You ’ve had the better, it is plainly prov’d, Because I you have out of Reason lov’d; But by the Conquest you small Honour won, For I was young, and easily undone. I, whilst a Child, was cloister’d, knew no hurt, Discours’d with none but of the vulgar Sort, And what belonged to Flatt’ry never knew, Till I unhappily was taught by you: You ’d a good Character of every one, Which you made use of to entice me on. My Indignation, and your Falsehood too, Makes me at present much disorder’d grow; But, I assure you, I will shortly find Some Means or other for to ease my Mind. Perhaps may take a way to quit my Care Which, when ’tis acted, you ’ll be pleas’d to hear. Fool as I am, to say thus o’er and o’er The same that I ’ve so often said before! Of you a Thought I must not entertain, And fancy too I ne’er shall write again? For what occasion ’s there that I to you Shou’d be accountable for all I do? THE END OF THE NUN’S LETTERS. [Illustration] Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE Printers to Her Majesty FOOTNOTES [1] An American translation was published in 1890. _Vide_ Bibliography. [2] Cordeiro, _op. cit._, p. 131, 1st ed. [3] Cf. Cordeiro, _op. cit._, pp. 147-8 and 300, 1st ed. [4] This was partly owing to the ideas of the time, and partly for reasons already mentioned, and also because her father wished to build up an estate, to be entailed on heirs-male. [5] Letter v. [6] Asse, _op. cit._, Preface, p. vi. For an account of the somewhat relaxed character of convent discipline at the time _vide_ Cordeiro, pp. 156-164, 1st ed. [7] ‘Muita era a liberdade das grades naquelle miseravel tempo.’ [8] Cordeiro, _op. cit._, pp. 326-7, 1st ed. [9] Cordeiro, _op. cit._, pp. 139-40, 1st. ed. [10] Cordeiro, _op. cit._, p. 182, 1st ed. [11] For a good comparison of the Letters of Marianna and Heloïse see an article entitled ‘La Eloísa Portuguesa’ in the June number of the review _España Moderna_, 1889, written by Emilio Pardo Bazán. [12] Cordeiro, _op. cit._, p. 299, 1st ed. [13] This syntactical extension of the sex to the patronymic was general in the seventeenth century. _Vide_ Cordeiro, _op. cit._, p. 91, 1st ed. [14] This should be 83. Cf. the extract from the Baptismal Register in Cordeiro, p. 285, 1st ed. [15] This document was found and transcribed by Cordeiro on pp. 328-9 of his oft-referred-to work, 1st ed. [16] _Op. cit._, Preface, p. xi. [17] _Memoires_, vol. iii. pp. 372-3; Paris, 1873. [18] Observation of Senhor Cordeiro, _op. cit._, p. 6, 1st ed. [19] Observation of M. Asse. [20] Asse, _op. cit._, Preface, pp. xiii, xiv. [21] Letter to Mme. de Grignan in vol. ii., page 284, of the edition of _Paris_ 1862. [22] Asse, _op. cit._, Preface, p. xv. [23] Director for a time of the _Gazette de France_, and a friend of Mme. de Sévigné and Racine. Boileau described him as