However, could I return but a short time to dislodge _Maintenon_, and take a frisk with my former lover, if he be not too old for that business; or were I but your shadow, provided I liv’d, I should be pretty well pleas’d; for ’tis a melancholy thing to think that the fates should spin such a long thread for an old lascivious ape [46], who never was to be compared with me; and that there should remain no more of poor _Fontagne_, than an unfortunate name, over which oblivion will in a little time triumph. At the writing of this, in came a courier from _Versailles_, who brings us word, that _Lewis the Great_ has undertook such a piece of work, that the weight and consequence makes him sick of the world: that Mrs. _Maintenon_ has wore out his teeth; that legions of vermin devour him, and that we may suddenly expect him in these dominions; which, if true, will be some satisfaction to me; and tho’ he be toothless, worm-eaten and rotten: I will grant him the same liberty he often took with me on a couch at the _Trianon_, to get him again under my empire, that I may at leisure revenge myself for his forgetfulness. _Oh! wou’d it not provoke a maid,_ _By softest vows and oaths betray’d,_ _Her virgin treasures to resign,_ _And give up honour’s dearest shrine?_ _Then when her charms have been enjoy’d,_ _To be next moment laid aside._ _But why do I lament in vain,_ _And of my destiny complain?_ _Had I been wife as those before me,_ _I should have made the world adore me;_ _Not to one lover’s arms confin’d,_ _But search’d and try’d all human kind._ But I believe this foolish constancy was only owing to my want of experience; and if I had liv’d a little longer, I should have had the curiosity to try the variety of human performance, like the rest of my neighbours. You have been, my dear _demi-goddess_, in love, and have been belov’d; therefore, I beseech you, give me some healing advice, or consolation, as my case requires. _The_ Cumean Sybil_’s Answer to the Duchess of_ Fontagne.