I would beg to lay before you the book
which goes with this note; some passages of it may, perhaps, wound
your honorable regrets, your chivalrous respects, but they are
sincere; and this sincerity I have never better understood and
practised than when I assure you that I am your most assiduous
reader and most fervent admirer."
"Sir,--Do not judge me, I pray you, from the newspapers in which,
to my great regret, I write: imperious circumstances, old
acquaintance, and--why shall I not confess it?--the necessities of
Parisian life, have driven me to appear to have enlisted on the
side of the most numerous battalions. But I have in the Provinces
a good old mother who reads no newspaper but yours; one of my
uncles is a Chevalier de Saint Louis; another served in Conde's
army; my Aunt Veronica is a pious woman, who would forever look
kindly upon me, if she should ever perceive through her spectacles
her nephew's name followed by praise from your pen. For I need not
say that you are her favorite author, as, of a truth, you are of
everybody; for who can remain insensible to those treasures of.
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