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To Mademoiselle de Rambouillet. LETTER. CXXVIII.
Madam,
HAd I been without my — I should certainly have been extreamly troubled to be depriv'd the honour of your sight, and I believe I should have thought on you more heartily then ever I did, for to tell you truth; I felt my self extreamly dispos'd thereto, and never was so much afflicted at a departure from you. But it is beyond your faith, Madam, what strange diversion — afford a man, and what an excellent remedie they are against a great passion; one while a Horse falls lame, another, a wheel is broken, sometimes they are lodg'd for a whole night in a Bogg, and I profess all can be done with them, is that they make a man think three or four times a day on her, whom he thinks his best friend. But now that we shall travel more gently, and are to em∣barque upon the Rhosne, I shall discharge my duty of thinking on you better, and if I am not mistaken, I shall come to Avignon the most passionate man in the World. For your part, Madam, who take no greater journeys then from your own house to the suburbs of St Germain, and are not troubled with such ill wayes as we are, you are not by any means to be excused, if you honour me not so much as to think on me sometimes, since, I must needs tell you, yon are more oblig'd to do it then ever, and if you are not often in my thoughts; it is, when you are, with so much sincerity and such resentments, as wherewith I am confident you would be satisfy'd. Besides, who knows but I do often reflect on you, and that I ex∣press my self thus modestly, because I dare not tell you all? In this uncertainty, I humbly desire you, Madam, to believe only what Monsieur Arnaud shall acquaint you with, for I have ordered him to explain my intentions to you, and to tell you, since it is his pro∣fession to make Orispianes, how much I am, and after what manner,
Madam,
Yours, &c.