old Hotel de Nevers, where Marie de Gonzague and the Princesse
Palatine had charmed an earlier generation, and where Mme.
Duplessis Guenegaud, a woman of brilliant intellect, heroic
courage, large heart, and pure character, whom d'Andilly calls
one of the great souls, presided over a new circle of young poets
and men of letters, reviving the fading memories of the Hotel de
Rambouillet. Mme. De Sevigne, who had fine dramatic talent,
acted here in little comedies. She heard Boileau read his
satires and Racine his tragedies. She met the witty Chevalier de
Chatillon, who asked eight days to make an impromptu, and
Pomponne, who wrote to his father that the great world he found
in this salon did not prevent him from appearing in a gray habit.
In a letter from the country house of Mme. Duplessis, at Fresnes,
to the same Pomponne, then ambassador to Sweden, Mme. de Sevigne
says: "I have M. d'Andilly at my left, that is, on the side of my
heart; I have Mme. de La Fayette at my right; Mme. Duplessis
before me, daubing little pictures; Mme. De Motteville a little
further off, who dreams profoundly; our uncle de Cessac, whom I
fear because I do not know him very well."

It is this life of charming informality; this society of lettered
tastes, of wit, of talent, of distinction, that she transfers to
her own salon. Its continuity is often broken by her long
absences in the country or in Provence, but her irresistible
magnetism quickly draws the world around her, on her return. In
addition to her intimate friends and to men of letters like
Racine, Boileau, Benserade, one meets representatives of the most
distinguished of the old families of France. Conde, Richelieu,
Colberg, Louvois, and Sully are a few among the great names, of
which the list might be indefinitely extended. We have many