circumstances I am ignorant of."
The Duke de Nemours' passion for Madam de Cleves was at first so

violent, that he had no relish left for any of the ladies he paid
his addresses to before, and with whom he kept a correspondence

during his absence; he even lost all remembrance of his
engagements with them, and not only made it his business to find

out excuses to break with them, but had not the patience to hear
their complaints, or make any answer to the reproaches they laid

upon him. The Queen-Dauphin herself, for whom his regards had
been very tender, could no longer preserve a place in that heart

which was now devoted to the Princess of Cleves. His impatience
of making a tour to England began to abate, and he showed no

earnestness in hastening his equipage. He frequently went to the
Queen-Dauphin's Court, because the Princess of Cleves was often

there, and he was very easy in leaving people in the opinion they
had of his passion for that Queen; he put so great a value on

Madam de Cleves, that he resolved to be rather wanting in giving
proofs of his love, than to hazard its being publicly known; he

did not so much as speak of it to the Viscount de Chartres, who
was his intimate friend, and from whom he concealed nothing; the

truth is, he conducted this affair with so much discretion, that
nobody suspected he was in love with Madam de Cleves, except the

Chevalier de Guise; and she would scarcely have perceived it
herself, if the inclination she had for him had not led her into

a particular attention to all his actions, but which she was
convinced of it.

She no longer continued to have the same disposition to
communicate to her mother what she thought concerning the Duke de

Nemours, as she had to talk to her about her other lovers; though
she had no settled design of concealing it from her, yet she did

not speak of it. Madam de Chartres, however, plainly perceived
the Duke's attachment to her daughter, as well as her daughter's

inclination for him; the knowledge of this could not but sensibly
afflict her, nor could she be ignorant of the danger this young

lady was in, in being beloved by, and loving so accomplished a
person as the Duke de Nemours: she was entirely confirmed in the

suspicion she had of this business, by an incident which fell out
a few days after.

The Mareschal de St. Andre, who took all opportunities to show
his magnificence, desired the King, under pretence of showing him

his house which was just finished, to do him the honour to sup
there with the two Queens. The Mareschal was also very glad to

display, in the sight of the Princess of Cleves, that splendid
and expensive manner of life, which he carried to so great a

profusion.
Some days before that appointed for the entertainment, the

Dauphin, who had an ill state of health, found himself
indisposed, and saw nobody; the Queen-Dauphin had spent all that

day with him; and in the evening, upon his growing better, all
the persons of quality that were in the anti-chamber were

admitted; the Queen-Dauphin returned to her own apartment, where
she found Madam de Cleves and some other ladies, with whom she

lived in familiarity.
It being already very late, and not being dressed, she did not

wait upon the Queen, but gave out that she was not to be seen,
and ordered her jewels to be brought, in order to choose out some

for the Mareschal de St. Andre's Ball, and present the Princess
of Cleves with some, as she had promised her. While they were

thus employed, the Prince of Conde entered; his great quality
gave him free access everywhere. "Doubtless," said the

Queen-Dauphin, "you come from the King my husband, what are they
doing there?"

"Madam," said he, "they are maintaining a dispute against the
Duke of Nemours, and he defends the argument he undertook with so

much warmth, that he must needs be very much interested in it; I
believe he has some mistress that gives him uneasiness by going

to balls, so well satisfied he is that it is a vexatious thing to
a lover to see the person he loves in those places."

"How," replied the Queen-Dauphin, "would not the Duke de
Nemours have his mistress go to a ball? I thought that husbands

might wish their wives would not go there; but as for lovers, I
never imagined they were of that opinion." "The Duke de

Nemours finds," answered the Prince of Conde, "that nothing is
so insupportable to lovers as balls, whether they are beloved

again, or whether they are not. He says, if they are beloved
they have the chagrin to be loved the less on this account for

several days; that there is no woman, whom her anxiety for dress
does not divert from thinking on her lover; that they are

entirely taken up with that one circumstance, that this care to
adorn themselves is for the whole world, as well as for the man

they favour; that when they are at a ball, they are desirous to
please all who look at them; and that when they triumph in their

beauty, they experience a joy to which their lovers very little
contribute. He argues further, that if one is not beloved, it is

a yet greater torment to see one's mistress at an assembly; that
the more she is admired by the public, the more unhappy one is

not to be beloved, and that the lover is in continual fear lest
her beauty should raise a more successful passion than his own;

lastly he finds, there is no torment equal to that of seeing
one's mistress at a ball, unless it be to know that she is there,

and not to be there one's self."
Madam de Cleves pretended not to hear what the Prince of Conde

said, though she listened very attentively; she easily saw what
part she had in the Duke of Nemours's opinion, and particularly

as to what he said of the uneasiness of not being at a ball where
his mistress was, because he was not to be at that of the

Mareschal de St. Andre, the King having sent him to meet the Duke
of Ferrara.

The Queen-Dauphin, and the Prince of Conde, not going into the
Duke's opinion, were very merry upon the subject. "There is but

one occasion, Madam," said the Prince to her, "in which the
Duke will consent his mistress should go to a ball, and that is

when he himself gives it. He says, that when he gave your
Majesty one last year, his mistress was so kind as to come to it,

though seemingly only to attend you; that it is always a favour
done to a lover, to partake of an entertainment which he gives;

that it is an agreeable circumstance for him to have his mistress
see him preside in a place where the whole Court is, and see him

acquit himself well in doing the honours of it." "The Duke de
Nemours was in the right," said the Queen-Dauphin, smiling, "to

approve of his mistress's being at his own ball; there was then
so great a number of ladies, whom he honoured with the

distinction of that name, that if they had not come, the assembly
would have been very thin."

The Prince of Conde had no sooner begun to relate the Duke de
Nemours's sentiments concerning assemblies, but Madam de Cleves

felt in herself a strong aversion to go to that of the Mareschal
de St. Andre. She easily came into the opinion, that a woman

ought not to be at an entertainment given by one that professed
love to her, and she was very glad to find out a reason of

reservedness for doing a thing which would oblige the Duke of
Nemours. However, she carried away with her the ornaments which

the Queen-Dauphin had given her; but when she showed them her
mother, she told her that she did not design to make use of them;

that the Mareschal de St. Andre took a great deal of pains to
show his attachment to her, and she did not doubt he would be

glad to have it believed that a compliment was designed her in