countries and I can say I never saw him out of his place, or not a match for every service or occasion. For in all things he acquitted himself like a man, yea, a strong man, a new and heavenly-minded man; a divine and a naturalist, and all of God Almighty's making. I have been surprised at his questions and answers in natural things; that whilst he was ignorant of useless and sophistical science, he had in him the foundation of useful and commendable knowledge, and cherished it everywhere. Civil, beyond all forms of breeding, in his behavior; very temperate, eating little, and sleeping less, though a bulky person. Thus he lived and sojourned among us and as he lived, so he died; feeling the same eternal power, that had raised and preserved him, in his last moments. So full of assurance was he, that he triumphed over death; and so even in his spirit to the last, as if death were hardly worth notice or a mention; recommending to some with him, the dispatch and dispersion of an epistle, just before written to the churches of Christ throughout the world, and his own books; but, above all, Friends, and, of all Friends, those in Ireland and America, twice over saying, "Mind poor Friends in Ireland and America." And to some that came in and inquired how he found himself, he answered, "Never heed, the Lord's power is over all weakness and death; the Seed reigns, blessed be the Lord : which was about four or five hours before his departure out of this world. He was at the great meeting near Lombard Street on the first day of the week, and it was the third following, about ten at night, when he left us, being at the house of Henry Goldney in the same court. In a good old age he went, after having lived to see his children's children, to many generations, in the truth. He had the comfort of a short illness, and the blessing of a clear sense to the last; and we may truly say, with a man of God of old, that "being dead, he yet speaketh"; and though absent in body, he is present in spirit; neither time nor place being able to interrupt the communion of saints, or dissolve the fellowship of the spirits of the just. His works praise him, because they are to the praise of Him that wrought by him; for which his memorial is, and shall be blessed. I have done, as to this part of my Preface, when I have left this short epitaph to his name, "Many sons have done virtuously in his day; but, dear George, thou excellest them all." VOL. XV.-20 MEMOIRS ON THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. AND THE REGENCY. BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON. [LOUIS DE ROUVroy, Duc de SAINT-SIMON, a French writer of memoirs, was born at Paris, January 16, 1675, the son of a favorite nobleman of Louis XIII.'s court. He entered the army and fought at the seige of Namur, the battle of Neerwinden, etc., but in 1702 handed in his commission and turned his attention to court statesmanship. He was a member of the council of the regency under the Duke of Orleans, and in 1721 was sent to Spain as ambassador extraordinary to negotiate a marriage between the Infanta and the young king, Louis XV. His last years were clouded by domestic misfortunes and financial reverses, and he died a bankrupt on his estate at Laferté, March 2, 1755. His entertaining "Memoirs" throw a flood of light on court life under Louis XIV. and Louis XV.] CHAPTER IV. (1693). AFTER having paid the last duties to my father, I betook myself to Mons to join the Royal Roussillon cavalry regiment, in which I was captain. The King, after stopping eight or ten days with the ladies at Quesnoy, sent them to Namur, and put himself at the head of the army of M. de Boufflers, and camped at Gembloux, so that his left was only half a league distant from the right of M. de Luxembourg. The Prince of Orange was encamped at the Abbey of Pure, was unable to receive supplies, and could not leave his position without having the two armies of the King to grapple with: he entrenched himself in haste, bitterly repenting having allowed himself to be thus driven into a corner. We knew afterwards that he wrote several times to his intimate friend the Prince de Vaudemont, saying that he was lost, and that nothing short of a miracle could save him. We were in this position, with an army in every way infinitely superior to that of the Prince of Orange, and with four whole months before us to profit by our strength, when the King declared on the 8th of June that he should return to Versailles, and sent off a large detachment of the army into Germany. The surprise of the Maréchal de Luxembourg was without bounds. He represented the facility with which the Prince of Orange might now be beaten with one army and pursued by another, and how important it was to draw off detachments of the Imperial forces from Germany into Flanders, and how, by sending an army into Flanders instead of Germany, the |