Page:ThePrincessofCleves.djvu/148

136 no purpose; she did not stir out of her husband's room, and was grieved at heart for the condition he was in. It vexed monsieur de Nemours to see her under such affliction, an affliction which he plainly saw revived the friendship she had for monsieur de Cleves, and diverted the passion that lay kindling in her heart. The thought of this shocked him severely for some time; but the extremity to which monsieur de Cleves's sickness was grown, opened to him a scene of new hopes; he saw it was probable that madam de Cleves would be at liberty to follow her own inclinations, and that he might expect for the future a series of happiness and lasting pleasures; he could not support the ecstasy of that thought, a thought so full of transport! he banished it out of his mind for fear of becoming doubly wretched, if he happened to be disappointed in his hopes.

In the mean time monsieur de Cleves was almost given over by his physicians. One of the last days of his illness, after having had a very bad night, he said in the morning, he had a desire to sleep; but madam de Cleves, who remained alone in his chamber, found that instead of taking repose he was extremely restless; she came to him, and fell on her knees by his bed-side, her face all covered with tears; and though monsieur de Cleves had taken a resolution not to show her the violent displeasure he had conceived against her, yet the care she took of him, and the sorrow she expressed, which sometimes he thought sincere, and at other times the effect of her dissimulation and perfidiousness, distracted him so violently with opposite sentiments full of woe, that he could not forbear giving them vent.

You shed plenty of tears, madam, said he, for a death which you are the cause of, and which cannot give you the trouble you pretend to be in; I am no longer in a condition to reproach you, added he with a voice weakened by sickness and grief; I die through the dreadful grief and discontent you have given me;