Having said this, he would have taken out

the letter, but could not find it; he searched for it to no purpose.

The company rallied him about it; but he seemed so disturbed, that they

forbore to speak further of it; he withdrew sooner than the others, and

went home with great impatience, to see if he had not left the letter

there. While he was looking for it, one of the Queen's pages came to

tell him, that the Viscountess d'Usez had thought it necessary to give

him speedy advice, that it was said at the Queen's Court, that he had

dropped a letter of gallantry out of his pocket while he was playing at

tennis; that great part of what the letter contained had been related,

that the Queen had expressed a great curiosity to see it, and had sent

to one of her gentlemen for it, but that he answered, he had given it

to Chatelart.

The page added many other particulars which heightened the Viscount's

concern; he went out that minute to go to a gentleman who was an

intimate friend of Chatelart's; and though it was a very unseasonable

hour, made him get out of bed to go and fetch the letter, without

letting him know who it was had sent for it, or who had lost it.

Chatelart, who was prepossessed with an opinion that it belonged to the

Duke of Nemours, and that the Duke was in love with the Queen-Dauphin,

did not doubt but it was he who had sent to redemand it, and so

answered with a malicious sort of joy, that he had put the letter into

the Queen-Dauphin's hands. The gentleman brought this answer back to

the Viscount de Chartres, which increased the uneasiness he was under

already, and added new vexations to it: after having continued some

time in an irresolution what to do, he found that the Duke de Nemours

was the only person whose assistance could draw him out of this

intricate affair.

Accordingly he went to the Duke's house, and entered his room about

break of day. What the Duke had discovered the day before with respect

to the Princess of Cleves had given him such agreeable ideas, that he

slept very sweetly; he was very much surprised to find himself waked by

the Viscount de Chartres, and asked him if he came to disturb his rest

so early, to be revenged of him for what he had said last night at

supper. The Viscount's looks soon convinced him, that he came upon a

serious business; "I am come," said he, "to entrust you with the most

important affair of my life; I know very well, you are not obliged to

me for the confidence I place in you, because I do it at a time when I

stand in need of your assistance; but I know likewise, that I should

have lost your esteem, if I had acquainted you with all I am now going

to tell you, without having been forced to it by absolute necessity: I

have dropped the letter I spoke of last night; it is of the greatest

consequence to me, that nobody should know it is addressed to me; it

has been seen by abundance of people, who were at the tennis court

yesterday when I dropped it; you was there too, and the favour I have

to ask you, is, to say it was you who lost it."




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