the first, the young ladies, who were playing at chess, were ordered to
sing to us the choruses of Athaliah; in another, they danced minuets and
country dances, while a nun, not quite so able as St. Cecilia, played on
a violin. In the others, they acted before us the proverbs or
conversations written by Madame de Maintenon for their instruction; for
she was not only their foundress but their saint, and their adoration of
her memory has quite eclipsed the Virgin Mary. We saw their dormitory,
and saw them at supper; and at last were carried to their archives,
where they produced volumes of her letters, and where one of the nuns
gave me a small piece of paper with three sentences in her handwriting.
I forgot to tell you, that this kind dame who took to me extremely,
asked me if we had many convents and relics in England. I was much
embarrassed for fear of destroying her good opinion of me, and so said
we had but few now. Oh! we went too to the _apothecairie_, where they
treated 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 Vallière:--"Non, non, Madame, je ne ferai point votre
portrait: vous avez une manière d'être si noble, si fine, si piquante,
si délicate, si séduisante; votre gentilesse et vos graces changent si
souvent pour n'en être que plus aimable, que l'on ne peut saisir aucun