His mysterious letter to the countess

"How does my sweet friend contrive to bear our tedious separation?
is she happy and amused? In that case I can say, she has greatly the
advantage over him who now addresses her. No, my lovely countess, I am
dragging on a tedious and uninteresting existence, spite of the great
and earnest endeavors of my good cousin and host to provide for my
enjoying the gaiety by which I am surrounded; but, alas! amidst the many
faces with which his mansion is thronged, that one which is dearest
to me is wanting, and all becomes a blank in my eyes; and I yawn with
irrepressible weariness in the midst of the glittering pageants given
to honor my arrival; and you may rest assured that I shall hail with
delight the termination of a visit, which seems already to have swelled
the period of our separation into ages. I will not attempt to conceal
from you, that those who have good cause to envy your supreme dominion
over my heart, have set every scheme in action to lead me even into
a temporary oblivion of you, but their attempts are as vain as their
impotent rivalry, and need cause no uneasiness to you, my beloved
friend. I frequently smile at the vast pains and precautions of which
my '_sacred person_' is the object; and I am _continually_ encountering
'_by chance_' some of those fair ladies who would fain usurp your place,
sometimes bedecked with jewels rare, and sometimes, as Racine says,

"_------ dans le simple appareil D'une beaute, qu'on vient d'arracher au
sommeil._'

"Madame de Grammont, for instance, takes an infinity of trouble
respecting my choice of your successor, which she is resolved shall be
either herself or one of her choosing. I protest to you that I find all
these plots and counterplots very amusing; and can only say, that my
daughters, who are completely duped by those practising them, must be
more completely deceived than I had imagined possible. Nor can I quite
deny that I feel a half mischievous delight in reducing to despair,

"'_------- ce peuple de rivales Qui toutes, disputant, d'un si grand
interet, Des yeux d'Assuerus attendent leur arret._'

"_Assuerus_ (which, of course, means me) keeps one perpetual reply to
all their high-sounding praises and eulogiums of such or such a lady.
'She is well enough, certainly; but the comtesse du Barry excels her a
hundredfold': then follow such shrugs, such contortions of countenance,
and such vain efforts to repress the rage of dis