[466] The Aqueduct of Segovia, presumed to be of the time of Trajan, forms a great bridge, 937 feet long, and consisting of 320 arches in two tiers. The tallest arches, in the middle of the lower tier, are 102 feet high. It is built of large blocks of arches, somewhat rounded at the edges and assembled without cement.--T. [467] _Cf._ COMTESSE DE LA FAYETTE: _Mémoires de la cour de France pour les années 1688 et 1689_; the opening pages: "France was in a condition of perfect tranquillity; no arms were known other than the implements necessary for removing the earth and building. The troops were employed for these purposes, not only with the intention of the Ancient Romans, which was only to take them out of a state of idleness as injurious to themselves as excessive work would be. But the object was also to make the River Eure flow against its will, to make the fountains of Versailles play continuously. They employed the troops on this prodigious plan, so as to advance the King's pleasures by a few years, and they did so at less expense and in less time than they had dared hope. "The quantity of sickness always caused by earth-work rendered the troops in camp at Maintenon, where the chief part of the work lay, incapable of performing any service. But this drawback did not seem worthy of any attention in the midst of the tranquillity which we were enjoying."--T. [468] Nicolas Pradon (1632-1698), a tragic poet who has left a reputation as a ridiculous, vain and jealous author. Nevertheless, he achieved some success in his day and, when Racine produced his _Phèdre_, his envious rivals brought out Pradon's tragedy of the same name in opposition to the great poet's masterpiece (1677). A few days sufficed to restore the two plays to their relative places in the judgment of the public. Besides several other tragedies, Pradon wrote a comedy directed against Racine and entitled the _Jugement d'Apollon sur Phèdre_ and a pamphlet against Boileau entitled the _Triomphe de Pradon_ (1684).--T. [469] I omit ten lines quoted from Racine.--T. [470] Charles d'Aubigné (1634-1703) answered his sister with a blasphemous phrase. He married, in 1678, Mademoiselle Geneviève Piètre and was the father of the Mademoiselle d'Aubigné who married the Duc de Noailles in 1698, receiving the estates of Maintenon as her marriage-portion.--T. [471] Constant d'Aubigné (_d. circa_ 1645), second son of Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné, the Calvinist favourite of Henry IV.--T. [472] Paul Scarron (1610-1660), the burlesque author, married Mademoiselle d'Aubigné in 1652, when she was only seventeen years of age. Louis XIV. gave her the domain of Maintenon in 1674 and erected it into a marquisate for her.--T.