Madam de Martigues came to Colomiers according to her promise, and
found Madam de Cleves living in a very solitary manner: that Princess
affected a perfect solitude, and passed the evenings in her garden
without being accompanied even by her domestics; she frequently came
into the pavilion where the Duke de Nemours had overheard her
conversation with her husband; she delighted to be in the bower that
was open to the garden, while her women and attendants waited in the
other bower under the pavilion, and never came to her but when she
called them. Madam de Martigues having never seen Colomiers was
surprised at the extraordinary beauty of it, and particularly with the
pleasantness of the pavilion. Madam de Cleves and she usually passed
the evenings there. The liberty of being alone in the night in so
agreeable a place would not permit the conversation to end soon between
two young ladies, whose hearts were enflamed with violent passions, and
they took great pleasure in conversing together, though they were not
confidants. Madam de Martigues would have left Colomiers with great reluctance had
she not quitted it to go to a place where the Viscount was; she set out
for Chambort, the Court being there.
The King had been anointed at Rheims by the Cardinal of Loraine, and
the design was to pass the rest of the summer at the castle of
Chambort, which was newly built; the Queen expressed a great deal of
joy upon seeing Madam de Martigues again at Court, and after having
given her several proofs of it, she asked her how Madam de Cleves did,
and in what manner she passed her time in the country. The Duke de
Nemours and the Prince of Cleves were with the Queen at that time.
Madam de Martigues, who had been charmed with Colomiers, related all
the beauties of it, and enlarged extremely on the description of the
pavilion in the forest, and on the pleasure Madam de Cleves took in
walking there alone part of the night. The Duke de Nemours, who knew
the place well enough to understand what Madam de Martigues said of it,
thought it was not impossible to see Madam de Cleves there, without
being seen by anybody but her.
He asked Madam de Martigues some
questions to get further lights; and the Prince of Cleves, who had eyed
him very strictly while Madam de Martigues was speaking, thought he
knew what his design was. The questions the Duke asked still more
confirmed him in that thought, so that he made no doubt but his
intention was to go and see his wife; he was not mistaken in his
suspicions: this design entered so deeply into the Duke de Nemours's
mind, that after having spent the night in considering the proper
methods to execute it, he went betimes the next morning to ask the
King's leave to go to Paris, on some pretended occasion.