Excerpt from Life of Lamartine The father of Alphonse de Lamartine was a cadet of an old Burgundian family; his mother the daughter of M. Des Roys, an officer in the household of the Duke of Orleans. There had been in the circumstances of their marriage more of romance than is usual in France. Mademoiselle des Roys, while still a child, received a nomination entitling, her to become a canoness in the richly endowed Chapter of Selle, and, having reached the age of fifteen, was shortly to take vows which, though not cutting her off from the world, would have bound her to a single life, when she met, at the house of his sister (herself a canoness of Salles), the Chevalier de Lamartine. A few weeks later the Chevalier obtained Mademoiselle des Roys' consent to ask her hand in marriage. The want of fortune and family prejudices were formidable obstacles, but the lovers remained constant, and, after three years of hope deferred, they were united. Just at the eve of the Revolution. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.