d? What illusions can
now remain for me? All such vanished when it became
necessary to renounce you. Thus the only ties which yet bind
me to life are my sentiments for you, attachment for my
children, the possibility of still being able to do some
good, and, above all, the assurance that you are happy. Do
not, then, condole with me on my being here, distant from a
court, which you appear to think I regret. Surrounded by
those who are attached to me, free to follow my taste for
the arts, I find myself better at Navarre than any where
else, for I enjoy more completely the society of the former,
and form a thousand projects which may prove useful to the
latter, and which will embellish the scenes I owe to your
bounty. There is much to be done here, for all around are
discovered the traces of destruction. These I would efface,
that there may exist no memorial of those horrible
inflictions which your genius has taught the nation almost
to forget. In repairing whatever these ruffians of
revolution labored to annihilate, I shall diffuse comfort
around me, and the benedictions of the poor will afford me
infinitely more pleasure than the feigned adulation of
courtiers.

"I have already told you what I think of the functionaries
in this department, but have not spoken sufficiently of the
respectable bishop, M. Bourlier. Every day I learn some new
trait which causes me still more highly to esteem the man
who unites the most enlightened benevolence with the most
amiable disposition. He shall be intrusted with distributing
my alms-deeds in Evreux, and, as he visits the indigent
himself, I shall be assured that my charities are properly
bestowed.

"I can not sufficiently thank you, sire, for the liberty you
have permitted me of choosing the members of my household,
all of whom contribute to the pleasure of a delightful
society. One circumstance alone gives me pain, namely, the
etiquette of costume, which becomes a little tiresome in the
country. You fear that there may be something wanting to the
rank I have preserved should a slight infraction be allowed
to the toilet of these gentlemen; but I believe that you are
wrong in thinking they would for one moment forget the
respect due to the woman who was once your companion. Their