joy which youth joined to beauty gives, of
the trouble and embarrassment that love causes in the innocence of early
years, in short, of all that is farthest from herself and her friend in
their late tie."

But whatever tints her tender and delicate imaginings may have taken
from her own soul, Mme. de La Fayette has caught the eternal beauty of
a pure and loyal spirit rising above the mists of sense into the serene
air of a lofty Christian renunciation.

The sad but triumphant close of her romance foreshadowed the swift
breaking up of her own pleasant life. In 1680, not long after the
appearance of the "Princesse de Cleves," La Rochefoucauld died, and
the song of her heart was changed to a miserere. "Mme. de La Fayette has
fallen from the clouds," says Mme. de Sevigne. "Where can she find
such a friend, such society, a like sweetness, charm, confidence,
consideration for her and her son?" A little later she writes from
The Rocks, "Mme. de La Fayette sends me word that she is more deeply
affected than she herself believed, being occupied with her health
and her children; but these cares have only rendered more sensible the
veritable sadness of her heart. She is alone in the world... The poor
woman cannot close the ranks so as to fill this place."

The records of the thirteen years that remain to Mme. de La Fayette are
somber and melancholy. "Nothing can replace the blessings I have lost,"
she says. Restlessly she seeks diversion in new plans. She enlarges her
house as her horizon diminishes; she finds occupation in the affairs of
Mme. Royale and interests herself in the marriage of the daughter of
her never-forgotten friend, the Princess Henrietta, with the heir to the
throne of Savoy. She writes a romance without the old vigor, occupies
herself with historic reminiscences, and takes a passing refuge in an
ardent affection for the young Mme. de Schomberg, which excites the
jealousy of some older friends. But the strongest link that binds her
to the world is the son whose career opens so brilliantly as a young
officer and for whom she secures an ample fortune and a fine marriage.
In this son and the establishment of a family centered all her hopes
and ambitions. She was spared the pain of seeing them vanish like the
"baseless fabric of a vision." The object of so many cares survived
her less than two years; her remaining son and the only person left to
represent her was the abbe who had so little care for her manuscript