[1] An American translation was published in 1890. Vide Bibliography.

[2] Cordeiro, op. cit., p. 131, 1st ed.

[3] Cf. Cordeiro, op. cit., pp. 147-8 and 300, 1st ed.

[4] This was partly owing to the ideas of the time, and partly for reasons already mentioned, and also because her father wished to build up an estate, to be entailed on heirs-male.

[5] Letter v.

[6] Asse, op. cit., Preface, p. vi. For an account of the somewhat relaxed character of convent discipline at the time vide Cordeiro, pp. 156-164, 1st ed.

[7] ‘Muita era a liberdade das grades naquelle miseravel tempo.’

[8] Cordeiro, op. cit., pp. 326-7, 1st ed.

[9] Cordeiro, op. cit., pp. 139-40, 1st. ed.

[10] Cordeiro, op. cit., p. 182, 1st ed.

[11] For a good comparison of the Letters of Marianna and HeloÏse see an article entitled ‘La EloÍsa Portuguesa’ in the June number of the review EspaÑa Moderna, 1889, written by Emilio Pardo BazÁn.

[12] Cordeiro, op. cit., p. 299, 1st ed.

[13] This syntactical extension of the sex to the patronymic was general in the seventeenth century. Vide Cordeiro, op. cit., p. 91, 1st ed.

[14] This should be 83. Cf. the extract from the Baptismal Register in Cordeiro, p. 285, 1st ed.

[15] This document was found and transcribed by Cordeiro on pp. 328-9 of his oft-referred-to work, 1st ed.

[16] Op. cit., Preface, p. xi.

[17] Memoires, vol. iii. pp. 372-3; Paris, 1873.

[18] Observation of Senhor Cordeiro, op. cit., p. 6, 1st ed.

[19] Observation of M. Asse.

[20] Asse, op. cit., Preface, pp. xiii, xiv.

[21] Letter to Mme. de Grignan in vol. ii., page 284, of the edition of Paris 1862.

[22] Asse, op. cit., Preface, p. xv.

[23] Director for a time of the Gazette de France, and a friend of Mme. de SÉvignÉ and Racine. Boileau described him as

[24] Quoted by Cordeiro, op. cit., p. 21, 1st ed.

[25] One of those ecstasies so common in conventual annals is here meant.

[26] No. 4 in all editions and translations except that of Cordeiro.

[27] A province in the extreme south of Portugal.

[28] The Mother Superior of the convent.

[29] Gates in the city of Beja: so called because they are on the side which looks toward Mertola, 54 kilometres distant. Both Beja and Mertola are in the province of the Alemtejo.

[30] HÉrard Bouton and Catherine Lecomte de Nonant.

[31] Both Cordeiro and the French texts read ‘first,’ which does not make sense.

[32] No. 2 in all editions and translations except that of Cordeiro.

[33] Two of Chamilly’s servants.

[34] The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which was signed May 2nd, 1668, ratified this peace and put an end to the war called ‘of Devolution.’

[35] D. Brites de Noronha was a professed nun and a companion of Marianna in the convent of the Conception at Beja.

[36] Marianna refers to her condition as a Franciscan nun in a small provincial town, not to the rank of her family, which was as good as that of her lover.

[37] Marianna was about twenty-six years of age when she first met Chamilly. She had naturally made her profession at sixteen and had been confided to the care of the convent at twelve, or even much earlier, like her sister.