ans be inferred from this that the Palatine had
not a mind of the first order, but only that she had not been trained to
render clearly and fittingly her ideas and sentiments in writing. Madame
de Longueville had been no better taught. Therefore all that has been
said about her on this score must be restricted, alike as to the defects
of her education and the brilliancy of her genius. With those
Frenchwomen who have written at once largely and loosely, it is pleasant
to contrast their contemporaries, Madame de Sevigne and Madame la
Fayette, both of whom always wrote well.

In the first place, these two admirable ladies had received quite
another sort of education to that of Madame de Longueville. They had had
the advantage of being instructed by men of letters skilled in the art
of teaching. Menage was the chief instructor both of Mademoiselle de
Rabutin and Mademoiselle de Lavergne--to call those accomplished
letter-writers by their maiden names. Menage trained them carefully in
composition, correcting rigidly their themes, pointing out their errors,
cultivating their happy instincts, and modelling and polishing their
vein and style. That talented tutor appears also to have been their
platonic adorer--more platonic indeed than he desired. In his verses he
celebrated by turns _la formosissima Laverna_ and _la bellissima
Marchesa di Sevigni_, and his lessons were doubtless given _con amore_.

Nature had been lavish indeed in all her gifts to the latter, giving her
a precision and solidity allied to an inexhaustible playfulness and
sparkling vivacity. Art, in her, wedded to genius, resulted in that
incomparable epistolary style which left Balzac and Voiture far away
behind her, and which Voltaire himself even has not surpassed.

We must now speak of him who was destined to bias, sway, and finally
determine the future course of Madame de Longueville's life through the
conquest of her heart and mind--La Rochefoucauld--the man who induced
her to embark with him on the stormy sea of politics, whose irresistible
tide swept her past the landmarks of loyalty and reputability to make
shipwreck, amongst the rocks and shoals of civil war, of fame, fortune,
and domestic happiness.

Up to the moment of her appearance on the scene of party strife in
connection with La Rochefoucauld, Madame de Longueville had not achieved
much _political_ notoriety. Neither had her fair fame been compromised
by the very insignificant gallantry of a