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feeling, of rapturous pietism. The "Journals and Letters of Eugénie de Guérin" will recur to the memory of every reader of the day's literature. The sweet simplicity, poetical grace, and devout self-consecration of the writer may well have charmed us into forgetfulness of the unquestionable narrowness and monotony of her mental horizon. We have now another instance of this class of autobiography to bring to notice.

In the April number of this year's Revue des deux Mondes, there appears a sketch, from the pen of M. Emile Montégut, of the career and character of another gentle devotee, a Frenchwoman by marriage and language, though not by birth :—and a liberal quotation from her diaries and letters, and from those of her husband, contribute to make up the record which M. Montégut heads as "Histoire d'un Amour Chrétien." The original compilation, however, on which M. Montégut's article is founded, was made by Madame Auguste Craven, sister and sister-in-law of the personages mentioned. It is printed for a very limited circulation only. M. Montégut hopes it may some day reach a wider circle. It goes under the title, "Récit d'une Sour Souvenirs de Famille." But the first part only has yet appeared; and we are left in ignorance. of the subsequent career of one of the principal actors in this portion of the family drama. The story to which we are introduced is as follows:

In the winter of 1831-32 there were among the visitors at Rome two families whose relations with each other soon became friendly and even intimate: the one was that of Madame d'Alopeus, widow of the late Russian Minister at the court of Berlin, who was residing there with her young and lovely daughter Alexandrine; and the other was that of the Count de la Ferronnays, a French nobleman, and trusted servant of the late Bourbon dynasty, under which he had been successively Ambassador at the court of St. Petersburg, Minister

1 Since the above was written, the memoir has been published in France.

of Foreign Affairs (1829), and Ambassador at Rome. The Count and Countess de la Ferronnays had several sons and daughters. Between the daughters and Mademoiselle d'Alopeus a friendship speedily sprang up. It was on January 17th, 1832, that Albert, one of the sons, met their young neighbour for the first time; and the history of the love of these two young people, their short union, and their severance by the death of Albert, form the groundwork of the religious idyll before us.

Albert de la Ferronnays was an enthusiastic young man, strongly imbued with the romantic fiction which came into vogue with a section of "Young France," in the latter days of Charles Dix. It was the period when Lacordaire, with chivalrous ardour, was propagating his ideas of a monastic renaissance, and when the Count de Montalembert-with whom Albert was on terms of the most affectionate friendship was engaged in fostering the love of old Catholic legends, by composing the life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Albert's whole soul was absorbed in the duties and raptures of devotion; and the tender interest Mademoiselle Alexandrine awakened in him on the first occasion of their meeting seems only to have suggested to him the desire to pray for her conversion from the errors of Lutheranism, in which she had been brought up,1 to the Holy Catholic faith. Alexandrine thus notes the impression. made upon her own mind by her first interview with Albert :

"I did not go upstairs for a long time "after I heard that the brother of "Pauline de la Ferronnays was there. "I had a great wish to see him, how"ever, and the evening before I had "fancied I saw him in a church, but I

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"told his friends of the lively impres"sion I had made upon him; that they "laughed at it, and he then ceased to "talk about me."

On the 5th of February, going to the church of the Trinità del Monte to hear the nuns sing, Alexandrine sees Albert on his knees engaged in the most earnest devotion, and a slightly tender feeling towards him awakens in her mind. "Coming out of church, I happened to "find myself near him, and I told him "how much I had wished to kneel as "he did, and that, had I been with his "sisters, I should have done so. Then "why not do so at once?' said he; "Why this respect for human opinion?" "This boldness-for he knew me so “little-in a man of twenty, charmed "me."

Soon the interest in Alexandrine waxed stronger and stronger in the young man's mind, and blended itself with all his holy emotions. "Oh, I am "very happy!" he said to her one day; "I have communicated this morning, "and I love you." His zeal for her conversion led him at this time to one of those fantastic devices of the fashionable romanticism which reminds us of the vagaries of "Ritualism" in our own day, understanding by that term the zeal for resuscitating worn-out forms of piety-putting the new wine of the nineteenth century religion into very old. bottles of mediævalism. This was the rising early one morning to make the pilgrimage of the Seven Basilicas, barefoot, in order to obtain from Heaven the conversion of Mademoiselle d'Alopeus. M. Emile Montégut asks: "Among the "most fervent Catholics of later genera"tions are there many whom religious "enthusiasm would inspire with similar "acts of love?" Neo-catholicism in France as a fashionable furore was beforehand with our ritualism, both in its commencement and its decline.

But the young devotee could not long blind his eyes to the fact that his earthly love was encroaching with alarming speed on the ground of the heavenly; the tares that had been growing up with the wheat seemed, to his over-wrought

enthusiasm, to be on the point of choking it; and he felt miserable in his divided allegiance. He thus pours out his misery into the pages of his private journal:

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"How this state of coldness fatigues "and harasses! We. feel at the bottom "of our heart the longing for those "emotions we so rarely enjoy, and yet "cannot get rid of some obstacle which keeps them away. For some time past "I feel that those ravishing sensations "which the love of God alone inspired in me are fading away. I "should like to be solitary for some days. I feel that my soul needs to be "steeped again. I believe truly that "habits are more powerful than principles. At Rome, I was positively "better. I took such happiness in fulfilling all my duties exactly! I was "so moved on entering a church, and "my heart was filled with such lively "faith! All this seems now weakened. "And what a difference in my love! "What I did yesterday would never "have entered my mind before. I was "so happy with my silent admiration! "I enjoyed contemplating her soul, and "a delicious, pure, disinterested senti"ment moved me, and kindled an en"thusiasm filled with devotion! Why "did I reveal to her the feelings she "had awakened in me? Have my senti"ments changed their nature? What "did it matter whether she read what

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was within my soul? What madness "possessed me that, in approaching her, "I should cease to forget myself, and to "behold in her a heaven it was impos"sible to attain ? I blush for it. How "she must have pitied me! and how "astonished she must have been!--June "6th. My God, I pray thee, give me "that fervour which I no longer pos"sess! There is such happiness in "heartfelt prayer, and it is a happiness "which ought always to last! All those vague and passionate feelings we ex"perience in youth give to religion a 'something which calms and satisfies "the soul. Oh, my God! I have for'gotten that language which is under"stood by those alone who love none

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"but Thee. Once I knew this language, "which is spoken only in church, all "alone-I thought it so beautiful, I "loved so much to speak it! My God, give it back to me!"

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Fight against it as he may, the absorbing thought in Albert's breast now is whether Alexandrine returns his love. For months he is tormented by the doubt, and records his hopes and fears with a trembling minuteness, similar to that which of old inspired the sonnets of Petrarch. Thus he writes to Montalembert :-"How lovely she was this evening! After she had sung, she came up to me, saying, 'Do not be so " melancholy!' 'How can I be gay ?' "I answered. 'Life weighs upon me;

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can I ever be happy? Your goodness oppresses me, for I know that I can"not be beloved. No, spare me your pity. I had rather be hated; I should not be mortified.' If you did but "know what I was suffering! And, to "finish me, she said, 'You are always "exaggerated. You will forget me; you "will return to. Oh, my dear "friend, if you knew how she spoke "these last words! I could not answer. "Have I vexed you?' she continued. "Well then, I will believe you; but 66 you have changed so often, and I have always been forgotten.' Oh, Charles, "I could have died! And when I "reflect that she never can be mine, "because I have no fortune! You can "conceive how I suffer-all my thoughts "and wishes. I have got into such a "habit of seeing her, of being with her, "that it seems as though she belonged "to me, and could not be taken from

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would seem, an odd way to answer the question, if that was her design, as one cannot help suspecting. She gives him to read-in order, she says, not to deceive him as to her character-two small manuscript books, in which she has recorded her private thoughts. The first, a little green book, fills him with dismay; it reveals to him a previous attachment. In the small blue book which succeeded, the last few pages were carefully fastened down with a slip of paper, that they might not be opened. Alexandrine's journal tells us how her confidence was betrayed :

"I was at the piano, singing the air "in La Muette: O moment enchanteur!' "when Albert, who was standing op

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posite to me, asked me what I should "think if he had read the pages in the "blue book which I had so carefully "concealed. I was alarmed, but I "answered that I was quite sure he

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ner as to make him unhappy the "whole evening. Certainly, at that

"moment I did not feel that I loved "him; but it soon returned when I "saw him thoroughly miserable."

The following is the lover's confession of his treachery to his friend Montalembert :

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"Dear good friend, you will be angry "with me, but I must talk about my"self. How much has happened since my last letter! I did not think I could "have borne so much happiness. I told you about her journal, which she gave me to read. After reading the book through over and over again, and "learning, as I knew her better, to love "her more than ever, I reached the concluding part which she had forbidden

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at last, in a moment of delirium, I "broke through the frail obstacle. I "will not attempt to tell you what I "felt; I hardly know myself. She loves me, my friend. Do you understand "what I am saying? She loves me !... "The moment when I told her of my "treason was terrible. There was contempt in her eyes. Hell has no greater torture! It was long before I got over it, but now at last my fault is "forgotten, and she is no longer vexed "with me for knowing her secret. I "will not say anything of my feelings -you can imagine them."

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Although the lovers were thus happy in the knowledge of their mutual affection, there were many obstacles in the way of their union. In the first place, Albert was very young, not above twenty, and it was decided by his father that the strength of their attachment should have the trial of two years of absence. He was accordingly sent to Rome, Madame d'Alopeus and her daughter being at Naples; and correspondence between the lovers was strictly forbidden. Once only, at the urgent entreaty, on his brother's behalf, of Fernand de la Ferronnays, did Alexandrine transgress this interdiction, and then not without a feeling of remorse for the deceit she was obliged to practise. She implored Albert not to answer her letter, and he accordingly contented himself with pouring out to his brother his thanks for the boon he had obtained for him.

Madame d'Alopeus's aversion to the match was soon strengthened by an event which only added to her daughter's attachment. Albert was seized at Civita Vecchia, whither he had gone in order to sail with his family for France, with a dangerous attack of inflammation on the chest. Alexandrine returned with her mother to Rome under the impression that he had left Italy, but they soon received tidings of his dangerous

illness, and she pours forth her grief and anxiety in the following letter to his sister:

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"Pauline, I am suffocating. There "is no one to whom I can speak of my "terrible sufferings; so I write to you. "Only conceive! At this moment of "poignant anxiety, mamma has just told me that she will perhaps feel it a mat"ter of conscience to forbid my marrying a man in such precarious health, "when it is just grief that makes him "ill, and happiness that restores him. "Oh my God, do not take my life, for "that would be a sorrow to him, but let

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me, me alone, endure what Thou wilt "of physical or mental suffering; only "let him be happy for some time yet, "in the name of our Lord! Pauline, I "think my brain will go. May God come to my aid, and not punish me "for loving him so much!"

Albert's recovery by no means removed the mother's objections to the marriage, for which, indeed, she had many good reasons. His youth, his delicate health, his want of fortune and of prospects, and, above all, his different religion, were all against it; and she further feared that the connexion might be displeasing to the imperial family of Russia, whose consent she would be obliged to ask, as Alexandrine was a lady of honour to the empress. She harboured besides more ambitious views for her daughter, who, in the bitterness of her soul, just before starting for Germany, where her mother determined to take her, writes thus in her journal:

"I feel curious sometimes to know "whether there will be careers in heaven "-whether generals and ministers will "be more thought of there than those "who have not made themselves talked "about, What is glory with respect "to any earthly dignity? Why do not men rather seek to earn a dignity in "heaven? Do they never reflect that

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dignities there alone are incorruptible? "Career-the word has become intole"rable to me. To contribute to the "defence of one's country when it has "need of defence is all well; but to "copy despatches, what is it? If, in

"deed, one could perform some useful "action all at once! But, in order to "reach this distant object, to languish "for years in almost mechanical occu"pations, which only serve to waste "the time which might be devoted to "God-what is that?

"To say to a young person-Do not "marry till you have the certainty (as "far as that can be said of anything in "this world) that you will be saved "from want, is reasonable, and springs "from a prudential kindness; but that 66 a little money more or less should "excite consideration or contempt, this "it is which cries to heaven for vengeance.

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"Mademoiselle, if you meet with any "one who you think might please you, "before you allow yourself to be too "much attracted, do not inquire whe"ther he has religion and good princi"ciples; so long as he has not robbed

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or committed any crime, that is enough. "Do not indulge in exalted or ridiculous "pretensions, but inquire whether he possesses enough to give to you for 'your lifetime, and to your children "after you, something over and above "the superfluities requisite for enjoying "all the comforts of life. If you can "satisfy yourself on this point, the most "essential of all, then marry him with"out fear; you will be happy! But if, "on the contrary, he whom you are "disposed to love has only just enough "to live upon, and you hear romantic

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people say that the woman he marries "is to be envied, that the solidity of his "character is a warrant for conduct of "uniform excellence, that his religious "principles are strong, that his simple "tastes will never lead him into foolish

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which her mother-a very lovely and fascinating woman-married Prince Lapoukhyn, a Russian nobleman, to whom she had been for some time engaged.

"When one is young," Alexandrine writes in her journal at this time, "when "one has happiness still before one, "there is a peculiar charm in recovering "from illness: the earth appears rose"coloured. My God, when we recover "from life, which is itself but an illness, "when we rise from our bed, the grave, "what youthfulness shall we then feel! "And we shall see before us not an un"certain and fugitive happiness, but a "happiness cloudless and without end. Oh, my God, grant me first the faith “in this, and then its fulfilment !

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"My mother was married the follow"ing day, the 30th of October, to "Prince Lapoukhyn. The wedding was celebrated first in the Greek church, and afterwards in the Protest"ant chapel." (Difference of religion does not seem to have stood in the mother's way in her own case.) "I "was still so weak that I hardly knew. "what I thought about it. My lips were pale and trembling, and I could scarcely stand. I recollect thinking, 'during the ceremony, that there would "be no more weddings, or fêtes, or "flowers for me on earth, and yet I felt "that they were better suited to me "than they were to my mother.”

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The constancy of the young lovers was, however, soon rewarded. M. Montégut does not tell us how Madame Lapoukhyn's objections were surmounted; perhaps her own marriage gave her a softer feeling for her daughter's distress, and she could not make up her mind to take her with her into the banishment of her new husband's estate near Odessa. However this may have been, the pair met once more at Naples, and, after a due time for preparations both religious and worldly, were married in that city. Shortly before the wedding, Albert, who with his delicate health was always susceptible of melancholy feelings, writes in his journal:

"Passed the evening with the La"poukhyns. Alexandrine sad at the

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