Madam de Cleves was harder put to it than she expected; I do not know, madam, what you will do, answered she, for monsieur de Cleves, to whom I gave it to read, returned it to the duke of Nemours, who came early this morning to beg him to get it of you. Monsieur de Cleves had the imprudence to tell him he had it, and the weakness to yield to the entreaties the duke de Nemours made that he would restore it him.—You throw me into the greatest embarrassment I can possibly be in, replied the queen-dauphin; and you have given this letter to the duke de Nemours. Since it was I that gave it you, you ought not to have restored it without my leave; what would you have me say to the queen, and what can she imagine? She will think, and not without reason, that this letter concerns myself, and that there is something between the viscount and me; she will never be persuaded the letter belonged to the duke de Nemours.—I am very much concerned, replied madam de Cleves, for the misfortune I have occasioned, and I believe the difficulty I have brought you into is very great; but it was monsieur de Cleves's fault, and not mine.—You are in fault, replied the queen-dauphin, for having given him the letter; and I believe you are the only woman in the world that acquaints her husband with all she knows.—I acknowledge myself in fault, madam, replied the princess of Cleves; but let us rather think of preventing the consequences of what I have done, than insist on the fault itself.—Do you remember, pretty near, what the letter contains? says the queen-dauphin.—Yes, madam, I do, replied she, for I have read it over more than once.—If so, said the queen-dauphin, you must immediately get it written out in an unknown hand, and I will send it to the queen; she will not show it those who have seen it already; and though she should, I will stand in it, that it is the same Chatelart gave me; and he will not dare to say otherwise.
