Charles de Saint - Évremond Charles de Marguetel de Saint - Denis , seigneur de Saint - Évremond ( 1 April 1613 – 29 September 1703 ) was a French soldier , hedonist , essayist and literary critic . After 1661 , he lived in exile , mainly in England , as a consequence of his attack on French policy at the time of the peace of the Pyrenees ( 1659 ) . He is buried in Poets ' Corner , Westminster . He wrote for his friends and did not intend his work to be published , although a few of his pieces were leaked in his lifetime . The first full collection of his works was published in London in 1705 , after his death . Life . He was born at Saint - Denis - le - Guast , near Coutances , the seat of his family in Normandy . He was a pupil of the Jesuits at the College de Clermont ( now Lycée Louis - le - Grand ) , Paris ; then a student at Caen . For a time he studied law in Paris at the College d ' Harcourt ( now Lycée Saint - Louis ) . He soon , however , took to arms , and in 1629 went with Marshal Bassompierre to Italy . He served through great part of the Thirty Years ' War , distinguishing himself at the siege of Landrecies ( 1637 ) , when he was made captain . During his campaigns he studied the works of Montaigne and the Spanish and Italian languages . In 1639 he met Gassendi in Paris , and became one of his disciples . He was present at Rocroi , at Nördlingen , and at Lerida . For a time he was personally attached to Condé , but offended him by a satirical remark and was deprived of his command in the prince ' s guards in 1648 . During the Fronde , Saint - Évremond was a steady royalist . The duke of Candale ( of whom he has left a very severe portrait ) gave him a command in Guienne , and Saint - Évremond , who had reached the grade of " maréchal de camp " , is said to have saved 50 , 000 livres in less than three years . He was one of the numerous victims involved in the fall of Fouquet . His letter to Marshal Créqui on the peace of the Pyrenees , which is said to have been discovered by Colbert ' s agents at the seizure of Fouquet ' s papers , seems a very inadequate cause for his disgrace . Saint - Évremond fled to Holland and to England , where he was kindly received by Charles II and was pensioned . After James II ' s flight to France Saint - Évremond was invited to return , but he declined . Hortense Mancini , the most attractive of Mazarin ' s attractive group of nieces , came to England in 1670 , and set up a salon for love - making , gambling and witty conversation , and here Saint - Évremond was for many years at home . He died on 29 September 1703 and was buried in Westminster Abbey , where his monument still is in Poets ' Corner close to that of Prior . Literary work . Saint - Évremond never authorised the printing of any of his works during his lifetime , though Barbin in 1668 published an unauthorised collection . But he empowered Des Maizeaux to publish his works after his death , and they were published in London ( 2 vols . , 1705 ) , and often reprinted . His masterpiece in irony is the so - called " Conversation du maréchal d ' Hocquincourt avec le père Canaye " ( the latter a Jesuit and Saint - Évremond ' s master at school ) , which has been frequently classed with the " Lettres provinciales " . His " Œuvres meslées " , edited from the manuscripts by Silvestre and Des Maizeaux , were printed by Jacob Tonson ( London , 1705 , 2 vols . ; 2nd ed . , 3 vols . , 1709 ) , with a notice by Des Maizeaux . His correspondence with Ninon de l ' Enclos , whose fast friend he was , was published in 1752 ; " La Comédie des académistes " , written in 1643 , was printed in 1650 . Modern editions of his works are by Hippeau ( Paris , 1852 ) , C Giraud ( Paris , 1865 ) , and a selection ( 1881 ) with a notice by M . de Lescure . Among his plays is one called " Politick Would - be " , modelled on a character from Ben Jonson ' s " Volpone " .