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Part III. have for a man who professed love to her; that by this proceeding she would easily remove the opinion he entertained of her being in love with him; and therefore she needed not to trouble herself as to what he might hitherto have thought, since, if for the future she discovered no weakness, his former thoughts would vanish of themselves; and that especially she ought to frequent the Louvre and the assemblies as usual.

Having said this, monsieur de Cleves left his wife without waiting her answer; she thought what he said very reasonable, and the resentment she had against the duke de Nemours, made her believe she should be able to comply with it with a great deal of ease; but it seemed a hard task to her to appear at the marriage with that freedom and tranquillity of spirit as the occasion required. Nevertheless, as she was to carry the queen-dauphin's train, and had been distinguished with that honour in preference to a great many other princesses, it was impossible to excuse herself from it without making a great deal of noise, and putting people upon enquiring into the reasons of it. She resolved therefore to do her utmost, and employed the rest of the day in preparing herself for it, and in endeavouring to forget the thoughts that gave her so much uneasiness; and to this purpose she locked herself up in her closet: of all her griefs the most violent was that she had reason to complain of the duke de Nemours, and could find no excuse to urge in his favour; she could not doubt but he had related this adventure to the viscount de Chartres; he had owned it himself; nor could she any more doubt, from his manner of speaking of it, but that he knew the adventure related to her; how could she excuse so great an imprudence? and what was become of that extreme discretion which she had so much admired in this prince? He was discreet, said she, while he was unhappy; but the thought of being happy, though on uncertain grounds, has put an end to his discretion; he could not consider that he was beloved, without desiring to have it known;