"You do me injustice," answered the Queen-Dauphin, "you know I conceal
nothing from you; it is true the Duke of Nemours, before he went to
Brussels, had, I believe, an intention to let me know he did not hate
me; but since his return, it has not so much as appeared that he
remembers anything of what he has done; and I acknowledge I have a
curiosity to know what it is has changed him so: it would not be very
difficult for me to unravel this affair," added she; "the Viscount de
Chartres, his intimate friend, is in love with a lady with whom I have
some power, and I'll know by that means the occasion of this
alteration." The Queen-Dauphin spoke with an air of sincerity which
convinced the Princess of Cleves, and in spite of herself she found her
mind in a more calm and pleasing situation than it had been in before.
When she returned to her mother, she heard she was a great deal worse
than she had left her; her fever was redoubled, and the days following
it increased to so great a degree, that she was thought to be in
danger. Madam de Cleves was in extreme grief on this occasion, and
never stirred out of her mother's chamber. The Prince of Cleves was
there too almost every day and all day long, partly out of affection to
Madam de Chartres, and partly to hinder his lady from abandoning
herself to sorrow, but chiefly that he might have the pleasure of
seeing her, his passion not being at all diminished.
The Duke de Nemours, who had always had a great friendship for the
Prince of Cleves, had not failed to show it since his return from
Brussels; during the illness of Madam de Chartres he frequently found
means to see the Princess of Cleves, pretending to want her husband, or
to come to take him out to walk; he enquired for him at such hours as
he knew very well he was not at home, and under pretence of waiting for
him stayed in Madam de Cleves's anti-chamber, where there were always a
great many people of quality; Madam de Cleves often came there, and her
grief did not make her seem less handsome in the eyes of the Duke de
Nemours; he made her sensible what interest he had in her affliction,
and spoke to her with so submissive an air, that he easily convinced
her, that the Queen-Dauphin was not the person he was in love with.
The seeing him at once gave her grief and pleasure; but when she no
longer saw him, and reflected that the charm he carried about him when
present, was an introduction to love, she was very near imagining she
hated him, out of the excessive grief which that thought gave her.