seclusion

After the death of Madame, her faithful friend withdrew more and more from the Court, into the seclusion and quiet of her little band of chosen friends, urged partly by her distaste for Court life and partly by her increasing ill-health.

Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette - La Princesse De Clèves par Mme de La Fayette : Edited with Introduction and Notes

How close and lasting was this friendship is seen on almost every page of Mme. de Sévigné's correspondence. Indeed, so often does the name of Mme. de La Fayette occur in Mme. de Sévigné's letters to her daughter, that the latter may well have been jealous of her mother's friend. The companionship of Mme. de Sévigné was, after the death of La Rochefoucauld, the chief comfort of Mme. de La Fayette in her ill-health and seclusion; and it was from the sick-chamber of her friend that Mme. de Sévigné's letters would seem to have been written in those latter years. In 1693, soon after the death of Mme. de La Fayette, Mme. de Sévigné writes as follows of her dead friend: "Je me trouvois trop heureuse d'être aimée d'elle depuis un temps très-considérable; jamais nous n'avions eu le moindre nuage dans notre amitié. La longue habitude ne m'avoit point accoutumée

Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette - La Princesse De Clèves par Mme de La Fayette : Edited with Introduction and Notes

The little book should be read for its intrinsic worth, its delightful style, its faithful delineation of character, and its earnestness of moral purpose. Mme. de La Fayette died in 1693. During her last years ill health and sorrow had forced upon her an almost absolute seclusion, and she died forgotten by all except a few faithful friends. The place of her burial is unknown.

Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette - La Princesse De Clèves par Mme de La Fayette : Edited with Introduction and Notes