The Princess of Cleves had never heard before of the amour between the

Duke de Nemours and the Queen-Dauphin; she was so much surprised at

what her mother had told her, and seemed to see so plainly how she had

been mistaken in her thoughts about the Duke, that she changed

countenance. Madam de Chartres perceived it. Visitors came in that

moment; and the Princess of Cleves retired to her own apartment, and

shut herself up in her closet.

One can't express the grief she felt to discover, by what her mother

had been just saying, the interest her heart had in the Duke de

Nemours; she had not dared as yet to acknowledge it to her secret

thoughts; she then found, that the sentiments she had for him were such

as the Prince of Cleves had required of her; she perceived how shameful

it was to entertain them for another, and not for a husband that

deserved them; she found herself under the utmost embarrassment, and

was dreadfully afraid lest the Duke should make use of her only as a

means to come at the Queen-Dauphin, and it was this thought determined

her to impart to her mother something she had not yet told her.

The next morning she went into her mother's chamber to put her resolves

in execution, but she found Madam de Chartres had some touches of a

fever, and therefore did not think proper to speak to her: this

indisposition however appeared to insignificant, that Madam de Cleves

made no scruple after dinner to visit the Queen-Dauphin; she was in her

closet with two or three ladies of her most familiar acquaintance. "We

were speaking," said she to her, as soon as she saw her, "of the Duke

de Nemours, and were admiring how much he's changed since his return

from Brussels; before he went there, he had an infinite number of

mistresses, and it was his own fault, for he showed an equal regard to

those who had merit, and to those who had none; since his return he

neither knows the one nor the other; there never was so great a change;

I find his humour is changed too, and that he is less gay than he used

to be." The Princess of Cleves made no answer; and it shocked her to think she

should have taken all that they said of the change in the Duke for

proofs of his passion for her, had she not been undeceived; she felt in

herself some little resentment against the Queen-Dauphin, for

endeavouring to find out reasons, and seeming surprised at a thing,

which she probably knew more of than anyone else; she could not forbear

showing something of it; and when the other ladies withdrew, she came

up and told her in a low voice, "And is it I, Madam, you have been

pointing at, and have you a mind to conceal, that you are she who has

made such an alteration in the conduct of the Duke of Nemours?"




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