation was a sin, as it was a voluntary detention from mass, and as voluntary a cause of eating gras.  Our visit concluded in the garden, now grown very venerable, where the young ladies played at little games before us.  After a stay of four hours we took our leave.  I begged the abbess’s blessing; she smiled, and said, she doubted I should not place much faith in it.  She is a comely old gentlewoman, and very proud of having seen Madame de Maintenon.  Well! was not I in the right to wish you with me?—­could you have passed a day more agreeably.

[Footnote 1:  Madame du Deffand, in her letter to Walpole of the 10th of May, 1776, encloses the following portrait of Madame de Cambise, by Madame de la Valliere:—­“Non, non, Madame, je ne ferai point votre portrait:  vous avez une maniere d’etre si noble, si fine, si piquante, si delicate, si seduisante; votre gentilesse et vos graces changent si souvent pour n’en etre que plus aimable, que l’on ne peut saisir aucun de vos traits ni au physique ni au moral.”  She was niece of La Marquise de Boufflers, and, having fled to England at the breaking out of the French Revolution, resided here until her death, which took place at Richmond in January, 1809.]

[Footnote 2:  St. Cyr was a school founded by Mme. de Maintenon for the education of girls of good families who were in reduced circumstances.  Mme. de Maintenon was the daughter of M. D’Aubigne, a writer of fair repute both as a historian and a satirist.  Her first husband had been a M. Paul Scarron, a comic poet of indifferent reputation.  After his death, she was induced, after an artful show of affected reluctance, to become governess to the children of Louis XIV. and Mme. de Montespan.  Louis gave her the small estate of Maintenon, and, after the death of his queen, privately married her.  She became devout, and, under the tuition of the Jesuits, a violent promoter of the persecution of the Huguenots.  It was probably her influence that induced Louis to issue the Edict revoking the Edict of Nantes promulgated by Henry IV. in 1598.  She outlived the King, and died in 1719.]

I will conclude my letter with a most charming trait of Madame de Mailly,[1] which cannot be misplaced in such a chapter of royal concubines.  Going to St. Sulpice, after she had lost the King’s heart, a person present desired the crowd to make way for her.  Some brutal young officers said, “Comment, pour cette catin la!” She turned to them, and with the most charming modesty said—­“Messieurs, puisque vous me connoissez, priez Dieu pour moi.”  I am sure it will bring tears into your eyes.  Was she not the Publican and Maintenon the Pharisee?  Good night!  I hope I am going to dream of all I have been seeing.  As my impressions and my fancy, when I am pleased, are apt to be strong, my night perhaps may still be more productive of ideas than the day has been.  It will be charming indeed if Madame de Cambis is the ruling tint.  Adieu!