Having spoke these words, Monsieur de Cleves left his wife, and set out
the next day without seeing her; but he wrote her a letter full of
sorrow, and at the same time very kind and obliging: she gave an answer
to it so moving and so full of assurances both as to her past and
future conduct, that as those assurances were grounded in truth, and
were the real effect of her sentiments, the letter made great
impressions on Monsieur de Cleves, and gave him some tranquillity; add
to this that the Duke de Nemours going to the King as well as himself,
he had the satisfaction to know that he would not be in the same place
with Madam de Cleves. Everytime that lady spoke to her husband, the
passion he expressed for her, the handsomeness of his behaviour, the
friendship she had for him, and the thought of what she owed him, made
impressions in her heart that weakened the idea of the Duke de Nemours;
but it did not continue long, that idea soon returned more lively than
before. For a few days after the Duke was gone, she was hardly sensible of his
absence; afterwards it tortured her; ever since she had been in love
with him, there did not pass a day, but she either feared or wished to
meet him, and it was a wounding thought to her to consider that it was
no more in the power of fortune to contrive their meeting.
She went to Colomiers, and ordered to be carried thither the large
pictures she had caused to be copied from the originals which the
Duchess of Valentinois had procured to be drawn for her fine house of
Annett. All the remarkable actions that had passed in the late King's
reign were represented in these pieces, and among the rest was the
Siege of Mets, and all those who had distinguished themselves at that
Siege were painted much to the life. The Duke de Nemours was of this
number, and it was that perhaps which had made Madam de Cleves desirous
of having the pictures.
Madam de Martigues not being able to go along with the Court, promised
her to come and pass some days at Colomiers. Though they divided the
Queen's favour, they lived together without envy or coldness; they were
friends, but not confidants; Madam de Cleves knew that Madam de
Martigues was in love with the Viscount, but Madam de Martigues did not
know that Madam de Cleves was in love with the Duke de Nemours, nor
that she was beloved by him. The relation Madam de Cleves had to the
Viscount made her more dear to Madam de Martigues, and Madam de Cleves
was also fond of her as a person who was in love as well as herself,
and with an intimate friend of her own lover.