love with; nevertheless this passion of his is so strong as to make him neglect, or to speak more properly, abandon the hopes of a crown.
What poison did this discourse of the Queen-Dauphin carry in it for madam de Cleves! How could she but know herself to be the person whose name was not known, and how could she help being filled with tenderness and gratitude, when she learned, by a way not in the least liable to suspicion, that the duke, who had already touched her heart, concealed his passion from the whole world, and neglected for her sake the hopes of a crown? It is impossible to express what she felt, or to describe the tumult that was raised in her soul. Had the queen-dauphin observed her closely, she might easily have discerned, that what she had been
saying was not indifferent to her; but as she had not the least suspicion of the truth, she continued her discourse without minding her: Monsieur d'Anville, added she, from whom, as I just told you, I had all this, believes I know more of it than himself, and he has so great an opinion of my beauty, that he is
satisfied I am the only person capable of creating so great a change in the Duke of Nemours.
These last words of the queen-dauphin gave madam de Cleves a sort of uneasiness very different from that which she had a few minutes before. I can easily come into monsieur d'Anville's opinion, answered she; and it is very probable, madam, that nothing less than a princess of your merit could make him despise the queen of England.I would own it to you, if I knew it, replied the queen-dauphin, and I should know it, if it were true; such passions as these never escape the sight of those who occasion them; they are the first to discern them; the duke of Nemours has never shewed me anything but slight complaisances; and yet I find so great a difference betwixt his present and former behaviour to me, that I can assure you, I am not the cause of the indifference he expresses for the Crown of England.
