176 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

It should not be omitted that his conversion made thefortune of father Poujet: he immediately became afashionable confessor, or spiritual director, and obtainedchurch preferment.

The epigrammatist was mistaken in La Fontaine’sdeath. He lived about two years more, in the house ofmadame d’Hervart; and, in spite of his vow, is supposedto have written some more tales; among them the taleentitled “ La Clochette.” This relapse is said to be al-luded to in the prologue cited by Moreri: —

“ O combien l’homme est inconstant, divers,

Foible, leger, tenant mal sa parole:

J’aurais jurd-meme, en assez beaux vers,

De renoncer & tout conte frivole,

Et quand jurd— c’est cequi me confond —

Depuis deux jours j’ai fait cette promesse, —

Puis fiez vous k rimeur qui repondD’un seul moment,” &c.

His mind, however, seems to have been deeply tingedwith devotion, from his illness, in 1693, to his death, in1695. He began to translate the church hymns ; andread, at the first meeting of the academy which he at-tended after his illness, a translation of the “Dies Irie,”with more advantage to his reputation as a catholic thanas a poet. His talent seems now to have given way toage, infirmity, and the penances which he appears tohave imposed upon himself.

Lulli, who died a few years before, did public penance,like La Fontaine, but with an after-thought worthy ofthe cunning Florentine. He burned, at the request ofhis confessor, the music of a new unperformed opera. Aprince having asked him, a few days after, how he couldbe so silly as to destroy charming music at the desireof a drivelling jansenist, he replied, " Hush, hush,monseigneur; I knew what I did; I have anothercopy.” He, however, had a relapse, did penance in sack-cloth and ashes, and died, with a halter round his neck,singing the hymn, “ Sinner, thou must die,” with tearsof remorse and agony.

La Fontaine died in 1695, and in the seventy-fourthyear of his age. Upon undressing his body, after death,