"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."