n me,
that she may learn how to die."

During the whole of this period, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld gave
constant proof of a rare fidelity. M. Cousin speaks very precisely on
this head. "Whilst Madame de Longueville was pledging her diamonds in
Holland for the defence of Stenay, La Rochefoucauld expended his fortune
in Guienne. It was the most grievous and, at the same time, the most
touching moment of their lives and their adventures. They were far away
from each other, but they still fondly loved; they served with equal
ardour the same cause, they fought and suffered equally and at the same
time." Abundant proofs might be instanced of this love and devotion on
their part. La Rochefoucauld wrote unceasingly to Stenay, and gave an
account of everything he did. "The sole aim, then, of all the Duke's
exertions," says Lenet, "was to please that beautiful princess, and he
took endless care and pleasure to acquaint her with all he did for her,
and to deliver the princess her sister-in-law (Conde's wife), by
despatching couriers to her on the subject." He informs us moreover
that, "in every juncture, he forwarded expresses to render account to
the Duchess of all that respect for her made him undertake. At this
moment, in fact, having just succeeded to his patrimonial estates
through the death of his father, La Rochefoucauld recognised no obstacle
in his path, but bravely went forward in the cause he had espoused and
generously sacrificed his property in Angoumois and Saintonge. His
ancestral chateau of Verteuil was even razed to the ground by Mazarin's
orders, and when the tidings of it reached him, he received them with
such great firmness", says Lenet, "that he seemed as though he were
delighted, through a feeling that it would inspire confidence in the
minds of the Bordelais. It was further said that what gave him the
liveliest pleasure was to let the Duchess de Longueville see that he
hazarded everything in her service." It cannot be denied, in fine, that
the Duke at that time yielded himself up to a sentiment as deep as it
was sincere, and which contradicts very happily and without any possible
doubt the assertion so often hazarded that he had never loved the woman
whom he had seduced and dragged into the vortex of politics. Madame de
Longueville and he adored each other at this period, says M. Cousin, and
it is pleasant to be able to cite the opinion of that eminent historian
upon such fact; although separated by the e