"You do me injustice," answered the Queen-Dauphin, "you know I conceal

nothing from you; it is true the Duke of Nemours, before he went to

Brussels, had, I believe, an intention to let me know he did not hate

me; but since his return, it has not so much as appeared that he

remembers anything of what he has done; and I acknowledge I have a

curiosity to know what it is has changed him so: it would not be very

difficult for me to unravel this affair," added she; "the Viscount de

Chartres, his intimate friend, is in love with a lady with whom I have

some power, and I'll know by that means the occasion of this

alteration." The Queen-Dauphin spoke with an air of sincerity which

convinced the Princess of Cleves, and in spite of herself she found her

mind in a more calm and pleasing situation than it had been in before.

When she returned to her mother, she heard she was a great deal worse

than she had left her; her fever was redoubled, and the days following

it increased to so great a degree, that she was thought to be in

danger. Madam de Cleves was in extreme grief on this occasion, and

never stirred out of her mother's chamber. The Prince of Cleves was

there too almost every day and all day long, partly out of affection to

Madam de Chartres, and partly to hinder his lady from abandoning

herself to sorrow, but chiefly that he might have the pleasure of

seeing her, his passion not being at all diminished.

The Duke de Nemours, who had always had a great friendship for the

Prince of Cleves, had not failed to show it since his return from

Brussels; during the illness of Madam de Chartres he frequently found

means to see the Princess of Cleves, pretending to want her husband, or

to come to take him out to walk; he enquired for him at such hours as

he knew very well he was not at home, and under pretence of waiting for

him stayed in Madam de Cleves's anti-chamber, where there were always a

great many people of quality; Madam de Cleves often came there, and her

grief did not make her seem less handsome in the eyes of the Duke de

Nemours; he made her sensible what interest he had in her affliction,

and spoke to her with so submissive an air, that he easily convinced

her, that the Queen-Dauphin was not the person he was in love with.

The seeing him at once gave her grief and pleasure; but when she no

longer saw him, and reflected that the charm he carried about him when

present, was an introduction to love, she was very near imagining she

hated him, out of the excessive grief which that thought gave her.




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