es; and so perfect was their
union, that nothing was ever seen equal to it. Never did love join so
much purity to so much ardor. He wished for nothing beyond the
possession of her heart. They understood each other without words,
and saw their whole hearts in each other's eyes." Pelisson was
twenty-nine, and Mademoiselle de Scudery forty-five, when they first
met. Their instant mutual interest deepened, on more thorough
acquaintance, into the warmest esteem and affection, and remained
unshaken for over forty years. The perfection of their intimacy was
known to every one; and every one believed in its entire purity.
Cousin says it is touching to see these two noble persons made so
happy by their friendship, a friendship which even the coarse and
slanderous Tallement respected so much that he refrained from casting
a single sneer at it. The story of Pelisson's imprisonment in the
Bastile is known to the whole world by the anecdote of the spider.

His only companion, during those wretched years, was a large spider,
which he had tamed, and was accustomed to feed and play with. One
day, the brute of a jailer trod on him, and killed him; and Passon
wept. His friend employed all her ingenuity, during his confinement,
in inventing means of communication with him. "At times, when he was
ready to fall into despair, a few lines would reach him, and bring
him comfort." At length his prison was opened, and fortune smiled
again. At his death, Mademoiselle de Scudery, though eighty-six years
old, wrote and published a simple and affecting memoir of him, paying
a deserved tribute to his character, in which, she said, there
reigned a singular and most charming combination of tenderness,
delicacy, and generosity. The most constant among the large circle of
admiring friends drawn around Madame de Sevigne by her merits and
charms was a cultivated Italian gentleman named Corbinelli, who lived
in Paris, on a moderate income, asking only leisure, and the
gratification of his high tastes. He was "one of those rare
exceptions who seem created by nature to be the benevolent spectators
of human events, without taking any part in them beyond that of
observation and interest for the actors." He had talents equal to the
greatest achievements, but was indolent and unambitious.

He was one of the earliest to discern and to proclaim Madame de
Sevigne's exquisite superiority of mind, disposition, and manners,
and to pay reverential court to her. Lamart