Page:German Stories (Volumes 1–2).djvu/25

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Introduction.
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MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERI.

CHAPTER I.

IN the Rue St Honoré in Paris, during the reign of Louis XIV, was situated a small house, inhabited by Magdalene de Scuderi, the celebrated poetess, well known to the public, both through her literary production, and the distinctions conferred on her by the King, and the gay Marchioness de Maintenon.

Very late one night, (it might be about the autumn of the year 1680,) there was heard at the door of this house a violent knocking, which echoed through the whole corridor. Baptiste, a man-servant, who, in the small establishment of the lady, represented cook, valet, and porter, had, by her permission gone into the country to at-

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