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To Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, with a dozen fan∣cies of English Riband, for a Discretion he had lost to her. LETTER. LXX.
To apprehend the wit and humour of this Letter, note the French word, Galen, is ambiguous, signifying either a Fancy, or knot of riband, and a Gallant; and that a Discretion is a Wager, which lost it is refer'd to the Discretion of the Looser to pay what he pleases; there having been nothing named before.
MADAM,
SInce Discretion is one of the principal qualities of a Gallant, I conceive that when I send you a dozen, I am much more then out of your debt. Be not afraid to entertain so great a num∣ber, though you would never yet receive one; for I assure you, you may be confident of these, as such as shall not divulge the fa∣vours you do them: How glorious soever it may be to receive of yours, yet hath it been no small matter to have found so many of this humour, in a time when they are all so full of vanity; which indeed occasioned so long a journey as to fetch them from beyond the Sea. I need not tell you, Madam, that they are not the first of that Country, that have been well entertained in France. But these certainly are the most fortunate that ever came thence, and if you but give them a reception, they need not envy those who have waited on Princesses and Queens. For, to do you right, Madam, the Earth affords not any thing above you, and whoever were plac'd in your mind might presume to be in the highest place in the world. I speak confidently for a man that payes a Discretion; but be pleased to consider, that one Love-letter is little enough for a dozen Gallants, and that those for whom I write, at least, those of their Country, have such a strange way to expresse themselves, that they seem to discourse of Love, when they do but complement. Take it not amisse, that, being their Secretary, I have in some sort imitated their stile, and be assur'd, that had I been only to speak for my self,