e Fauxbourg Saint Germain."

The baths he tried had no effect on his miserable disorder. But a new
affliction was added to the catalogue of his griefs.

His father, who had hitherto contributed to his necessities, having
joined a party against Cardinal Richelieu, was exiled. This affair was
rendered still more unfortunate by his mother-in-law with her children
at Paris, in the absence of her husband, appropriating the property of
the family to her own use.

Hitherto Scarron had had no connexion with Cardinal Richelieu. The
conduct of his father had even rendered his name disagreeable to the
minister, who was by no means prone to forgiveness. Scarron, however,
when he thought his passion moderated, ventured to present a petition,
which is considered by the critics as one of his happiest productions.
Richelieu permitted it to be read to him, and acknowledged that it
afforded him much pleasure, and that it was _pleasantly dated_. This
_pleasant date_ is thus given by Scarron:--

Fait a Paris dernier jour d'Octobre,
Par moi, Scarron, qui malgre moi suis sobre,
L'an que l'on prit le fameux Perpignan,
Et, sans canon, la ville de Sedan.

At Paris done, the last day of October,
By me, Scarron, who wanting wine am sober,
The year they took fam'd Perpignan,
And, without cannon-ball, Sedan.

This was flattering the minister adroitly in two points very agreeable
to him. The poet augured well of the dispositions of the cardinal, and
lost no time to return to the charge, by addressing an ode to him, to
which he gave the title of THANKS, as if he had already received the
favours which he hoped he should receive! Thus Ronsard dedicated to
Catherine of Medicis, who was prodigal of promises, his hymn to
PROMISE. But all was lost for Scarron by the death of the Cardinal.

When Scarron's father died, he brought his mother-in-law into court;
and, to complete his misfortunes, lost his suit. The cases which he drew
up for the occasion were so extremely burlesque, that the world could
not easily conceive how a man could amuse himself so pleasantly on a
subject on which his existence depended.

The successor of Richelieu, the Cardinal Mazarin, was insensible to his
applications. He did nothing for him, although the poet dedicated to him
his _Typhon_, a burlesque poem, in which the author describes the wars
of the giants with the gods. Our bard was so irritated at this neglect,
that he suppressed a sonn