t I am to wait upon Madame: you know the peace is as
good as concluded, but perhaps you don't know that the King of Spain
has refused to sign it, but on condition of marrying this Princess,
instead of the Prince Don Carlos, his son: the King was with great
difficulty brought to allow it, but at last he has consented, and is
gone to carry the news to Madame; I believe she will be inconsolable.
To marry a man of the King of Spain's age and temper can never be
pleasing, especially to her who has all the gaiety which the bloom of
youth joined with beauty inspires, and was in expectation of marrying a
young Prince for whom she has an inclination without having seen him.
I do not know whether the King will find in her all the obedience he
desires; he has charged me to see her, because he knows she loves me,
and believes I shall be able to influence her. From thence I shall
make a visit of a very different nature, to congratulate the King's
sister. All things are ready for her marriage with the Prince of
Savoy, who is expected in a few days. Never was a woman of her age so
entirely pleased to be married; the Court will be more numerous and
splendid than ever, and notwithstanding your grief, you must come among
us, in order to make strangers see that we are furnished with no mean
beauties."

Having said this, the Queen-Dauphin took her leave of Madam de Cleves,
and the next day Madame's marriage was publicly known; some days after
the King and the Queens went to visit the Princess of Cleves; the Duke
de Nemours, who had expected her return with the utmost impatience, and
languished for an opportunity of speaking to her in private, contrived
to wait upon her at an hour, when the company would probably be
withdrawing, and nobody else come in; he succeeded in his design, and
came in when the last visitors were going away.

The Princess was sitting on her bed, and the hot weather, together with
the sight of the Duke de Nemours, gave her a blush that added to her
beauty; he sat over against her with a certain timorous respect, that
flows from a real love; he continued some minutes without speaking; nor
was she the less at a loss, so that they were both silent a good while:
at last the Duke condoled with her for her mother's death; Madam de
Cleves was glad to give the conversation that turn, spoke a
considerable time of the great loss she had had, and at last said, that
though time had taken off from the violence of her grief, ye