She knows it has been given to the

Queen-Dauphin; she will think Chatelart knew that Queen's hand, and

that the letter is from her; she will fancy the person of whom the

letter expresses a jealousy, is perhaps herself; in short, there is

nothing which she may not think, and there is nothing which I ought not

to fear from her thoughts; add to this, that I am desperately in love

with Madam de Martigues, and that the Queen-Dauphin will certainly show

her this letter, which she will conclude to have been lately writ.

Thus shall I be equally embroiled both with the person I love most, and

with the person I have most cause to fear. Judge, after this, if I

have not reason to conjure you to say the letter is yours, and to beg

of you to get it out of the Queen-Dauphin's hands."

"I am very well satisfied," answered the Duke de Nemours, "that one

cannot be in a greater embarrassment than that you are in, and it must

be confessed you deserve it; I have been accused of being inconstant in

my amours, and of having had several intrigues at the same time, but

you out-go me so far, that I should not so much as have dared to

imagine what you have undertaken; could you pretend to keep Madam de

Themines, and be at the same engaged with the Queen? did you hope to

have an engagement with the Queen, and be able to deceive her? she is

both an Italian and a Queen, and by consequence full of jealousy,

suspicion, and pride. As soon as your good fortune, rather than your

good conduct, had set you at liberty from an engagement you was

entangled in, you involved yourself in new ones, and you fancied that

in the midst of the Court you could be in love with Madam de Martigues

without the Queen's perceiving it: you could not have been too careful

to take from her the shame of having made the first advances; she has a

violent passion for you; you have more discretion than to tell it me,

and I than to ask you to tell it; it is certain she is jealous of you,

and has truth on her side."

"And does it belong to you," interrupted

the Viscount, "to load me with reprimands, and ought not your own

experience to make you indulgent to my faults? However I grant I am to

blame; but think, I conjure you, how to draw me out of this

difficulty"; "I think you must go to the Queen-Dauphin as soon as she

is awake, and ask her for the letter, as if you had lost it." "I have

told you already," replied the Duke de Nemours, "that what you propose

is somewhat extraordinary, and that there are difficulties in it which

may affect my own particular interest; but besides, if this letter has

been seen to drop out of your pocket, I should think it would be hard

to persuade people that it dropped out of mine.""I thought I had told

you," replied the Viscount, "that the Queen-Dauphin had been informed

that you dropped it."




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024