"You may judge of the surprise I was in at what Sancerre told me; I
asked him how he came by the knowledge of it, and he told me that the
minute I went away from him, Etouteville, who is his intimate friend,
but who nevertheless knew nothing of his love for Madam de Tournon,
came to see him; that as soon as he was sat down, he fell a-weeping,
and asked his pardon for having concealed from him what he was going to
tell him, that he begged him to have compassion of him, that he was
come to open his heart to him, and that he was the person in the world
the most afflicted for the death of Madam de Tournon.
"'That name,' said Sancerre, 'so astonished me, that though my first
intention was to tell him I was more afflicted than he, I had not the
power to speak: he continued to inform me, that he had been in love
with her six months, that he was always desirous to let me know it, but
she had expressly forbid him; and in so authoritative a manner, that he
durst not disobey her; that he gained her in a manner as soon as he
courted her, that they concealed their mutual passion for each other
from the whole world, that he never visited her publicly, that he had
the pleasure to remove her sorrow for her husband's death, and that
lastly he was to have married her at the very juncture in which she
died; but that this marriage, which was an effect of love, would have
appeared in her an effect of duty and obedience, she having prevailed
upon her father to lay his commands on her to marry him, in order to
avoid the appearance of too great an alteration in her conduct, which
had seemed so averse to a second marriage.'
"'While Etouteville was speaking to me,' said Sancerre, 'I believed all
he said, because I found so much probability in it, and because the
time when he told me his passion for Madam de Tournon commenced, is
precisely the same with that when she appeared changed towards me; but
the next morning I thought him a liar, or at least an enthusiast, and
was upon the point of telling him so. Afterwards I came into an
inclination of clearing up the matter, and proposed several questions,
and laid my doubts before him, in a word, I proceeded so far to
convince myself of my misfortune, that he asked me if I knew Madam de
Tournon's handwriting, and with that threw upon my bed four letters of
hers and her picture; my brother came in that minute; Etouteville's
face was so full of tears, that he was forced to withdraw to avoid
being observed, and said he would come again in the evening to fetch
what he left with me; and as for me, I sent my brother away under
pretence of being indisposed, so impatient was I to see the letters he
had left, and so full of hopes to find something there that might make
me disbelieve what Etouteville had been telling me; but alas! What did
I not find there?