f it, often and seriously; I always
resisted his wish. At last, towards the month of August 1696, as he was
to leave to go and study at Caen, he pressed me so much with tears in
his eyes, that I consented to it. He drew out at that moment two little
papers which he had ready written; one was signed with his blood, in
which he promised me that in case of his death he would come and bring
me news of his condition; in the other, I promised him the same thing. I
pricked my finger; a drop of blood came with which I signed my name. He
was delighted to have my billet, and embracing me, thanked me a thousand
times.

"Some time after, he set off with his tutor. Our separation caused us
much grief, but we wrote to each other now and then, and it was but six
weeks since I had had a letter from him, when what I am going to relate
to you happened to me.

"The 31st of July, 1697, one Thursday,--I shall remember it all my
life,--the late M. Sorteville, with whom I lodged, and who had been very
kind to me, begged of me to go to a meadow near the Cordeliers, and help
his people, who were making hay, and to make haste. I had not been there
a quarter of an hour, when, about half-past two, I all of a sudden felt
giddy and weak. In vain I lent upon my hay-fork; I was obliged to place
myself on a little hay, where I was nearly half an hour recovering my
senses. That passed off; but as nothing of the kind had ever occurred to
me before, I was surprised at it, and I feared it might be the
commencement of an illness. Nevertheless, it did not make much
impression upon me during the remainder of the day. It is true, I did
not sleep that night so well as usual.

"The next day, at the same hour, as I was conducting to the meadow M. de
St Simon, the grandson of M. de Sorteville, who was then ten years old,
I felt myself seized on the way with a similar faintness, and I sat down
on a stone in the shade. That passed off, and we continued our way;
nothing more happened to me that day, and at night I had hardly any
sleep.

"At last, on the morrow, the second day of August, being in the loft
where they laid up the hay they brought from the meadow, I was taken
with a similar giddiness and a similar faintness, but still more violent
than the other. I fainted away completely; one of the men perceived it.
I have been told that I was asked what was the matter with me, and that
I replied, 'I have seen what I never should have believed'; but I have
no reco