Her  letters  during  this  period  of  anxiety  are  not  brilliant,
but  she  has  never  written  anything  more  tender,  or  shown  herself
more  lovingly  eager  to  give  strength  and  courage  and  consolation
to  that  other  mother  away  in  Provence,  whose  heart  is  torn  with
anxious  fears,  whose  only  desire  just  now  is  for  tidings  of  her
son ;  whose  one  absorbing  thought  is  whether  he  is  safe.  The
Marquise  gives  very  little  of  the  news  she  usually  sends  ;  there
is  no  brilliant  gossip  from  Versailles ;  and  once,  when  she  has
written  a  few  words  about  English  affairs,  she  says  with  the
intuition  of  her  own  loving,  heart,  "  You  do  not  listen  to  me ;
you  are  thinking  only  of  your  child."

Fortunately  the  suspense  was  not  long,  as  on  the  3<Dth  of
October  Philipsburg  was  taken.  Madame  de  Sevigne,  immedi-
ately on  hearing  the  news,  wrote  joyfully  to  her  daughter,
beginning  her  letter,  "  Philipsburg  is  taken  and  your  son  is  safe.
