351

Lett. xcii Letters Historical and Galant. 351

Don't suspect me of Jansenism for what I say. I know the least thing in the World would be enough to
get people accused of Heterodoxy nowaday's; and therefore, I am better pleased to be before hand with you
in this point, and to tell you, that Tho' the Jansenists have full Toleration here, and have Churches and Par
tisans enough, I still keep to my old Principles, and don't even examine whether they are in the wrong,
for fear I should find them too much in the right. For I never love changing, or taking up new Opinions.

But I must acquaint you with an affair that I should think merry enough, if the foundation of it
was not Melancholy, it being at the funeral of the Count de Dohna. His Corpse after it was taken out of
the Schelde was carried to Mons where the Count was Governor, and it was to be interred in the Arsenal,
where the Garrison which is Protestant used to assemble to hear Sermons. A Grave maker was accordingly
ordered to dig a Grave; but what was this poor Man's Surprise, when after digging pretty far into the
Ground, he heard People talking under his feet. This was not all, for when out of an Effort of Courage he
was giving 'tother turn with his Pickax, he felt a heavy Push of a Stick upon his back side, which deprived
him of his Strength and Senses. He thought he was tracing the Road to Hell, and was at least got as far as
the Suburbs of it: the Stick, of which he felt the Point, seemed to him to be a Diabolical Instrument, and
the Language he heard, the Howlings of the Damned. He ran away, crying out for help, and told his ad-
venture in the Streets. The Magistrates desiring to know the truth, sent some persons upon the Spot, to exa
mine, whether the Gravemaker's Report was just, or no more than Illusion. These Deputies laid their
Ears to the Ground, and seeing the Light of a Fire through a Chink at the Bottom of the Grave, concluded
it was Hell sure enough, and attested ^that all that the Gravedigger had said was true. Upon it, the People
of Mons, naturally Superstitious cried out A Miracle! Saying, that the Count having died a Huguenot &
Consequently being damned, Hell had opened to receive his body. This Opinion, spread through the
Town, and prevailed over an other Opinion, maintained by some, that by Constant digging, the Grave Ma-
ker had reach'd the Antipodes, and that upon his disordering the Kitchen of some Anthropofages [Anthropophages], he
had felt the Effects of their Resentment by the stroke of a stick he received. This Decision, had no more
reason in it than the other, but however it had more humanity, which was the reason why it was not
received. For we always lean on the worst side. But tis time to tell you what it was at last, for fear
that you should take the middle of those two extremes, and Imagine it was Limbo or Purgatory. You
shall see the Mountain that brought forth the Mouse. The Minister of the Garrison made the Discove-
ry, and the Magistry were convinced that all this Spulter came from a house, which was at the Bottom
of the Mountain upon which the Town of Mons was built, and was exactly under that Part of the ar-
senal, where the grave maker was digging. The Gravediggers fright had Changed the Voices of the In-
habitants of that house into Howlings, and so of the rest. This Discovery made the People's Minds Easy
and Appeas'd their Murmers. Adieu, Madam, I am, Your Most [?]

Letter xcii. From Paris.

You do well, Madam, to be before hand with us, to hinder us from taking you for a Jansenist. That
Sect is no longer in Vogue, and Cardinal Noailles, notwithstanding his Purple, and the Credit he has from his
Alliance with Madam de Maintenon, cannot but perceive, that he cannot be always Sure of Protecting the
Weakest Side; tho it should happen to be the most just. I don't pretend to settle the Dispute here between the
Disciples of St. Ignatius and those of Jansenius; tis enough that I tell you that the former triumph over the latter
and that there has been found too among the Papers of the late Dauphin, a Memoire, in which that Prince Jus-
tifies himself to the Pope, from the Imputation of leaning a little towards the Doctrine of Jansenius. You'll
see he takes as much pains to clear himself, as if it was Murder. I send you the Memoire, which is greatly
cryed up, which has lately been printed in a Large Character, with a kind of a Preface prefix'd to it.

Advertisement to the Following Memoir Wrote by the Dauphin

"The Reader may be glad to know, on what Occasion the Dauphin Composed this Paper, and what
the Articles it contains relate to. That Prince had been informed about two Months before his death
by Letters from Rome, that some Emissaries of the Jansenist party, had presumed to spread several