to relate) being revived by the absence of her who inspired it, though scarcely alive while she was present, he had resolved to come and ask her of her mother in marriage.  He made no doubt, perhaps, of success, as he seldom failed in enterprises of love; witness the great lady he has since obtained for a wife, in opposition to the will of her family.  He might, besides, have flattered himself that he should easily have gained a pardon from her by whom he was beloved, according to the Italian proverb, “Che la forza d’amore non riguarda al delitto” (Lovers are not criminal in the estimation of one another).  Accordingly, the Marquis solicited Don John to be despatched to me on some errand, and arrived, as I said before, at the very instant the corpse of this ill-fated young lady was being borne to the grave.  He was stopped by the crowd occasioned by this solemn procession.  He contemplates it for some time.  He observes a long train of persons in mourning, and remarks the coffin to be covered with a white pall, and that there are chaplets of flowers laid upon the coffin.  He inquires whose funeral it is.  The answer he receives is, that it is the funeral of a young lady.  Unfortunately for him, this reply fails to satisfy his curiosity.  He makes up to one who led the procession, and eagerly asks the name of the young lady they are proceeding to bury.  When, oh, fatal answer!  Love, willing to avenge the victim of his ingratitude and neglect, suggests a reply which had nearly deprived him of life.  He no sooner hears the name of Mademoiselle de Tournon pronounced than he falls from his horse in a swoon.  He is taken up for dead, and conveyed to the nearest house, where he lies for a time insensible; his soul, no doubt, leaving his body to obtain pardon from her whom he had hastened to a premature grave, to return to taste the bitterness of death a second time.

Having performed the last offices to the remains of this poor young lady, I was unwilling to discompose the gaiety of the society assembled here on my account by any show of grief.  Accordingly, I joined the Bishop, or, as he is called, his Grace, and his canons, in their entertainments at different houses, and in gardens, of which the city and its neighbourhood afforded a variety.  I was every morning attended by a numerous company to the garden, in which I drank the waters, the exercise of walking being recommended to be used with them.  As the physician who advised me to take them was my own brother, they did not fail of their effect with me; and for these six or seven years which are gone over my head since I drank them, I have been free from any complaint of erysipelas on my arm.  From this garden we usually proceeded to the place where we were invited to dinner.  After dinner we were amused with a ball; from the ball we went to some convent, where we heard vespers; from vespers to supper, and that over, we had another ball, or music on the river.

LETTER XVI