Page:ThePrincessofCleves.djvu/77

Part II. had been in for him, and what he now said convinced her she was not mistaken; it gave her a great deal of concern, to find she was so little mistress of herself, as not to have been able to conceal her inclinations from the chevalier de Guise; nor was she the less concerned to see that the duke de Nemours was acquainted with them; yet this last grief was not so entire, but there was a certain mixture of pleasure in it.

The queen-dauphin, who was extremely impatient to know what there was in the letter which Chatelart had given her, came up to madam de Cleves. Go read this letter, says she; it is addressed to the duke de Nemours, and was probably sent him by the mistress for whom he has forsaken all others: if you cannot read it now, keep it, and bring it me about bed-time, and inform me if you know the hand. Having said this, the queen-dauphin went away from madam de Cleves, and left her in such astonishment, that she was not able for some time to stir out of the place. The impatience and grief she was in not permitting her to stay at court, she went home before her usual hour of retirement; she trembled with the letter in her hand, her thoughts were full of confusion, and she experienced I know not what of insupportable grief that she had never felt before. No sooner was she in her closet, but she opened the letter and found it as follows:

'I Have loved you too well, to leave you in a belief that the change you observe in me is an effect of lightness; I must inform you, that your falsehood is the cause of it. You will be surprised to hear me speak of your falsehood; you have dissembled it with so much skill, and I have taken so much care to conceal my knowledge of it from you, that you have reason to be surprised at the discovery; I am myself in wonder, that I have discovered nothing of it to you before; never was grief equal to mine; I thought you had the most violent passion for me; I did not conceal that which I had for you, and at the time that I