The Princess of Cleves

"How," said the Duke de Nemours hastily,

apprehending the ill consequence this mistake might be of to him with

Madam de Cleves, "has the Queen-Dauphin been told I dropped the

letter?" "Yes," replied the Viscount, "she has been told so; and what

occasioned the mistake was, that there were several gentlemen of the

two Queens in a room belonging to the tennis court, where our clothes

were put up, when your servants and mine went together to fetch them;

then it was the letter fell out of the pocket; those gentlemen took it

up, and read it aloud; some believed it belonged to you, and others to

me; Chatelart, who took it, and to whom I have just sent for it, says,

he gave it to the Queen-Dauphin as a letter of yours; and those who

have spoken of it to the Queen have unfortunately told her it was mine;

so that you may easily do what I desire of you, and free me from this

perplexity."

The Duke de Nemours had always had a great friendship for the Viscount

de Chartres, and the relation he bore to Madam de Cleves still made him

more dear to him; nevertheless he could not prevail with himself to run

the risk of her having heard of this letter, as of a thing in which he

was concerned; he fell into a deep musing, and the Viscount guessed

pretty near what was the subject of his meditations; "I plainly see,"

said he, "that you are afraid of embroiling yourself with your

mistress, and I should almost fancy the Queen-Dauphin was she, if the

little jealousy you seem to have of Monsieur d'Anville did not take me

off from that thought; but be that as it will, it is not reasonable you

should sacrifice your repose to mine, and I'll put you in a way of

convincing her you love, that this letter is directed to me, and not to

you; here is a billet from Madam d'Amboise, who is a friend of Madam de

Themines, and was her confidant in the amour between her and me; in

this she desires me to send her Madam de Themines's letter, which I

have lost; my name is on the superscription, and the contents of the

billet prove, without question, that the letter she desires is the same

with that which has been found; I'll leave this billet in your hands,

and agree that you may show it to your mistress in your justification;

I conjure you not to lose a moment, but to go this morning to the

Queen-Dauphin."