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Part IV. the prince of Cleves, who had ey'd 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.

Monsieur de Cleves was in no doubt concerning the occasion of his journey; and he resolved to inform himself as to his wife's conduct, and to continue no longer in so cruel an uncertainty; he had a desire to set out the same time as the duke de Nemours did, and to hide himself where he might discover the success of the journey; but fearing his departure might appear extraordinary, and lest the duke, being advertised of it, might take other measures, he resolved to trust this business to a gentleman of his, whose fidelity and wit he was assured of: he related to him the embarrassment he was under, and what the virtue of his wife had been till that time; and ordered him to follow the duke de Nemours, to watch him narrowly, to see if he did not go to Colomiers, and if he did not enter the garden in the night.

The gentleman, who was very capable of this commission, acquitted himself of it with all the exactness imaginable. He followed the duke to a village within half a league of Colomiers, where the duke stopped and the gentleman easily guessed his meaning was to stay there till night. He did not think it convenient to wait there, but passed on, and placed himself in that part of the forest where he thought the duke would pass. He took his measures very right; for it was no sooner night, but he heard somebody coming that way; and though it was dark, he easily knew the duke de