The King received him very coldly; Messieurs de Guise,
who have no kindness for him, but dare not show it on account of the
Duchess, made use of Monsieur the Viscount, her declared enemy, to
prevent his obtaining what he came to demand. It was no difficult
matter to do him hurt. The King hated him, and was uneasy at his
presence, so that he was obliged to return to Piemont without any
benefit from his journey, except perhaps that of rekindling in the
heart of the Duchess the flame which absence began to extinguish. The
King has had a great many other subjects of jealousy, but either he has
not been informed of them, or has not dared to complain of them.
"I don't know, daughter," added Madam de Chartres, "if I have not
already told you more of these things, than you desired to know." "I
am far, Madam, from complaining of that," replied the Princess of
Cleves, "and if it was not for fear of being importunate, I should yet
desire to be informed of several circumstances I am ignorant of."
The Duke de Nemours' passion for Madam de Cleves was at first so
violent, that he had no relish left for any of the ladies he paid his
addresses to before, and with whom he kept a correspondence during his
absence; he even lost all remembrance of his engagements with them, and
not only made it his business to find out excuses to break with them,
but had not the patience to hear their complaints, or make any answer
to the reproaches they laid upon him. The Queen-Dauphin herself, for
whom his regards had been very tender, could no longer preserve a place
in that heart which was now devoted to the Princess of Cleves. His
impatience of making a tour to England began to abate, and he showed no
earnestness in hastening his equipage. He frequently went to the
Queen-Dauphin's Court, because the Princess of Cleves was often there,
and he was very easy in leaving people in the opinion they had of his
passion for that Queen; he put so great a value on Madam de Cleves,
that he resolved to be rather wanting in giving proofs of his love,
than to hazard its being publicly known; he did not so much as speak of
it to the Viscount de Chartres, who was his intimate friend, and from
whom he concealed nothing; the truth is, he conducted this affair with
so much discretion, that nobody suspected he was in love with Madam de
Cleves, except the Chevalier de Guise; and she would scarcely have
perceived it herself, if the inclination she had for him had not led
her into a particular attention to all his actions, but which she was
convinced of it.