e fashion which prevailed at court, under the rule
of Madame de Maintenon, is apparent from the light tone of the
following passage: "Madame de T. wears no rouge, and hides her person,
instead of displaying it. Under this disguise it is difficult to know
her again. I was sitting next her at dinner the other day, and a
servant brought her a glass of _vin de liqueur_; she turned to me, and
said, 'This man does not know that I am _devote_.' This made us all
laugh, and she spoke very naturally of her changes, and of her good
intentions. She now minds what she says of her neighbors, and stops
short in her recitals, with a scream at her bad habits. There are bets
made that Madame d'H. will not be _devote_ within a year, and that she
will resume her rouge. This rouge is the law and the prophets, and on
this rouge turns the whole of the Christian religion."

Tested by the morality of our day, Madame de Sevigne could not claim a
very exalted character: yet we are bound to mention one trait, which
honorably distinguishes her from her contemporaries. Louis XIV., for
the purpose of reducing the power of his nobles, systematically
encouraged them in the most boundless extravagance, of which he
himself set them the example. The natural consequence followed; they
became inextricably involved in debts, with so little idea of ever
paying them, that the conduct of the Cardinal de Retz, who sought to
atone for early excesses by retiring to the country, and husbanding
his resources for this purpose, excited universal wonder, and was too
extraordinary to be generally credited. Madame de Sevigne fully
appreciated the propriety of this conduct of De Retz, and bestows upon
it many commendations. When such were the sentiments of her mother, it
is not a little surprising to hear of a poor milliner, whose
necessities compelled her to undertake a journey of five hundred
miles, from Paris to Provence, to collect a debt from Madame de
Grignan, being dismissed without her money, and being told in
substance, if not in words, that she might thank her good fortune that
she did not make her exit through the window--a summary mode of
cancelling debts, often threatened, if not executed, when creditors
were importunate. Nor were Madame de Sevigne's mere professions. The
occasion arose which tried her principles. The extravagance of her
husband left her with estates encumbered with debts; the education
and maintenance of her children were expensive; her son'