Page:ThePrincessofCleves.djvu/75

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Part II.
THE PRINCESS OF CLEVES.
63

pocket. This queen, who was always very curious in what related to the duke, bid Chatelart give her the letter; he did so, and she followed the queen her mother-in-law, who was going with the king to see them work at the lists. After they had been there some time, the king caused some horses to be brought that had been lately taken in; and though they were not as yet thoroughly managed, he was for mounting one of them, and ordered his attendants to mount others. The king and the duke de Nemours hit upon the most fiery and high mettled of them. The horses were ready to fall foul on one another, when the duke of Nemours, for fear of hurting the king, retreated abruptly, and ran back his horse against a pillar with so much violence that the shock of it made him stagger. The company ran up to him, and he was thought considerably hurt; but the princess of Cleves thought the hurt much greater than anyone else. The interest she had in it gave her an apprehension and concern which she took no care to conceal; she came up to him with the queens, and with a countenance so changed, that one less concerned than the chevalier de Guise might have perceived it. Perceive it he immediately did, and was much more intent upon the condition madam de Cleves was in, than upon that of the duke de Nemours. The blow the duke had given himself had so stunned him, that he continued some time leaning his head on those who supported him; when he raised himself up, he immediately viewed madam de Cleves, and saw in her face the concern she was in for him, and he looked upon her in a manner which made her sense how much he was touched with it: afterwards he thanked the queens for the goodness they had expressed to him, and made apologies for the condition he had been in before them; and then the king ordered him to go to rest.

Madam de Cleves, after she was recovered from the fright she had been in, presently reflected on the tokens she had given of it. The chevalier de Guise did not