Having said this, the Queen-Dauphin took her leave of Madam de Cleves,

and the next day Madame's marriage was publicly known; some days after

the King and the Queens went to visit the Princess of Cleves; the Duke

de Nemours, who had expected her return with the utmost impatience, and

languished for an opportunity of speaking to her in private, contrived

to wait upon her at an hour, when the company would probably be

withdrawing, and nobody else come in; he succeeded in his design, and

came in when the last visitors were going away.

The Princess was sitting on her bed, and the hot weather, together with

the sight of the Duke de Nemours, gave her a blush that added to her

beauty; he sat over against her with a certain timorous respect, that

flows from a real love; he continued some minutes without speaking; nor

was she the less at a loss, so that they were both silent a good while:

at last the Duke condoled with her for her mother's death; Madam de

Cleves was glad to give the conversation that turn, spoke a

considerable time of the great loss she had had, and at last said, that

though time had taken off from the violence of her grief, yet the

impression would always remain so strong, that it would entirely change

her humour. "Great troubles and excessive passions," replied the Duke,

"make great alterations in the mind; as for me, I am quite another man

since my return from Flanders; abundance of people have taken notice of

this change, and the Queen-Dauphin herself spoke to me of it

yesterday."

"It is true," replied the Princess, "she has observed it,

and I think I remember to have heard her say something about it." "I'm

not sorry, Madam," replied the Duke, "that she has discerned it, but I

could wish some others in particular had discerned it too; there are

persons to whom we dare give no other evidences of the passion we have

for them, but by things which do not concern them; and when we dare not

let them know we love them, we should be glad at least to have them see

we are not desirous of being loved by any other; we should be glad to

convince them, that no other beauty, though of the highest rank, has

any charms for us, and that a Crown would be too dear, if purchased

with no less a price than absence from her we adore: women ordinarily,"

continued he, "judge of the passion one has for them, by the care one

takes to oblige, and to be assiduous about them; but it's no hard

matter to do this, though they be ever so little amiable; not to give

oneself up to the pleasure of pursuing them, to shun them through fear

of discovering to the public, and in a manner to themselves, the

sentiments one has for them, here lies the difficulty; and what still

more demonstrates the truth of one's passion is, the becoming entirely

changed from what one was, and the having no longer a gust either for

ambition or pleasure, after one has employed one's whole life in

pursuit of both."




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