309 [=311]

Lett. lxxxii. Letters Historical and Galant. 309

July. 31. [in margin]

seller that printed the Mercury you sent me. Tis true Self love has a share sometimes in such compassionate
Sentiments, for I could heartily wish the Good Man had lived longer to continue the Impression of so agreeable
a work. I am ^very sorry that he should go no farther than the Second, and that no body can be got to succeed him,
supposing the Authors should still be in the humour of Continuing what he so well began. What I have seen
of it, pleases me Extremely, and, you judge well that I shall accept the offer you make me of what you have
remaining. Let me have it therefore, if you please, for I assure you I never saw any thing better done of the
kind. I don't know whether I should find it the same out of any other hand but yours, which knows how
to imbellish whatsoever it touches; and to speak freely, I believe you very capable of supplying the Text, and
suspect you helped that pretended Countess of L.M. a little, who thought to impose on us greatly, in making
us believe that she wrote from Versailles. Let her say what she will, that would have been making a very bad
Choice of the field of battle. And I am very much inclined to think that the Scene was removed into some other
Country; and that to speak with so much Liberty, she must have been in a place of Safety. Tis not but we have
people that are daring enough here to venture upon bolder things than that; for for example, we have found upon
the Gates of the Louvre. This house is to be let: and after the Battle of Remelies, the following advertise
ment was fixed up in several Cross streets. "Last Whitsunday was lost an Army of fifty thousand men
Who ever can give any account of them, shall have a thousand Louideres reward, to be paid ^one half in
ready Money, and the other in Bills." Another advertisement, gave notice to the publick, to get coaches
in Time, for the hire of them would be very dear at the King of Spain's Entry into Paris." The Authors
of these Pasquinades run great Risques, but that is soon said. Besides, they may say perhaps what was for
overly said on that Occasion: You shall never know, Louis, for I was alone when I did it. Whereas
the Author of your Mercury, must have the assistance of another, and consequently cannot be secure but that
his Secret may be discovered: and from hence I conclude that that Author, whether Male or Female, wrote in
some foreign Country, where One could easyer get any thing they please printed. But all this is nothing to the
affair, wherever she wrote in my opinion she wrote very well. I draw no parallel between this Mercury
and that of Mr. du Fresny; they are of so different a Character, that they cannot be compared. Mr. du Fresny
is more to the Taste of the Learned: but for my part, that Love to call a ^Spade a Spade, and look for nothing but Gal-
lantries in a Mercury Galant, I shall decide in favour of Madam L.M. because methinks she answers her Title
better; and because thanks to the Indifference of my Genius, I have less Curiosity for the Republick of of Pismirch,
and the Ingenuity of Spiders and Catterpillars, those those observations are finer and more Curious, than I have
for the discovery of some Intrigue of Gallantry, and your Danish Baron, your Swedish Count, and the other Heroes
of the Mercury printed in Holland, concern me more than all the discoveries of the Academy of Sciences, beg they
never so useful. This does not hinder me nothwithstanding from giving Justice where it is due, and to let you
know I am no stranger to it's merit, I shall tell you, that in my opinion Mr. du Fresny's Pamphlet deserves some-
thing more than the Name of a Mercury Galant, and in relation to the matters it treats of, it ought to be put
on a rank with the Journal des Savans [Sçavans]. You see that tho I make a Choice in proportion to my own abilities, yet I am not In Some measure without the Spirit of discerning. Be that as it will, let me have your second
Mercury. I expect to find a good part of it in the first Letter you write me, and shall hasten to finish this
to oblige you to begin yours the Sooner, especially as I have nothing, but melancholy news to send you, we talk
of Nothing here but funeral Pomps and Services.

The small Pox continues it's Ravage at Court, and has carried off one of it's finest Ornaments, the
Amiable Dutchess of Villeroy, daughter to the Late Mr. de Louvois, she was thirty three years old, & all Charming.
In short we see nothing here but funerals, and sing nothing but De profundis. However one fatal blow is war-
ded off, the Beautiful Princess of Conti is returned from the Borders of the Grave. The following Song was made on
her Recovery, and you may Sing it to the Air in the Opera of Atis, When Danger is pleasing &c.