Chapter CVI: Letter XCV

PARIS, All-Saints’ day, 1688, nine o’clock at night.

_Philipsburg is taken, and your son is well!_ I have only to turn this phrase in every possible way, for I will not change my text. Learn then again from this note, that _your son is well, and that Philipsburg is taken_! A courier is just arrived at M. de Villacerf’s, who says that the dauphin’s courier reached Fontainebleau while Father Gaillard was preaching; and that the sermon was immediately interrupted, and thanks returned to God for this brilliant achievement. No further particulars are known, except that there was no assault, and that M. du Plessis was right when he said the governor had ordered wagons to carry away his equipage. Recover your breath, then, my dear child, and let the first thing you do be to return thanks to God. No other siege is talked of; rejoice that your son has witnessed that of Philipsburg; it is an admirable period for him; it is the dauphin’s first campaign. Would you not have been grieved if he was the only person of his age who was not present on the occasion, in which all the rest glory? But let us not look back; every thing has happened as we could have wished. It is you, my dear count, we may thank for it. I congratulate you on the joy you must experience, and beg my compliments also to the coadjutor; you are all relieved from great anxiety. Sleep soundly, then, my dearest, sleep soundly on the assurance we give you; if you are covetous of grief, as we formerly said, seek some other occasion, for God has preserved your dear child to you. We are in raptures, and in this feeling I embrace you with an affection that I believe you can not doubt.