Monsieur de Nemours determined to follow the King; it was a journey he

could not well excuse himself from, and so he resolved to go without

endeavouring to see Madam de Cleves again from the window out of which

he had sometimes seen her; he begged the Viscount to speak to her; and

what did he not desire him to say in his behalf? What an infinite

number of reasons did he furnish him with, to persuade her to conquer

her scruples? In short, great part of the night was spent before he

thought of going away.

As for Madam de Cleves, she was in no condition to rest; it was a thing

so new to her to have broke loose from the restraints she had laid on

herself, to have endured the first declarations of love that ever were

made to her, and to have confessed that she herself was in love with

him that made them, all this was so new to her, that she seemed quite

another person; she was surprised at what she had done; she repented of

it; she was glad of it; all her thoughts were full of anxiety and

passion; she examined again the reasons of her duty, which obstructed

her happiness; she was grieved to find them so strong, and was sorry

that she had made them out so clear to Monsieur de Nemours: though she

had entertained thoughts of marrying him, as soon as she beheld him in

the garden of the suburbs, yet her late conversation with him made a

much greater impression on her mind; at some moments she could not

comprehend how she could be unhappy by marrying him, and she was ready

to say in her heart, that her scruples as to what was past, and her

fears for the future, were equally groundless: at other times, reason

and her duty prevailed in her thoughts, and violently hurried her into

a resolution not to marry again, and never to see Monsieur de Nemours;

but this was a resolution hard to be established in a heart so softened

as hers, and so lately abandoned to the charms of love. At last, to

give herself a little ease, she concluded that it was not yet necessary

to do herself the violence of coming to any resolution, and decency

allowed her a considerable time to determine what to do: however she

resolved to continue firm in having no commerce with Monsieur de

Nemours.

The Viscount came to see her, and pleaded his friend's cause

with all the wit and application imaginable, but could not make her

alter her conduct, or recall the severe orders she had given to

Monsieur de Nemours; she told him her design was not to change her

condition; that she knew how difficult it was to stand to that design,

but that she hoped she should be able to do it; she made him so

sensible how far she was affected with the opinion that Monsieur de

Nemours was the cause of her husband's death, and how much she was

convinced that it would be contrary to her duty to marry him, that the

Viscount was afraid it would be very difficult to take away those

impressions; he did not, however, tell the Duke what he thought, when

he gave him an account of his conversation with her, but left him as

much hope as a man who is loved may reasonably have.




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