Bastille, he was exiled from Paris for seventeen years. Long
afterwards he repented the unkind blow he had given to Mme. de
Sevigne, confessed its injustice, apologized, and made his peace.
But the world is less forgiving, and wastes little sympathy upon
the base but clever and ambitious man who was doomed to wear his
restless life away in the uncongenial solitude of his chateau.

Among the numerous adorers of Mme. de Sevigne were the Prince de
Conti, the witty Comte de Lude, the poet Segrais, Fouquet, and
Turenne. Her friendship for the last two seems to have been the
most lively and permanent. We owe to her sympathetic pen the
best account of the death of Turenne. Her devotion to the
interests of Fouquet and his family lasted though the many years
of imprisonment that ended only with his life. There was nothing
of the spirit of the courtier in her generous affection for the
friends who were out of favor. The loyalty of her character was
notably displayed in her unwavering attachment to Cardinal de
Retz, during his long period of exile and misfortune, after the
Fronde.

But one must go outside the ordinary channels to find the
veritable romance of Mme. de Sevigne's life. Her sensibility
lent itself with great facility to impressions, and her gracious
manners, her amiable character, her inexhaustible fund of gaiety
could not fail to bring her a host of admirers. She had
doubtless a vein of harmless coquetry, but it was little more
than the natural and variable grace of a frank and sympathetic
woman who likes to please, and who scatters about her the flowers
of a rich mind and heart, without taking violent passions too
seriously, if, indeed, she heeds them at all. Friendship, too,