What tenderness! what assurances of marriage! what

letters! She never wrote the like to me. Thus,' continued he, 'am I

at once pierced with anguish for her death and for her falsehood, two

evils which have been often compared, but never felt before by the same

person at the same time; I confess, to my shame, that still I am more

grieved for her loss than for her change; I cannot think her guilty

enough, to consent to her death: were she living, I should have the

satisfaction to reproach her, and to revenge myself on her by making

her sensible of her injustice; but I shall see her no more, I shall see

her no more; this is the greatest misfortune of all others; would I

could restore her to life, though with the loss of my own! Yet what do

I wish!

If she were restored to life, she would live for Etouteville:

how happy was I yesterday,' cried he, 'how happy! I was the most

afflicted man in the world; but my affliction was reasonable, and there

was something pleasing in the very thought that I was inconsolable;

today all my sentiments are unjust; I pay to a feigned passion the

tribute of my grief, which I thought I owed to a real one; I can

neither hate nor love her memory; I am incapable of consolation, and

yet don't know how to grieve for her; take care, I conjure you, that I

never see Etouteville; his very name raises horror in me; I know very

well I have no reason of complaint against him; I was to blame in

concealing from him my love for Madam de Tournon; if he had known it,

perhaps he would not have pursued her, perhaps she would not have been

false to me; he came to me to impart his sorrows, and I cannot but pity

him; alas! he had reason to love Madam de Tournon, he was beloved by

her, and will never see her more: notwithstanding I perceive I can't

help hating him; once more I conjure you take care I may not see him.'

"Sancerre burst afterwards into tears, began again to regret Madam de

Tournon, and to speak to her, as if she were present, and say the

softest things in the world; from these transports he passed to hatred,

to complaints, to reproaches and imprecations against her. When I saw

him in so desperate a condition, I found I should want somebody to

assist me in appeasing his mind; accordingly I sent for his brother,

whom I had left with the King; I met him in the anti-chamber, and

acquainted him with Sancerre's condition: we gave the necessary orders

to prevent his seeing Etouteville, and employed part of the night in

endeavouring to make him capable of reason; this morning I found him

yet more afflicted; his brother continued with him, and I returned to

you."




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