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70 advice, that it was said at the queen's court, that he had dropped a letter of gallantry out of his pocket while he was playing at tennis; that great part of what the letter contained had been related; that the queen had expressed a great curiosity to see it, and had sent to one of her gentlemen for it; but that he answered, he had given it to Chatelart.

The page added many other particulars which heightened the viscount's concern; he went out that minute to go to a gentleman who was an intimate friend of Chatelart's; and though it was a very unseasonable hour, made him get out of bed to go and fetch the letter, without letting him know who it was had sent for it, or who had lost it. Chatelart, who was prepossessed with an opinion that it belonged to the duke of Nemours, and that the duke was in love with the queen-dauphin, did not doubt but it was he who had sent to redemand it; and so answered, with a malicious sort of joy, that he had put the letter into the queen-dauphin's hands. The gentleman brought this answer back to the viscount de Chartres, which encreased the uneasiness he was under already, and added new vexations to it: after having continued some time in an irresolution what to do, he found that the duke de Nemours was the only person whose assistance could draw him out of this intricate affair.

Accordingly he went to the duke's house, and entered his room about break of day. What the duke had discovered the day before with respect to the princess of Cleves had given him such agreeable ideas, that he slept very sweetly; he was very much surprised to find himself waked by the viscount de Chartres, and asked him, if he came to disturb his rest so early, to be revenged of him for what he had said last night at supper. The viscount's looks soon convinced him, that he came upon a serious business; I am come, said he, to entrust you with the most important affair of my life; I know very well, you are not obliged to me for the confidence I place in you, because I do it at a time when I stand in