"'Tis impossible to be more surprised than I am," said Madam de Cleves;

"I thought Madam de Tournon equally incapable of love and falsehood."

"Address and dissimulation," replied Monsieur de Cleves, "cannot go

further than she carried them; observe, that when Sancerre thought her

love to him was abated, it really was, and she began to love

Etouteville; she told the last that he removed her sorrow for her

husband's death, and that he was the cause of her quitting her

retirement; Sancerre believed the cause was nothing but a resolution

she had taken not to seem any longer to be in such deep affliction; she

made a merit to Etouteville of concealing her correspondence with him,

and of seeming forced to marry him by her father's command, as if it

was an effect of the care she had of her reputation; whereas it was

only an artifice to forsake Sancerre, without his having reason to

resent it: I must return," continued Monsieur de Cleves, "to see this

unhappy man, and I believe you would do well to go to Paris too; it is

time for you to appear in the world again, and receive the numerous

visits which you can't well dispense with."

Madam de Cleves agreed to the proposal, and returned to Paris the next

day; she found herself much more easy with respect to the Duke de

Nemours than she had been; what her mother had told her on her

death-bed, and her grief for her death, created a sort of suspension in

her mind as to her passion for the Duke, which made her believe it was

quite effaced.

The evening of her arrival the Queen-Dauphin made her a visit, and

after having condoled with her, told her that in order to divert her

from melancholy thoughts, she would let her know all that had passed at

Court in her absence; upon which she related to her a great many

extraordinary things; "but what I have the greatest desire to inform

you of," added she, "is that it is certain the Duke de Nemours is

passionately in love; and that his most intimate friends are not only

not entrusted in it, but can't so much as guess who the person is he is

in love with; nevertheless this passion of his is so strong as to make

him neglect, or to speak more properly, abandon the hopes of a Crown."

The Queen-Dauphin afterwards related whatever had passed in England;

"What I have just told you," continued she, "I had from Monsieur

d'Anville; and this morning he informed me, that last night the King

sent for the Duke de Nemours upon the subject of Lignerol's letters,

who desires to return, and wrote to his Majesty that he could no longer

excuse to the Queen of England the Duke of Nemours's delay; that she

begins to be displeased at it; and though she has not positively given

her promise, she has said enough to encourage him to come over; the

King showed this letter to the Duke of Nemours, who instead of speaking

seriously as he had done at the beginning of this affair, only laughed

and trifled, and made a jest of Lignerol's expectations:




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