abruptly, and a bitter and cruel war was
established between them to the agony of
both, and the exultation of their enemies.
Louise, rousing herself for triumph, indignant
at the only defeat she had ever known,
rested not until she had won from her former
friend the heart of the too unsettled swain
who had hesitated between them. Clemence
lost her lover and her friend at once, and
nothing was left her but to die: while Louise
consoled herself in the ill-advised victory she
had bent all her powers to obtain. The fate
of Clemence excited commiseration, and from
this time a series of scandalous anecdotes of
the learned fair one were spread abroad, and
succeeded but too well in blackening her
fame; she did not, however, want defenders,
and while some biographers have represented
her as the Ninon of her day, others insist
that La Belle Cordière was purity itself. A
contemporary historian, Paradin, thus raves
in his description of her: " Her countenance
"was more angelic than human: yet was it
nothing in comparison to her mind, so chaste,
so virtuous, so poetic, so rare in learning,
that she would seem to have been created
by Heaven to be admired as a prodigy in
nature."

It is with her works that we have to do
and not with the scandal of the period, for
the former prove her claim to be considered as
one of the most remarkable persons of the
age she lived in. Her poetry, which chiefly
paints the sorrows and anxieties of love, is
full of feeling and grace, and the sentiments
she expresses are as tender and delicate as
they are passionate.

Perhaps these lines "On Time" were
written at the period of her attachment to
her friend's lover:

Time weighs upon the lofty pyramid,
  Time dries the flowing fountain to its source,
Spares not the Cossosseum, nor its pride,
  And mighty cities levels in his course;
And Time is not to Love more lenient grown,
  His sign can quench the flame that all adore—
But ah! it seems within my heart alone
  To grow with Time and to consume it more!

One of the most remarkable of Louise
Labé's prose works is the Dispute of Folly
and Love, in which she introduces much
clever repartee and a good deal of sharp
remark on the manners of the time. The two
rivals bring their quarrel before the gods;
Apollo undertakes the cause of Love, and
Folly is supported by Mercury. Their
arguments for and against are amusing and clever;
a few specimens will give an idea of the
subject, which is as a whole somewhat too
tedious to entertain modern readers.

The advocate for Love thus remarks:

"He who seeks to please no one, whatever
attractions he may possess, derives no more
benefit from his perfections than one who
conceals a flower in his sleeve: but he who
desires to please thinks continually of doing
so, cultivates those virtues which he knows
must captivate, and is like one who holds the
nosegay in his hand which delights both
himself and others by its beauty and its
odour."

The utility of dress is thus adroitly
advocated, and the arguments will find favour
with her sex in general.

"No one would willingly encourage ennui
and disgust, and the means of avoiding such
disagreeable attendants are easy. Man has
always the same body, head, arms, legs and
feet, but he can diversify them to infinity so as
to appear as if constantly new. His chemises
can be embroidered with a variety of patterns
and perfumed with different essences. His
cap, his cloak and every part of his costume
can be diversified according to the season, and
exhibit any particular perfection of his frame
to the best advantage. How many styles of
boots, gaiters, capes, cloaks, gowns may he not
invent! And cannot women do the same?
What opportunities do they not possess of
arranging becomingly their hair alone? By
gilding, frizzing and curling it, alternately
appearing in the fashion of Spain, of France,
of Germany, of Italy, or of Greece. And can
they not also bestow such attention on their
complexion that they remain almost always
young; by diligently preserving their faces
from the accidents of wind and weather: and
virtuous it is in them to endeavour to repair
by art those ravages which would displease
the beholder, and thus make themselves
mistresses of the fashion of every country and
costume.

"How proper it is that the dress should sit
gracefully round the form, like the leaf round
the fruit, that which is beautiful discovered
judiciously, or so veiled as to enhance its
value. Then the sleeves should be tight if
the arms are full, and large and flowing if
small and delicate—the shoe sitting close and.
carefully adjusted—and nothing should be
forgotten, pommes d'or, chains, rings, girdles,
perfumed gloves, pendants, muffs, in fact
anything to delight the eye and surprise it—
for all these things are the work of love.

"If he is the author of this, the lightest
part, he is far from neglecting what concerns
sentiment and feeling. Music was his creation,
and the voice and harmony are the effect and
sign of perfect love. And man, to soften his
tender pains or to increase his pleasures, has
invented the countless instruments which he
teaches to express emotion, accompanied by
those glowing words which he breathes in
madrigals, in sonnets, in lays of all kinds,
commemorative of love!

"What makes the tired traveller so soon
forget his weary way? Is it not the song of
love that he sings to beguile his fatigue—or
the tale of some fortunate lover's adventures
that his companion relates to him as they
proceed together on their journey?  Then
they speak of her whom they love, and re-
count instances of her kindness, or of her