panish
pastorals which tinged the romantic literature of the time as well as
its social life. The long letters, carefully written on large and heavy
sheets yellow with age, have a peculiarly old-time flavor, and throw
a vivid light upon the woman who could play the role of a heroine of
Corneille or of a sentimental shepherdess, as the caprice seized her.

A tragical bit of romance colored the mature life of the Grande
Mademoiselle. She had always professed a great aversion to love,
regarding it as "unworthy of a well-ordered soul." She even went so far
as to say that it was better to marry from reason or any other thing
imaginable, dislike included, than from passion that was, in any case,
short-lived. But this princess of intrepid spirit, versatile gifts,
ideal fancies, and platonic theories, who had aimed at an emperor and
missed a throne; this amazon, with her penchant for glory and contempt
for love, forgot all her sage precepts, and at forty-two fell a victim
to a violent passion for the Comte de Lauzun. She has traced its course
to the finest shades of sentiment. Her pride, her infatuation, her
scruples, her new-born humility--we are made familiar with them
all, even to the finesse of her respectful adorer, and the reluctant
confession of love which his discreet silence wrings from her at last..
Her royal cousin, after much persuasion, consented to the unequal union.
The impression this affair made upon the world is vividly shown in a
letter written by Mme. de Sevigne to her daughter:

I am going to tell you a thing the most astonishing, the most
surprising, the most marvelous, the most miraculous, the most
triumphant, the most astounding, the most unheard of, the most singular,
the most extraordinary, the most incredible, the most unexpected, the
grandest, the smallest, the rarest, the most common, the most dazzling,
the most secret even until today, the most brilliant, the most worthy of
envy.... a thing in fine which is to be done Sunday, when those who see
it will believe themselves dazed; a thing which is to be done Sunday
and which will not perhaps have been done Monday... M. de Lauzun marries
Sunday, at the Louvre--guess whom?... He marries Sunday at the Louvre,
with the permission of the King, Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle de,
Mademoiselle; guess the name; he marries Mademoiselle, MA FOI, PAR MA
FOI, MA FOI JUREE, Mademoiselle, la grande Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle,
daughter of the late Monsieur, Mademoiselle