LXX To the Countess de Toulonjon
Vive ✠ Jésus!
Annecy, 1627.
My dearest Daughter,
May God in His infinite goodness recompense you by an abundance of spiritual and temporal blessings for the loss you have sustained in the death of a son,A tidings of which have reached me. I know that you will have received this visitation of God with a patient and loving submission to His good pleasure, for in this valley of tears we must expect many afflictions and but few consolations. Keep lifting up your thoughts to Eternal Life, where alone is to be found true repose. Into it cast all your heart and all your hopes, and teach the little one (GabrielleB) this lesson while she is still young.
Notes
A Madame de Toulonjon unhappily lost several of her children at birth.
B Gabrielle de Toulonjon married her cousin, de Bussy Rabutin, of unenviable celebrity. Needless to say, the union was not for her a happy one.